BAPSY - Bachelor of Arts in Psychology Bachelor of Arts in Psychology: Therapeutic Techniques & Counseling 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which therapeutic technique involves the therapist deliberately adopting the client's distorted beliefs to demonstrate their absurdity through logical extension?
- Paradoxical intention (Correct answer)
- Cognitive restructuring
- Behavioral activation
- Free association
Correct answer: Paradoxical intention
Paradoxical intention, developed by Viktor Frankl, instructs clients to intend or wish for the very thing they fear, revealing the illogical nature of the anxiety and breaking the cycle of anticipatory dread.
Question 2: In person-centered therapy, which of the following is NOT one of Carl Rogers' three core therapeutic conditions?
- Unconditional positive regard
- Transference resolution (Correct answer)
- Empathic understanding
- Congruence
Correct answer: Transference resolution
Rogers identified unconditional positive regard, empathic understanding, and congruence (genuineness) as the necessary and sufficient conditions for therapeutic change. Transference resolution is a psychoanalytic concept, not part of the person-centered framework.
Question 3: A therapist asks a client to keep a daily record of automatic thoughts linked to specific emotions and situations. This technique is most associated with which therapy?
- Dialectical behavior therapy
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (Correct answer)
- Narrative therapy
- Solution-focused brief therapy
Correct answer: Cognitive behavioral therapy
Thought records (also called dysfunctional thought records) are a core CBT tool used to help clients identify, evaluate, and challenge automatic negative thoughts by tracking the situation, emotion, thought, and an alternative balanced response.
Question 4: What does the term 'countertransference' refer to in a therapeutic relationship?
- The client projecting past feelings onto the therapist
- The therapist's emotional reactions to the client influenced by the therapist's own history (Correct answer)
- A technique used to mirror the client's body language
- The process of transferring a client to another provider
Correct answer: The therapist's emotional reactions to the client influenced by the therapist's own history
Countertransference refers to the therapist's own unconscious or conscious emotional responses to the client, which can be shaped by the therapist's unresolved issues. Managing countertransference is essential for maintaining therapeutic boundaries.
Question 5: Which stage of William Miller and Stephen Rollnick's motivational interviewing model involves the client making a commitment to change and developing a specific action plan?
- Engaging
- Focusing
- Evoking
- Planning (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Planning
The four processes of motivational interviewing are engaging, focusing, evoking, and planning. The planning stage occurs when the client's ambivalence has sufficiently resolved and they are ready to commit to change and map out concrete steps.
Question 6: A counselor working with a trauma survivor helps the client narrate and reprocess a traumatic memory while tracking moving visual stimuli side to side. Which evidence-based therapy is being used?
- Prolonged exposure therapy
- Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) (Correct answer)
- Somatic experiencing
- Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy
Correct answer: Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR, developed by Francine Shapiro, uses bilateral stimulation—most commonly side-to-side eye movements—while the client recalls traumatic memories, facilitating adaptive processing and reducing the emotional charge of the memory.
BAPSY - Bachelor of Arts in Psychology Bachelor of Arts in Psychology: Therapeutic Techniques & Counseling 1
Which therapeutic technique involves the therapist deliberately adopting the client's distorted beliefs to demonstrate their absurdity through logical extension?