Practice Test - Psychological Therapies

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Use these sample questions to test yourself & to practice for the test. 

1. John B. Watson’s famous experiment with Little Albert was 
designed to show that:

 fear of rats is almost natural & may be inborn
 emotional problems can be viewed as learned behavior
 psychological problems affect babies as well as children & adults
 ethical standards of psychological research are much more stringent today

2. Verbal interaction between therapist & client, a supportive relationship, 
& analysis of the client’s experiences are the three characteristics of:

 transference
 meta-analysis
 psychotherapy
 deinstitutionalization

3. The phenothiazines are effective in reducing schizophrenic symptoms by:

 increasing the effects of dopamine
 reducing the size of brain ventricles
 blocking or reducing the effects of hormones
 blocking or reducing the effects of dopamine

4. The discovery of antipsychotic drugs led directly to:

 reinstitutionalization
 deinstitutionalization
 the reform movement
 the community mental health center

5. An eclectic approach to psychotherapy involves using techniques that are:

 unique to a particular therapist
 beneficial to a small number of patients only
 borrowed from a number of different approaches
 determined by the personality of a particular therapist

6. Meta-analysis is a procedure used to:

- determine the effectiveness of some treatment across many studies
- help the patient become aware of & understand the causes of
  his or her problem
- identify which mental patients should be deinstitutionalized, & which
  should not
- gradually expose a patient to a feared object while simultaneously
   practicing relaxation

7. In a typical therapy session, the role of the analyst illustrates all the 
following assumptions of psychoanalysis except:

 interpretation
 free association
 unconscious conflicts
 schedules of reinforcement

8. Freud believed that ________ represented the purest form of 
free association.

 dreams
 meta-analysis
 irrational thoughts
 unconscious conflicts

9. Many clients have the temporary experience of falling in love with 
their therapists. Freud would consider such feelings an example of:

 insight
 resistance
 transference
 free association

10. Which of the following is an example of resistance?

 explaining irrational beliefs
 having a sexually explicit dream
 showing up late for a therapy session
 revealing unconscious thoughts during free association

11. Of the following Freudian concepts, which has been tested & found 
to be valid?

 defense mechanism
 id as source of energy
 basic drives limited to sex & aggression
 role of the Oedipus complex in personality development

12. The central assumption of Carl Rogers’ client-centered therapy is that:

 therapy should focus on real behavior, not vague thoughts & feelings
 we must struggle to overcome our basic human selfishness & hostility
 psychotherapy must be freely available in community mental health centers
 each person has the tendency & capacity to develop to his or her full potential

13. Which of the following is not one of the three therapist characteristics 
that Rogers believed would facilitate change in clients?

 direct
 empathy
 genuineness
 positive regard

14. In his cognitive therapy, Beck attempts to make clients aware of:

- the importance of education in the contemporary world
- how much better they could be if they would just “think about it”
- adaptive thought patterns like open-mindedness, acceptance, love,
 & will power
- maladaptive thought patterns like overgeneralization, polarized thinking,
       & selective attention

15. Which of the following mental disorders is most effectively treated by 
cognitive therapy?

 depression
 paranoid schizophrenia
 antisocial personality disorder
 borderline personality disorder

16. Behavior therapy or behavior modification differs from the insight 
therapies in that the therapist:

 encourages the client to free-associate
 repeats or reflects what the client says
 identifies the specific problem & discusses a program for change
 discusses the client’s tendency to automatically think negative thoughts

17. Systematic desensitization involves a step approach. Which of the 
following is not among the steps?

 exposure
 relaxation training
 awareness of negative thoughts
 stimulus hierarchy construction

18. In systematic desensitization, when the client is gradually exposed to 
the actual situations that are feared, this is called:

 in vivo exposure
 in vitro exposure
 en passe exposure
 realistic desensitization

19. What approach to therapy focuses on changing thought patterns 
by learning new skills?

 psychoanalysis
 systematic desensitization
 cognitive-behavior therapy
 short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy

20. According to research, _______ is the most effective form of 
treatment for most disorders.

 behavior therapy
 psychodynamic treatment
 cognitive-behavior therapy
 there is very little difference in effectiveness among the treatments

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                            Topics in Psychology
                               Robert C. Gates