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AMFTRB MFT National Exam study materials
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AMFTRB MFT National Exam practice questions

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Question 1Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist wants to establish a clear, shared understanding with a new client about the goals, structure, and limits of therapy before beginning treatment. This practice is best described as:

  1. Informed consent Correct answer.
  2. Triangulation
  3. Enactment
  4. Reframing

Explanation

Informed consent is the process of informing clients about the nature of therapy, its risks and benefits, confidentiality limits, and fees, and obtaining their agreement to proceed. It is an ethical foundation established at the outset of treatment.

Question 2Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

According to the family life cycle framework, which developmental task is most characteristic of families with young children?

  1. Reworking the marital system as a dyad
  2. Accepting a new generation into the system Correct answer.
  3. Adjusting to retirement
  4. Accepting the shifting balance of independence for adolescents

Explanation

The family life cycle identifies stage-specific tasks; families with young children are tasked with accepting the new generation into the system and adjusting the couple system to make space for parenting. This is a hallmark of the childbearing stage.

Question 3Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist maintains confidentiality but discloses limited information to a third-party payer solely to obtain reimbursement. This practice is grounded in which ethical principle?

  1. Autonomy
  2. Fidelity Correct answer.
  3. Veracity
  4. Distributive justice

Explanation

Fidelity involves keeping promises and honoring commitments, including the implicit promise to protect client information and to limit disclosures to what is necessary for agreed purposes such as billing. It grounds careful, minimal disclosure practices.

Question 4Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

Under the duty to warn/protect, a therapist's obligation is typically triggered when:

  1. A client expresses general frustration with a coworker
  2. A client reports a history of childhood abuse
  3. A client makes a credible threat of serious violence to an identifiable person Correct answer.
  4. A client discloses a desire to end therapy

Explanation

Duty to warn/protect obligations are generally activated by a credible threat of serious harm directed at an identifiable victim. The therapist must then take protective steps consistent with jurisdictional law.

Question 5Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A client tells the therapist she plans to seriously harm an identifiable neighbor. State law requires protective action. The therapist's most appropriate first step is to:

  1. Ask the neighbor to come in for a joint session
  2. Maintain confidentiality because the client has not acted yet
  3. Immediately terminate the therapeutic relationship
  4. Document the threat and take the protective action the law specifies Correct answer.

Explanation

When a credible threat meets the legal threshold, the therapist must document the assessment and carry out the protective actions required by law, such as warning the intended victim or notifying authorities. Documentation supports both client care and legal accountability.

Question 6Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist is planning to use an evidence-based model with a family. Before treatment, the therapist should primarily ensure that the approach is:

  1. Identical to the therapist's original training
  2. Delivered in a fixed number of sessions
  3. Approved by the client's insurance carrier
  4. Matched to the family's presenting problem and context Correct answer.

Explanation

Evidence-based practice requires selecting interventions that fit the client's presenting problem, values, and context, not simply applying a preferred model. Fit and clinical judgment guide model selection.

Question 7Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

In structural family therapy, the therapist's use of joining is intended primarily to:

  1. Diagnose individual psychopathology
  2. Establish a therapeutic alliance and enter the family's system Correct answer.
  3. Assign homework to reduce symptoms
  4. Restructure boundaries through directives

Explanation

Joining is the process by which the structural therapist gains acceptance into the family system and builds an alliance, which is a prerequisite for later restructuring. It accommodates and validates the family before change is attempted.

Question 8Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist asks a couple to reenact a recent argument in session while the therapist observes and coaches. This technique is called:

  1. Enactment Correct answer.
  2. Externalization
  3. Positive connotation
  4. Prescribing the symptom

Explanation

Enactment is a structural technique in which the therapist has family members interact directly in session so that dysfunctional patterns can be observed and modified in real time. The therapist coaches rather than speaking for the members.

Question 9Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A narrative therapist asks a client to name the problem as an entity separate from herself so she can take a stance toward it. This intervention is known as:

  1. Scaling
  2. Reframing
  3. Circular questioning
  4. Externalizing the problem Correct answer.

Explanation

Externalization separates the problem from the person, reducing self-blame and allowing the client to take a position against the problem. It is a core narrative therapy practice.

Question 10Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A solution-focused therapist asks, "Suppose tonight a miracle occurs and the problem is solved; what will you notice tomorrow?" This is an example of:

  1. Coping question
  2. Exception question
  3. Reflexive question
  4. Miracle question Correct answer.

Explanation

The miracle question is a solution-focused technique that helps clients construct a detailed picture of life without the problem. It shifts attention toward preferred outcomes and concrete next steps.

Question 11Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist notices that a client's depression symptoms improve only when the client's spouse is present in sessions. This observation most directly reflects which core systemic concept?

  1. Contextual interdependence Correct answer.
  2. Symptom substitution
  3. Intrapsychic conflict
  4. Linear causality

Explanation

Contextual interdependence holds that behavior is shaped by relationships and context, so symptom change tied to the presence of another person reflects relational influence. This is a foundational systemic assumption.

Question 12Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

In Bowen's theory, the process by which family members lose their individual identities and become fused in the family emotional system is called:

  1. Emotional cutoff
  2. Undifferentiated family ego mass Correct answer.
  3. Triangulation
  4. Differentiation of self

Explanation

Bowen used the term undifferentiated family ego mass to describe a family system in which members are emotionally fused and lack clear individual boundaries. Differentiation of self is the healthy counterpoint to this fusion.

Question 13Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist uses circular questioning to explore how each family member perceives the relationships among the others. This technique is most associated with which model?

  1. Milan systemic therapy Correct answer.
  2. Psychoeducational family therapy
  3. Behavioral parent training
  4. Emotionally focused therapy

Explanation

Circular questioning was developed within the Milan systemic approach to surface differences in perceptions and reveal relational patterns. It assumes that information about relationships is best gathered through comparisons and multiple perspectives.

Question 14Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist working with a couple notices they repeatedly cycle between pursuit and withdrawal during conflict. The therapist labels this pattern and helps them see it as a shared enemy. This intervention is most consistent with:

  1. Structural therapy
  2. Emotionally focused therapy Correct answer.
  3. Strategic therapy
  4. Bowenian coaching

Explanation

Emotionally focused therapy identifies negative interactional cycles, such as pursue-withdraw, and frames the cycle as the shared problem to be addressed together. This reframes blame and supports new attachment responses.

Question 15Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

Which of the following best describes the purpose of a genogram in family assessment?

  1. To map multigenerational family patterns and relationships Correct answer.
  2. To measure marital satisfaction quantitatively
  3. To assign a formal psychiatric diagnosis
  4. To predict treatment outcome

Explanation

A genogram is a graphic representation of a family's structure and history across generations, capturing relationships, patterns, and events. It supports hypotheses about intergenerational patterns rather than providing a diagnosis or score.

Question 16Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist is assessing a family and wants to observe their actual interaction patterns rather than rely only on self-report. The most appropriate strategy is to:

  1. Administer a standardized questionnaire
  2. Conduct an individual interview with each member
  3. Ask the family to discuss a current issue while the therapist observes Correct answer.
  4. Review prior treatment records

Explanation

Inviting the family to discuss a real issue in session allows the therapist to observe communication, structure, and problem-solving directly. Direct observation supplements self-report with in vivo data.

Question 17Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist is required to report suspected child abuse to authorities. This obligation is best understood as:

  1. A discretionary ethical guideline
  2. A duty owed only to the child's school
  3. A matter of client preference
  4. A legal mandate that overrides confidentiality Correct answer.

Explanation

Mandated reporting laws require therapists to report suspected child abuse to designated authorities, and this legal duty overrides confidentiality. Therapists should inform clients of this limit at the outset.

Question 18Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist in private practice receives a subpoena for a client's records. The most appropriate initial response is to:

  1. Destroy the records
  2. Immediately release the full record
  3. Ignore the subpoena entirely
  4. Verify the subpoena's validity and notify the client so privilege can be asserted Correct answer.

Explanation

On receiving a subpoena, the therapist should confirm that it is legally valid and notify the client so the client can assert privilege or object. Releasing records prematurely or destroying them can violate confidentiality or legal obligations.

Question 19Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

According to Minuchin's structural model, a family in which members are overly involved and blur boundaries between subsystems is described as:

  1. Disengaged
  2. Triangulated
  3. Hierarchical
  4. Enmeshed Correct answer.

Explanation

Enmeshment describes overly diffuse boundaries and excessive involvement among family members, which limits autonomy. It is contrasted with disengagement, where boundaries are overly rigid.

Question 20Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist working with a parent and adolescent notices the parent consistently interrupts and answers for the teen. Using structural principles, the therapist would most likely:

  1. Suggest the parent attend individual therapy only
  2. Diagnose the adolescent with a communication disorder
  3. End the session early
  4. Redirect the parent to allow the adolescent to speak Correct answer.

Explanation

A structural therapist would block the interfering behavior and reinforce clearer boundaries so the adolescent can participate directly. This strengthens appropriate subsystem boundaries in session.

Question 21Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

Which concept from general systems theory describes a system's tendency to maintain stability through self-correcting feedback?

  1. Morphogenesis
  2. Equifinality
  3. Entropy
  4. Homeostasis Correct answer.

Explanation

Homeostasis refers to a system's tendency to maintain stability and resist change through balancing feedback. It is a central concept for understanding how families preserve established patterns.

Question 22Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

The principle of equifinality in family systems theory suggests that:

  1. Systems always move toward disorder
  2. Similar beginnings always produce similar outcomes
  3. Different pathways can lead to the same outcome Correct answer.
  4. Feedback is always negative

Explanation

Equifinality holds that the same final state can be reached from different initial conditions and through different paths. It cautions against assuming that similar symptoms share identical causes.

Question 23Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist who uses a standardized instrument at intake and again at discharge to track symptom change is engaging in:

  1. Reframing
  2. Paradoxical intervention
  3. Routine outcome monitoring Correct answer.
  4. Structural mapping

Explanation

Routine outcome monitoring involves repeated standardized measurement to track client progress and adjust treatment. It supports accountability and informed clinical decision-making.

Question 24Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist is considering whether to accept a gift from a client at the end of treatment. The most appropriate guiding consideration is:

  1. Whether other clients have given gifts
  2. The therapist's personal preference without discussion
  3. Whether accepting the gift serves the client's therapeutic interests and avoids exploitation Correct answer.
  4. The monetary value of the gift alone

Explanation

Ethical decision-making about gifts centers on the client's welfare and the risk of exploitation or boundary disruption. Therapists should consider cultural meaning and clinical context rather than monetary value alone.

Question 25Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist is asked to treat a family in which the therapist's close friend is a member. The most appropriate action is to:

  1. Treat only the friend individually
  2. Accept the case because the friend requested it
  3. Decline the case due to a conflict of interest Correct answer.
  4. Accept the case and disclose the relationship later

Explanation

A preexisting personal relationship with a family member creates a conflict of interest and risks impairing objectivity and confidentiality. The therapist should avoid the multiple relationship and refer appropriately.

Question 26Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist is working with a family and wants to understand the family's structure, including alliances and coalitions. Which assessment tool is most directly designed to map these relationships?

  1. A personality inventory
  2. A intelligence test
  3. A symptom checklist
  4. A genogram Correct answer.

Explanation

A genogram is a graphic representation of a family's structure and relationships across generations, highlighting alliances, coalitions, and patterns. Symptom checklists, personality inventories, and intelligence tests assess individual functioning rather than family structure.

Question 27Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist is meeting a new client for an intake session. To establish a therapeutic alliance and gather information, the therapist should initially focus on:

  1. Building rapport and understanding the client's concerns Correct answer.
  2. Providing a detailed interpretation of the client's unconscious conflicts
  3. Assigning homework before assessing the problem
  4. Immediately challenging the client's defense mechanisms

Explanation

The initial phase of therapy emphasizes building a collaborative relationship and understanding the client's presenting problems. Confrontation, interpretation, and homework are typically introduced later after assessment and alliance formation.

Question 28Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist is conducting a session with a couple and notices that they frequently interrupt each other. The therapist decides to set a ground rule that each partner must listen without interrupting. This intervention is an example of:

  1. Cognitive-behavioral therapy
  2. Strategic family therapy
  3. Structural family therapy Correct answer.
  4. Psychodynamic therapy

Explanation

Setting ground rules and modifying interactional patterns in session is a hallmark of structural family therapy, which aims to restructure boundaries and hierarchies. Strategic therapy focuses on disrupting sequences, cognitive-behavioral therapy targets thoughts and behaviors, and psychodynamic therapy explores unconscious processes.

Question 29Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist is working with a family where the parents frequently argue and the child has developed behavioral problems. The therapist hypothesizes that the child's behavior serves to distract the parents from their conflict. This hypothesis is based on which concept?

  1. Enmeshment
  2. Homeostasis
  3. Triangulation Correct answer.
  4. Differentiation

Explanation

Triangulation occurs when a third person is pulled into a conflict between two others to reduce tension. Differentiation refers to emotional autonomy, homeostasis is stability maintenance, and enmeshment is blurred boundaries.

Question 30Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist is using a solution-focused approach and asks a client, "On a scale of 0 to 10, where 10 means the problem is completely solved, where are you today?" This is an example of:

  1. Exception question
  2. Coping question
  3. Scaling question Correct answer.
  4. Miracle question

Explanation

Scaling questions help clients assess their progress and identify small steps toward goals. The miracle question asks clients to imagine the problem solved, exception questions explore times the problem is absent, and coping questions acknowledge survival strategies.

Question 31Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist is working with a client who reports feeling overwhelmed by anxiety. The therapist teaches the client to tense and relax muscle groups progressively. This technique is known as:

  1. Biofeedback
  2. Progressive muscle relaxation Correct answer.
  3. Flooding
  4. Systematic desensitization

Explanation

Progressive muscle relaxation involves systematically tensing and relaxing muscle groups to reduce anxiety. Systematic desensitization pairs relaxation with gradual exposure, flooding is intense exposure, and biofeedback uses electronic monitoring.

Question 32Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist is working with a family and wants to assess how the family organizes itself, including who holds authority and how decisions are made. The therapist is focusing on which structural dimension?

  1. Alliances
  2. Hierarchy Correct answer.
  3. Boundaries
  4. Coalitions

Explanation

Hierarchy refers to the family's organization of authority and decision-making power. Boundaries define who participates in which subsystem, alliances are affinities between members, and coalitions are alliances against a third party.

Question 33Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist is conducting a session with a couple and asks each partner to reflect on how their own behavior might contribute to the conflict. This intervention is intended to promote:

  1. Homeostasis
  2. Blame
  3. Triangulation
  4. Self-responsibility Correct answer.

Explanation

Encouraging each partner to examine their own contribution fosters self-responsibility and reduces blaming. Blame is the opposite, triangulation involves a third party, and homeostasis is stability maintenance.

Question 34Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist is working with a client who has a history of trauma. The therapist notices that the client often dissociates during sessions. The therapist should first:

  1. Ground the client in the present moment Correct answer.
  2. Continue with the trauma narrative
  3. Interpret the dissociation as resistance
  4. Increase the intensity of exposure

Explanation

When a client dissociates, the priority is to help them return to the present and re-establish safety through grounding techniques. Continuing trauma work, interpreting resistance, or increasing exposure can retraumatize the client.

Question 35Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist is working with a family where the parents are unable to set limits on their adolescent's behavior. The therapist helps the parents establish clear rules and consequences. This intervention aims to strengthen which subsystem?

  1. Parental subsystem Correct answer.
  2. Marital subsystem
  3. Extended family subsystem
  4. Sibling subsystem

Explanation

Strengthening the parental subsystem involves helping parents exercise authority and set boundaries with their children. The sibling subsystem involves relationships among children, the marital subsystem focuses on the couple's relationship, and the extended family subsystem includes relatives outside the nuclear family.

Question 36Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist is working with a client who is mandated to treatment by the court. The therapist should initially:

  1. Focus immediately on the client's childhood experiences
  2. Clarify the limits of confidentiality and the therapist's role Correct answer.
  3. Refuse to see the client because of the mandate
  4. Promise the client that nothing will be shared with the court

Explanation

With mandated clients, therapists must clarify confidentiality limits, reporting requirements, and the nature of the therapeutic relationship. Refusing to see the client is inappropriate, promising absolute confidentiality is unethical, and focusing on childhood is premature.

Question 37Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist is working with a couple and one partner discloses a secret that could harm the other partner. The therapist should:

  1. Ignore the secret and continue therapy
  2. Terminate therapy with the couple
  3. Immediately tell the other partner the secret
  4. Encourage the partner to disclose the secret in a safe manner Correct answer.

Explanation

When one partner shares a secret, the therapist should encourage disclosure while maintaining confidentiality and safety. Immediately telling the other partner breaches confidentiality, ignoring the secret undermines therapy, and termination is premature.

Question 38Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist is working with a family and notices that the parents often undermine each other's discipline efforts. The therapist helps them to coordinate their parenting. This intervention targets:

  1. Parental coalition Correct answer.
  2. Sibling rivalry
  3. Marital satisfaction
  4. Extended family involvement

Explanation

A parental coalition refers to parents working together as a team in child-rearing. Undermining each other indicates a weak coalition. Sibling rivalry, marital satisfaction, and extended family involvement are related but not the direct target.

Question 39Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist is working with a client who is considering ending therapy prematurely. The therapist should:

  1. Immediately discharge the client
  2. Express disappointment in the client's decision
  3. Explore the client's reasons for wanting to leave Correct answer.
  4. Persuade the client to stay regardless of reasons

Explanation

Exploring the client's reasons for termination respects autonomy and may reveal important clinical material. Persuading, immediate discharge, or expressing disappointment can be coercive or shaming.

Question 40Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Foundations

A therapist is working with a family where the identified patient is a child with school refusal. The therapist explores how the parents' anxiety may be contributing to the child's behavior. This approach is consistent with:

  1. Behavioral theory
  2. Humanistic theory
  3. Psychoanalytic theory
  4. Family systems theory Correct answer.

Explanation

Family systems theory views the child's symptom as embedded in family interaction patterns, such as parental anxiety. Behavioral theory would focus on reinforcement, psychoanalytic on unconscious conflict, and humanistic on self-actualization.

Question 41Assessment and Diagnosis

A therapist wants to screen a new client for depressive symptoms using a brief, free, public-domain instrument with strong psychometric support. Which measure best fits this purpose?

  1. The Rorschach Inkblot Method
  2. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2)
  3. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) Correct answer.
  4. The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Explanation

Screening requires a brief, low-burden instrument with established cutoffs and free availability. The PHQ-9 is a nine-item public-domain depression screen with extensive validation for detecting and grading severity. The other instruments are long, proprietary, or projective and are not designed as brief symptom screens.

Question 42Assessment and Diagnosis

A client reports drinking heavily but minimizes any problems from it, and family members describe the drinking as far worse than the client does. Which assessment approach is most useful for capturing this discrepancy?

  1. Obtaining collateral information from family members Correct answer.
  2. Administering an intelligence test
  3. Relying solely on the client's self-report questionnaire
  4. Reviewing the client's academic transcripts

Explanation

When self-report and collateral reports diverge, gathering information from multiple informants improves accuracy and reveals the extent of minimization. Collateral data provide an external perspective the client may not offer. The other options do not address the discrepancy between reports.

Question 43Assessment and Diagnosis

In the DSM-5-TR, a diagnosis of a substance use disorder requires the person to meet how many of the listed criteria within a 12-month period?

  1. At least two criteria Correct answer.
  2. At least six criteria
  3. At least four criteria
  4. At least one criterion

Explanation

DSM-5-TR substance use disorder requires at least two of the eleven criteria within a 12-month period. Severity is then graded as mild (2-3), moderate (4-5), or severe (6 or more). Requiring only one criterion would not distinguish a disorder from isolated use.

Question 44Assessment and Diagnosis

A clinician wants a standardized measure of a child's behavior completed by both parents and teachers to compare perspectives across settings. Which instrument is most appropriate?

  1. The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)
  2. The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) with the Teacher Report Form (TRF) Correct answer.
  3. The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI)
  4. The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II)

Explanation

The CBCL and TRF are parallel behavior-rating forms designed for parents and teachers, allowing cross-informant comparison. They are part of the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment. The other instruments measure cognitive ability, adult depression, or adult personality.

Question 45Assessment and Diagnosis

Which term describes the consistency of a measure in producing stable results across repeated administrations?

  1. Standardization
  2. Validity
  3. Reliability Correct answer.
  4. Norm-referencing

Explanation

Reliability refers to the consistency and stability of measurement, including test-retest and internal consistency. Validity concerns whether a measure assesses what it claims to measure. Standardization and norm-referencing concern administration procedures and comparison groups, not consistency per se.

Question 46Assessment and Diagnosis

A client's depression score on a screener falls two standard deviations above the normative mean. Assuming a normal distribution, approximately what percentage of the normative sample scored higher than this client?

  1. About 50 percent
  2. About 2 percent Correct answer.
  3. About 5 percent
  4. About 16 percent

Explanation

In a normal distribution, about 95 percent of scores fall within two standard deviations of the mean, leaving roughly 2.3 percent in each tail. Thus approximately 2 percent of the normative sample would score higher. The other figures misapply the standard deviation bands.

Question 47Assessment and Diagnosis

Which assessment method is best suited to identifying a client's current cognitive strengths and weaknesses for treatment planning?

  1. The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
  2. The Draw-A-Person test
  3. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) Correct answer.
  4. The Rorschach Inkblot Method

Explanation

The WAIS is a standardized, norm-referenced measure of cognitive ability that yields index scores reflecting verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory, and processing speed. These indices support identification of relative strengths and weaknesses. The projective methods listed are not designed for standardized cognitive profiling.

Question 48Assessment and Diagnosis

Which of the following best describes the purpose of a mental status examination?

  1. To determine a client's intellectual quotient
  2. To establish a longitudinal developmental history
  3. To derive a personality profile from projective responses
  4. To provide a structured snapshot of current functioning across domains Correct answer.

Explanation

The mental status examination documents current functioning across domains such as appearance, mood, thought process, cognition, and insight. It is a cross-sectional snapshot rather than a historical or psychometric profile. It is typically conducted through observation and interview.

Question 49Assessment and Diagnosis

A client presents with anhedonia, weight loss, insomnia, fatigue, and recurrent thoughts of death for six weeks. Which diagnosis is most consistent with these findings?

  1. Major depressive disorder Correct answer.
  2. Persistent depressive disorder
  3. Bipolar I disorder, current episode manic
  4. Generalized anxiety disorder

Explanation

The presentation includes core depressive symptoms (anhedonia, sleep and appetite changes, fatigue, death-related thoughts) for at least two weeks, which satisfies major depressive disorder criteria. Generalized anxiety disorder centers on excessive worry, and manic episodes involve elevated or irritable mood with increased energy.

Question 50Assessment and Diagnosis

A therapist suspects a client is exaggerating symptoms to obtain disability benefits. Which assessment strategy best addresses this concern?

  1. Relying on the client's self-reported symptom count
  2. Administering a validity scale embedded in a personality inventory Correct answer.
  3. Increasing the frequency of sessions
  4. Referring the client for a medical evaluation only

Explanation

Validity scales, such as those within the MMPI-2 or MMPI-3, are designed to detect overreporting, underreporting, and inconsistent responding. They provide an empirical check on response bias. Self-report alone cannot detect exaggeration, and the other options do not assess response style.