The hard part of a family therapy course is not any single model — it is keeping a dozen of them apart. Family Therapy: History, Theory, and Practice, 6th Edition by Gladding moves through structural, strategic, Bowenian, experiential, psychodynamic, behavioral, solution-focused and narrative approaches, and each arrives with its own founders, its own vocabulary and its own theory of what actually keeps a family stuck. By week ten the terms start bleeding into one another, which matters because the exam almost never asks for a definition. It gives you a session in progress and asks which model the therapist is working from.
Why this test bank helps
Identifying the approach is only useful if you can say what gave it away. Every item here is followed by a written rationale that names the giveaway — the enactment that belongs to structural work, the genogram that signals a Bowenian frame, the exception question that could only be solution-focused — and explains why the other three models would have moved differently in the same room. That is how a list of theorists becomes a set of distinguishable clinical stances.
What’s inside
- Questions following the book chapter by chapter, from the field’s history through each model and on to practice issues.
- Formats that mirror the course — multiple choice, true/false, matching theorists to concepts, and vignette-based items.
- A written rationale under every question, contrasting the model in the answer with its nearest neighbors.
- Coverage of process and professional issues as well as theory: assessment, ethics, licensure and research.
- One organized PDF, downloadable as soon as checkout completes.
Topics covered
- Systems foundations — general systems and cybernetic concepts, circular causality, homeostasis, boundaries and feedback loops.
- The family life cycle — developmental stages, transitions, stressors, and family structures including single-parent, blended and multigenerational households.
- Psychodynamic and Bowen approaches — object relations in couples, differentiation of self, triangles, emotional cutoff and the multigenerational transmission process.
- Experiential and humanistic approaches — Satir’s communication stances and sculpting, and symbolic-experiential work with families.
- Structural and strategic approaches — subsystems, hierarchy, enactment, joining and unbalancing; directives, reframing and paradoxical interventions.
- Behavioral and cognitive-behavioral family therapy — contingency contracting, parent training, and cognitive restructuring with couples.
- Postmodern approaches — solution-focused brief therapy’s exceptions and scaling, and narrative therapy’s externalizing and unique outcomes.
- Practice and professional issues — assessment instruments, working across cultures, ethical and legal responsibilities, and outcome research.
Who it’s for
Graduate students in counseling, marriage and family therapy, social work and clinical psychology taking a family systems or family therapy course from this edition, and upper-level undergraduates in a family studies sequence.
How to use it (the right way)
Read the chapter and build a one-page comparison of the model’s founders, key concepts and signature techniques before you test yourself. Then attempt a block closed-book, mark every vignette where you guessed between two models, and read those rationales twice. This is a study aid, to be used in line with your institution’s academic-integrity policy — a revision and self-assessment tool rather than a way around the reading or the supervised practice, and never material carried into a graded assessment.
Sample question (shows the format — your download contains the full set)
Q. In session, a therapist asks a mother and her adolescent son to discuss the curfew directly with each other, blocks the father’s repeated interruptions, then seats the parents together and asks them to reach one decision. Which approach is the therapist most clearly using?
- A. Bowen family systems therapy.
- B. Structural family therapy.
- C. Solution-focused brief therapy.
- D. Narrative therapy.
Answer: B. An enactment, boundary-making between subsystems and the deliberate restoration of the parental hierarchy are the core structural interventions: the therapist changes the family’s organization in the room rather than talking about it. A is wrong because Bowen work targets differentiation and multigenerational patterns, usually coaching individuals and mapping a genogram rather than directing live interaction. C would pursue exceptions, scaling and preferred futures instead of rearranging subsystems. D would externalize the problem and look for unique outcomes in the family’s account of itself.
Edition & format
- Matches: Family Therapy: History, Theory, and Practice, 6th Edition, by Gladding (ISBN 9780133828412).
- Format: Digital PDF, delivered instantly after checkout.
- Access: Lifetime — re-download from your account whenever you need it.
Chapters and case material change between editions. Please confirm the edition and ISBN above match the book on your course outline before buying.
Frequently asked questions
Is this the current edition? It is prepared for the 6th Edition. Other editions are listed separately, since chapters on the postmodern models were revised between printings.
How do I receive it? Immediately at checkout, from the confirmation page and from your account. Nothing is shipped.
Do all the questions include rationales? Yes. Every item explains the answer and, for vignettes, what each rival model would have done instead.
Is using a test bank allowed? As a practice resource for private study it is like any other. Follow your institution’s academic-integrity policy and keep it out of graded assessments.
More titles are available in History & Humanities Test Banks.
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