ASWB Masters Assessment 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A social worker is assessing a 10-year-old who has been refusing to attend school for three weeks, complaining of stomachaches each morning. The MOST appropriate initial assessment consideration is:
- Oppositional defiant disorder
- Separation anxiety disorder or school refusal related to anxiety (Correct answer)
- Conduct disorder
- Intellectual disability
Correct answer: Separation anxiety disorder or school refusal related to anxiety
School refusal with somatic complaints in children is commonly associated with separation anxiety disorder or other anxiety-based conditions.
Question 2: When a social worker assesses 'insight' in the mental status exam, they are evaluating the client's:
- Ability to recall past events accurately
- Understanding of their own illness and its impact on functioning (Correct answer)
- Capacity to make sound financial decisions
- Awareness of their legal rights as a client
Correct answer: Understanding of their own illness and its impact on functioning
Insight refers to the client's awareness and understanding of their mental illness and how it affects their life.
Question 3: A social worker is assessing a couple experiencing chronic conflict. Using a systems perspective, the social worker would PRIMARILY focus on:
- Each partner's childhood trauma history independently
- Patterns of interaction and communication between the partners (Correct answer)
- The partner with more severe individual psychopathology
- Identifying which partner is responsible for the conflict
Correct answer: Patterns of interaction and communication between the partners
A systems perspective focuses on relational patterns and circular causality rather than individual pathology or blame.
Question 4: Which of the following BEST exemplifies a protective factor in a risk assessment?
- History of prior psychiatric hospitalizations
- Access to lethal means
- Strong social support network and reasons for living (Correct answer)
- Recent significant loss
Correct answer: Strong social support network and reasons for living
Protective factors such as strong social support and reasons for living reduce risk and buffer against suicidal behavior.
Question 5: A social worker is conducting an assessment and notices the client repeatedly changes the subject when asked about their childhood. This is BEST understood as:
- A sign of intellectual disability
- A possible indicator of avoidance related to distressing material (Correct answer)
- Evidence that the client is being dishonest
- Confirmation that early childhood is irrelevant to the presenting problem
Correct answer: A possible indicator of avoidance related to distressing material
Avoidance of specific topics may indicate emotional distress or trauma associated with that content, and warrants gentle clinical exploration.
Question 6: A social worker documents that a client's affect is 'constricted.' This means the client's emotional expression is:
- Intense and rapidly shifting
- Appropriate to the content being discussed
- Reduced in range and intensity (Correct answer)
- Absent or completely flat
Correct answer: Reduced in range and intensity
Constricted affect describes a reduced range of emotional expression, less severe than flat affect but more limited than full affect.
Question 7: A social worker is reviewing a genogram with a client and notes a pattern of substance use across three generations. This information is MOST useful for:
- Proving the client's disorder is genetic and untreatable
- Identifying multigenerational patterns that may inform assessment and treatment planning (Correct answer)
- Determining insurance eligibility based on hereditary risk
- Assigning primary responsibility for the client's current problems
Correct answer: Identifying multigenerational patterns that may inform assessment and treatment planning
Genograms reveal intergenerational patterns that provide important context for understanding current client functioning and informing intervention.
ASWB Masters Assessment 5
A social worker is assessing a 10-year-old who has been refusing to attend school for three weeks, complaining of stomachaches each morning.
The MOST appropriate initial assessment consideration is: