Marital Satisfaction Inventory Paper

Marital Satisfaction Inventory-Revised

Douglas K. Snyder authored the Marital Satisfaction Inventory, Revised (MSI-R) and it was published by Western Psychological Services in 1997. Widely used to assess the nature and extent of conflict within a marriage or relationship, the MSI-R helps couples communicate hard-to-express feelings, providing an easy, non-threatening method of gathering information concerning a broad range of relational issues. The MSI-R facilitates effective collection of information from both partners, aged 18 years and older, concerning important relational aspects and perceived discontent. It is a self-reporting, easy to use format that takes 20-25 minutes to complete. This assessment is available in English, Spanish,

Utilizing a self-report form consisting of 150 true-false items, this test facilitates communication between married, engaged, co-habituating, traditional and non-traditional couples. The test uses words “partner” and “relationship” rather than “spouse” and “marriage” to appeal to broader scope of couples. Childless couples answer 129 of the 150 questions. The MSI-R can be individually or group administered and written forms or computer forms are available. The therapist may easily determine results, reports and treatment through hand scoring or a software options that generate individual partner results, combined interpretations and reports based on gender-specific norms. The report profiles illuminate essential concerns of each partner, indicating differences in their perceptions of the

Scores are obtained on the following thirteen subscales and highlight vital aspects of partner and marital relationship. The thirteen scales include: Affective Communication, Role Orientation, Problem-Solving Communication, Aggression, Family History of Distress, Time Together, Dissatisfaction With Children, Disagreement About Finances, Conflict Over Child Rearing, Sexual Dissatisfaction, and finally, Global Distress. Two additional scales assess tester inconsistency and unrealistically positive responses. Murphy, L. L., Plake, B. S., Impara, J. C., and Spies, R. A. (Eds). (2002) explained, “Individuals' responses are scored along the 13 profile scales using normalized T-scores based on gender-specific norms. Thus, for each scale the mean score for nondistressed couples from the community is 50, with a standard deviation of 10.” Murphy et al. (2002) further stated, “Each of the scales, excluding the validity scales (INC and CNV) and role orientation (ROR), are scored in a direction whereby higher scores reflect higher levels of relationship