Social Cognitive Structures

Abstract

Graphic methods of assessing family structure, such as family sculpting, the family circle method, and family systems drawings, can reflect the social perceptions and cognitions of family members in therapy, but are nonquantitative, lack standardiza tion, and suffer from problems related to their subjective interpretations. In the present study, multidimensional scaling (MDS) was examined as an alternative in evaluating the social cognitive structures of couples in marriage counseling. Ten married couples (five in counseling and five not in counseling) rated family members on 25 attribute scales. Similarities derived from these ratings were analyzed through ordinal Euclidian MDS to yield "family structure maps. " These maps revealed that counseling subjects saw themselves as relatively less similar to their spouses, believed that this distance could be reduced if both spouses would move toward imagined ideals, and saw greater need for spousal change than self-change. Noncounseling subjects, in contrast, saw greater need for self-change than spousal change. Potential uses and advantages of family structure mapping are discussed.