ASPPB EPPP Exam Questions

Correct answer: Whether Yvonne can take part in legal proceedings 

The point of a competency evaluation is to determine whether a person is competent to stand trial and take part in the legal process as a responsible adult, including understanding and being able to communicate with their legal team. As part of this process, any potential impairment to the individual's ability to participate will also be described. 

Whether Yvonne was legally insane at the time of her offense or guilty will be up to the court to decide. 

Correct answer: Risk

A risk is any characteristic associated with a higher probability of a negative outcome. Risk factors are predictors of negative outcomes within a population, and these are established by studying groups of people. For example, high blood pressure is a risk factor for heart attack and stroke.

A trait is a genetically determined characteristic of an individual. An individual's genotype consists of the genes inherited from their parents. A teratogen is a substance that can negatively affect fetal development. 

Correct answer: Use an assessment tool like the Leiter-3.

The best choice when working with a client with a cultural or language barrier is to select an appropriate assessment tool. The Leiter-3 has been established as an assessment of cognitive abilities that is free of cultural bias and less likely to be affected by language differences. Using this tool would allow you to complete the assessment while minimizing the impact of cultural or language barriers.

Using a translator is not the best option, as this can come with risks.

Forgoing the assessment is also not the best option, as this would mean the client's need for assessment would not be met.

Consulting with a supervisor is a suitable option when you're uncertain about a practice-related decision, but since there are culturally-appropriate assessment tools available, the best option is to choose one of these tools.

Correct answer: Respect for People's Rights and Dignity 

The APA's code of conduct contains General Principles that outline the desired ethical behavior of psychologists. One of these is Respect for People's Rights and Dignity, which addresses privacy, boundaries, and confidentiality. By respecting this client's confidentiality, Margaret is promoting this principle. 

Integrity means one's character and honesty as a practitioner. This principle requires psychologists to minimize harm by being accurate and honest and avoiding the misrepresentation of services to the public. Fidelity and responsibility refers to upholding standards for professional conduct and behaving ethically. Beneficence and nonmaleficence simply refers to doing good while also doing no harm. 

Correct answer: Challenging automatic thoughts to reveal and repair false schemas

Aaron Beck's cognitive therapy (CT) dealt with the overarching issue of how the mind creates problems in certain ways. Specifically, Beck defines and addresses automatic thoughts, which are instant responses to certain stimuli in the world. Cognitive distortions, a kind of automatic thought, all paint a false picture of the world based on a flawed interpretation of data in the environment. These automatic thoughts contribute to false schemas, which are untrue interpretive guidelines for the world as a whole. Generally speaking, Beck's target is these false schemas, which are addressed by challenging the automatic thoughts underneath.

Emotional reasoning is a kind of cognitive distortion involving the mistaking of feelings for reality. 

Correct answer: Behavioral consultation

A behavioral (also known as an educational) consultation commonly takes place in an educational setting where existing resources are not presently capable of meeting a need. In this case, the behavioral consultant will be an expert in developing plans for children with autism and either provide the services themselves or teach them to others on an ad-hoc, per-need basis.

An advocacy consultation may ensure that the child gets what they need as a member of an underserved group, but it would not be able to address the immediate scholastic and behavioral needs.

A systems consultation would more likely examine an entire organization and assess its need for change in order to increase efficiency.

Client-centered case consultation serves the purpose of helping the consultee to create a plan for working with a client. While this form of consultation may make sense, it is a form of mental health consultation and is not the best option in this scenario, in which a teacher in an educational setting is seeking consultation.

Correct answer: Subtypes of schizophrenia

When engaged in the differential diagnosis process using the DSM-5, a clinician would never consider subtypes of schizophrenia. These subtypes were eliminated with the DSM-5, so the clinician would never need to consider which subtype best describes the patient's symptoms.

The DSM-5 contains several diagnostic categories. A clinician would consider diagnostic categories when engaged in differential diagnosis, as several different categories could potentially explain a patient's symptoms.

Since culture can affect symptom presentation, it would be reasonable to include cultural considerations in the differential diagnosis process.

