CPCE Core Counseling Theories 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Narrative therapy's practice of 'externalizing the problem' is designed to:
- Blame external circumstances for the client's difficulties
- Separate the person's identity from the problem they are experiencing (Correct answer)
- Help the client project their issues onto others for resolution
- Focus on environmental factors rather than internal cognitions
Correct answer: Separate the person's identity from the problem they are experiencing
White and Epston's externalization positions the problem as separate from the person, reducing shame and opening space for the client to take a stance against the problem.
Question 2: In Transactional Analysis, the 'Adult' ego state is characterized by:
- Nurturing, controlling, or critical responses learned from parental figures
- Spontaneous emotional responses reflecting early childhood feelings
- Objective, reality-based data processing and problem-solving (Correct answer)
- Rebellious or adaptive responses to authority
Correct answer: Objective, reality-based data processing and problem-solving
Berne's Adult ego state operates in the present, processing information objectively and making rational decisions based on current reality.
Question 3: Which of the following is the PRIMARY goal of Motivational Interviewing (MI)?
- Confronting denial by providing the client with factual information about consequences
- Eliciting and strengthening the client's own motivation for change (Correct answer)
- Teaching behavioral skills to replace maladaptive habits
- Exploring childhood origins of ambivalent feelings about change
Correct answer: Eliciting and strengthening the client's own motivation for change
MI, developed by Miller and Rollnick, is a collaborative, client-centered approach that elicits intrinsic motivation by exploring and resolving ambivalence.
Question 4: Bowenian family therapy places the greatest emphasis on:
- Restructuring dysfunctional family hierarchies through directives
- Differentiating the self from the emotional fusion of the family system (Correct answer)
- Using paradoxical interventions to disrupt homeostasis
- Identifying and resolving triangulation through behavioral contracts
Correct answer: Differentiating the self from the emotional fusion of the family system
Bowen's central concept is differentiation of self — the ability to maintain a clear sense of self while remaining emotionally connected to the family system.
Question 5: A counselor using the Adlerian technique of 'acting as if' would ask the client to:
- Role-play a feared scenario until anxiety is extinguished
- Behave as if they were already the person they want to become (Correct answer)
- Pretend the problem does not exist for one week
- Imagine how a significant other would describe their problem
Correct answer: Behave as if they were already the person they want to become
'Acting as if' encourages clients to try out new behaviors and attitudes by pretending they already possess the qualities they desire.
Question 6: In psychodynamic therapy, 'projective identification' differs from simple projection in that:
- It involves attributing one's own traits to others without interpersonal impact
- The client unconsciously induces feelings in the therapist that mirror the client's disowned experience (Correct answer)
- It is a mature defense mechanism used to manage healthy relationships
- The client recognizes the projection and voluntarily shares it with the therapist
Correct answer: The client unconsciously induces feelings in the therapist that mirror the client's disowned experience
Projective identification involves not only projecting unwanted feelings onto another but also unconsciously influencing that person to actually experience those feelings.
Question 7: Which REBT concept describes the demanding, absolutistic thinking that Ellis believed was the root of most emotional disturbance?
- Catastrophizing
- Musturbatory thinking (Correct answer)
- Minimization
- Arbitrary inference
Correct answer: Musturbatory thinking
Ellis coined 'musturbation' to describe the rigid, absolutistic demands people place on themselves, others, and the world ('I must,' 'you must,' 'the world must').
CPCE Core Counseling Theories 4
Narrative therapy's practice of 'externalizing the problem' is designed to: