Key points with respect to diagnosis include all of the following EXCEPT
a. clients should not be told the diagnosis that has been assigned to them.
b. counselors must be alert to sources of bias against women and minority group
members in the diagnostic process.
c. counselors should cooperate with physicians when clients may have a physical
condition that is contributing to their mental or emotional problems or when they could
benefit from taking medications for their condition.
d. multicultural considerations are of paramount importance in diagnosis because all
mental disorders occur in and are defined by a cultural context.
e. counselors are guilty of insurance fraud when they do not diagnosis honestly and
accurately and they can be subject to both civil and criminal liability.
Answer:
Research participants
a. must be paid if their identities will be disclosed by the researcher.
b. must sign a document in front of a notary if they agree to waive their privacy.
c. generally are not guaranteed privacy.
d. have a right to expect to have their confidentiality protected.
e. may never agree to have their name disclosed by a researcher.
Answer:
Regarding dual relationships between counselors and clients
a. counselors are in agreement that such relationships are always wrong.
b. experts all agree that such relationships are always harmful to clients.
c. there is no consensus among professionals as to which dual relationships are
acceptable and which are not.
d. most counselors agree that dual relationships invite greater authenticity and
congruence from counselors and can improve their professional judgments.
e. experts agree that if clients assent to dual relationships, the dual relationships are
acceptable to the profession.
Answer:
The practice of providing counseling services over the Internet
a. has been determined to be unethical by the American Counseling Association Ethics
Committee.
b. is never as effective as providing counseling services face-to-face.
c. is controversial.
d. is rare.
e. is risky because no guidelines have yet been developed by professional associations.
Answer:
HIPAA rules state that if clients are first informed and given an opportunity to orally
object
a. psychotherapy notes created by the counselor may be transferred to insurance
companies.
b. insurance companies may pay counselors directly for the services they render to
clients.
c. their records may be transferred to another mental health professional.
d. their records may be destroyed at the end of the counseling relationship.
e. counselors may give health care information to family members or others assisting in
the client’s care.
Answer:
Multicultural considerations were not given extensive attention in the ACA Code of
Ethics until
a. the first version adopted in 1961.
b. the second version adopted in 1974.
c. the third version adopted in 1981.
d. the fourth version adopted in 1988.
e. the fifth version adopted in 1995.
Answer:
The standard used to determine whether a particular counselor is qualified to administer
and interpret a particular test
a. has been developed by the American Psychological Association.
b. is so broad that any professional can administer and interpret any test.
c. is established by each state by the state licensure board for psychologists.
d. is not absolute and each counselor must make that determination for himself/herself.
e. is based on a formula that includes graduate courses taken, number of administrations
of that particular test previously, and amount of supervised experience giving that
particular test.
Answer:
The personal values of counselors
a. have no place in the counseling session
b. should be completely altruistic
c. are influenced by their families of origin and their cultures, among other factors
d. are rooted in universal moral principles
e. should prevail over ethics when there is a conflict between the counselor’s values and
the client’s behavior
Answer:
To avoid being sued by a client for abandonment, counselors are advised to
a. terminate a counseling relationship if the client becomes angry with the counselor.
b. refer the client if the client gets into a life-threatening crisis situation.
c. give notice of termination orally, but put nothing in writing.
d. give the client adequate notice that the counselor is terminating the
counseling relationship.
e. continue to see the client if the client refuses a referral to another counselor.
Answer:
An argument AGAINST licensing specialties within the counseling profession (such as
marriage and family counselors, rehabilitation counselors, career counselors, etc.) is
a. it would confuse the public.
b. it would be very expensive for counselors to get multiple licenses instead of just one.
c. the other professions, such as medicine and law, license professionals to practice their
profession generally, and those who are licensed decide which areas they are competent
to practice in.
d. counselors who practice in various specialty areas are so different from each other
that each specialty within counseling is like a separate and distinct profession.
e. the public should be counseled only by individuals who are specialists within the
counseling profession and they will be harmed if they are counseled by counselors who
have not proven their specialty expertise.
Answer:
How do relationships in counselor education, supervision, and training differ from
clinical relationships?
a. they are easier because they are indirect.
b. they are tripartite.
c. they are complex.
d. they involve a university.
e. they have more equal power dynamics.
Answer:
The most significant problem within the counseling profession today, according to the
authors of the text, appears to be
a. receiving third party reimbursement.
b. increasing salaries for master’s level clinicians.
c. becoming a united and societally recognized profession.
d. conducting more experimental designed research studies.
e. convincing legislators to make counseling services available to everyone for a
reasonable charge.
Answer:
At their most fundamental level, codes of ethics serve to
a. protect and promote the welfare of the client.
b. protect and promote the welfare of the counselor.
c. protect and promote the welfare of the profession.
d. protect and promote the welfare of the counselor’s agency.
e. protect and promote the welfare of the client’s family unit.
Answer:
Informed consent documents that clients sign before counseling sessions begin
a. are not required under the federal HIPAA rules.
b. are required by law in every state.
c. are mandated by the ACA Code of Ethics.
d. are a good way to inform clients of their rights and responsibilities and are required
by some federal rules and state laws.
e. serve no useful purpose if counselors have put considerable effort into carefully
explaining the information to their clients orally and have assured themselves that their
clients understand.
Answer:
When a student and a professor co-author an article for publication in a professional
journal
a. the student should be listed as the second author, after the professor
b. the student and professor should decide on the order of authorship credit before they
begin working on the project
c. the professor should do most of the work because the professor has more experience
with publishing
d. the professor should be listed as the first author, with the student second
e. the one who contributed the most to producing the article should the first-listed
author
Answer:
Breaches of client confidentiality by counselors
a. are the most common basis of malpractice cases against counselors.
b. are the foundation for most complaints against counselors to their licensure boards.
c. occur rarely, and when they do occur are the result of counselors intentionally
informing others of what a client said in a counseling session.
d. occur rarely, and when they do occur are required by state statutes.
e. occur rarely, and when they do occur usually are inadvertent.
Answer:
When making graduate program admissions decisions, counselor educators
a. must use objective information such as grade point averages and test scores.
b. may balance their program by admitting certain numbers of individuals based on
their gender, race, and religion.
c. must have a minimum cut-off score if a standardized test, such as the GRE, is used.
d. may deviate from their published procedures if fairness demands that they do that.
e. may use their subjective judgment regarding a number of factors.
Answer:
When counselor educators evaluate the performance of a student’s counseling skills, the
counselor educators
a. may apply subjective standards as long as they do not abuse their discretion.
b. may apply subjective standards, but the process of evaluation must be pre-approved
by CACREP.
c. must grade the student using number-based objective evaluations.
d. must have a team evaluate the student’s performance, rather than evaluating the
performance on their own.
e. must evaluate the student individually, taking into consideration his or her individual
situation, avoiding applying absolute standards.
Answer:
When choosing and implementing a counseling technique to use when counseling
clients, counselors should be aware that
a. research has demonstrated that some techniques are more effective than others in
working with particular concerns and mental disorders
b. conversion or reparative therapy should be used cautiously
c. counselors should avoid choosing techniques based on the counselors’ theoretical
orientation
d. clients depend on counselors to choose the best techniques and should not be asked
to help select the techniques to be implemented
e. it is best not to discuss potential risks of counseling techniques as clients might be
frightened into terminating counseling prematurely
Answer:
When a counselor discovers that a client holds values that are dramatically different
from the counselor’s own values, the counselor should
a. try to gently persuade the client to re-examine his or her values.
b. respect the client’s values even though the counselor disagrees with them.
c. immediately refer the client to another counselor.
d. give the client some reading material that will broaden his or her perspective.
e. ask the client how he or she would feel if people discriminated against him or her
because of values held.
Answer:
Internet sites that contain career information that might be helpful to clients
a. can be counted on for quality because all are approved by the federal government
before they are allowed to be created.
b. contain better, up-to-date information than printed sources.
c. should be avoided because they usually contain inaccurate information.
d. are not monitored for content or quality.
e. have little practical use for clients because they are so technical in the way they
present career information.
Answer:
While principle ethics asks the question, “What should I do?” virtue ethics asks the
question,
a. “What would an ethical counselor do?”
b. “What should counselors who want the follow the law do?”
c. “Who should I be?”
d. “Who am I?”
e. “What does virtue mean?”
Answer:
Many states have laws requiring reports of suspected abuse of all of the following
EXCEPT
a. children.
b. elderly persons.
c. incompetent persons.
d. abused spouses or domestic partners .
e. developmentally disabled persons.
