ASWB cheat sheet

Erikson's eight psychosocial stages pair each age band with a crisis: trust vs. mistrust (infancy), autonomy vs. shame and doubt (toddler), initiative vs. guilt (preschool), industry vs. inferiority (school age), identity vs. role confusion (adolescence), intimacy vs. isolation (young adult), generativity vs. stagnation (middle adult), integrity vs. despair (older adult).

Piaget's fixed sequence: sensorimotor (0-2; object permanence), preoperational (2-7; egocentrism, symbolic play), concrete operational (7-11; conservation, classification, reversibility), formal operational (11+; abstract and hypothetical reasoning).

Kohlberg's three levels: preconventional (punishment avoidance, instrumental exchange), conventional (social approval, law and order), postconventional (social contract, universal ethical principles).

Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems, inner to outer: microsystem (direct settings), mesosystem (links between microsystems), exosystem (indirect settings), macrosystem (cultural and legal blueprints), chronosystem (time and life transitions).

Ainsworth's Strange Situation yields four attachment classifications: secure, insecure-avoidant, insecure-ambivalent/resistant, and disorganized-disoriented.

Language milestones: cooing by roughly 2-3 months, canonical babbling near 6 months, first words near 12 months, and a vocabulary of about 50 words with two-word combinations by 18-24 months.

Kubler-Ross described denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance as reactions to loss; the sequence is not fixed, stages may recur, and not every person traverses all five.

Maslow's need order from bottom to top: physiological, safety, belonging and love, esteem, self-actualization; lower needs typically dominate attention while they remain unmet.

Carter and McGoldrick's family life cycle: leaving home as a young adult, joining families through marriage, families with young children, families with adolescents, launching children and moving on, families in later life.

Mental status examination components: appearance, behavior and psychomotor activity, speech, mood and affect, thought process, thought content, perception, cognition, insight, and judgment.

DSM-5-TR major depressive disorder: five or more of nine symptoms during the same two weeks, with at least one being depressed mood or anhedonia, causing clinically significant distress or impairment.

Manic episode requires abnormally elevated or irritable mood plus increased energy lasting at least one week nearly every day, or any duration if hospitalization is needed; hypomanic episode requires at least four consecutive days with no marked impairment and no psychosis.

Bipolar I requires at least one lifetime manic episode; bipolar II requires at least one hypomanic and at least one major depressive episode, with no lifetime manic episode.

DSM-5-TR posttraumatic stress disorder: exposure to actual or threatened trauma plus symptoms in four clusters (intrusion, avoidance, negative cognitions and mood, arousal and reactivity) lasting more than one month.

DSM-5-TR schizophrenia: two or more core symptoms (delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior, negative symptoms), at least one from the first three, with continuous disturbance for six months including one month of active symptoms.

Screening cut points: PHQ-9 scores of 5, 10, 15, and 20 mark mild, moderate, moderately severe, and severe depression (range 0-27); GAD-7 scores of 5, 10, and 15 mark mild, moderate, and severe anxiety (range 0-21).

CAGE alcohol screen: Cut down, Annoyed by criticism, Guilty about drinking, Eye-opener in the morning; two or more positive answers warrants fuller assessment.

Suicide risk assessment documents ideation, plan, intent, access to lethal means, prior attempts, substance use, and protective factors; specific plan plus intent plus available means indicates higher acuity and need for immediate safety planning.

Motivational interviewing microskills (OARS): open-ended questions, affirmations, reflective listening, and summaries; the clinician evokes and reinforces change talk rather than arguing for change.

Prochaska and DiClemente stages of change: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, with relapse treated as a common re-entry point rather than failure.

DBT's four skills modules are mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness, typically delivered through individual therapy, skills group, and between-session coaching.

CBT's cognitive model chains situation to automatic thought to emotion and behavior; cognitive restructuring tests distortions such as all-or-nothing thinking, catastrophizing, and mind reading against evidence.

Solution-focused techniques include the miracle question, scaling questions, exception questions, and compliments; the focus is on the desired future and strengths the client already demonstrates.

Structural family therapy (Minuchin) assesses boundaries, subsystems, and hierarchy; goals include clarifying diffuse boundaries, reducing enmeshment, and using in-session enactment to restructure interactions.

Tuckman's group stages are forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning; conflict and role negotiation typically peak in storming before cohesion develops.

NASW Code of Ethics core values: service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence.

Confidentiality exceptions include imminent risk of serious harm to self or an identifiable other (duty to warn or protect), suspected child or elder abuse, a valid court order, and written informed consent authorizing release.