NCE National Counselor Exam Prep 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In structural family therapy (Minuchin), 'enmeshment' refers to:
- Rigid, impermeable boundaries between family subsystems
- Overly diffuse boundaries where members are excessively intertwined (Correct answer)
- Triangulation of a child into parental conflict
- A family coalition against one member
Correct answer: Overly diffuse boundaries where members are excessively intertwined
Enmeshment describes families with blurred boundaries where individual autonomy is sacrificed for togetherness.
Question 2: A counselor practicing Gestalt therapy asks a client to 'speak to' an empty chair. This technique is used to:
- Assess psychotic symptoms
- Help the client process unfinished business with someone significant (Correct answer)
- Practice assertiveness for real-world confrontation
- Desensitize anxiety related to social situations
Correct answer: Help the client process unfinished business with someone significant
The empty-chair technique allows clients to express feelings and complete unresolved emotional dialogues with others or with parts of themselves.
Question 3: Which level of Maslow's hierarchy must generally be met before esteem needs can be fully addressed?
- Cognitive needs
- Self-actualization
- Belongingness and love needs (Correct answer)
- Aesthetic needs
Correct answer: Belongingness and love needs
Maslow's hierarchy places belongingness and love needs (level 3) immediately below esteem needs (level 4), so social connection typically precedes self-esteem development.
Question 4: A school counselor notices a student's academic performance has sharply declined. Before concluding the cause is emotional, the counselor should first:
- Refer the student for immediate psychiatric evaluation
- Rule out learning disabilities or medical factors through appropriate assessment (Correct answer)
- Contact the parents to discuss removing extracurricular activities
- Start individual therapy sessions immediately
Correct answer: Rule out learning disabilities or medical factors through appropriate assessment
A comprehensive assessment approach requires ruling out academic or medical contributors before attributing performance decline solely to emotional causes.
Question 5: The term 'vicarious traumatization' describes:
- A client re-experiencing another person's trauma during EMDR
- Cumulative transformation in a counselor's worldview from repeated exposure to clients' trauma (Correct answer)
- Secondhand PTSD caused by watching violent media
- Trauma symptoms triggered by witnessing a session
Correct answer: Cumulative transformation in a counselor's worldview from repeated exposure to clients' trauma
Vicarious traumatization is a fundamental shift in a counselor's core beliefs and worldview resulting from empathic engagement with traumatized clients over time.
Question 6: In research, 'internal validity' is threatened by which of the following?
- Using a non-representative sample
- Failure to randomly assign participants to conditions (selection bias) (Correct answer)
- Not generalizing results beyond the study sample
- Using a measurement tool with low test-retest reliability
Correct answer: Failure to randomly assign participants to conditions (selection bias)
Selection bias (non-random assignment) threatens internal validity by making it unclear whether the independent variable — not pre-existing group differences — caused the outcome.
Question 7: Super's developmental self-concept theory of career development emphasizes that career choice is:
- Determined primarily by socioeconomic status at birth
- A one-time decision made in late adolescence
- An implementation of one's self-concept that evolves across the lifespan (Correct answer)
- Based solely on matching personality type to job type
Correct answer: An implementation of one's self-concept that evolves across the lifespan
Donald Super viewed career development as a lifelong process through which individuals implement and refine their self-concepts in work roles.
NCE National Counselor Exam Prep 5
In structural family therapy (Minuchin), 'enmeshment' refers to: