©BRAINBARTER 2024/2025
MFT Exam Questions With Verified
Answers.
Classical Conditioning: - answer✔A learning paradigm studied and practiced in a laboratory or
other controlled environment in which a stimulus called the unconditioned stimulus (US) which
naturally elicits an unconditioned response (UCR), is paired with a neutral stimulus that does not
initially elicit a response. Through the repeated pairings, the neutral stimulus (now the
conditioned stimulus - CS) begins to elicit the desired response (now the conditioned response -
CR).
Coercion (Aversive Control): - answer✔From behavioral family therapy, one person uses
aversive stimuli to control the behavior of another.
Coaching - answer✔In Bowenian therapy (used by other models as well), the use of an objective
person, such as the therapist, to guide a family member to interact with other members in new
ways and prevent the family from seducing the person back into older, dysfunctional behaviors.
The therapist takes an educative role, rather than an emotional one.
Sibling Position: - answer✔Bowen theory incorporates the research of psychologist Walter
Toman as a foundation for its concept of sibling position. Bowen observed the impact of sibling
position on development and behavior in his family research. However, he found Toman's work
so thorough and consistent with his ideas that he incorporated it into his theory. The basic idea is
that people who grow up in the same sibling position predictably have important common
characteristics. For example, oldest children tend to gravitate to leadership positions and
youngest children often prefer to be followers. The characteristics of one position are not "better"
than those of another position, but are complementary. For example, a boss who is an oldest
child may work unusually well with a first assistant who is a youngest child. Youngest children
may like to be in charge, but their leadership style typically differs from an oldest's style. (From
the Bowen Center website)
Cognitive Behavior Family Therapy (CBT): - answer✔Therapies based on both behavioral
techniques, which grew out of scientific, laboratory experiments, and on the cognitive therapy
models. People learn to modify behaviors both by altering the reinforcement contingencies
and/or changing the cognitions that influence their behaviors and interactions.
, ©BRAINBARTER 2024/2025
Cognitive Maps: - answer✔Mental models by which incoming information is perceived,
understood, transformed, and stored, together with a corresponding repertoire of behavioral
options. Maps are based on the integration of experiences. Each part of the cognitive map - i.e.,
input and output - forms the individual's internal representation of reality. Cognitive maps shape
actions and communication. They may be flexible, able to change and expand cumulatively with
new information and experiences, or they may be rigid and limiting. Maps have both language
and spatial aspects with a private vocabulary and imagery that determines how incoming
communication is interpreted.
Collaborative Language Family Therapy: - answer✔From Goolishian and Anderson, a model of
family therapy based on the idea that problems are maintained in the family's language and may
be resolved by changes in their use of language. The therapist asks questions from a not knowing
stance, designed to draw out the client's own views of the problem. The problem is "dissolved"
as new meanings and actions evolve.
Communication Theory: - answer✔Originated by the MRI group, the study of the process by
which verbal and non-verbal information is exchanged within a relationship. Communication can
be analogic which has little structure, but is rich in content, or digital which is verbal
communication perceived and interpreted based on meaning. (see various types of
communications: Haptic; Kinesthetic; Paralinguistic; and Streptic).
Contextual Family Therapy: - answer✔A theory and therapeutic model developed by
Boszormenyi-Nagy based on the ethical dimension of family relationships. The family maintains
invisible, intergenerational loyalties, which members hold in their personal ledgers. Problems in
relationships are thought to result either from an attempt to maintain or change the balance sheet
of what members owe to one another.
Collaborative Couples Therapy: - answer✔Couples treatment in which each partner is seen by
his/her own therapist (See Concurrent and Conjoint Family Therapy).
Concurrent Couples Therapy: - answer✔Couples therapy in which one therapist works with both
spouses at different times (see Collaborative and Conjoint).
ABC-X Family Crisis Model: - answer✔Reuben Hill's model used to explain whether or not a
stressful event would result in a crisis in some families but not in others. A = the stressor, B = the
family's crisis-meeting resources, C = the family's definition of the stressor, and X = the crisis
(see Double ABC-X Family Stress Model).
Autopoietic Systems: - answer✔Originated by postmodern Chilean biologist, Maturana, systems
that are self-organizing and self-maintaining, such as biological and human systems. Autopoietic
Systems can be described by second-order cybernetics.
Circularity (Circular Causality): - answer✔Originally developed by Bateson in his book, Steps to
an Ecology of Mind. This concept was of particular interest to the Milan Systemic Group who
MFT Exam Questions With Verified
Answers.
