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Chapter 13- Postmodern Approaches
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MULTIPLE-CHOICE TEST ITEMS
1. A solution-oriented therapist might ask her client, a compulsive shopper, which of the following
questions?
a. Who has the best shoe sale this week, Macy’s or Nordstrom’s?
b. If a miracle happened and your shopping compulsion was solved overnight, how would you
know it was solved, and what would be different?
c. Who in your family is most affected when you go on a spending spree?
d. At what point in your life did you develop this fixation on shopping?
2. The postmodern view incorporates all of the following concepts except for the notion that:
a. reality is objectively defined.
b. reality is based on the use of language.
c. reality is socially constructed.
d. each individual experiences their own unique reality.
3. Donna feels certain that no one will ever want to hire her because she has a timid personality.
Her solution-oriented therapist would be most inclined to:
a. explore her early childhood experiences with being rejected.
b. consider her irrational belief to be indicative of psychopathology.
c. ask Donna to examine another side of the story she is presenting about herself and think of
times when she was accepted by others.
d. prescribe medication for her anxiety issues.
4. In the view of the postmodern therapist, the most essential element of therapy is:
a. assessment.
b. the collaborative therapeutic relationship.
c. diagnosis.
d. brief course of treatment.
e. skilled use of techniques.
5. All of the following are techniques used in solution-focused therapy except for:
a. using the reflecting team
b. scaling questions
c. the miracle question
d. formula first session task
e. exception questions
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6. All of the following are characteristics shared by the postmodern and person-centered approaches
except:
a. the high value of the therapeutic relationship.
b. the belief that are capable of solving their problems.
c. the importance of using specific techniques in therapy.
d. the therapist’s sense of caring and respect for their client.
e. the importance of the client defining the goals for therapy.
7. All are true of solution-focused brief therapists except that they:
a. have little interest in a client exploring past problems.
b. focus on the client’s early childhood experiences.
c. believe that the cause of a problem is not necessarily related to its solution.
d. expect that two clients may have different solutions to the same problem.
8. In the solution-oriented approach, which is not considered one of the three basic parts to the
structure of summary feedback?
a. compliments
b. a bridge
c. expressing concern
d. suggesting a task
9. The therapeutic process in solution-focused brief therapy involves:
a. the premise that to some degree clients already know the solutions to their problems.
b. asking clients about those times when their problems were not present or when the problems were
less severe.
c. believing that clients are the experts on their own lives.
d. trusting that solutions evolve out of therapeutic conversations and dialogues.
e. all of these
10. Which of the following is false as it applies to the practice of solution-focused brief therapy?
a. Individuals who come to therapy have the ability to effectively cope with their problems.
b. There are advantages to a positive focus on solutions and on the future.
c. Clients want to change, have the capacity to change, and are doing their best to make change
happen.
d. Using techniques in therapy is a way of discounting a client’s capacity to find his or her own way.
11. Narrative therapy has been found to be particularly effective with diverse client populations for all of
the following reasons except:
a. it was founded in a sociocultural context.
b. it allows clients to tell their unique stories from their perspective.
c. it defines mental health within a social, political, and relational context.
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d. it teaches diverse clients to replace their own narratives with ones that conform more closely to the
ideals and values of mainstream culture.
12. The role of the leader in solution-focused therapy groups is not:
a. to set the tone of focusing on solutions.
b. to provide clients with simple solutions to their problems.
c. to create a setting where the client feels resourceful and capable.
d. to skillfully ask questions to guide clients to finding solutions to their problems.
e. to encourage clients to act in the manner they did when their problem was not present.
13. Which of these solution-focused therapy techniques involves asking clients to describe times in their
lives when they were able to solve their problem or when their problem was less severe?
a. pre-therapy change
b. the miracle question
c. exception questions
d. scaling
e. formula first session task
14. Solution-focused brief therapy has parallels with______________, which concentrates on
what is right and what is working for people rather than dwelling on deficits, weaknesses, and
problems.
a. brief psychodynamic therapy
b. positive psychology
c. Adlerian therapy
d. REBT
15. Which of the following statements about creating alternative stories is not true?
a. Constructing new stories goes hand in hand with deconstructing problem-saturated narratives.
b. The narrative therapist analyzes and interprets the meaning of a client’s story.
c. The therapist works with clients collaboratively by helping them construct more coherent and
comprehensive stories that they live by.
d. The development of alternative stories is an enactment of ultimate hope.
e. The narrative therapist listens for openings to new stories.
16. From a social constructionist perspective, change begins with:
a. deconstructing the power of cultural narratives.
b. understanding the roots of a problem.
c. the therapist’s skill in using confrontational techniques.
d. understanding and accepting objective reality.
e. disputing irrational beliefs.
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17. Of the following, what is an interest that social constructionists tend to share?
a. helping clients better understand objective reality
b. using paradoxical techniques
c. using a genogram to teach families about conflicts
d. generating new meaning in the lives of individuals
e. helping clients tap into the collective unconscious
18. The techniques of externalization and developing unique events are associated primarily with:
a. solution-oriented therapy.
b. the linguistic approach.
c. the narrative approach.
d. the reflecting team.
e. crisis intervention.
19. Narrative therapists attempt to do all of the following except:
a. engage people in deconstructing problem-saturated stories.
b. discover preferred directions and new possibilities.
c. create new stories.
d. encourage free association.
20. Narrative therapists pay attention to “sparkling events.” These are:
a. moments when the client feels exhilarated.
b. events that contradict problem-saturated narratives.
c. times when significant others give the client unconditional love.
d. events characterized by a striving to overcome barriers.
e. stories the client shares that are too good to be true, and in fact, prove to be gross exaggerations of
the truth.
21. The creation of the self, which dominated the modernist search for human essence and truth:
a. is being replaced by postmodernists with the concept of socially storied lives.
b. is also a key concept of the postmodern approaches.
c. is more relevant in the narrative approach than it is in solution-oriented therapy.
d. has proven to be completely irrelevant to all counselors and therapists practicing today.
22. A limitation of the postmodern approaches is:
a. therapists require extensive training in providing brief therapy.
b. inexperienced therapists may over rely on techniques and appear mechanistic.
c. the use of open-ended questioning.
d. its lack of applicability to group counseling.
23. Which is not a major contribution of the postmodern approaches?
a. the non-pathologizing stance.
b. the optimistic orientation.
c. the course of treatment is quite short compared to other approaches.
d. research on these approaches is considered empirically generalizable.
24. The founder(s) of solution-focused brief therapy is (are):
a. Michael White and David Epston.
b. Insoo Kim Berg and Steve de Shazer.
c. Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck.
d. Donald Meichenbaum.
e. Albert Bandura.
25. The founder(s) of narrative therapy is (are):
a. Michael White and David Epston.
b. Insoo Kim Berg and Steve de Shazer.
c. Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck.
d. Donald Meichenbaum.
e. Albert Bandura.
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TRUE/FALSE ITEMS
1. Narrative therapy has been effectively applied in school settings.
2. The postmodern philosophy suggests that reality and truth are objective and clearly defined.
3. The use of techniques is fundamental in narrative therapy.
4. Narrative therapy is not well-suited to multicultural counseling.
5. Narrative therapists pay significant attention to a client’s past as it helps them understand the origins of
client’s stories.
6. In solution-focused therapy, exceptions represent instances when a particular problem in a client’s life
was not prominent.
7. The solution-focused approach was originally designed as a brief model of psychotherapy.
8. Social constructionists believe that knowledge is time- and culture-bound, and our ways of
understanding are not necessarily better than other ways.
9. In narrative therapy, the role of the client is to create, explore, and co-author his or her evolving story.
10. While there are few studies of SFBT, brief therapies have been shown to be effective.
11. Solution-oriented therapy differs from both strategic and traditional models by eschewing the past in
favor of focusing on the future.
12. Assessment and therapy techniques are more important than empathy to a social constructionist.
13. In postmodern thinking, language and the use of language in stories create meaning.
14. The linguistic approach stresses the expert role of the therapist in suggesting solutions to a family’s
problems.
15. The narrative approach is part of the social construction model.
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16. According to feminist therapists, gender equality permeates most narratives about normal human
development.
17. Solution-focused therapists often use scaling questions.
18. Modernists believe in objective reality and assume that it can be observed and systematically
known through the scientific method.
19. In solution-focused therapy, behavior change is viewed as the most effective approach to
assisting people in enhancing their lives.
20. In social constructionism, the therapist assumes the role of expert, rather than adopting a
collaborative or consultative stance.