Finally, the diagnostic categories in the DSM-5 include polythetic criterion sets, but a person must meet only a subset of items from this longer list to be diagnosed. So, clinicians would consider subsets of criterion when engaged in the differential diagnosis process to determine the best diagnosis.

Correct answer: Informed consent

One aspect of informed consent is making sure that a study is explained in a way that all participants understand. This includes participants who have cognitive difficulties as well as those who may not speak English or have fluency struggles. Obtaining informed consent requires the researcher to clearly explain risks and benefits to participants. 

Explaining the risks and benefits of a study is not part of "competent therapy." While it's important to be competent to practice therapy as a psychologist, the question asks about research and not therapy services. When conducting a study, it's important to protect confidential information, but this is separate from explaining risks and benefits. However, addressing the extent of confidentiality is a part of the informed consent process in research. Voluntary participation is also required in research and is something that participants are notified of during the informed consent process, but this is a separate concept from explaining the risks and benefits of a study. 

Correct answer: Maturation 

All providers must be able to assess the validity of research. There are many threats to this validity in experimental design, such as maturation. In this example, Robert is correct in noting that the experimental assertion does not rule out the effect of time on the subjects. Maturation is a natural effect that can be mistaken for an experimental outcome.

History is a threat to validity that comes from changes participants make during the experiment or larger events that affect the whole experiment. Attrition is when lost participants create the impression that the experimental proposition is valid.

Correct answer: There are benefits to these assessment methods, but psychologists must proceed with caution due to potential drawbacks.

Computers and Internet technology can be used to conduct and score assessments. There are benefits associated with conducting assessments in this way, but there are also drawbacks, including ethical issues, threats to confidentiality, and issues related to people using the Internet for self-diagnosis. Despite drawbacks, early findings with technology-based assessment methods show positive responses.

It would be inaccurate to state that Internet- and computer-based assessment methods show no benefits, since there are positive outcomes associated with them.

It would also be incorrect to say these methods improve confidentiality in all cases, since there are potential threats to protected health information, such as data breaches, when using computers for assessment.

Finally, validity can be compromised with computer-based assessments, so it would not be correct to state that psychologists can always be confident that these methods are more valid than face-to-face assessment.

Correct answer: A relationship in which supervisee and supervisor differ in cultural values 

The most ethical option here is a dynamic in which the supervisee and supervisor differ in cultural values. There is nothing inherently unethical about this, as long as the supervisor respects the supervisee and does no harm to the supervisee in the course of supervision. Differences between supervisor and supervisee can even be a topic of conversation during supervision. 

Sexual relationships between supervisors and supervisees are directly prohibited. Psychologists are prohibited from engaging in sexual relationships with students or supervisees over whom they are likely to have "evaluative authority." A supervisor overseeing the work of another psychologist would reasonably be expected to have evaluative authority. Although family relationships are not directly prohibited by the APA's ethical code, supervisors should consider the possible ethical issues that would arise in this scenario. Supervising a family member would result in a multiple relationship that could impair the psychologist's objectivity, which the code prohibits. The code of conduct states that psychologists must practice only in their areas of competence, so a psychologist who provides supervision with limited training is likely violating the code of conduct, particularly in areas pertaining to competence.  

Correct answer: Carl should notify his employer of his decision 

In some cases, a given organization for which a psychologist works may operate in ways contrary to the standards outlined in the APA Code of Conduct. The proper course of action in these cases is to notify the organization about the conflict and take reasonable steps to resolve it, but the psychologist should not act contrary to the APA Code.

Correct answer: Cognitive-behavioral 

Cognitive-behavioral clinical supervision holds that supervision should be an effort to promote productive practice behaviors and eliminate less productive practice behaviors on the part of the supervisee. This perspective is borrowed from cognitive-behavioral therapeutic orientations, which utilize roughly the same concept. 

Systemic supervision addresses the similarity of supervision to family dynamics. Solution-focused supervision is a kind of constructivist supervision in which supervision is more collaborative and focuses on achievements rather than deficits. 

