Marital and Family Therapy Flashcards
7 cards from real MFT practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Marital and Family Therapy flashcards as text
A therapist working with a family from a collectivist culture should be aware that:
Answer: Family loyalty and interdependence may be core cultural values to honor
Culturally competent MFTs recognize that collectivist values such as family loyalty and interdependence are strengths, not pathology.
In Narrative Therapy, 'externalization' is the practice of:
Answer: Separating the problem from the person's core identity
Externalization involves treating the problem as a separate entity from the person (e.g., 'the anger' vs. 'you are angry') to reduce shame and increase agency.
Which of the following best describes 'circular questioning' as used in systemic family therapy?
Answer: Asking one person how they think another person perceives a situation
Circular questioning explores relational perceptions by asking individuals how they perceive other family members' views, revealing relationship patterns.
A couple reports that one partner pursues emotionally while the other withdraws. In EFT, the first step in changing this pattern is to:
Answer: Help both partners recognize and de-escalate the interactional cycle
EFT Stage 1 focuses on de-escalating the negative cycle by helping both partners understand and step back from the pursue-withdraw dynamic.
An MFT who maintains a therapy blog sharing anonymized case vignettes must ensure:
Answer: Details are altered sufficiently so clients cannot be identified
Sharing case material publicly requires thorough de-identification to protect client confidentiality even when written permission is not obtained.
The term 'identified patient' in family therapy refers to:
Answer: The family member whose symptoms are seen as the presenting problem
The identified patient is the symptomatic family member, but systems therapists view the symptom as reflecting dysfunction in the whole family system.
Research on common factors in psychotherapy suggests that the most powerful predictor of therapeutic outcomes across all modalities is:
Answer: The quality of the therapeutic alliance
Research consistently shows that the therapeutic alliance — the collaborative relationship between client and therapist — accounts for the largest portion of outcome variance.