CPCE Core Counseling Theories 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In Adlerian therapy, the concept of 'social interest' (Gemeinschaftsgefühl) refers to:
- A client's desire to avoid social situations due to anxiety
- An innate sense of belonging and contribution to the community (Correct answer)
- The therapist's empathic attunement to the client
- The tendency to compare oneself with others competitively
Correct answer: An innate sense of belonging and contribution to the community
Adler viewed social interest as a core human striving — a sense of identification with and contribution to society.
Question 2: Which technique is MOST associated with Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)?
- Free association
- Systematic desensitization
- Disputing irrational beliefs (Correct answer)
- Miracle question
Correct answer: Disputing irrational beliefs
REBT's hallmark technique is the active disputation of irrational beliefs using the ABC-DE model developed by Albert Ellis.
Question 3: A counselor using existential therapy would MOST likely focus on:
- Reinforcement schedules to change behavior
- Unconscious childhood conflicts driving present symptoms
- The client's freedom, responsibility, and search for meaning (Correct answer)
- Cognitive distortions that maintain depression
Correct answer: The client's freedom, responsibility, and search for meaning
Existential therapy centers on ultimate concerns such as freedom, isolation, meaninglessness, and death as sources of anxiety.
Question 4: The 'empty chair' technique is most closely identified with which theoretical orientation?
- Psychoanalytic therapy
- Gestalt therapy (Correct answer)
- Behavioral therapy
- Reality therapy
Correct answer: Gestalt therapy
Fritz Perls developed the empty chair (or two-chair) technique in Gestalt therapy to help clients work through unfinished business.
Question 5: In Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), 'automatic thoughts' are best described as:
- Deeply held core beliefs formed in early childhood
- Spontaneous, brief thoughts that arise in response to situations (Correct answer)
- Behavioral impulses that bypass conscious awareness
- Unconscious drives that manifest as physical symptoms
Correct answer: Spontaneous, brief thoughts that arise in response to situations
Automatic thoughts are rapid, involuntary cognitions that appear in response to situations and lie between core beliefs and emotional responses in Beck's cognitive model.
Question 6: Which of the following BEST describes the 'miracle question' used in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy?
- Asking clients to identify exceptions when the problem was absent
- Asking clients to imagine a future in which the problem is solved overnight (Correct answer)
- Challenging clients to confront their most feared scenario
- Encouraging clients to reframe the problem as a resource
Correct answer: Asking clients to imagine a future in which the problem is solved overnight
The miracle question (de Shazer) invites clients to envision how life would look if the problem disappeared, helping identify goals and resources.
Question 7: The concept of 'confluence' in Gestalt therapy refers to:
- The merging of past and present experiences in awareness
- A contact boundary disturbance where the self and environment are not distinguished (Correct answer)
- The integration of polarities within the personality
- The therapist's use of self-disclosure to model authenticity
Correct answer: A contact boundary disturbance where the self and environment are not distinguished
Confluence is a contact boundary disturbance in which the person blurs the distinction between self and other, leading to loss of individual identity.
CPCE Core Counseling Theories 2
In Adlerian therapy, the concept of 'social interest' (Gemeinschaftsgefühl) refers to: