ASWB flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Erikson identity versus role confusion

Erikson's adolescent stage, roughly ages 12 to 18, in which the young person explores values, roles, and peer identity; resolution yields a coherent sense of self, while failure yields role confusion.

Object permanence

Piaget's sensorimotor achievement, usually emerging around 8 to 9 months, in which the infant understands that objects continue to exist when out of sight; its absence marks early sensorimotor functioning.

Secure attachment

Ainsworth's classification in which an infant uses the caregiver as a safe base, shows distress at separation, and is readily comforted on reunion; it is linked to sensitive and responsive caregiving.

Bronfenbrenner's microsystem

The innermost ecological layer: the settings in which the person directly participates, such as family, school, workplace, or peer group, including the roles and relationships within them.

Theory of mind

The developing capacity, typically emerging around age 4, to attribute beliefs, desires, and intentions to others and to recognize that other people can hold beliefs that are false.

Conservation (Piaget)

Understanding, achieved in the concrete operational stage around ages 7 to 11, that quantity, mass, or volume remains the same despite changes in appearance or physical arrangement.

Preconventional moral reasoning

Kohlberg's first level, in which moral judgments rest on avoiding punishment and serving one's own interests rather than on internalized social rules or abstract ethical principles.

Kubler-Ross five stages

Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance are described as common reactions to dying or major loss; they are not sequential or mandatory, and people may revisit earlier stages.

Cultural humility

A lifelong stance of self-reflection, acknowledgment of one's own biases, and correction of power imbalances in the helping relationship, rather than assuming mastery of another culture's content.

Macrosystem

Bronfenbrenner's outermost ecological layer: the cultural values, laws, economic conditions, and ideology that shape the lower systems and indirectly influence individual development over time.

Family life cycle stages

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

Mental status examination

A structured observational assessment covering appearance, behavior, speech, mood and affect, thought process and content, perception, cognition, insight, and judgment to describe current psychiatric functioning.

Major depressive disorder criteria

Five or more of nine depressive symptoms nearly every day for at least two weeks, including depressed mood or anhedonia, causing significant distress or impairment and not attributable to a substance or medical condition.

Hypomanic episode duration

A distinct period of elevated, expansive, or irritable mood with increased energy lasting at least four consecutive days, with observable change but no marked impairment, hospitalization, or psychotic features.

Bipolar II disorder

A diagnosis requiring at least one hypomanic episode and at least one major depressive episode, with no lifetime manic episode; depressive episodes typically dominate the clinical course and treatment focus.

PTSD symptom clusters

DSM-5-TR organizes posttraumatic symptoms into intrusion, avoidance, negative alterations in cognitions and mood, and alterations in arousal and reactivity, with the disturbance persisting longer than one month.

Schizophrenia diagnostic duration

Continuous signs of the disturbance must persist for at least six months and include at least one month of active-phase symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, or negative symptoms.

PHQ-9

A nine-item self-report depression measure scored from 0 to 27; cut points of 5, 10, 15, and 20 indicate mild, moderate, moderately severe, and severe symptom levels.

GAD-7

A seven-item self-report anxiety screen scored from 0 to 21; scores of 5, 10, and 15 correspond to mild, moderate, and severe anxiety, and repeated use tracks treatment response.

CAGE questionnaire

A four-item alcohol screen asking about Cutting down, Annoyance at criticism, Guilt about drinking, and morning Eye-openers; two or more positive responses suggest that fuller assessment is warranted.

WHODAS 2.0

The World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule, adopted in DSM-5-TR to rate functional impairment across domains including cognition, mobility, self-care, getting along, life activities, and participation.

Differential diagnosis rule-out

Before assigning a primary psychiatric diagnosis, the clinician evaluates whether substances, medications, or general medical conditions better explain the symptoms, reviewing onset, course, and family history.

OARS

Core motivational interviewing microskills: Open-ended questions, Affirmations, Reflective listening, and Summaries; together they build alliance and evoke the client's own reasons for change.

Stages of change

Prochaska and DiClemente's progression through precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance, with relapse as a common return point; interventions are matched to the client's current stage.

DBT skills modules

Dialectical behavior therapy teaches four modules: mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness, usually delivered through individual therapy, skills group, and phone coaching.

Miracle question

A solution-focused technique asking the client to describe how life would differ if the problem disappeared overnight, eliciting concrete goals and highlighting exceptions and existing strengths.

Transference

The client's displacement onto the practitioner of feelings, expectations, and conflicts originally tied to significant early figures, which can be interpreted as material about the client's relational patterns.

Countertransference

The practitioner's own emotional reactions, including unresolved personal conflicts, triggered by the client; monitoring these in supervision guards against acting out and can inform case understanding.

Triangulation (Bowen)

Bowen's concept that tension between two people is stabilized by drawing in a third party; reducing triangulation requires increasing differentiation and keeping dyadic conflict within the original pair.

Tuckman group stages

Groups commonly move through forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning; conflict and role negotiation usually peak during storming before cohesion and productive work develop.

NASW core values

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

Duty to warn

The obligation, arising from the Tarasoff ruling, to take reasonable protective steps such as warning an identifiable intended victim and notifying authorities when a client poses serious threat of violence.