Pre-Marital Couple Analysis

PREPARE/ENRICH COUPLE ANALYSIS ASSIGNMENT

OVERVIEW

The Couple Analysis will assist students in synthesizing the training they complete by administering the Prepare/Enrich assessment to a pre-marital couple. As a trained facilitator, students will be able to study and analyze the results of the inventory.
Use these directions to complete an assessment with a premarital couple of your choice. This project is a simple assessment and analysis using the Prepare/Enrich inventory that you became certified in last week. This should be your first couple that you, as a facilitator, have set up for administration of the Prepare/Enrich.
This assignment will enhance your training with a “real life” couple. Please realize that this is not a commitment to pre-marital counseling, but only the assessment that they complete and your analysis as the facilitator.
BASIC INSTRUCTIONS

Students will find a pre-marital couple and administer the Prepare/Enrich for the assignment. Students should not use married couples, nor can they use themselves. This exercise is NOT
intended to be a counseling exercise, but a simple administration and a written analysis by the student based upon the information revealed from the inventory only. Again, this is not formal
counseling by the student. If the student wishes to conduct pre-marital counseling with the couple, they certainly can, but this is not in the scope of this assignment, nor should it reflect introduction information that is not within the inventory.
STRUCTURE OF THE PAPER

All papers should be written from either APA or Turabian writing style. This means all papers should have a correctly formatted cover page, abstract (APA), body of the paper and a reference/bibliography page. Page numbers, 12-point font, double spaced, correctly formatted headings, and excellent grammar are expected. Make sure you use pseudo names for your couple. Students should always cite their source(s). To not do this, is to plagiarize.
In this short paper, the student will develop an analysis (200 words for each section) of the elements listed below. It is very important that each student use the bold font headings below as
their outline and headings in the paper. You will notice that the first heading is a level one

heading and the others, a level two.

Couple Analysis [Paper Title] Background Information for the Couple
Use the information you glean from this section found on page 3, of the facilitator report to briefly describe the couple. There are many things to report on such as age, ethnicity, educational background, religion, employment, birth order, how long they have known each other, living situation, how the family feels about their marriage, etc.. Address only those things that may seem significant. (200 words limit) You should NOT go into detail about things outside this report, things you might have known already. Show your reader that you understand the background of this couple based on the inventory. This section, and those below, should ONLY be information learned from the report.
Couple Type

On page 4, you should see your couple’s type, Vitalized, Harmonious, Conventional, or Conflicted. With the knowledge described in the assessment, briefly list what possible strengths

or growth areas you notice with this type of couple. (200 words)

Possible Strengths or Growth Areas

Study through the topics/scales from Communication through Marital Expectations. Select one topic that you feel needs special attention in counseling with this couple, and briefly explain why. Try to select one that you did not address in the above Couple Type section. It may be difficult to choose only one yet put thought and reflection into your answer. An example of this could be Conflict Resolution, since some couples have a lower positive couple agreement on the scale. Another might be Partner Style & Habits, since this domain addresses personality, temperament, controlling behaviors, temper, etc. When the positive couple agreement is low, or there is a special focus area within one of these scales, the counselor can begin to help couples talk through many of these important topics. (200 words total for the one topic)
Circumplex Model/Family Map

This map shows the degree of connectedness and flexibility the couple’s family of origin has. (Do not confuse this with the Couple’s Map) This scale describes their Family of Origin (FOO). Based upon the individual’s FOO location on the map, what are discussion topics a counselor may need to have with the couple? An example of the FOO might be that one individual indicates a very connected, fixable FOO, while the other person indicates an inflexible disconnected FOO. Address one issue this might present for the couple. (200 words)
SCOPE Personality Scale

Toward the end of the facilitator’s report, you will notice the SCOPE assessment. Study these 5 scales carefully (Social, Change, Organization, Pleasing & Emotionally Steady). Based upon this self-scoring assessment, is there a scale that deserves more discussion with the couple, than

others? To give you an example, take the first scale, Social. If the score is low for one individual and the other individual scores high, this might speak to how they might engage friends, family gathering, workplace events, etc. Another might be Organized. A difference in scores might indicate future conflict between the couple. These differences deserve an in-depth conversation with the counselor. Select one for a brief explanation. (200 words)
Conclusion

What stood out to you as learning opportunities when thinking through the scores within this assessment? What possibilities are there for future exploration with this couple? (200 words)
Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool.