ASWB Masters Basic 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A social worker practicing from a strengths-based perspective would MOST likely begin an initial assessment by asking:
- What brought you to seek help today?
- Can you describe your symptoms and how long they have been present?
- What has worked for you in the past when facing similar challenges? (Correct answer)
- What is your family history of mental illness?
Correct answer: What has worked for you in the past when facing similar challenges?
Strengths-based practice begins by identifying existing capacities, resilience, and past successes rather than focusing on deficits or pathology.
Question 2: A social worker receives a subpoena for client records related to a custody dispute. The MOST appropriate immediate action is to:
- Release the records to comply with the court order
- Refuse to release the records to protect client confidentiality
- Consult legal counsel and notify the client before releasing any records (Correct answer)
- Contact the client's attorney for authorization
Correct answer: Consult legal counsel and notify the client before releasing any records
A subpoena requires legal consultation and client notification; it is not automatically equivalent to a court order mandating immediate release.
Question 3: A client describes feeling that she is watching herself from outside her body during stressful situations. This experience BEST describes:
- Derealization
- Dissociation/depersonalization (Correct answer)
- Visual hallucinations
- Magical thinking
Correct answer: Dissociation/depersonalization
Depersonalization involves feeling detached from one's own body or mental processes, as if observing oneself from outside.
Question 4: Which of the following BEST describes the primary role of the social worker in a case management model of service delivery?
- Providing direct psychotherapy to address clinical needs
- Coordinating and linking clients to needed community resources and services (Correct answer)
- Administering medication and monitoring psychiatric symptoms
- Conducting group therapy sessions for skill development
Correct answer: Coordinating and linking clients to needed community resources and services
Case management centers on coordinating service delivery across systems and linking clients to appropriate resources to address multifaceted needs.
Question 5: A social worker is working with a family where the eldest daughter consistently mediates all parental conflicts and takes care of younger siblings. This role is BEST described as:
- Identified patient
- Scapegoat
- Parentified child (Correct answer)
- Triangulated member
Correct answer: Parentified child
A parentified child takes on adult responsibilities within the family, sacrificing their own developmental needs to meet parental or sibling needs.
Question 6: In cognitive-behavioral therapy, which technique involves a client tracking the automatic thoughts, emotions, and situations associated with distressing events?
- Free association
- Thought record (dysfunctional thought record) (Correct answer)
- Systematic desensitization
- Exposure hierarchy
Correct answer: Thought record (dysfunctional thought record)
Thought records are CBT tools that help clients identify and evaluate automatic thoughts, their emotional impact, and the situations that trigger them.
Question 7: A newly licensed social worker feels pressured by her supervisor to use a treatment approach she believes is not evidence-based for a client's condition. She should FIRST:
- Follow the supervisor's direction to maintain the employment relationship
- Refuse to implement the approach and document the disagreement
- Raise her concern professionally with the supervisor and discuss the evidence base (Correct answer)
- Report the supervisor to the licensing board immediately
Correct answer: Raise her concern professionally with the supervisor and discuss the evidence base
Professional disagreements should first be addressed directly with the supervisor in a respectful, evidence-informed dialogue before escalating.
ASWB Masters Basic 5
A social worker practicing from a strengths-based perspective would MOST likely begin an initial assessment by asking: