Name and Type of Measure
The Areas of Change Questionnaire (ACQ) is a two-part measure of: (a) desired change in partner behaviors and (b) changes in one’s own behaviors that are perceived to be pleasing to the partner.
Synonyms
In the research literature, the ACQ has also been abbreviated A-C, AC, and AOC.
Introduction
The Areas of Change Questionnaire (ACQ; Margolin et al. 1983) is a 68-item measure of intimate relationship functioning, originally designed to facilitate effectiveness research on behavioral couple therapy (Weiss et al. 1973; as cited in Margolin et al. 1983). The ACQ has two parts: first, the respondent rates the degree of change desired on 34 common partner behaviors; second, the respondent indicates the degree to which his or her own changes on those 34 behaviors is likely to be pleasing to his or her partner. Items are rated on a 7-point scale from “much less” change (−3) to “no change” (0) to “much more” change (+3). A common scoring system for the ACQ produces...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Baucom, D. H. (1982). A comparison of behavioral contracting and problem-solving/communications training in behavioral marital therapy. Behavior Therapy, 13(2), 162–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0005-7894(82)80060-9.
Birchler, G. R., & Webb, L. J. (1977). Discriminating interaction behaviors in happy and unhappy marriages. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 45(3), 494–495. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006x.45.3.494.
Cordova, J. V., Scott, R. L., Dorian, M., Mirgain, S., Yaeger, D., & Groot, A. (2005). The marriage checkup: An indicated preventive intervention for treatment-avoidant couples at risk for marital deterioration. Behavior Therapy, 36(4), 301–309. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0005-7894(05)80112-1.
Halford, W. K., Sanders, M. R., & Behrens, B. C. (1993). A comparison of the generalization of behavioral marital therapy and enhanced behavioral marital therapy. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 61(1), 51–60. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006x.61.1.51.
Heyman, R. E., Sayers, S. L., & Bellack, A. S. (1994). Global marital satisfaction versus marital adjustment: An empirical comparison of three measures. Journal of Family Psychology, 8(4), 432–446. https://doi.org/10.1037/0893-3200.8.4.432.
Heyman, R. E., Hunt-Martorano, A. N., Malik, J., & Slep, A. M. S. (2009). Desired change in couples: Gender differences and effects on communication. Journal of Family Psychology, 23(4), 474–484. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015980.
Margolin, G., & Weiss, R. L. (1978). Comparative evaluation of therapeutic components associated with behavioral marital treatments. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 46(6), 1476–1486. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006x.46.6.1476.
Margolin, G., Talovic, S., & Weinstein, C. D. (1983). Areas of change questionnaire: A practical approach to marital assessment. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 51(6), 920–931. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006x.51.6.920.
Weiss, R. L., Hops, H., & Patterson, G. R. (1973). A framework for conceptualizing marital conflict: A technology for altering it, some data for evaluating it. In L. D. Handy & E. L. Mash (Eds.), Behavior change: Methodology concepts and practice (pp. 309–342). Champaign: Research Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Dodd, C.G. (2018). Areas of Change Questionnaire. In: Lebow, J., Chambers, A., Breunlin, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_389-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_389-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-15877-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-15877-8
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences