Chapter Four Test Bank Questions
1. Which of the following inferential errors is made when a mental health counselor
wrongly concludes that the anniversary of the death of a client’s loved one is associated
with the onset of the client’s panic disorder?
a. fundamental attribution error
b. illusory correlation
c. availability heuristic
d. single-cause etiology
2. A tendency to explain my anger in terms of situational factors whereas explaining my
client’s anger in terms of his or her personality traits is an illustration of:
a. single-cause etiology
b. availability heuristic
c. fundamental attribution error
d. illusory correlation
3. Which of following theorists is most closely related to the development of psychoanlysis?
a. Skinner
b. Perls
c. Freud
d. Erikson
4. Psychic energy used to satisfy basic needs for survival and reproduction is referred to in
psychoanalytic theory as:
a. death instincts
b. life instincts
c. mechanical energy
d. libido
5. Which of the following structures of personality operates on the pleasure principle?
a. id
b. ego
c. superego
d. animus
6. Which of the following structures of personality is a reflection of the values of society
and culture as represented to the child by the words and actions of the parents?
a. id
b. ego
c. superego
d. unconscious
7. According to Freud, which of the following is most associated with the experience of
shame and guilt?
a. reality anxiety
b. moral anxiety
c. neurotic anxiety
d. phobic anxiety
8. According to Freud, neurotic anxiety is likely to occur when:
a. an external threat is accurately perceived.
b. one’s level of anxiety is proportionate to the level of threat existing in the
environment.
c. a threat of disapproval or punishment exists.
d. an unconscious impulse emerges into one’s awareness.
9. Which of the following is not true regarding the operation of defense mechanisms?
a. All persons use them.
b. They always involve a denial or distortion of reality.
c. Persons consciously choose to use them.
d. They become pathological when used in excess or to the extreme.
10. The husband accuses his spouse of not loving him when, in fact, it is he who does not
love his spouse. Which of the following defense mechanisms does this illustrate?
a. repression
b. projection
c. denial
d. introjection
11. Clients may experience thoughts and feelings toward their counselor that do not fit the
reality of the therapeutic relationship, but reflect thoughts and feelings toward significant
others from the client’s past. This experience is referred to as:
a. transference
b. countertransference
c. interpretation
d. free association
12. Which of the following theorists developed Individual Psychology?
a. Jung
b. Wolpe
c. Maslow
d. Adler
13. Which of the following is not a foundational assumption of the Adlerian perspective?
a. Behavior is goal-oriented and purposeful.
b. Behavior can best be understood by taking an objective perspective that is not
tinted by the client’s cognitive distortions.
c. Striving for superiority is a core motive for behavior.
d. Personal well-being is found when acting for the general social interest.
14. According to the behavioral perspective, pathological behavior is acquired:
a. through inherited predispositions.
b. as a result of that behavior being modeled in the environment.
c. through the processes of learning.
d. through the operation of instinctual forces.
15. Which of the following is not a form of behavior therapy?
a. token economies
b. systematic desensitization
c. cognitive restructuring
d. assertive training
16. Which of the following persons is not associated with cognitive approaches to therapy?
a. Jerome Kagan
b. Aaron Beck
c. Donald Meichenbaum
d. Albert Ellis
17. Cognitive therapies assist clients in finding relief from presenting symptoms by:
a. changing specific styles of thinking
b. developing alternative self-statements
c. altering one’s self-schema
d. all of the above
18. Rogers believed that all people have the inherent tendency to develop all of their
capacities in ways that serve to maintain and enhance the person. This is called:
a. The actualizing tendency
b. genetic predisposition
c. engaging in successful therapy
d. being self-centered
19. When under stress, dyads become unstable and seek the support of a third person. In
family therapy, this tendency is called:
a. enmeshment
b. triangulation
c. disengagement
d. emotional fusion
20. Joe has unresolved conflicts with his parents. When he turns 18, he immediately moves
out of the family’s Midwest home and quickly establishes a relationship with a girl on the
west coast with whom he shares an apartment. The process of fleeing from unresolved
emotional attachments is referred to by Bowen as:
a. undifferentiated ego mass
b. extreme disengagement
c. emotional cutoff
d. rigid structural hierarchies
Essay Questions
1. Choose three of the traditional theories of counseling. Compare and contrast the
essential principles, the goals of treatment, and the process and techniques of these three
theories.
2. Identify and describe three contemporary trends in the application of counseling theory,
and how have they have influenced the practice of clinical mental health counseling?
Test Bank Multiple Choice Answer Key