ABSTRACT
One vital function of research is to help develop and validate reliable and valid measures of individual, couple, and family functioning. These measures can then serve as the foundation for measurement in research and as a source of information in clinical assessment. This chapter describes relational diagnosis and some of the best measures available to assist with this task. Relational diagnosis progress is clear on two distinct fronts. First, relational diagnosis has moved from the realm of a brilliant global insight of a systemic vision generated by pioneers in the field to a much more fully articulated and readily operationalized vantage point. Second, the technology and instrumentation for tracking relational variables has advanced remarkably. There is both a broader and a more limited version of the relational viewpoint. In the broader versions of the relational viewpoint that were most prominent early in the history of family therapy, the relational perspective was offered as a radical contrast to the individual view.
