MC Assessment and Diagnosis 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which diagnostic manual is the primary reference used by licensed counselors in the United States for classifying mental health disorders?
- DSM-5-TR (Correct answer)
- ICD-11
- PDM-2
- RDoC
Correct answer: DSM-5-TR
The DSM-5-TR (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision) is the standard classification system used by U.S. mental health professionals.
Question 2: A counselor administering the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) is using which type of assessment?
- Projective test
- Self-report inventory (Correct answer)
- Neuropsychological battery
- Structured clinical interview
Correct answer: Self-report inventory
The BDI-II is a self-report inventory in which clients rate the severity of depressive symptoms themselves.
Question 3: Which term describes the degree to which an assessment tool consistently measures what it is intended to measure across repeated administrations?
- Validity
- Standardization
- Reliability (Correct answer)
- Norming
Correct answer: Reliability
Reliability refers to the consistency of a measurement instrument across time, raters, or test forms.
Question 4: During a mental status examination, a counselor notes that a client's speech is rapid, difficult to interrupt, and jumps between loosely connected topics. This finding is best described as:
- Tangential thinking
- Pressured speech with flight of ideas (Correct answer)
- Poverty of speech
- Echolalia
Correct answer: Pressured speech with flight of ideas
Pressured speech combined with flight of ideas — rapid, hard-to-interrupt speech that shifts quickly between loosely related ideas — is a hallmark sign of mania.
Question 5: A counselor wants to compare a client's test score to how others in the general population performed. This requires the use of:
- Criterion-referenced norms
- Ipsative scoring
- Normative data (Correct answer)
- Qualitative coding
Correct answer: Normative data
Normative data provide population-based reference points that allow a clinician to interpret an individual score relative to a standardization sample.
Question 6: Which ethical obligation requires a counselor to keep assessment results confidential and share them only with authorized parties?
- Informed consent
- Duty to warn
- Confidentiality (Correct answer)
- Beneficence
Correct answer: Confidentiality
Confidentiality obligates counselors to protect client information, including assessment results, from unauthorized disclosure.
MC Assessment and Diagnosis 1
Which diagnostic manual is the primary reference used by licensed counselors in the United States for classifying mental health disorders?