NCE - National Counselor Exam Practice Test

Victor Frankl developed the technique of Paradoxical intention and used it with clients who had severe anxiety.  Transactional-Analysis is used by psychoanalysts to help clients determine their ego states in order to understand behavior.  For behavior change, therapists help clients alter the state of their ego (parent, child, or adult-like).  Systematic Desensitization is a behavioral therapy technique developed by Wolpe to help clients overcome phobias

Principled thought comes after moving through the 6^th stage, which Kohlberg believed few people actually reached.  Self-actualization is the highest level of development one can reach according to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Interpersonal Therapy is a short term, solution focused treatment mainly for clients who have depression.  The ABC Model is a cognitive behavioral therapy technique developed by Albert Ellis to use when clients hold irrational beliefs.  

Authoritarianism values strict obedience to authority, even if personal freedom is sacrificed, which is contrary to independence.

Typically around the age of 11 or 12, children are moving into the Formal Operational Stage where they are learning to think about abstract concepts.  The Concrete Operational Stage is characterized by applying logic.

Children typically move into the Formal Operational Stage around the age of 11 or 12.

Research shows that talking about suicide does not increase the likelihood of someone committing suicide. Talking about suicide and educating people about it can be one of the most effective ways of preventing it from happening.

The patient’s employer has no right to request information he or she shared in a confidential session with a therapist, even if it is through the Employee Assistance Program.  Therapists are required to break confidentiality when someone’s safety is at risk.  Courts can subpoena charts, which is why therapists should be careful about taking notes during sessions.

Albert Ellis developed the ABC model to help replace unhealthy, irrational beliefs with rational ones following a negative event.

The Shadow represents sex and life instincts and consists of repressed ideas and desires.  The Hero represents a champion defender. The Wise Old Woman is helpful and a symbol of female nature.

The normal curve is symmetrical. Therefore, there’s an equal number of values greater and lower than the peak, which then average out to be the mode, median and mean.

 Existential therapy centers on the client, rather than the symptom, in its focus on free will, self-determination, and the search for meaning.  It is not client-centered therapy because in this approach, therapists allow the clients to steer the conversation in an effort to get them to better understand themselves and others.  Cognitive behavioral therapy tries to treat problems and boost happiness by modifying emotions, behaviors, and thoughts.  Holistic health therapy focuses on integrating the body, mind, spirt, and emotions.

In the Generativity vs. Stagnation stage, people are focused on contributing to the next generation (the client produced 2 offspring) and to society (the client’s meaningful career).  Industry vs. Inferiority occurs during the elementary school years and Integrity vs. Despair during late adulthood.  It is not Intimacy vs. Isolation because she has gone beyond sharing her life with one other person.

Career maturity was first mentioned by Donald Super and is the degree to which people are prepared to make good educational and vocational choices.  Crites created the Career Maturity Inventory based on Donald Super’s theory of career development.

Classical conditioning occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired. In this case, the two stimuli were the ringing of the bell and the treat.  Operant conditioning occurs when there are rewards and punishments associated with learning.  Reinforcement is a term associated with operant conditioning.

Sleep does not progress through all of these stages in sequence, however. Sleep begins in Stage One and progresses into stages Two, Three, and Four. Then, after Stage Four sleep, Stages Three, then Two are repeated before going into REM sleep. Once REM is over, we usually return to Stage Two sleep. Sleep cycles through these stages approximately 4 or 5 times throughout the night.

Roe’s theory consists of 8 fields (Service, Business Contact, Organization, Technology, Outdoor, Science, General Culture, and Arts & Entertainment) and 6 levels (professional and managerial, levels 1 and 2; semiprofessional and small business, level 3; skilled, level 4; semiskilled, level 5; and unskilled, level 6).  Carl Jung founded analytical psychology.  Holland created the Holland Codes including Realistic, Investigative, Artisitic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional (RIASEC).

The cerebral cortex is the most highly developed section of the brain and is responsible for these advanced skills.

In operant conditioning, therapists believe the reaction to an object or event can be modified by learning, or conditioning.

A variable ratio schedule is when a reward occurs after an unpredictable amount of responses and typically provides a high rate of response.  A fixed ratio schedule occurs when a response is reinforced after a set number of responses.  Fixed interval schedules reinforce the response only after a certain amount of time has passed.  Variable interval schedules reinforce the response after an unpredictable amount of time has gone by.

Carl Jung believed the “Shadow” represented the dark side of someone’s personality.

A variable ratio schedule is when a reward occurs after an unpredictable amount of responses and typically provides a high rate of response.  The counselor’s rate is unpredictable from one job to the next.  A fixed ratio schedule occurs when a response is reinforced after a set number of responses.  Fixed interval schedules reinforce the response only after a certain amount of time has passed.  Variable interval schedules reinforce the response after an unpredictable amount of time has gone by.

Behavioral counseling focuses on changing the client’s behavior.  Transactional-analysis, developed by Berne, focuses on interactions between people and communication is very important.  In this theory, it is believed that within each person, there are 3 altered ego stages- the parent, the adult, and the child.  In Client-centered, developed by Carl Rogers, the process is the focus and often guided by the client. 

Memories are stored in the brain’s hippocampus and recollection occurs when a person needs to reconstruct a memory.  Each time a person reminisces about an experience, that memory is strengthened.  Recall designates that specific details be retrieved through memory.  Recognition is the ability to recognize previously encountered people, events, or objects.

The purpose of reinforcers is to increase the likelihood that a specific behavior will occur following a stimulus.

