Ethic Quizzes
rigid risk-avoidance
A __________ application of boundaries can be harmful to clients by creating a sterile relationship that works against establishing a positive therapeutic alliance.
psychoanalytically oriented.
A counselor is likely to adopt stricter social boundaries and will be concerned about polluting the transference relationship if he or she is:
Which of the following is NOT a possible multiple relationship in a small community?
A therapist isolates him or herself in order to limit the possibility of multiple relationships.
Family-of-origin
A(n) ____________ approach to supervision is a necessary dimension of training for therapists who want to work with families.
their education, training, supervised experience, state and national professional credentials, and appropriate professional experience.
According to the American Counseling Association, counselors practice only within the boundaries of their competence, based on:
Which of the following is NOT identified in the text as a guideline for counselors using the telephone?
After addressing the ethical guidelines and ensuring absolute privacy, counselors may speak to their clients as freely as they desire without fear that their conversations will be used in legal proceedings.
Which of the following is NOT a controversy of boundary issues?
Age, diagnosis, life experiences such as abuse, and culture are key elements of the therapeutic relationship.
face-to-face interaction.
All of the following pose a number of potential ethical problems with regard to protecting client privacy EXCEPT:
Privacy
As a matter of law, __________ refers to the constitutional right of an individual to be left alone and to control their personal information
Which one of the following is NOT considered a guideline to minimizing the likelihood of sexual transgressions by clinicians?
Avoid terminating the therapeutic relationship, even when sexual feelings obscure objectivity.
Which of the following would be an ineffective way of managing a client's suicidal ideation?
Be willing to communicate your caring without setting limits.
Yolanda is an experienced therapist who seems to always feel more compassionate toward the female members of the families she counsels. What are the most salient ethical issues involved in this case?
Because of her bias, Yolanda may be inclined to collude with some family members against others, or otherwise contribute to dysfunctional family system dynamics.
Which of the following actions would maximize the risks inherent in dual or multiple relationships?
Becoming romantically involved with the client
outreach psychotherapists.
Changes in mental health care laws and practice have increased the need for
boundary crossings.
Departures from commonly accepted practices that could potentially benefit clients are referred to as:
Which of the following is NOT an issue that the dynamics of couples therapy often involves?
Education on the best dating habits
Which of the following is a sex-biased response to problems presented in couples' therapy?
Encouraging couples to accept the fact that child rearing is primarily the responsibility of the mother
duty to protect.
Even if clients argue that they can do what they want with their own lives, including taking them, therapists with suicidal clients have a legal:
Incompetence
Even though mental health professionals may not intend to harm clients, _________ is often a major contributing factor in causing harm
supervision
Existing clinical/mental health models of ____ fail to meet the needs of school counseling trainees because these models do not address all of the tasks required of school counselors, which include leadership and advocacy.
Bonnie became sexually involved with her therapist soon after therapy began. This action was initiated by the therapist who saw Bonnie's provocative behavior as an invitation to become intimate. Which of the following is NOT a possible ongoing consequence for the client being sexually exploited?
Experiencing feelings of freedom and peacefulness
famogram work.
Family therapy training programs use three primary methods of training. They include all of the following EXCEPT
Bradley Center v. Wessner.
If it is suspected that danger or harm may occur to the client or to others as a result of a client's behavior, the human service professional acts in an appropriate and professional manner to protect the safety of those individuals. This may involve, but is not limited to, seeking consultation, supervision, and/or breaking the confidentiality of the relationship.
Jaffee v. Redmond
In ___________, a Supreme Court decision ruled that communications between licensed psychotherapists and their clients are privileged and therefore protected from forced disclosure in cases arising under federal law
Board of Curators of the University of Missouri v. Horowitz
In ___________, the Supreme Court considered that the student had been informed of the faculty's dissatisfaction with her clinical performance, and the student knew that unless she made significant improvement in this area, she would be dismissed from the program. The Court held that the decision to dismiss the student from medical school was based on a careful and deliberate evaluation by the faculty, and thus the student's dismissal was not a violation of her constitutional rights.
Ewing v. Goldstein
In _____________, the court expanded the practitioner's duty to warn those in danger to include the circumstance in which a family member communicates to a mental health practitioner a belief that the client poses a risk of grave bodily injury to another person.
Southwest Texas State University
In the ______________ court case, the court ruled that the student was provided adequate due process, that the university had the obligation to uphold professional standards, that the university's policies and procedures were enunciated in the graduate catalog and other departmental documents, and that the faculty had followed these procedures.
Eisel v. Board of Education
In this court case, the court found that school counselors have a duty to use reasonable means to attempt to prevent a suicide when they know about a student's suicidal intentions. The reasoning of the court was that an adolescent is more likely to share thoughts of suicide with friends than with a school counselor, teacher, or parent. The court found that reasonable care would have included notifying the student's parents that their daughter was at risk for suicide.
Which of the following statements about giving or receiving gifts is FALSE?
It could be more problematic to accept a gift at a later stage of a counseling relationship.
The HIPAA Privacy Rule was designed to provide a uniform level of privacy and security on the federal level. This Privacy Rule, which applies to both paper and electronic transmissions of protected health information by covered entities, developed out of the concern that transmission of healthcare information through electronic means could lead to widespread gaps in the protection of client confidentiality. Which of the following is NOT a requirement of The Privacy Rule?
It provides detailed patient information to individuals outside of the health care agency.
privileged communication.
James is in court facing drug-related charges and his therapist was subpoenaed to testify in court regarding any discriminating evidence concerning the case. His therapist came to court but refused to answer questions regarding the case or produce James' records. The therapist used the following legal concept to protect himself from forced disclosure
consultant
Kenneth is involved in a specialized professional process that involves sharing expertise with others in the helping professions so they can better serve their own clients. He is functioning in the role of a
non-Western
Key concepts such as collectivism, interdependence, family embeddedness and connectedness, hierarchies of relationship, and multigenerational perspectives are more familiar concepts in _________ cultures
In most cases, therapists will not have advanced warning that a client is dangerous. Therefore, therapists must be prepared for such an eventuality. Which of the following is NOT a suggestion from the authors for preparation?
Limit disclosure to all clients until they are deemed safe.
According to the Canadian Psychological Association, the following is TRUE concerning standards on multiple relationships:
Manage dual or multiple relationships or any other conflict-of-interest situation entered into in such a way that bias, lack of objectivity, and risk of exploitation or harm are minimized.
"no secrets" policy
Many believe it is wise to have a __________ when counseling couples due to the complexity of the work
Partner
Mentors often balance a multiplicity of roles. Which of the following would NOT be considered one of these roles?
Genogram
Most family therapy training programs encourage __________ work and other processes designed to engage students with their own family-of-origin issues
make continuing education a mandatory condition of relicensing.
Most professional organizations support efforts to:
Which of the practitioners described below would NOT be an effective family therapist?
One who downplays the influence of diversity
Which of the following statements is NOT true with respect to counselor competence?
Only when the therapist completes a doctoral program are they competent to practice with all specialties.
Which of the following is NOT a code of ethics in regards to sexual contact and the therapeutic relationship from various professional organizations?
Psychologists do not engage in sexual intimacies with current clients/patients; however, if a client/patient has not been treated within two years a relationship may become ethically approved.
Registration
Registry is generally a voluntary listing of individuals who use a title or provide a service. ________ represents the least degree of regulation of professional practice.
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1994 (FERPA).
Schools that receive federal funding are generally bound by the provisions of the:
Which of the following situations does NOT have the potential to harm or exploit a client?
Setting healthy boundaries during the initial visit
Which of the following statements is NOT accurate
Supervisors are not expected to maintain records pertaining to their work with supervisees.
Tarasoff decision.
The California court's ruling that requires therapists to breach confidentiality in cases where the general welfare and safety of others is involved is a result of the
Wyke v. Polk County School Board
The experts who testified at this trial believed the school board failed to provide adequate training for school personnel. Without training, school personnel will most likely underestimate the lethality of suicidal thoughts, statements, and attempts. The conclusion of this expert testimony was that the student would not have committed suicide if the employees had been adequately trained. Persuaded by this input, the court held that the school could be found negligent for failing to notify the decedent's mother. This explains the court decision in which court case?
Which of the following is NOT an essential piece of information the family practitioner must provide before each individual agrees to participate in family therapy?
The individual who will be identified as the source of the problems
Jablonski v. United States.
The intended victim's knowledge of a threat does NOT relieve therapists of the duty to protect, as can be seen by the decision in:
therapist competence.
The skills and training required to effectively and appropriately treat clients in a specific area of practice, and is both an ethical and legal concept, is the definition for:
Which of the following topics would NOT be appropriate to discuss during the initial supervisory session?
The supervisor's marital and family issues
Which of the following statements is NOT consistent with the values that create the basis for the feminist perspective on family therapy?
Therapists educate clients on the benefits of our patriarchal society and encourage them to continue in these gender roles.
Which of the following is NOT a reason for discouraging the practice of accepting friends as clients or of becoming socially involved with clients?
Therapists may be as effective with clients they know socially as they are with clients they have never met previously to the therapeutic relationship.
Which of the following statements about differing perspectives on confidentiality with multiple clients is FALSE?
Therapists should inform clients that any information given during private sessions will be divulged as they see fit in accordance with the greatest benefit to the family.
Which of the following is NOT a reason clinical supervisors are increasingly vulnerable and at risk for ethical and legal liability?
There are no formal courses a clinician can take to become a clinical supervisor.
covered entities
There are three types of ______________: health plans, health care clearinghouses, and health care providers who transmit health information by electronic means.
According to professional codes of ethics, sexual relationships between client and counselor are considered to be ethical under which of the following circumstances?
These relationships are not considered to be ethical under any circumstances.
Independent Professionals
Through supervision supervisees gain the experience necessary to become:
countertransference
When personal concerns, such as _______reactions, are discussed in supervision, the goal is to reinforce a supervisee's efforts to bring it into awareness, not to solve the trainee's problem.
Instructional Supervision
Which of the following is NOT described in the text as a method of supervision?
Summative assessment
_____________ is an end point evaluation typically completed at the end of a professional program or when applying for licensure status.
Effective supervisors understand that:
a collaborative supervisory relationship, characterized by a strong working alliance, is a key component of effective supervision.
Miguel has been providing couples' counseling to Saundra and Steven for a couple of years and was recently invited to attend their 20th wedding anniversary party. Attending this event is an example of:
a potentially beneficial nonprofessional interaction.
Continuing professional education is important because
a practitioner's level of competence may diminish over time; changes in laws pertaining to mental health, evolving ethical standards, and new trends in professional and evidence-based practices continue to be made.
Nonerotic touching between counselor and client should be:
a spontaneous and honest expression of the therapist's feelings.
The family systems perspective is grounded on the assumption that a client's problematic behavior may be
a symptom of dysfunctional patterns handed down across generations.
From an ethical perspective, counselor educators and trainers are expected to present varied theoretical positions. Training programs would do well to offer students:
a variety of therapeutic techniques and strategies that can be applied to a wide range of problems with diverse clients.
When in conflict with clinical needs, context, competence, or consent, even the most well-intentioned nonsexual physical contact may be experienced as:
aggressive, frightening, intimidating, demeaning, arrogant, unwanted, insensitive, threatening, or intrusive.
It is illegal and unethical for a therapist to disclose confidential information when
an employer requests disclosure to determine the mental status of an employee without their consent.
In working with couples and families, opportunities for ethical practice are increased by combining a systems perspective with traditional approaches. Due to the paradigm shift in the field of psychology to accommodate the changing needs of service recipients, systemic
approaches must be taught side-by-side with individualistic approaches because many cultural groups are collectivistic.
Referring clients to other professionals is:
appropriate when counselors do not have the clinical training or expertise to work with certain clients.
Charles, a couples' therapist, recently met with a new couple seeking his services. During their initial meeting, Charles learned that the wife and husband are both in individual therapy. As an ethical practitioner, he should
ask his new clients' permission to consult with their individual therapists.
Jolene tells her counselor that she is depressed about the break-up of her relationship and "just wishes she could go to sleep and never wake up." In this case, the counselor needs to:
assess if Jolene is suicidal and intervene if necessary.
Supervisor behaviors and attitudes that have the potential to be extremely damaging include all of the following EXCEPT
availability, accessibility, and being technically competent.
Those who are responsible for educating and training mental health professionals are ethically and professionally obligated to:
balance their roles as advocate and mentor of trainees with their gatekeeping role.
All of the following are true about bartering EXCEPT:
bartering is illegal and unethical.
Marty is counseling with an Asian client who recently returned from a trip to Japan to visit relatives. His client wants to give him an inexpensive souvenir. It is important for Marty to
be aware that accepting the gift may be culturally appropriate with this client.
Most family therapy training programs employ both didactic and experiential methods and supervised practice. Experiential methods include
both personal therapy and working with issues of one's own family of origin.
According to the authors, a good training program encourages students to:
build on their life experiences and personal strengths and provides opportunities for expanding self-awareness.
Direct Liability
can be incurred when the actions of supervisors are the cause for harm.
In military settings, multiple relationships are common and can be a healthy part of communal life. These relationships:
can improve morale, decrease the stigma attached to seeking psychological assistance, and improve access to care.
Privileged communication does NOT apply in cases of
child abuse and neglect.
In the case of disclosing confidential information when working with an HIV-positive client, several writers state that the therapist has a duty to protect when the following condition exists:
clear and imminent danger must exist.
Susan is in a counselor training program and is infatuated with her supervisor. She has indicated that she is interested in pursuing an intimate relationship. In order to provide adequate supervision for Susan, her supervisor would need to
clearly define and maintain ethical, professional, and social relationship boundaries with Susan.
When a practitioner has a license, he or she is:
competent to work with only some populations.
Two processes that offer safeguards against malpractice liability in suicidal cases are:
consultation and documentation.
Training programs have a responsibility to complete all of the following EXCEPT:
continue evaluating students up to five years after graduation.
Differences in culture, ethnicity, religion, age, gender, and sexual orientation
could have a negative influence on the supervisory relationship if not understood and integrated.
Ethical guidelines regarding confidentiality require that counselors do NOT
disclose client information unless there is clear and imminent danger to the client or others or when legal requirements demand that confidential information be revealed.
that they may impede their ability to effectively work with clients. In general, supervision should address trainee's personal concerns
discussing the evaluation process and procedures during the initial session
Most counseling centers and community mental health agencies now have guidelines regarding the duty to warn and protect when the welfare of others is at stake. These guidelines generally specify how to deal with
emotionally disturbed individuals, violent behavior, threats, suicidal possibilities, and other circumstances in which counselors may be legally and ethically required to breach confidentiality.
Multicultural supervision_
encompasses the full range of cultural factors including race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, ability status, privilege, sexual orientation, spirituality and religion, values, gender, family characteristics and dynamics, country of origin, language, and age.
To ensure an optimal learning experience, a supervisee is responsible for all of the following EXCEPT
establishing flexible boundaries with your clients.
Patricia, a family therapist, has adopted an egalitarian philosophy to guide her practice. A Korean couple comes to her to address concerns they have about their teenage daughter. When asked about their home life, they acknowledge that they hold traditional roles and values and that the household chores are entirely left to the females in the family. Patricia should
explore with the couple how satisfied they are with the current division of labor.
Hedlund v. Superior Court
extends the duty to warn in California to a foreseeable, identifiable person who might be near the intended victim when the threat is carried out and thus might also be in danger.
A common reaction of therapists who realize that they have sexual feelings toward their clients is to
feel guilty, anxious, and confused.
Confidentiality in online supervision is
filled with potential problems such as the possibility of computer-savvy individuals hacking into confidential communications between supervisor and supervisee and the risk of confidential content being sent or forwarded to others in error.
In ____________, sexist attitudes and patriarchal assumptions are examined for their impact on family relationships
gender-sensitive couples and family therapy
Couples therapy
has become the main practice within the broad field of family therapy, and its efficacy is well established in hundreds of randomized controlled trials.
A counselor working in an AIDS-related case
has few legal guidelines to help determine when or how to inform a potential victim of the threat of HIV transmission.
Clinical Supervisor
have a position of influence with their supervisees and operate in multiple roles.
In Chapter 6, a six-step ethical practice model for protecting confidentiality rights that places legal mandates in an ethical context is presented. The six steps include all of the following EXCEPT:
have your attorney respond to legal requests for disclosure.
