AMFTRB Practice Questions Pt 2

Question 1

A family comes to therapy because their ten-year old child is stealing money from them. After three sessions, the stealing stops and the family decides to terminate therapy.

A Strategic therapist would:

A. wonder with the family if the treatment had reached the point of diminishing returns.
B. agree with the family’s decision to terminate because the presenting problem appears to have been resolved.
C. assume the family is avoiding conflict and design the correct paradoxical intervention.
D. ask the family to rate on a scale of 1-10, how they feel the problem is now compared to when they came in.

Answer 1

B. agree with the family’s decision to terminate because the presenting problem appears to have been resolved.

Question 2

During a session with a couple, a husband states to the therapist that his wife often nags and belittles him. The therapist’s intervention is to give the wife homework in which she is to only say positive things to her husband and abstain from any negative comments. When she appears to be negative or belittling to her husband, he is to put his hand up and say, “Stop.” A feminist therapist would be critical of the above technique because it:

A. gives the husband more power.
B. appears to be hierarchical.
C. is therapist-driven.
D. all of the above.

Answer 2

D. all of the above.

Question 3

A couple presents in crisis after the wife discovers the husband has been involved with a woman on the internet for 2 years and has come to realize that his lack of interest in their marriage may have less to do with the stress he brings home from work and his subsequent lack of interest in intimacy. A family therapist believes that there many possible ways to intervene with this couple, given their current volatility. This therapist does not seem to subscribe to the concept of:

A. Equifinality
B. Circularity
C. Equipoteniatility
D. Multidirectional Partiality

Answer 3

C. Equipoteniatility

Question 4

The following are dimensions for conceptualizing a problem brought to Strategic therapy:

A. emotionality vs. behavior.
B. helplessness vs. power.
C. involuntary vs. voluntary behavior and helplessness vs. power.
D. involuntary vs. voluntary behavior.

Answer 4

C. involuntary vs. voluntary behavior and helplessness vs. power.

Question 5

Mary feels threatened by the arrival of her baby sister so she pouts and becomes temperamental. When Mary acts out this way, her father thinks she is regressing and tries to get her to act her age by punishing and criticizing her. Father’s harshness confirms Mary’s belief that her sister is displacing her. The therapist suggests that when Mary behaves this way, the father should ignore her. If this suggestion worked, it would be a good example of:

A. positive feedback.
B. first-order change.
C. second-order change.
D. negative feedback.

Answer 5

B. first-order change.

Question 6

Mr. & Mrs. Doherty present for family therapy complaining that their son Jon will not listen to them and is acting out. Whenever they take Jon with them outside the house he creates a scene, not listening and often having a tantrum. The parents are besides themselves feeling that they little patience and the mother states this is very similar to how she saw her parents deal with her younger brother who is now incarcerated. Specific techniques used by a Strategic therapist would include all of the following EXCEPT:

A. an authoritarian approach that returns parents to the appropriate position in the hierarchy.
B. reinforcing of gradual behavioral changes that will ultimately lead to the goal of therapy.
C. treating the child first and then attending to the couple and any relationship difficulties between the parents.
D. ordeals which make it difficult for the symptom to be maintained.

Answer 6

B. reinforcing of gradual behavioral changes that will ultimately lead to the goal of therapy.

Question 7

Questions are a fundamental tool used by all therapists. When a Solution Focused therapist, working with a client presenting with issues around overeating, asks “What would you not want to change regarding the way you eat?”, they are beginning to negotiate the:

a. solution talk of the therapy.
b. first-formular task.
c. exceptions to the problem.
d. miracle question.

Answer 7

b. first-formular task.

Question 8

Which model is most closely affiliated with brief therapy?

a. strategic.
b. network.
c. psychoeducational.
d. Milan.

Answer 8

a. strategic.

Question 9

Studies of family-based psychoeducation have consistently shown:

a. Reduced symptoms, especially with individuals diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenia when the first psychotic episode occurs prior to age 18.
b. Reduced hospital recividism and improved compliance with medication when psychoeducation is consistently applied to families with a member diagnosed with any variety of schizophrenia.
c. Improvement in children diagnosed with bi-polar disorders, but no effect with schizophrenic patients and their families.
d. Increased hospital recividism and improved compliance with medication when psychoeducation is consistently applied to families with a member diagnosed with any variety of schizophrenia.

Answer 9

b. Reduced hospital recividism and improved compliance with medication when psychoeducation is consistently applied to families with a member diagnosed with any variety of schizophrenia.

Question 10

This therapy works to frame change in ways that reduce resistance, decrease dependence on therapy and bypass the need for insight while removing the presenting problem and allowing families to take full credit for changes achieved in therapy. This approach was devised by:

A. Milton Erickson.
B. Virginia Satir.
C. Carlos Sluzki.
D. Peggy Papp.

Answer 10

A. Milton Erickson.

Question 11

The therapist least likely to rely on self-report data is:

a. Haley.
b. Jacobson.
c. Bowen.
d. Scharf.

Answer 11

a. Haley.

Question 12

The stance of the therapist is that of coach for all of the following models EXCEPT:

a. Behavioral.
b. Psychoeducational.
c. Psychodynamic.
d. Intergenerational.

Answer 12

c. Psychodynamic.

Question 13

Research found one year following divorce to be the peak of maximum negative behaviors for children. Such behaviors were “most likely” sustained in:

A. both boys and girls
B. girls than in boys
C. boys than in girls
D. adolescents

Answer 13

C. boys than in girls

Question 14

A same sex couple comes to therapy because they are having problems regarding their parenting of their ten year old son. In the course of the first interview, it is clear that each parent has very different expectations for their son’s behavior. A family therapist should treat the couple:

a. the same as a heterosexuaul couple.
b. different than a heterosexual couple.
c. the same as a heterosexual couples if the couple are both women, but differently if the couple are both men.
d. according to the problem being presented.

Answer 14

d. according to the problem being presented.

Question 15

All of the following are similarities between Structural and Strategic except:

a. consideration of the family life cycle.
b. utilization of therapeutic contracts and behavioral tasks.
c. view of families as rule-governing systems.
d. concern with the subsequent organizational structure of the family system.

Answer 15

d. concern with the subsequent organizational structure of the family system.

Question 16

Parentification is a term most closely associated with:

a. Minuchin.
b. Bowen.
c. Whitaker.
d. Nagy.

Answer 16

d. Nagy.

Question 17

A feminist critique of research into therapy outcomes would include all of the following EXCEPT:

a. measures are based on male data.
b. no one has asked women how they feel about therapy.
c. the people doing the research are all males.
d. research does not use gender sensitive measurement.

Answer 17

a. measures are based on male data.

Question 18

According to a behavioral therapist, a therapeutic intervention might be designed to do all of the following EXCEPT:

A. Encourage the spouses to interact during the session.
B. Looking at the ways the family will resist change and the ways the family will take charge of their own growth.
C. Probe for stream-of-consciousness thoughts and visual images held by each member of the couple or family system when describing past events that elicit negative affect.
D. Have each member write self-report logs listing complete records of daily dysfunction: thoughts, upsetting marital/family interaction, etc.

Answer 18

B. Looking at the ways the family will resist change and the ways the family will take charge of their own growth.

Question 19

Randomized clinical trials of an eclectic family approach when working with adolescents diagnosed with schizophrenia has demonstrated:

a. Improved recovery rates when including close friends in family treatment.
b. Identical recovery rates as when combining medication with community and family-based interventions.
c. Reduced hospital recividism and improved compliance with medication when psychoeducation is consistently applied to families with a member diagnosed with any variety of schizophrenia.
d. Vastly higher recovery rates then when working with the adolescents individually.

Answer 19

c. Reduced hospital recividism and improved compliance with medication when psychoeducation is consistently applied to families with a member diagnosed with any variety of schizophrenia.

Question 20

A doctoral candidate had difficulties meeting his deadlines due to procrastination. He reports to his therapist his fear of doing a poor job. The therapist responds by telling him to write one chapter in his usual way, and in writing the next chapter, to submit only a quick first draft. The quick draft chapter received praise and acceptance and the problem-maintaining sequence was broken. This therapist most likely was trained in the:

A. Narrative approach.
B. Behavioral approach.
C. Psychodynamic approach.
D. MRI approach.

Answer 20

D. MRI approach.

Question 21

Family therapy with young children diagnosed with bi-polar disorder has demonstrated good results compared to control groups using medication or receiving no treatment at all. The most complete list of questions we should ask about this research is:

a. How was bi-polar defined, how was “good results” defined, how large was the sample size, what was the correlation, what was the statistical significance, was the mean at least half the mode?
b. How was bi-polar defined, how was “good results” defined, how large was the sample size, what was the correlation, what was the statistical significance?
c. How was bi-polar defined, how was “good results” defined, how large was the sample size, what was the correlation, what was the statistical significance, was it a qualitative study?
d. How was bi-polar defined, how was “good results” defined, how large was the sample size, what was the correlation, what was the statistical significance, was the null hypothesis present?

Answer 21

b. How was bi-polar defined, how was “good results” defined, how large was the sample size, what was the correlation, what was the statistical significance?

Question 22

The therapist is not considered responsible for change in which of the following schools?

a. Strategic.
b. Structural.
c. Behavioral.
d. Milan Systemic.

Answer 22

d. Milan Systemic.

Question 23

An MFT read a report of research that concluded by saying, “this study demonstrates that our model is efficacious.” Which of the following statements is correct?

a. The study is qualitative, not quantitative, and therefore cannot be used in real-world clinical decision making.
b. It is unknown from the information given, what conclusions can be drawn from it for clinical settings.
c. The study has shown that the treatment method used will work in controlled experimental settings with carefully trained clinicians following a detailed plan.
d. The study has shown that the treatment method used will work in some but not all real-world clinical settings.

Answer 23

d. The study has shown that the treatment method used will work in some but not all real-world clinical settings.

Question 24

Mr. & Mrs. Doherty present for family therapy complaining that their son Jon will not listen to them and is acting out.

In implementing a treatment plan, a Strategic therapist would:

a. hypothesize about the family’s epistemology.
b. track disabling sequences.
c. establish a clear boundary between Jon and his parents.
d. re-establish cutoffs.

Answer 24

b. track disabling sequences.

Question 25

Systemic couple therapy with patients suffering from depression is only indicated if:

a. Cognitive therapy has been tried.
b. it is given together with antidepressant treatment.
c. the therapist has specialist training in systemic therapy.
d. both partners are depressed.

Answer 25

c. the therapist has specialist training in systemic therapy.

Question 26

Co-therapists serve a variety of functions in family systems therapy as does the use of teams. Use of co-therapy is an important component of which of the following MFT models?

A. Milan Systemic, Solution-Focused and Structural.
B. Narrative, Feminist and Internal Family Systems.
C. Experiential, Milan Systemic and Internal Family Systems
D. Experiential, Network and Contextual.

Answer 26

C. Experiential, Milan Systemic and Internal Family Systems

Question 27

Abe comes to therapy because he is depressed and is out of work. Six months later he has a new job and feels happier. He terminates therapy, but calls his therapist a few months later saying that although he feels fine his wife is now depressed and won’t leave the house. The therapist would see this as an example of:

a. second order change.
b. no change.
c. third order change.
d. first order change.

Answer 27

d. first order change.

Question 28

Which stage of the Family Life Cycle is most conducive to immigrating to a new country?

a. Launching Stage
b. Families with school-age children stage.
c. Adolescent Family Stage
d. Young Adult Stage

Answer 28

d. Young Adult Stage

Question 29

A mother frequently nags her daughter, but her nagging seems to have no effect on her behavior. Paradoxical intervention in this case would most likely involve:

A. tell the daughter to nag her mother each night for 15 minutes.
B. tell mom to nag her daughter at least once each evening.
C. telling the mom to be sure to say something nice to her daughter at least once each evening.
D. telling the mom to be sure to nag her daughter at least once every hour.

Answer 29

D. telling the mom to be sure to nag her daughter at least once every hour.

Question 30

After a HIPAA audit from the US Dept. of Health & Human Services, an MFT receives a letter informing him that 16 specific violations were identified. One of the more important violations was the lack of documentation of his security review. Others included no documentation of training of his part-time adminstrative assistant, no record of the security procedures used by his billing service, inadequate computer back-up procedures and a missing disclosure information on his client contracting forms. The penalties he would not be subject to are:

a. $100.00 per violation, up to $1,600 maximum.
b. $100.00 per violation unless corrected within 30 days.
c. $25,000 fine maximum for failure to correct violations within a calendar year.
d. $50,000 and up to 1 year in prison if significant harm was caused to a client by neglecting the Security Rule.

Answer 30

d. $50,000 and up to 1 year in prison if significant harm was caused to a client by neglecting the Security Rule.

Question 31

The MRI model does not focus on:

A. functional nature of the problem.
B. interactional level.
C. examining the sequences of behavior involved in the attempted solution.
D. the continued application of the wrong solution is seen as maintaining the problem.

Answer 31

A. functional nature of the problem.

Question 32

The Solution Focused therapist believes that solutions to problems are often:

a. Unrelated to the way the problems developed.
b. Caught in a Double Bind and can simplified through symmetrical communication.
c. caught in the negative feedback of the problem formation.
d. found in the metacommunications in the family, but requiring understanding the report level of communications.

Answer 32

a. Unrelated to the way the problems developed.

Question 33

A therapist may assign a group of friends to watch over a young adult who is abusing drugs and another group to arrange for him to move out of his parent’s house. This therapist is most likely implementing a technique used in:

A. Structural therapy.
B. Collaborative therapy.
C. Network therapy.
D. Social Constructivist therapy.

Answer 33

C. Network therapy.

Question 34

A mother calls the therapist sounding very panicky, wanting an immediate appointment. At the first session, the mother states that her 12-year old son Sam has just been caught in the bathroom of a neighbor’s home with a 6-year old boy. The 6-year old says that Sam was playing with his “bum” and kissing his penis. When confronted by his mother, Sam admitted to having “played” with the boy on 4 previous occasions. The neighbor boy’s parents have banned Sam from their home and informed other parents and the school about his “perversion”. Sam’s mother called a psychiatrist prior to calling you who she says stated, “You can put him into therapy and give him drugs, but it’s probably already too late.” You begin seeing Sam and his family. In your first meeting with this family, you begin by speaking for a time with each member of the family, asking them about themselves. This engagement technique might be used in which school of family therapy?

A. Strategic / Haley.
B. Strategic / Watzlawick.
C. Structural / Minuchin.
D. Solution-focused / deShazer.

Answer 34

A. Strategic / Haley.

Question 35

In the course of therapy with a single-parent mother (age 54) and her adopted daughter(16) who has a history of bulimia, the therapist reinforces with praise both mother and daughter’s success over the past week at not listening to bulimia. The therapist then asks the daughter to make contact with the person in her life this next week who would be least surprised at her success. This technique is called:

A. restorying the subjugated narrative.
B. historicizing unique outcomes.
C. collapsing time.
D. mapping the relative influence of the problem.

Answer 35

B. historicizing unique outcomes.

Question 36

Neuro-linguistic Programming, founded by Bandler and Grinder, was developed through:

A. MIT media lab’s work with LISA, the first artificial intelligence program.
B. Combining the work of von Bertalannfy (General Systems) and Korzybski (General Semantics) into a model of how systems work linguistically.
C. Studying the great magicians of the world and how illusions of reality are constructed.
D. Studying the work of Milton Erickson.

Answer 36

D. Studying the work of Milton Erickson.

Question 37

Watzlawick would describe couples who are free to pursue careers and share childrearing and household chores as having a:

A. complementary relationship.
B. healthy relationship.
C. a postmodern relationship.
D. symmetrical relationship.

Answer 37

D. symmetrical relationship.

Question 38

Bowen’s concept of “differentiation” refers to:

A. how all family typologies are organized differently than the previous generation.
B. a person’s ability to differentiate feeling from thoughts.
C. the importance of diversity of self for optinal family functioning.
D. how well one has separated from family of origin.

Answer 38

B. a person’s ability to differentiate feeling from thoughts.

Question 39

Family therapy with young children diagnosed with bi-polar disorder has demonstrated good results compared to control groups using medication or receiving no treatment at all. The most complete list of questions we should ask about this research is:

a. How was bi-polar defined, how was “good results” defined, how large was the sample size, what was the correlation, what was the statistical significance, was the null hypothesis present?
b. How was bi-polar defined, how was “good results” defined, how large was the sample size, what was the correlation, what was the statistical significance?
c. How was bi-polar defined, how was “good results” defined, how large was the sample size, what was the correlation, what was the statistical significance, was the mean at least half the mode?
d. How was bi-polar defined, how was “good results” defined, how large was the sample size, what was the correlation, what was the statistical significance, was it a qualitative study?

