The Marital Roles Inventory as a Counseling Instrument

of conduct which stand out as regularities by their recurrence and form patterns of mutually oriented conduct.2 These roles, constituted into a role-set,3 have two aspects: each spouse's performance of the roles in his own role-set, and each spouse's expectation of how the other spouse will perform the roles in his role-set. This complementary and reciprocal relationship of role performances and role expectations makes up the social structure of the family. One aspect of marital adjustment, therefore, results from the compatibility of role performances and role expectations. The counselor needs to be aware of the