Olivia, a new supervisor, is creating a template for a supervisory contract she can use with supervisees. In the contract, she should include information related to all of the following EXCEPT:
her personal religious and sexual values.
Supervisors are independently experimenting with using technology to
improve the breadth and depth of services offered to supervisees and clients.
Joe has a counseling practice and is also teaching psychology part-time at a university. He is well-liked and trusted by students and some have asked for private counseling. Joe has decided to wait until semester break before taking them on as clients. Joe would be:
in a dual relationship with his students, which may cause ethical problems.
Three legal considerations in the supervisory relationship are:
informed consent, confidentiality and its limits, and liability.
Ted is a counselor educator and also acts as therapeutic agent for his students' personal development, since personal awareness is considered to be an intrinsic part of developing counselor skills in the program at the university in which he teaches. Ted is
involved in role blending, which is inevitable in the process of educating and supervising counselor trainees.
Training
is a basic component of practitioner competence
Informed consent
is a critical ethical issue in individual psychotherapy and a necessary part of the practice of couples and family therapy.
Formative assessment
is a developmentally informed process that provides useful feedback during one's training and throughout one's professional career.
A boundary violation
is a serious breach that results in harm to clients and is therefore unethical.
Certification
is a voluntary attempt by a group to promote a professional identity.
Supervision
is an integral part of your professional training and is one of the ways in which you acquire competence needed to fulfill your professional responsibilities
Peer review
is an organized system by which practitioners within a profession assess one another's services.
Informed consent in supervision
is as essential as informed consent in counseling practice. It is beneficial to discuss the rights of supervisees from the beginning of the supervisory relationship in much the same way as the rights of clients are addressed early in the therapy process.
Confidentiality
is at the core of effective therapy; it is the counselor's ethical duty to protect private client communication.
Mandatory reporting
is designed to encourage reporting of any suspected cases of child, elder, or dependent adult abuse; thus, therapists are advised to err on the side of reporting in uncertain circumstances.
Ethical issues
is raised in establishing criteria of psychosocial dysfunction, assessing the problems of the identified patient in the family context, and devising treatment strategies.
Clinicians who oppose any form of physical contact with their clients (e.g., nonerotic touching) believe all of the following EXCEPT:
it can become a healthy romantic relationship.
With increasing numbers of problems and a greater responsibility for the mental health needs of children and adolescents:
it makes sense for schools to carefully examine ways to develop clinical supervision programs.
When a therapist believes referring a client to be the appropriate course of action due to a lack of competence in the client's issue:
it would be considered unethical to not refer to a more competent therapist.
Therapists have the responsibility to prevent suicide if they can reasonably anticipate it. Once it is determined that a client is at risk for serious harm to self, the professional is:
legally and ethically required to take appropriate action aimed at protecting the person.
Clients can file a legal complaint against a therapist for sexual misconduct by all of the following methods EXCEPT:
lodging a complaint with the AARP.
A school counselor was working with Quan, whose presenting problem was anxiety pertaining to academic success in college. This was within the scope of the school counselor's training. However, during the course of therapy, Quan became very depressed and engaged in self-mutilation and other forms of self-destructive behavior. Quan's counselor recognized that these symptoms and behaviors reflected a problem area that was outside the scope of his practice. Ethical practice required that the school counselor:
make a referral to another professional who is competent to treat Quan's problems.
Natalie is a marital therapist who believes that marriage is a sacred institution. She is dedicated to preserving marital relationships whenever possible. She is working with a couple who are attempting to resolve their problems even though they have also considered the possibility of divorce. One could expect that she
might let it be known that she believes in the preservation of marriage and would urge the couple to work on their issues.
Therapists can deal with powerful attractions to clients by:
monitoring boundaries by setting clear limits on physical contact, self-disclosure, and client requests for personal information.
Boundary management is
more challenging in rural areas than in urban areas.
Feminists remind us that patriarchy has
negative effects on both women and men.
Counselors who work with couples and families can practice more ethically if they are aware of all of the following EXCEPT
nontraditional, and possibly unethical, treatments.
Multiple-role relationships in supervision
occurs when a supervisor has concurrent or consecutive professional or nonprofessional relationships with a supervisee in addition to the supervisor-supervisee relationship.
