LMSW - Licensed Master Social Worker LMSW-FREE Lmsw 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A client informs their social worker that they intend to seriously harm an identifiable former coworker. What is the social worker's PRIMARY obligation under the duty-to-protect principle?
- Maintain strict confidentiality to preserve the therapeutic alliance
- Take reasonable steps to protect the potential victim, which may include warning them and/or notifying law enforcement (Correct answer)
- Immediately terminate the therapeutic relationship
- Refer the client to a psychiatrist and take no further action
Correct answer: Take reasonable steps to protect the potential victim, which may include warning them and/or notifying law enforcement
The duty to protect, grounded in the Tarasoff ruling, requires social workers to breach confidentiality when a client poses a credible, serious threat to an identifiable third party. Reasonable steps typically include warning the potential victim and notifying authorities.
Question 2: According to Erik Erikson's psychosocial theory, which life stage is associated with the central conflict of 'Intimacy vs. Isolation'?
- Adolescence (approximately ages 12–18)
- Early adulthood (approximately ages 19–40) (Correct answer)
- Middle adulthood (approximately ages 40–65)
- Late adulthood (ages 65 and beyond)
Correct answer: Early adulthood (approximately ages 19–40)
Erikson's sixth stage, Intimacy vs. Isolation, occurs in early adulthood. During this period, individuals strive to form deep, committed relationships. Those who cannot develop intimacy risk experiencing profound isolation and loneliness.
Question 3: A social worker feels unusually irritable and dismissive toward a client who reminds them of a critical parent. This emotional reaction in the social worker is BEST described as:
- Transference
- Projection
- Countertransference (Correct answer)
- Resistance
Correct answer: Countertransference
Countertransference refers to the social worker's own unresolved feelings or past experiences being activated by the client, which can distort the therapeutic relationship. Recognizing and managing countertransference is a core component of ethical, reflective practice.
Question 4: Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory BEST explains human development by emphasizing that:
- Behavior is primarily driven by unconscious conflicts from early childhood
- Individuals develop within nested, interacting environmental systems ranging from immediate family to broad cultural forces (Correct answer)
- Cognitive schemas acquired in childhood determine how adults interpret all new experiences
- People are motivated by a fixed hierarchy of needs beginning with physiological survival
Correct answer: Individuals develop within nested, interacting environmental systems ranging from immediate family to broad cultural forces
Bronfenbrenner's model places the individual at the center of concentric systems (microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem) that mutually influence one another and shape development across the lifespan — a foundational framework in social work's person-in-environment perspective.
Question 5: During a session focused on alcohol use, a social worker asks, 'What would need to change in your life for you to feel ready to cut back on drinking?' This question BEST illustrates which Motivational Interviewing strategy?
- Rolling with resistance
- Developing discrepancy (Correct answer)
- Expressing empathy through reflective listening
- Affirmation of client strengths
Correct answer: Developing discrepancy
Developing discrepancy is a core MI strategy in which the practitioner helps the client recognize the gap between their current behavior and their own stated goals or values. Highlighting this gap, without confrontation, increases intrinsic motivation to change.
Question 6: A social worker's supervisor instructs them to overstate a client's diagnostic severity on an insurance claim to secure reimbursement the agency needs. The social worker should FIRST:
- Comply with the directive to protect their employment
- Report the supervisor directly to law enforcement before taking any internal steps
- Refuse to falsify the documentation and address the concern through appropriate internal or professional channels (Correct answer)
- Consult the client about the situation before deciding how to respond
Correct answer: Refuse to falsify the documentation and address the concern through appropriate internal or professional channels
The NASW Code of Ethics requires honesty, integrity, and accurate record-keeping. A social worker must refuse to participate in fraud and should escalate the concern through appropriate channels — such as agency administration, an ethics committee, or the state licensing board — rather than immediately involving law enforcement or the client.
LMSW - Licensed Master Social Worker LMSW-FREE Lmsw 1
A client informs their social worker that they intend to seriously harm an identifiable former coworker.
What is the social worker's PRIMARY obligation under the duty-to-protect principle?