Answer:
With respect to cultural differences in supervision
a. it is the supervisor’s responsibility to initiate discussions of cultural differences with
their supervisees.
b. supervision is more likely to be successful if the supervisor and supervisee are
culturally similar along multiple dimensions.
c. the worldviews of supervisors are not likely to influence the therapeutic choices
made by their supervisees.
d. research has demonstrated that the variable of race in the supervisory dyad has little
impact on the supervisory process.
e. supervisors should not broach the topic of cultural differences if they do not feel
comfortable and competent to do so.
Answer:
It is vital for counselors to become aware of their own personal needs and values so that
they
a. know which of their values they can encourage clients to adopt.
b. can avoid accepting clients who hold values that are different from their own values.
c. can avoid getting their own personal needs met through their counseling
relationships.
d. can give clients advice that is congruent with the counselor’s value system.
e. can choose a counseling specialty that allows them to get their personal needs met
while providing counseling services to others.
Answer:
Which of the following statements is most appropriate regarding clinical case notes?
a. counselors should not take clinical case notes if they are worried about the notes
being subpoenaed or later being seen by the client or anyone else.
b. counselors should take the clinical notes they need in order to function effectively as
professionals.
c. it is reasonable to assume that clinical case notes will not be read by anyone other
than the counselor who wrote them.
d. writing illegible case notes is a protection against being called upon to reveal
sensitive information pursuant to a subpoena.
e. if clinical case notes are kept at the home of the counselor, they cannot be
subpoenaed.
Answer:
Because clients may have emergencies between counseling sessions, it is usually wise
for counselors to
a. instruct clients to call a 24-hour mental health hotline number or report to a hospital
emergency room.
b. give clients their home phone number.
c. supply clients with a pager number by which the counselor may be reached.
d. avoid accepting clients for counseling who may have between session emergencies.
e. explain to clients that any situation they are dealing with can be resolved at the next
regularly scheduled counseling session.
Answer:
In order to get a privileged communication statute passed that protects the privacy of
clients who are in professional relationships with counselors, legislators must be
convinced that
a. counseling relationships are more important than physician-patient relationships.
b. counseling relationships are similar to the relationships between a priest and penitent,
or between a minister and congregation member.
c. making an exception to the general rule that all evidence must be presented in court is
vital to the well being of society.
d. law suits can be as easily resolved without the benefit of information that clients tell
their counselors in confidential relationships.
e. counseling has met all the tests to demonstrate that it is a true profession.
Answer:
Because most counselors come from a middle class background, they
a. tend to be aware of their class biases.
b. realize that some clients do not speak English well because of limited education or
immigrant status.
c. find it difficult to hear class conditioning when listening to some clients’ stories.
d. should emphasize the importance of education when counseling clients from low
socio-economic backgrounds.
e. should focus on personal relationships and rapport building when counseling low
SES clients.
Answer:
Which of the following behaviors would constitute insubordination?
a. refusing to carry out a directive of a psychiatrist who works for a different company.
b. refusing to carry out a directive of a police officer who is investigating a crime at
your place of work..
c. refusing to carry out a directive of your co-worker who has seniority.
d. refusing to carry out a directive of your immediate supervisor when that directive
does not violate any laws or company policies.
e. refusing to carry out a directive of a state inspector who is visiting your work site to
perform a legally required inspection.
Answer:
When documenting for self-protection
a. documentation should be relatively vague so as not to reveal too much information.
b. as much detail as possible (e.g., dates, times of events, and exact words spoken)
should be included.
c. in the event a counselor realizes that documentation should have been occurring
sooner, the counselor should back-date the documentation rather than write a summary
of what has happened up to that point in time.
d. counselors document to avoid responsibility for clinical decisions that were made or
actions that were taken.
e. counselors should avoid including information related to disagreements they have
had with a client.
Answer:
Family counselors often view the family system as their client and treat the family as
one entity, as opposed to treating individual family members, and our laws
a. favor the rights of families as a whole over the rights of individual family members.
b. support family counselors by also viewing the family system as one entity.
c. create a “fiction” that a family is a person under the law.
d. view family members as having separate and distinct rights and responsibilities that
are individual in nature.
e. do not recognize that families exist in our society.
Answer: