ASWB LMSW Study Guide: Social Work Concepts & Research Terms

Vocabulary flashcards covering core social work clinical concepts, defense mechanisms, and research and evaluation terminology from the ASWB LMSW study guide.

Co-optation

When a person or organization brings members of a group or movement into an existing system to reduce opposition or influence their actions.

Secondary traumatic stress (secondary trauma)

Trauma-related stress symptoms that can arise from indirect exposure to other people's traumatic experiences.

Transference

When a client redirects feelings, expectations, or relationship patterns from important people in their past onto the social worker.

Compassion fatigue

Emotional and physical exhaustion, sometimes with reduced empathy, associated with ongoing care for people experiencing distress or trauma.

Countertransference

When a social worker's personal history, feelings, or unresolved issues influence their emotional responses to a client.

Humanistic theory

An approach emphasizing personal growth, free will, self-determination, strengths, and people's capacity for positive change.

Psychoanalytic theory

A theory associated with Freud that emphasizes unconscious processes, internal conflict, and the influence of early experiences on current behavior.

Defense mechanisms

Often-unconscious psychological strategies that help a person manage anxiety, conflict, or distress.

Client service plan / treatment plan

A collaborative written plan outlining assessed needs, client-centered goals, interventions, services, responsibilities, and ways to review progress.

Person-in-Environment (PIE)

A social work perspective that considers how a person and their social, cultural, economic, physical, and institutional environments affect one another.

Bilateral stimulation

Alternating stimulation on the left and right sides, such as eye movements, taps, or sounds; used in EMDR as part of trauma-focused treatment.

Devaluation

A defense pattern involving exaggerated focus on another person's negative qualities or viewing them as entirely bad, sometimes alternating with idealization.

Denial

Refusing to acknowledge or accept a distressing reality or fact.

Displacement

Redirecting an emotion from its original source toward a safer or less threatening person or object.

Cost-benefit analysis / benefit-cost ratio

A method comparing a program's costs with its benefits, with both expressed in monetary terms. A benefit-cost ratio compares total monetary benefits to total monetary costs.

Outcome assessment / outcome evaluation

Measuring whether an intervention or program achieved its intended results.

Cost-effectiveness analysis

Comparing the costs of interventions with a shared outcome measured in natural units rather than dollars.

Research question

A focused, answerable question that defines what a study aims to investigate.

Hypothesis

A testable prediction about a relationship or difference between variables.

Independent variable (IV)

The variable or condition expected to influence an outcome; in an experiment, it is the factor manipulated or assigned.

Dependent variable (DV)

The outcome measured to see whether it changes in relation to the independent variable.

Operational definition

A precise description of how a concept or variable will be measured or identified in a study.

Reliability

The consistency of a measurement or assessment across time, items, or raters when the underlying condition has not changed.

Validity

The extent to which a measure or study accurately measures or supports what it claims to measure or conclude.

Sampling

The process of selecting people or cases from a population for a study.

Random sampling

Selecting participants by chance from a defined population, giving members a known chance of selection under the sampling plan.

Random assignment

Assigning study participants to groups by chance.

Control/comparison group

A group used as a reference to help evaluate outcomes in the intervention group.

Experimental design

A design in which the researcher manipulates an intervention or condition and assesses its effects, often using random assignment.

Quasi-experimental design

An intervention study that lacks random assignment or another key feature of a true experiment.

Correlation

A statistical relationship between two variables; it does not by itself establish that one causes the other.

Confounding variable

A third factor associated with both the exposure/intervention and outcome that can distort the apparent relationship.

Qualitative research

Research exploring meaning, experiences, perspectives, and processes, often using interviews, focus groups, or observations.

Quantitative research

Research using numerical data and statistical analysis to describe patterns, test hypotheses, or estimate effects.

Mixed-methods research

A study that combines qualitative and quantitative methods to understand a question more fully.

Evidence-based practice (EBP)

Integrating the best available research evidence with professional expertise and the client's values, culture, preferences, and circumstances.

Literature review

A structured synthesis of existing research on a topic.

Informed consent

A voluntary agreement to participate after receiving understandable information about purpose, procedures, risks, benefits, confidentiality, and the right to decline or withdraw, as applicable.

Confidentiality and research privacy

Protecting identifiable information and limiting access or disclosure according to consent, law, ethics, and approved procedures.

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

A committee that reviews covered human-subjects research to protect participants' rights and welfare.

Inclusion/exclusion criteria

Predefined rules identifying who can or cannot participate in a study.

Attrition / dropout

Loss of participants during a study, which can bias results if those who leave differ from those who remain.

Pretest-posttest design

Measuring an outcome before and after an intervention to assess change.

Program evaluation

Systematically collecting and analyzing information about a program's design, implementation, reach, quality, or results to guide decisions.

Process evaluation

Assessing how a program is implemented and whether its activities are delivered as intended.

Formative evaluation

Evaluation conducted during development or early implementation to improve a program.

Summative evaluation

Evaluation used to judge a program's overall merit, effectiveness, or results after implementation or at a defined endpoint.

Needs assessment

A systematic process for identifying gaps between a community's current conditions and its desired conditions or services.

Baseline data

Information collected before an intervention or at the starting point for comparison.

Statistical significance

A statistical result indicating that observed data would be relatively unlikely under a specified null hypothesis, using a chosen significance threshold.

Practical/clinical significance

The real-world importance or meaningfulness of a finding, beyond whether it is statistically significant.

Generalizability

The extent to which findings can reasonably apply to other people, settings, or contexts beyond the study sample.

Ethics in research

Principles and safeguards intended to protect participants, including respect, minimizing harm, fairness, privacy, and voluntary participation.

Logic model

A visual or written map linking program resources and activities to outputs and intended outcomes.

Output

A direct count or product of program activities, rather than a change in client condition.

Impact evaluation

An evaluation designed to estimate a program's broader or longer-term effects, ideally distinguishing program effects from what would have happened otherwise.

Fidelity

The degree to which an intervention is delivered according to its intended model or protocol.

Formative evaluation

Examine the process of delivering services

Ongoing process that allows for feedback to be implemented during service delivery

Allows for social workers to make changes as needed to help achieve program goals

Summative evaluation

Examines outcomes to determine if the goals were met

Occurs at the end of services and provide an overall Description of their effectiveness

Quasi Sequential Design

no random assignment; has control /intervention group

Single Subject Design

One client observed over time

Ex tracking anxiety before and after treatment for one pt

Cross-Sectional Design

Data collected at one time from multiple subjects

Ex: survey on job burnout across agencies

Longitudinal Design

Tracks same subjects over time

Ex following foster youth adulthood

Cross-Sequential Design

Hybrid of cross-sectional and longitudinal

Ex comparing age cohorts over multiple years

Experimental Design

Random assignment with control group

ex clients randomly assigned to EMDR or no therapy

Internal Validity

Is the change in DV due to the IV?

External Vaildity

Can the findings be generalized?

Construct Vaildity

Does the tool measure the concept it claims to?

Ex: a burnout survey truly measures burnout, not general stress

Content Validity

Are all parts of the concept covered?

ex: a trauma measure includes physical, emotional, and psychological trauma.

Criterion Validity

Does it correlate with other proven measures?

ex a new depression test matches results of PHQ-9