When a client is unable to afford therapy, it is possible that he or she may:
offer a bartering arrangement or exchange goods in lieu of a fee.
In general, supervision should address trainee's personal concerns:
only to the extent that they may impede their ability to effectively work with clients.
Gender sensitive models of training family therapists are aimed at
overcoming trainee gender bias and sex-role stereotyping.
To qualify as a substance abuse counselor, the CACREP (2016) standards identify specific knowledge, skills, and practices in all of the following areas EXCEPT:
personal substance abuse experience.
_Vicarious Liability
pertains to the responsibilities supervisors have to oversee the actions of their supervisees.
As a part of the process of screening candidates for a therapist training program, counselor educators should complete all of the following EXCEPT:
place most of the emphasis on candidates' GRE scores.
In the case of domestic violence, clinicians agree that conducting couples therapy while there is ongoing domestic violence
presents a potential danger to the abused and is unethical.
According to the American School Counseling Association, in order to apply our knowledge and skills competently:
professional school counselors monitor emotional and physical health and practice wellness to ensure optimal professional effectiveness.
The following are all major types of elder abuse EXCEPT:
protection and positive treatment.
Susan is quite distressed after finding out her husband has been unfaithful. She tells her counselor that she is so angry that she feels like killing him. Upon hearing this, the counselor needs to:
question Susan to determine whether she is serious about doing physical harm to her husband.
An African-American woman was interacting with her child in a domestic abuse shelter when she is overheard saying to her child, "Keep touching that and I'm going to whoop you." The social worker that heard this statement should:
recognize that what constitutes abuse in one culture may not be viewed as abuse in another culture and is not reportable until it is determined that the child is in danger.
The basic standard of care for school counselors is clear; courts have uniformly held that:
school personnel have a duty to protect students from foreseeable harm.
When therapists extend the boundaries of their practice, or when they branch out into an area requiring specialty competence, they should
seek consultation with a competent practitioner.
Practitioners in rural settings often find themselves involved in multiple relationships. Challenges the deal with include all of the following EXCEPT:
spending a minimal amount of time traveling between professional engagements.
Licensure
statutes determine and govern professional practice.
Professional codes of ethics for supervisors agree that
supervisors occupy a position of power and should not engage in sexual relationships with the student.
The ethics codes of most professional organizations provide guidelines for the ethical practice of bartering. Some more recent codes (APA, NASW, AAMFT, and ACA):
take a more flexible and less punitive attitude toward bartering.
A skilled supervisor balances the multiple roles, giving ongoing feedback, positive and corrective, while also supporting
the development of the supervisee and ensuring that the power differential is clear.
Barriers to dismissing a student who demonstrates dysfunctional interpersonal behavior from a training program include all of the following EXCEPT:
the potential for receiving criticism from other faculty members who were not involved in the trainee's remediation.
The notion that certain actions will inevitably lead to a progressive deterioration of ethical behavior is commonly referred to as:
the slippery slope phenomenon.
Some people are reluctant to engage in family therapy because
they fear they will be the main target of the sessions and will suffer negative consequences from having divulged certain information.
Students should be advised as early as possible if their behavior is problematic, and
they should be given direction and opportunities to improve problem areas.
Linda is considering developing a multiple or dual relationship with her client. It's important for Linda to remember:
to consider whether the potential benefit outweighs the potential for harm.
Leanne began to feel overwhelmed with her job at the counseling center. In addition to her regular duties, she was responsible for supervising all trainees. To manage her time, she spent a disproportionate amount of time with certain trainees and neglected others, assuming they had the skills to fend for themselves. If a client of one of her neglected trainees decided to file a lawsuit, it is likely that Leanne would bear:
vicarious and direct liability.
Systems theory
views psychological and relational problems as arising from within the individual's present environment and the intergenerational family system.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)
was passed by Congress to promote standardization and efficiency in the healthcare industry and to give patients more rights and control over their health information.
Self-knowledge
with regard to family-of-origin issues, is particularly critical for family therapists.
If each professional organization developed specific guidelines pertaining to students' successful completion of a program, faculty in training programs:
would then have the backing of their professional association in determining the evaluation procedures to be used when decisions regarding retaining or dismissing students are made.
Competence in working with couples and families only comes with
years of training and supervision.
