Assessing Marital and Couple Systems: Some Pragmatic Considerations

Abstract

This article is intended for therapists who do not ordinarily use standardized assessment measures in their work with couples but who would like to consider doing so. A systematic procedure for selecting, administering, and interpreting such measures is described. The issue of potential negative effects on both a couple’s relationship and partners’ motivation for treatment when certain instruments are used is discussed. The question of social desirability affecting partners’ responses to assessment instruments is raised and suggestions are offered for dealing with this concern.

Keywords:

• Assessment
• instrumentation
• social desirability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The brief example presented above is used to illustrate how feedback about initial assessment findings may be presented to couples. It is not intended to serve as a model for how assessment can be used throughout the treatment process. This is not the focus of this article. For more in-depth, detailed, and comprehensive discussions of how assessments can be used throughout the treatment process, the reader is referred to the following volumes written by the author:

Anderson, S. A., & Bagarozzi, D. A. (Eds.). (1989). Family myths: Psychotherapy implications. Haworth Press.

Bagarozzi, D. A. (1996). The couple and family in managed care: Assessment, evaluation and treatment. Brunner/Mazel.

Bagarozzi, D. A. (2001). Enhancing intimacy: A clinician’s handbook. Taylor & Francis.

Bagarozzi, D. A. (2013). Couples in collusion: Short-term assessment-based strategies for helping couples disarm their defenses. Routledge.

Bagarozzi, D. A., & Anderson, S. A. (1989). Personal, marital and family myths: Theoretical formulations and clinical strategies. W.W. Norton.

In addition to their usefulness as clinical aids, when appropriate, some measures can be used to test clinical hypotheses and evaluate the soundness of theoretical reasoning. For example, the Spousal Inventory of Desired Changes and Relationship Barriers (Bagarozzi, 1983) is a theoretically derived instrument developed by the author to assess the major tenets of marital exchange theory. However, this instrument was also used to test the hypothesized relationship between a spouse’s experienced powerlessness in a marriage and that spouse’s subsequent development of a psychiatric symptom as suggested by Haley (1963). Support for the proposed hypothesis was found and reported in an article titled “Marital Power Discrepancies and Symptom Development in Spouses: An Empirical Investigation” (Bagarozzi, 1990).