The Formal Operational stage is the last of Piaget’s stages, beginning in early adolescence and lasting until adulthood, and is characterized by abstract concepts.

Standard error of measurement estimates how an individual’s scores would fall if given the same assessment over a period of time.  Validity is one of the most important criteria for determining the quality of a test and refers to if the test is measuring what it claims to measure.  

The Parietal Lobe processes information temperature, taste, touch, and movement.  The Occipital Lobe is responsible for vision, while the Frontal Lobe’s main jobs include cognitive functions and voluntary movement.  The Temporal Lobe processes memory and connects them with our senses.

A large focus of client-centered counseling is discussion, often guided by the client. 

Informed consent is a process of getting permission before conducting a healthcare intervention on a person. Informed consent needs to occur before treatment.

Victor Frankl developed the technique of paradoxical intention and used it with clients who had severe anxiety. Systematic desensitization is a behavioral therapy technique developed by Wolpe to help clients overcome phobias. 

Standard error of measurement estimates where an individual’s scores would fall if given the same assessment over a period of time.  Standard error of the mean is the variability of the sample means while standard deviation is a measure telling the amount of variation of a set of data points. 

While Super first described the concept of career maturity, it was Crites who researched and created the Career Maturity Inventory.  Ginzberg believed the development of the following four factors led to career choice: the reality factor, the influence of the educational process, the emotional factor, and individual values.  Hoyt viewed career education as a composite of activities and experiences designed to prepare and engage individuals in paid or unpaid work during their lives.  Super believed the following stages explained career development: 1. The crystallization stage, ages 14-18 2. Specification stage, ages 18-21 3. Implementation stage, ages 21-24 4. The stabilization stage, ages 24-35 5. Consolidation, age 35 6. Readiness for retirement, age 55.

Piaget was a developmental theorist who believed all people went through the same four stages. The main goals of each stage follow: sensorimotor - object permanence; preoperational - symbolic thought; concrete operational - operational thought; and formal operational - abstract concepts.

Bowlby's work was the beginning of Attachment Theory which describes how the parent-sibling bond/attachment later influences how a person develops. Parsons, Holland, Bandura, and Super are associated with career guidance. Moreno founded psychodrama, also known as the first type of group therapy.

Culture is a broad term used to describe the social behavior and norms found in human societies and therefore, a, b, and c are all part of the definition. An overly simplified way of thinking about culture is as a way of life for certain groups.

While understanding cultural norms may help you understand the behavior and actions of someone from another culture, thereby making it easier to interact with that person, they do not provide a roadmap showing how to interact.

While Aristotle was the first to describe catharsis, it was the psychoanalyst Josef Breuer who first used it as a technique. He found that while recalling traumatic experiences under hypnosis, his clients experienced relief after expressing the repressed emotions.

Social connectedness is the measure of how an individual is connected to and takes interest in the well-being of others. Adler believed when people reached a level of social connectedness, they would feel successful and happy. The other theorists mentioned above adhered more toward an individualistic explanation of success and happiness.

In closed groups, the group typically ends with the same members it began with. New members are not allowed to join a closed group once the sessions have started, but members are allowed to drop out at any time. Counselors need to screen members for both open and closed groups. In open groups, new members can join in at any time once they've been screened. Regardless of the type of group, confidentiality is always an important aspect so that group members can trust one another and the counselor.

As long as the coleaders get along and adhere to a similar theoretical approach and vision for the group, having coleaders can provide multiple benefits for group members.

Holland believed that if a person chose to work in an environment congruent with their personality, they would feel happier and more satisfied. The six work environments he identified are: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. Parsons believed careers had to be matched to talents, skills, and personality.

Frank Parsons is known as the founder of the guidance movement. His talent matching approach was later developed into the Trait and Factor Theory of Occupational Choice. Adler was the founder of individual psychology, Freud was the founder of psychoanalysis, and Ellis was the founder of rational emotive behavior therapy.

Career theorist John Holland developed these 6 categories describing different work environments. He believed an individual's personality needed to match their work environment in order to maximize happiness and success.

SIGI Plus, Choices, and Discover are all types of CACGS. CACGS is a term used to describe a computer program that combines career assessment, information, and guidance all into one system. Indeed is a popular job search website.

An ethical dilemma occurs when a counselor feels pulled in two different directions. In surveys of practitioners, confidentiality is one of the top dilemmas reported.

It is very important for counselors to follow through with reporting abuse, especially since they are mandated reporters. This is one of the instances when breaking confidentiality is warranted. It is not the counselor's job to get more information from the client in order to try to prove abuse occurred. If a counselor has the suspicion that abuse occurred, they need to report. In some instances, counselors do choose to let the parent know a report had to be made, but that is not required.

The 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) is a self-report personality test developed using several decades worth of empirical research. Cattell and his associates set to measure the following personality factors: warmth, intellect, emotional stability, aggressiveness, liveliness, dutifulness, social assertiveness, sensitivity, paranoia, abstractedness, introversion, anxiety, open mindedness, independence, perfectionism, tension. The Myers Briggs Type Inventory is a self-report personality inventory which indicates how people perceive the world and make decisions. The WISC and the WAIS are tests designed to measure cognitive intelligence.

The experiment is the most powerful research method because it is the only design that examines a single factor's effect on a particular behavior. Therefore, it is the only method where a direct cause and effect relationship can be established. While correlational studies can show if 2 variables are related and how strong the relationship is, it is important to remember correlation does not equal causation.

Helping clients work through trauma requires specialized training. If the client is presenting with trauma and it is out of the realm of the counselor's ability to handle, the client should be referred to a qualified professional.