Originally published in 1987 this book was designed to present the most recent research data on assessment of various aspects of marriage. Noted authorities on specific assessment areas provide information on conceptual and practical issues in marital assessment.

The chapters include assessment of: behavior; affect; social cognition; communication; sexual dysfunction; child and marital problems; family assessment.

All the chapters include reference to specific assessment measures of the areas covered. In addition, for clinical use, one has been selected by each of the authors to represent a state of the art measure that can be used by clinicians. Reliability, validity, and normative data are presented on these measures, which appear in full in the appendix of the text.

O'Leary provides a context for this book in the first chapter of the book, and in the final chapter, discusses with his co-author how they begin their assessments, from the initial phone contact, the assessment battery, the interviews with the clients and the couple, to the evaluation of the therapy sessions by the clients.