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CCE CPCE Exam Questions
Page 7 of 25
121.
Which of the following is the main reason for failures in co-leadership of groups?
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Failures in collaboration
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Differences in therapeutic orientation
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Failures in communication
Correct answer: Failures in collaboration
There are many potential methods of group leadership. One of these is co-leadership or co-facilitation, which involves two therapists attending and performing the leadership role in tandem. The main vulnerability with this model seems to be failures in collaboration of one kind or another; the co-leaders disagree on structure, they fail to meet on their own to review progress, or other issues related to the implementation of the group.
Less common are therapeutic differences or simple failures to communicate.
122.
How should the counselor handle resistance in a therapeutic group?
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Go with the resistance
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Expel the resisting member
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Dissolve the group
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Meet with the resistance privately
Correct answer: Go with the resistance
Resistance in a therapeutic group can take many forms, depending on context, focus, and setting, among many other factors. For the most part, resistance in a therapeutic group is valuable, in that it has something to teach the group and the group leader; whatever issue there is can probably be handled in a group setting with a supportive, directed discussion.
If the issue is serious enough, or if it is truly confined to one person's behavior, attitude, or some other factor, then the time may come for an individual conversation; but the group is not really at risk just because resistance is present.
123.
Which of the following is not a mandate of HIPAA with respect to client documentation?
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Provide informed consent documentation at the end of an episode of care
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Keep informed consent documentation for six years
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An actual client signature on informed consent documentation
Correct answer: Provide informed consent documentation at the end of an episode of care
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 2003 stipulated many provisions that are designed to help clients gain more control over their private health information. Some of the most important such provisions are those related to informed consent, meaning that clients should provide written consent for any services they provide, indicating they understand what is to be provided. This informed consent documentation takes place at the beginning of an episode of care, before services are provided; the informed consent should be kept for six years, and the client must provide a signature for the informed consent to be valid.
124.
What is the most likely cause of content bias?
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Indiscriminate content selection
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Observer bias
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Participant bias
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Instrumental error
Correct answer: Indiscriminate content selection
Content bias in research refers to how the contents of a given instrument or evaluative technique contain content-related features that skew results. The most likely cause of such bias is indiscriminate content selection. Content that does not account for multicultural differences, or that is easy to misinterpret or can be interpreted differently, can easily lead to content bias.
The issue is not observer bias, participant bias, or instrumental error, but a problem with what is in the instrument or technique.
125.
What is the ACA's stance on risk to research participants?
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Researchers must take reasonable precautions to minimize risks
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Researchers must never put research participants at risk
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A certain amount of risk is necessary in social research
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Informed consent should be worded so that liability is reduced
Correct answer: Researchers must take reasonable precautions to minimize risks
It is sometimes unavoidable that some element of risk to participants will appear in a research design. Though it is not necessary for good research in the social sciences, often there will be some inescapable risk due to the subject matter or design of the research. The concern of informed consent is less about liability per se and more about the responsibility of the researcher to give the participant all the information they would need to make an informed consent about participation.
The guidance of the ACA on the topic is that researchers should take reasonable precautions to minimize unavoidable risks.
126.
How should counselors deal with clients who experience cultural and/or gender issues?
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Ask the client directly about their experience
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Implement plans to address these issues
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Help clients connect to relevant community networks
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Approach client's family members for information
Correct answer: Ask the client directly about their experience
The experience of different people with respect to cultural and/or gender issues is highly idiosyncratic. Though, from the counselor's point of view, a client may be experiencing substantial such issues and there may be a desire to address them, it is the client's experience that is the most important in this regard. It is by asking the client directly about their experience that a proper plan of action can be undertaken.
127.
Which of the following is the best source of information about issues of difference?
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Clients of difference
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Seminars for providers
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One's own background and experience
Correct answer: Clients of difference
Part of the commitment to social diversity on the part of counselors has to do with acquiring a knowledge base about issues of difference; these are whatever issue makes the client exceptional or part of a diverse population. By far, the best source of such information are clients who manifest the difference in question, whether this be an issue of ethnicity, sexuality, economics, or some other.
Seminars can be helpful, and one is always relying to some degree on one's own background and experience, but it is the client experience that is most instructive in this regard.
128.
Is poorly designed research considered unethical?
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Yes, for a variety of reasons
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No, it is not an ethical concern
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Yes, if it also violates confidentiality
Correct answer: Yes, for a variety of reasons
Research designs can be widely variable in character, design, and quality. Unfortunately, many such designs—even those that pass the review of an institutional review board or other such body—are poorly thought out. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the researcher to uphold the ethics of the profession by advancing research for study and implementation that does not diminish the reputation of the profession of counseling and waste the time of everyone concerned.
It is for these two factors and not confidentiality that poorly designed research is considered unethical.
129.
Which of the following best captures the meaning of immediacy as it relates to a counseling session?
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Sharing an issue as it comes into the counselor's mind
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Quickly establishing a crisis plan
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Addressing issues raised by the client in the here and now
Correct answer: Sharing an issue as it comes into the counselor's mind
Immediacy in the counseling profession sometimes takes place during a session when a counselor feels the need to address an issue or circumstance without waiting. Though it has various therapeutic uses, its most likely use is to call attention to something that cannot wait, i.e., a client's obvious deep distress or apparent intoxication.
Establishing crisis plans and issues raised by the client in the here and now may both need to be handled in an immediate sense; however, this is not what immediacy means in session.
130.
Which of the following is the best predictor of academic performance?
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Previous academic performance
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IQ
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Socioeconomic status
Correct answer: Previous academic performance
According to research over the years, the most reliable single predictor of academic performance is previous academic performance.
Though IQ and socioeconomic status are certainly factors, these have not been proven to carry the weight that previous academic performance does.
131.
What are the key words that define virtually every mental health diagnosis?
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Clinically significant distress or impairment
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Loss of significant coping mechanisms
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Delay in cognitive or affective functioning
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Significant distress or concern manifest to others
Correct answer: Clinically significant distress or impairment
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) is currently the standard diagnostic reference work used in the mental health profession. In defining virtually any mental disorder, the DSM stipulates that such a disorder must cause clinically significant distress or impairment. Following this basic assumption will be other, more specified clinical criteria.
The diagnostic rubric does not contain coping, affect, or distress manifest to others as a standard feature in diagnosis.
132.
Which of the following is the best schedule for a therapeutic group of adults?
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One session a week of about 2 hours
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Two sessions a week of about 2 hours
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One session a week of about an hour
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Two sessions a week of about an hour
Correct answer: One session a week of about 2 hours
Though the needs of individual groups vary, it seems best among adult therapeutic groups to try to strike a balance between frequency and utility in scheduling the therapeutic group. Two hours for a session of about 8 individuals allows for sufficient depth of work, and, realistically, more than once a week may prove challenging for working people with busy lives.
133.
Between qualitative and quantitative methods of research, which is considered more descriptive?
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Qualitative research is more descriptive
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Quantitative research is more descriptive
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The two types of research are equally descriptive
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Neither type of research is descriptive in character
Correct answer: Qualitative research is more descriptive
There are usually considered to be three types of research methods in psychology. Qualitative research is more descriptive than numerate and deals with open-ended questions and interviews where narratives and individual experiences are elevated.
Quantitative research is more numerate and concentrates on distilling the experience of many participants to meaningful sets of data. The third type of research is mixed, which blends both methods in some way.
134.
Which of the following groups is most susceptible to abuse and/or neglect?
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The elderly
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Minor children
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Teenage children
Correct answer: The elderly
Numerically, the elderly are by far the group most susceptible to abuse and/or neglect. This is due to many factors, such as their vulnerability to harm, the relative silence on the part of nursing homes and other caregivers in reporting such abuse and/or neglect, and their growing prevalence as a class in the overall world population.
Though children of either minor or teenage years are definitely vulnerable as well, they are not present in the numbers that older people are.
135.
What is the major ethical concern with the concept of "publish or perish"?
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It contributes to a competitive, self-interested atmosphere
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It leads to the exploitation of students for research purposes
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It leads to falsifying data and other ethical lapses
Correct answer: It contributes to a competitive, self-interested atmosphere
The phrase "publish or perish" has long been commonplace in academic culture to refer to the need for a professor to publish research in their discipline in order to advance or, in some cases, be retained in their careers. In practice, this drive for research publication does not so much lead to exploitation or falsifying data, but it does lead to an overarching atmosphere of competition and self-interest that is itself an ethical concern.
136.
Which of the following best describes the goal of counseling?
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Creating a situation where counseling is no longer needed
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Prolonging the counseling relationship to the client's satisfaction
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Educating clients about their illness
Correct answer: Creating a situation where counseling is no longer needed
One way to look at the goal of counseling is to create a situation where the client is self-sufficient enough to no longer need counseling, at least for the issue that they presented with in a given episode of care.
This is not always the level to which clients wish the counseling relationship to continue, and is much more than simply educating the client about their illness, though this is desirable.
137.
Which of the following is true regarding older adults and counseling services?
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Older adults tend to underutilize mental health services
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Older adults tend to overutilize mental health services
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Older adults generally do not access mental health services
Correct answer: Older adults tend to underutilize mental health services
Older adults as a population tend to underutilize mental health services in a variety of ways. They seem to be less likely to seek out such services on their own, do not stay in services once enrolled, and, in other respects, are reluctant to engage with the idea that they may have a mental health diagnosis. The reasons for this are both generational and cultural, with stigma about mental health issues still lingering in this population.
138.
According to the ACA Code of Ethics, are researchers required to share their original research data?
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Yes, in all circumstances
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No, under no circumstances
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Only at the specific direction of an institutional review board (IRB)
Correct answer: Yes, in all circumstances
The ACA Code of Ethics places many demands on those performing research. These are to honor their commitments to participants, to explain fully the nature of the research, to honestly and accurately report research results, and to make replication by other researchers possible by providing their original research data in sufficient quantity for this purpose.
139.
What is the ethical obligation of counselors when clients prematurely terminate?
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An attempt to communicate with and support the client in their choice
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Counselors have no real ethical obligation in these scenarios
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An insistence on a termination meeting to support the client
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Counselors should not allow premature termination by clients
Correct answer: An attempt to communicate with and support the client in their choice
Anywhere from a third to more than half of clients prematurely terminate counseling services. This is a valid choice on behalf of the client in many cases, and the counselor is in no position to stop it realistically. However, the counselor is under an ethical obligation to find out more about such a decision and meet with the client if the client will permit it.
Though no formal termination meeting is necessary, it may be possible to persuade the client that adhering to the chosen plan of treatment is in their best interest, or at least understand why the termination has been decided upon.
140.
How is a miracle question mainly used in treatment?
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To help clients focus on desired future states
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To distract clients from severe psychopathology
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To encourage dissent from traditional diagnosis
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To put the focus on the client's affective world
Correct answer: To help clients focus on desired future states
A miracle question is sometimes used in treatment to help a client focus on desired future states, as clients have a tendency to dwell on their own current problem and past difficulty without identifying a way forward. The miracle question usually takes the form of something like, "If you woke up tomorrow and your problem was gone, what would be different?" Changing the focus in this way can help clients identify their goals outside of coping and venting.
Such a technique does distract, but with the purpose of future focus. The technique does not deal with diagnosis per se, nor does it change the focus of the client, except to place it in an idealized future state.