Clear Assessment of Personality Type

• One of the most widely used marriage counseling tests, Taylor-Johnson Temperament Assessment, or T-JTA, allows marital counselors to objectively assess as many as 18 dimensions of a person's personality. Personality matters because however amiable partners may look, it may be difficult for them to be happy in their family life without explicitly knowing each other's personality characteristics and adjusting their behavior to accommodate it. For example, if a wife knows that her husband prefers to be alone for a period of time, she may not be irritated by his insistence to go fishing alone every Saturday morning.
  
  

Quick Insight into Family Problems

• Family counseling tests also allow partners and their counselor to quickly gain an insight into a wide range of issues affecting the family. For example, Marital Assessment Inventory, or MRI, offers a clear picture of family structure and background, personal family background, personal information, spiritual relationship, current levels of satisfaction and goals for counseling both partners. By providing such a large array of data during one test, this tool saves a lot of time, allowing the family therapist and the couple more time to focus on actually improving the relationship rather than simply assessing it.
  
  

Every Family is Unique

• While tests save time and paint a decent picture of family dynamics and the personality types of the partners, they have their limitations, of which marriage therapists should be aware. Because every person and family is different, it may be necessary to use nonstandardized assessment methods, for example, psychotherapy, in addition to family counseling tests.
  
  

Resentment

• Counseling tests can cause added resentment in a marriage, especially if one of the partners is reluctant to take the tests in the first place. Instead of helping, such tests could make the initial problem even worse, causing more ill feelings to arise between the couple and leading to a further breakdown in communication.
  
  

Realization

• Marriage counseling tests create a realization and understanding of the fact that the couple is not the only one going through problems that they face as husband and wife. It also helps to pinpoint underlying problems and smaller issues below the surface that could possibly have led to the bigger problems that the partners are facing.