Classical Conditioning: - answer✔A learning paradigm studied and practiced in a laboratory or
other controlled environment in which a stimulus called the unconditioned stimulus (US) which
naturally elicits an unconditioned response (UCR), is paired with a neutral stimulus that does not
initially elicit a response. Through the repeated pairings, the neutral stimulus (now the
conditioned stimulus - CS) begins to elicit the desired response (now the conditioned response -
CR).
Coercion (Aversive Control): - answer✔From behavioral family therapy, one person uses
aversive stimuli to control the behavior of another.
Coaching - answer✔In Bowenian therapy (used by other models as well), the use of an objective
person, such as the therapist, to guide a family member to interact with other members in new
ways and prevent the family from seducing the person back into older, dysfunctional behaviors.
The therapist takes an educative role, rather than an emotional one.
Sibling Position: - answer✔Bowen theory incorporates the research of psychologist Walter
Toman as a foundation for its concept of sibling position. Bowen observed the impact of sibling
position on development and behavior in his family research. However, he found Toman's work
so thorough and consistent with his ideas that he incorporated it into his theory. The basic idea is
that people who grow up in the same sibling position predictably have important common
characteristics. For example, oldest children tend to gravitate to leadership positions and
youngest children often prefer to be followers. The characteristics of one position are not "better"
than those of another position, but are complementary. For example, a boss who is an oldest
child may work unusually well with a first assistant who is a youngest child. Youngest children
may like to be in charge, but their leadership style typically differs from an oldest's style. (From
the Bowen Center website)
Cognitive Behavior Family Therapy (CBT): - answer✔Therapies based on both behavioral
techniques, which grew out of scientific, laboratory experiments, and on the cognitive therapy
models. People learn to modify behaviors both by altering the reinforcement contingencies
and/or changing the cognitions that influence their behaviors and interactions.
, ©BRAINBARTER 2024/2025
Cognitive Maps: - answer✔Mental models by which incoming information is perceived,
understood, transformed, and stored, together with a corresponding repertoire of behavioral
options. Maps are based on the integration of experiences. Each part of the cognitive map - i.e.,
input and output - forms the individual's internal representation of reality. Cognitive maps shape
actions and communication. They may be flexible, able to change and expand cumulatively with
new information and experiences, or they may be rigid and limiting. Maps have both language
and spatial aspects with a private vocabulary and imagery that determines how incoming
communication is interpreted.
Collaborative Language Family Therapy: - answer✔From Goolishian and Anderson, a model of
family therapy based on the idea that problems are maintained in the family's language and may
be resolved by changes in their use of language. The therapist asks questions from a not knowing
stance, designed to draw out the client's own views of the problem. The problem is "dissolved"
as new meanings and actions evolve.
Communication Theory: - answer✔Originated by the MRI group, the study of the process by
which verbal and non-verbal information is exchanged within a relationship. Communication can
be analogic which has little structure, but is rich in content, or digital which is verbal
communication perceived and interpreted based on meaning. (see various types of
communications: Haptic; Kinesthetic; Paralinguistic; and Streptic).
Contextual Family Therapy: - answer✔A theory and therapeutic model developed by
Boszormenyi-Nagy based on the ethical dimension of family relationships. The family maintains
invisible, intergenerational loyalties, which members hold in their personal ledgers. Problems in
relationships are thought to result either from an attempt to maintain or change the balance sheet
of what members owe to one another.
Collaborative Couples Therapy: - answer✔Couples treatment in which each partner is seen by
his/her own therapist (See Concurrent and Conjoint Family Therapy).
Concurrent Couples Therapy: - answer✔Couples therapy in which one therapist works with both
spouses at different times (see Collaborative and Conjoint).
ABC-X Family Crisis Model: - answer✔Reuben Hill's model used to explain whether or not a
stressful event would result in a crisis in some families but not in others. A = the stressor, B = the
family's crisis-meeting resources, C = the family's definition of the stressor, and X = the crisis
(see Double ABC-X Family Stress Model).
Autopoietic Systems: - answer✔Originated by postmodern Chilean biologist, Maturana, systems
that are self-organizing and self-maintaining, such as biological and human systems. Autopoietic
Systems can be described by second-order cybernetics.
Circularity (Circular Causality): - answer✔Originally developed by Bateson in his book, Steps to
an Ecology of Mind. This concept was of particular interest to the Milan Systemic Group who