Answer 39

b. How was bi-polar defined, how was “good results” defined, how large was the sample size, what was the correlation, what was the statistical significance?

Question 40

A couple presents for treatment. The husband is of mixed Korean/Eastern European ethnicity and grew up in NYC whereas his wife, of Swedish ancestry grew up in the Midwest. The family therapist has noticed that the husband becomes overly reactive when his wife is slightly critical of him. Interestingly, the therapist has found the the husband exceptionally critical in most conversations. The therapist has noted that the husband’s father, a prominent heart surgeon was often emotionally abusive when the husband was a child. This therapist is beginning to identify the:

a. negative projection process.
b. vicious cycle.
c. family projection process.
d. negative introject.

Answer 40

d. negative introject.

Question 41

A client was unhappy when he discovered that his therapist had disclosed his town of residence to a colleague during a peer supervision meeting. The meeting included an administrative assistant who was not a licensed mental health professional and lived in the same town as the client. The therapist’s response to the client was to engage him in a conversation about his concerns and then proposed a clinical hypothesis suggesting the client was excessively fearful. The client did not accept this, and instead insisted that he did not want this kind of information disclosed to anybody without his written authorization. He claimed the therapist had violated his confidentiality under the HIPAA policies given to him at the beginning of his treatment. The client stated that he was embarrassed to be identified to the administrative assistant since she might have children in the same school as his, and that his residence should not be disclosed under these circumstances.

a. The therapist is still not in violation of HIPAA because his right to make use of an administrative assistant, is described in the Privacy Rule, and there is no exception listed for residence of clients and staff.
b. The therapist is still not in violation of HIPAA because his right to make use of an administrative assistant as contracted support staff even under these circumstances is described in the Security Rule.
c. The therapist is in violation of the Privacy Rule’s disclosure of PHI principles since the administrative assistant is not a licensed mental health clinician and is therefore not a HIPAA ‘covered entity’.
d. The therapist is in violation of the Security Rule because the administrative assistant’s residence in the same town, with children in the same school, could potentially result in an ‘incidental disclosure’ and thereby compromise security of the client’s PHI.

Answer 41

a. The therapist is still not in violation of HIPAA because his right to make use of an administrative assistant, is described in the Privacy Rule, and there is no exception listed for residence of clients and staff.

Question 42

A family consisting of a mother, father, two daughters age 13 and age 15, and a son age 17 enter therapy. The parents are complaining that their 15-year old daughter is coming in drunk every night and is very abusive to the family.

The primary treatment goal of a structural therapist in treating this family is:

a. highlighting emotional experiences.
b. altering the family structure.
c. teaching the family problem-solving.
d. strengthening boundaries between subsystems.

Answer 42

b. altering the family structure.

Question 43

Structural and MRI Strategic differ in their orientation to all of the following EXCEPT:

A. negative- and positive- feedback view of symptom dysfunction.
B. emphasis on process over content.
C. therapist use of confrontation.
D. the punctuation of sequences.

Answer 43

B. emphasis on process over content.

Question 44

An MFT performs an evaluation at the request of a judge in a divorce case. In response to the court clerk’s request for expediting the report, the clinician faxes the report to the court. The clerk calls back and states that the fax was not received, and they determine that it was sent to the wrong fax number. The MFT’s fax machine report states that the fax was sent normally, meaning it was received by someone else’s fax machine. The MFT cannot:

a. be held liable for a HIPAA violation because he made a reasonable effort to handle the PHI correctly.
b. be held liable for a HIPAA violation because the court requested the fax be sent, and it was therefore the judge’s and the clerk’s liability.
c. be held liable for a HIPAA violation because no PHI was sent.
d. be held liable for a HIPAA violation if he can demonstrate that the fax number he sent to was the exact number given to him by the judge’s clerk.

Answer 44

c. be held liable for a HIPAA violation because no PHI was sent.