NCE Practice Test Questions

1. Susie is playing with blocks and is trying to build a tower; she tries but cannot build a

tower. Susie's mother helps her build a four-block tower. Later, Susie builds a four-block

tower without her mother's help. According to Vygotsky, the inability to build the tower on

her own is known as:

The zone of proximal development (this is a range of tasks that are too difficult for children to do alone, but possible with help)

According to Erickson, when an individual fails to develop a strong sense of identity, the

individual will have troubles with the development of:

Intimacy (individuals who fail to attain a lower level of development will fail to attain the next higher level).

Which of the following is the correct sequence of stages in Freud's theory of personality

development?

Oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital

Jacob's father tells Jacob to clean his room. When Jacob asks why, his father responds,

"Because I said so." The father's response is most representative of which parenting style?

Authoritarian (uses coercion and psychological control to discipline children)

Harry Harlow used baby monkeys and several different kinds of "surrogate mothers" to

investigate which factors are important in early development and attachment. According to

his findings, baby monkeys:

Preferred a soft terry cloth mother to a wire mesh mother than holds a bottle.

Which of the following is a myth about suicide in the United States?

Asking someone about suicide may push that person over the edge.

Cody does what his parents say because he doesn't want to lose his television privileges.

This is an example of what level in Kohlberg's theory of moral development?

Preconventional (the individual is most concerned with consequences)

Josie likes to play peek-a-boo with her little brother, Jack. According to Piaget, Jack finds

this game fun because he has acquired ____________, which is one of the primary tasks of the

sensorimotor stage of cognitive development.

Object permanence

The theorist associated with bonding and attachment is:

Bowlby

Henry, a 72-year-old widower, reminisces with his daughter about his life. He talks

about his successes and regrets. This is an example of Erikson's:

Ego integrity stage

When it comes to displaying aggression, girls more often engage in ____________

aggression than boys.

Relational

All of the following are physical characteristics of Down Syndrome EXCEPT:

Large hands and feet

Which of the following statements is true when considering cultural and familial

influences on self-esteem?

An authoritative parenting style usually allows children to have especially high self-esteem

Research on gay and lesbian couples

They are as dedicated to and as effective at child rearing as are heterosexual parents.

In the Stanford prison study, what caused the guards to treat the prisoners harshly?

It was the social context that determined the behaviors of both the guards and the

prisoners. In the Stanford prison study, the setting was so realistic that the participants

became guards and prisoners. Their personal identities were masked by the context of

being in a prison as either a guard or a prisoner

In the original studies, Milgram and his colleagues found that people were more likely to

disobey under all of the following circumstances EXCEPT when __________.

the victim was in an adjoining room so the "teacher" heard every sound the victim made

In the Stanford prison simulation, male college students agreed to participate in an

experiment to discover what would happen when they took on the roles of prisoners and

guards. The researchers found that __________.

The individuals who played one role or another really took on their role. It did not matter how the guards treated them or acted toward them, the fact that they became like "real" prisoners was the key finding. Individuals who played guards took on behaviors of "real" guards; and individuals who played prisoners took on behaviors of "real" prisoners.

In what ways do stereotypes distort reality?

Stereotypes distort one's ideas about how one group is so different from

another group. In reality, the differences between groups are not as extreme as stereotypes

make them out to be.

Jennifer has to choose between spending the evening at home with her parents or

spending the evening babysitting her younger sister. Jennifer does not like either of these

choices. This situation describes an:

Since Jennifer doesn't like either of the choices, this would

be an avoidance-avoidance conflict. It is simply picking between the lesser of two evils.

Connie tells each of her clients that the best way she can help them is to attempt to look

at the world from the client's point of view. This counselor is taking the _________ perspective

Emic (this view considers that culture matters)

Working with individuals from different cultures requires that the counselor:

Have sensitivity and knowledge about other cultures.

A high standard of counseling practice when working with diverse populations involves

all of the following EXCEPT:

Treating all clients the same way

When working with individuals from different cultures, the effective counselor may NOT:

Maintain good eye contact at all times.

Murray is a bright student, but he procrastinates. He puts off writing term papers and

gets incompletes, which eventually become Fs. Murray's therapist helps him establish small,

specific goals rather than vague, long-range goals. The therapist also asks Murray to keep a

diary of how he is spending his time when he is avoiding his studies. The method used to

help Murray deal with his problem is __________ therapy.

Behavioral

The social learning perspective is to the psychodynamic perspective as ____________________ are to ________________________

Environmental conditions, unconscious dynamics

The process of saying freely whatever comes to mind in connection with dreams, fantasies, or memories in the course of a psychodynamic therapy session, is referred to as _____________________________

Free association

27. Which of the following is not a behavioral therapy?

Unconditional positive regard

28. The primary goal of __________ therapy is to find meaning in life

Existential

29. Which of the following pairings of problem and the most successful therapy for that

problem is INCORRECT?

Childhood behavior problems and existential therapy

30. The bond of confidence and mutual understanding established between therapist and

client is called the _______.

Therapeutic alliance

31. An apparent treatment success that is due to the patient's expectation or hopes rather

than the treatment itself is called ____________.

the placebo effect

32. In _________ therapy, the therapist uses logical arguments to challenge a client's

unrealistic beliefs or expectations.

REBT

Systematic desensizitation and flooding are ___________ techniques

Behavioral

Which of the following types of therapists would be most likely to use free association and transference?

Psychodynamic therapists

35. _________ is a humanist approach that emphasizes the tragic aspects of life, the burden of

responsibility, and the need to face the inevitability of death.

Existentialism

According to Carl Rogers, __________ is love and support given to another with no strings

attached.

Unconditional positive regard

Which of the following pairs of personality theorists and perspectives is INCORRECT?

Carl Jung; genetic

Which of the following terms is associated with transactional analysis?

Complementary transactions

Which one of the following does NOT belong with the other three?

Glasser

The withdrawal of reinforcement until the conditioned response no longer occurs is

known as:

Extinction

Freud is to ego, id, and superego as ___________ is to parent, adult, and child.

Berne

Developed by Luft and Ingham, ______________ asserts that there are four parts to the

personality: the public self, the blind self, the private self, and the unknown self.

The Johari Window

In which is the focus on the meaning of life and the relevance of the individual

experience?

Existential counseling

Popular techniques of this approach are role playing, "empty chair," and "making the

rounds."

Gestalt

Popular techniques of this approach are examination of client's memories, "spitting in

the client's soup," and "catching oneself."

Adlerian

In this therapeutic approach, the counselor's emphasis is on being authentic while

concentrating on verbal and nonverbal messages.

Existential

Paradoxical intention, implosive therapy, and thought stopping are all techniques used

by _____________ counselors.

Psychoanalytic

Stress inoculation is a concept introduced by:

Donald Meichenbaum

According to Freud, _____________________ is the most important defense mechanism. An

example of this defense mechanism is when a woman who has been physically abused by

her spouse doesn't remember ever being hurt by him.

Repression

A dog that has been trained to stop and stand at attention when she hears a duck call

does not stop and stand at attention when she hears a goose call. This is an example of:

Stimulus discrimination

The disadvantage of closed-ended questions is that the client usually fails to:

disclose personal information and continue to dialogue with the counselor

Rational-emotive behavior therapy follows a five-step system using ABCDE, where D

stands for:

Disputing the irrational belief

The goals of this type of therapy include gaining knowledge about the self and

recognizing and integrating the self.

Jungian

In order to elicit a conditioned response, the neutral stimulus that will become the

conditioned stimulus must _________________ the unconditioned stimulus.

Precede

In contrast to feeling sorry for the client, the counselor needs to demonstrate ___________

toward the client.

Empathy

In order to facilitate growth in a client, the counselor uses all of the following strategies

EXCEPT:

Abandonment

A(n) _____________ schedule of reinforcement is the most difficult to extinguish.

Intermittent

The primary distinction between reinforcement and punishment is that reinforcement

___________ the likelihood of the behavior to occur again, while punishment _________________

the likelihood of the behavior to occur again.

Increases; decreases

59. Negative reinforcement _______________ the behavior by ________________ a reinforcer;

positive reinforcement ______________ the behavior by ____________ a reinforcer.

increases, taking away; increases, adding

There are long silences, several members of the group are acting out, and it seems like

all the group members are expressing frustrations with both the structure of the group and

the way the group leader is functioning. Most likely this group is in the ___________ state of the

group process.

Transition

From this perspective the group goals are to enable members to pay close attention to

their here-and-now experiences so they can recognize and integrate disowned aspects of

themselves.

Gestalt

Which of the following is NOT an advantage of group counseling?

Focus on individual needs

As a leader of a group, Barb is very structured. She sets and directs all of the group's

goals and activities and hardly ever asks the participants for input. Most likely, Barb has

a(n) ________ style of leadership.

Authoritarian

What is likely to happen in a group when the leader is authoritarian?

Members become dependent on the leader

All of the following are characteristics of an open group EXCEPT:

There is good cohesion

In contrast to a homogeneous group, a heterogeneous group:

Has members with greater awareness of themselves and others

All of the following are assumptions of groups EXCEPT:

The leader is a member of the group

During the working stage of the group, the leader's role is to:

provide reinforcement, link themes, support risks, and encouraging translating insight into action.

The emphasis for this type of group is on prevention and development of healthy

behaviors.

Primary

There is a distinction between group content and group process. An example of group

process would be:

Sarah monopolizes the conversation and doesn't allow others to contribute, and Joe rolls his eyes every time Sarah says something (these are behaviors that go beyond just words)

Greg seems to make light of everything that goes on in the group. If someone is late, for

example, he makes a humorous remark about calling for a search party. Greg would be

described as the __________ of the group.

Joker

A counselor is conducting the initial screening of individuals who may be included in a

bereavement group. An appropriate candidate for the group would be one who:

Is free from the use of alcohol or other drugs

A group has co-leaders. That is, there are two trained counselors who are facilitating the

group together. All of the following are advantages of co-leadership groups EXCEPT:

There is less time spent observing participants

The group leader points out defenses, resistances, and transferences as they occur in

this type of group.

Psychoanalytic

Premature termination of participation in a group usually occurs when an individual is:

Not very motivated

Career-oriented, successful ethnic minority women:

Often display unusually high self-efficacy

The group that is most affected by the "glass ceiling phenomenon" consists of:

Women who are in careers most often populated by men

Which group of students would be least likely to seek out career counseling?

None

In dual-career families, the woman typically:

has an established career before having children

Compared with high school students who enter the workforce right after graduation,

students who go to college can expect to:

Earn about $10,000 more per year

Leisure activities are those activities that a professional career counselor:

May also refer to as avocations

Dual-career families engage in leisure time:

Less often than families with one wage earner

The role of the professional career counselor involves all of the following EXCEPT:

None of the above

Career choices as expressions of one's personality are to ______________ as career choices

as influenced by genetic endowment, environmental factors, and previous learning

experiences are to _________________.

Holland; Krumboltz

One of the main premises of ____________ theory is that individuals choose occupations

that will permit them to use their competencies.

Super's

Super describes four stages of career development, beginning in adolescence with the

_________ stage, in which a person fantasizes and role-plays in order to clarify the emerging

self-concept. In the ____________ stage the self-concept adjusts to fit the stabilized career

choice and the person tries out various options.

Exploratory; establishment

All of the following are assumptions of John Holland's theory of career choice EXCEPT:

Environment has very little to do with career choices

A career counselor who adheres to Holland's theory of career choice may have his

clients take the ______________ to help determine personality types.

SDS (self-directed search)

Which of the following are postulates of Hoppock's theory?

Hoppock's theory of career choice suggests that people choose careers that meet

some personal needs. As part of this theory, Hoppock postulates that everyone has personal

needs and that an individual reacts to these needs when making career choices. Making

career choices involves self-awareness and understanding

Which pair seems to go together?

Roe and Hoppock (both believe early development is important to a person's career)

According to Roe, career choice is influenced by:

Genetics, parent-child interactions, and unconscious motivators

Gender bias would be aroused by which of the following?

A woman entering a male-dominated field, or a man entering a female-dominated field

You are a career counselor who is interested in keeping up with trends in the job market

so that you can better assist your clients. One of the best ways to keep up with the trends in

the job market is to consult the:

The Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH)

A 42-year-old woman returns to her career as an HR manager after her children start to

attend school all day. This is an example of:

A re-entry woman

A receptionist at a dental office is not allowed to sing or hum at the office, but when she

gets home, she turns on the radio and sings her favorite songs as loudly as she can. This is

an example of:

The compensatory effect

The 20th percentile represents:

The score at or below which 20% of scores in the distribution fall

A test is considered "standardized" if it includes:

standard procedures for administering, scoring and interpreting the test, and norms to compare an examinee to.

Which of the following sources of information about tests would probably provide the

best information about sources and trends in testing and assessment?

Test critiques and manuals, and journal articles

Which of the following best describes norms?

The main purpose of norms is to provide meaning to test scores

Which of the following best describes a "good" test?

A "good" test is reliable, valid and has norms