Correct answer: Transference

According to psychodynamic theory, transference is the transfer of emotions by the client from another relationship to the therapeutic relationship. In this case, it appears that Laurie is taking her feelings about her mother into the relationship with her therapist by rejecting and reacting with hostility to what she might see as efforts to control her.

Countertransference does not apply here, as it is the reverse of transference, in which the therapist has extra feelings in the therapeutic relationship. 

Correct answer: Narrative recording 

Since Henry notes all behaviors with special attention to behaviors of interest during a given time frame, this type of observational assessment is a narrative recording. If Henry concentrated on specifically and operationally defined behaviors and whether they occur, this would be an interval recording, also known as time-sampling. The narrative recording method does not operationally define target behaviors per se, but an interval recording must do so.

Correct answer: Recall

Long-term memory (LTM) is known to contain three main categories: declarative (conscious) memory, implicit (unconscious) memory, and emotional (affective) memory.

Recall is not a term applied to long-term memory.

Correct answer: Through observation of others

Social learning theory states that aggression is learned by observing others. Examples such as violent video games leading to more aggressive behavior in children support this theory.

The frustration-aggression theory posits that aggression is the result of frustration, which occurs when a goal is blocked. Social learning theory does not address learning that occurs from exposure to stressors. Finally, this theory focuses on learning that occurs because of observing others' behaviors and imitating them; it does not specifically state that aggression is learned through negative social interactions. Instead, this theory would state that aggression is learned through observation of others.

Correct answer: Overgeneralization

Aaron Beck's cognitive therapy (1976) suggests that most mental suffering is due to cognitive distortions, which are flawed or inaccurate ways of thinking that develop an unhealthy pattern of false beliefs in the mind. One of these is overgeneralization (i.e., taking a few pieces of observational data about the world and externalizing them to the entire world). In this case, the client is overgeneralizing, as she believes that a few negative experiences mean that all people are bad. 

Dichotomous thinking is "all or nothing" thinking, not an overgeneralization about the world as a whole. Personalization refers to taking neutral data from the environment and interpreting it as having to do with oneself. Finally, emotional reasoning occurs when a person determines that their subjective feelings reflect objective reality. For instance, a person who is feeling negatively may come to believe that they are a bad person. 

Correct answer: Psychodynamic theory

The psychodynamic model of treatment has roots in psychoanalysis, which posits that individuals have unconscious desires, fears, and urges that influence their behavior and ways of experiencing the world. These unconscious factors first develop in early childhood, so a psychologist operating from this model would do a significant amount of exploration into the client's early experiences of caregivers and attachment to better understand how and why he is currently experiencing difficulties.

While Adlerian psychotherapy does explore family issues, including birth order of children and inherited cultural values, it is more eclectic in nature and does not focus on family of origin issues to the same extent that psychodynamic theories do. 

Family systems therapy is not the best answer here, because while it does explore family issues, including patterns of family dynamics passed down through generations, it is not as focused on the subconscious mind, the way that psychodynamic therapy is. Since the scenario here mentions that the client is not aware of why he has dysfunctional relationships with his parents, a method that explores unconscious drives is more appropriate. 

Existential therapy seems to be the worst fit for the scenario described here, as it does not address family of origin issues. Instead, existential therapy is focused on helping clients to overcome anxiety related to their purpose in life.

Correct answer: The client's children have a 50% chance of developing Huntington's disease

Huntington's disease is a degenerative movement disorder that also often results in behavioral disturbances such as personality changes, restlessness, psychosis, and others. Unfortunately, there is no treatment yet for Huntington's disease. Because it is an autosomal dominant gene, if one parent has the Huntington's gene and the other does not, the offspring have a 50% chance of developing the disease. 

Typically, symptoms begin in the third or fourth decade of life, not during adolescence. Overall, Huntington's disease affects 5/100,000 people, but offspring have a 50% chance of having the disorder if their parents have it. Because Huntington's disease is inherited through an autosome rather than a sex chromosome, males and females are equally affected.