Chapter 4

Question 1

many of the struggles in couples and families result from conflicts over these needs.
According to Murray Bowen, the two counterbalancing life forces are

Answer 1

togetherness and individuality

Question 2

emotional maturity or ego strength—is a developmental accomplishment

Answer 2

Differentiation of self

Question 3

develop when two people regularly involve third parties in their conflicts with each other

Answer 3

Relationship triangles

Question 4

goal of Bowenian therapy. Toward that end process questions, designed to help people focus on their own actions and reactions, are the primary tool in treatment.

Answer 4

Understanding, not problem-solving

Question 5

schematic representations of the extended family, showing connections and relationship dynamics.

Answer 5

Genograms

Question 6

The pioneers of family therapy recognized that people are products of their context, but they limited their

Answer 6

focus to the nuclear family.

Question 7

According to Bowen, human relationships are driven by two counterbalancing life forces: individuality and togetherness. We need

Answer 7

companionship, and we need independence.

Question 8

successfully people reconcile these two polarities of human nature depends on the extent to which they have learned to manage

Answer 8

emotionality, or to use Bowen’s term, their differentiation of self.

Question 9

Murray Bowen’s interest in families began when he was a psychiatrist at the

Answer 9

Menninger Clinic in the late 1940s

Question 10

Bowen’s term for psychological separation of intellect and emotions and independence of self from others; opposite of fusion.

Answer 10

differentiation of self:

Question 11

A three-person system; according to Bowen, the smallest stable unit of human relations.

Answer 11

Triangles

Question 12

Detouring conflict between two people by involving a third person, stabilizing the relationship between the original pair.

Answer 12

triangulation

Question 13

Bowen’s early term for emotional “stuck-togetherness” or fusion in the family, especially prominent in schizophrenic families.

Answer 13

undifferentiated family ego mass

Question 14

The tendency to respond in a knee-jerk emotional fashion, rather than calmly and objectively.

Answer 14

emotional reactivity:

Question 15

A blurring of psychological boundaries between self and others and a contamination of emotional and intellectual functioning; opposite of differentiation.

Answer 15

Fusion

Question 16

Bowen’s term for flight from an unresolved emotional attachment.

Answer 16

Emotional cut off

Question 17

Stages of family life from separation from one’s parents to marriage, having children, growing older, retirement, and finally death.

Answer 17

Family life cycle

Question 18

A question designed to help family members focus on what they think rather than what they feel, and to help them consider their own reactions and behavior.

Answer 18

Process questions

Question 19

Bowenian technique: Trying a new behavior to see how it affects family interactions.

Answer 19

relationship experiment:

Question 20

Nonreactive observations and personal acknowledgement of what one thinks and feels, rather than judging others or saying what should be.

Answer 20

I-positions

Question 21

A person’s parents and siblings; usually refers to the original nuclear family of an adult.

Answer 21

Family of origin

Question 22

The family conceived as a collective whole entity made up of individual parts plus the way they function together.

Answer 22

Family system

Question 23

The solution-focused model has also been applied outside of traditional therapeutic practice to include interventions in

Answer 23

family medicine clinics
social service agencies
nursing care
educational settings and model schools
business systems

Question 24

building on what works and helping people identify what they want rather than what they don’t want

Answer 24

two most powerful ingredients in solution-focused therapy

Question 25

Searching for exceptions turns out to be a simple but

Answer 25

powerful intervention

Question 26

People who come to us for help often think of the times when their problems don’t occur as unimportant because these occasions seem

Answer 26

accidental or inconsistent

Question 27

Calling attention to past successes and latent abilities helps clients rediscover

Answer 27

their own best coping strategies.

Question 28

One of the great things about the imagination is that with very limited encouragement, people can see themselves

Answer 28

As succeeding rather than fumbling and failing

Question 29

tapping as it does that wonderful human capacity not just to see things as they are but to imagine things as they might be

Answer 29

Miracle question

Question 30

To critics, solution-focused therapy seems simplistic, and its emphasis on

Answer 30

solution talk instead of problem talk is seen as manipulative.

Question 31

Like any other therapy, the solution-focused approach won’t likely be effective if therapists, in a

Answer 31

rush to get to their own agenda, fail to listen to clients and make them feel understood.