Week 10 Final Project

COUN 6201 Final Project Guidelines: Family Interview

Due by Day 7 of Week 10

For the purpose of this assignment you will conduct a single interview with a family (two or more

members) to assess family processes and development. The family must be a family that is not

your own. Interviews typically last between 45-90 minutes, depending on the family, and should

be conducted with as many members as possible present.

You are required to create a fictional name for your family to help maintain their anonymity and

confidentiality. Follow-up questions and other salient questions and topics may be explored with each

family as you see fit.

Please be sure to ask enough questions to obtain the information you need to:

 Complete a thorough family chronology (members, ages, significant family events, length of

relationships, recent expansion or contraction of the family system)

 Summarize the family’s rules, roles, boundaries, expectations, cultural and ethnic influences,

spiritual and or religious background, community involvement, personal interests etc. Be sure to

use clinical language to support your conceptualization of this family.

 Summarize the family’s strengths and discuss how concepts related to wellness could be

incorporated in supporting this family. Determine who you would include in couples or family

counseling sessions if you were to see this family as a client, and justify your response.

 Collect information about the family’s current life cycle stage(s) and family functioning styles,

patterns and quality. Which family assessments might you use if you were this family’s

counselor?

Papers should be completed in APA format in 10-12 double-spaced pages (this does not include

any title or reference pages). Interview data can be collected however you see fit- audio

recording is often helpful, but taking detailed notes works just as well for some. You are not

required to submit interview transcripts.

The paper will be assessed according to the prescribed Assignment and Final Project rubric.

Particular assessment and grading attention will be given to your discussion of the relevant

stages, interactions, developmental and systemic elements of the family life cycle, as well as the

varying family structural forms, socio-cultural contexts and developmental challenges relevant to

promoting wellness in the family.

Please include at least 5 scholarly resources to support your work. Resources should

include, at minimum, the course text and four peer reviewed journal articles. As you gather your

interview data, conceptualize that information according to the concepts we have learned

throughout the quarter. Refer to the final project rubric for specific grading criteria.

An interview guide is attached and should be used to elicit responses from the family you

choose to interview.

Family Interview Guide (Please add additional questions as needed)

• Could you please introduce me to your family members, and tell me what is important to know about

the make-up of your family? (for example: age of children, descriptive information of each family

member)

• Who lives in your household?

• Tell me about the relationships in your family- who is close to whom?

• Have there been any significant changes in your family recently (1-2 years)?

• What does a typical day look like for your family?

• How do you make decisions in your family/as a family?

• What types of things do you do as a family/couple?

• Describe some of your individual interests? Is this/Are these shared interests?

• How do you support each other’s individual interests?

• Tell me about a time your family has struggled through a crisis or major family event.