AHPC Licensure Exam cheat sheet

Informed consent must include: nature and goals of counseling, techniques and procedures, risks and benefits of treatment, right to withdraw at any time, fees, confidentiality limits, and counselor credentials.

Mandatory reporting exceptions to confidentiality: suspected child abuse or neglect, suspected elder or dependent-adult abuse, imminent serious threat of harm to an identifiable victim (duty to protect), and court order.

Duty to protect (Tarasoff-type standard): when a client poses a serious threat to an identifiable third party, the counselor must take reasonable protective steps - warn the victim, notify law enforcement, arrange hospitalization, or increase treatment intensity.

Privileged communication belongs to the client, not the counselor; the counselor may assert privilege on the client's behalf but cannot waive it.

Ethical decision-making sequence: identify the problem, consult the ACA Code of Ethics and relevant law, consult supervisors/colleagues, consider cultural context, select and document a course of action, and evaluate the outcome.

Multiple relationships are not automatically unethical; evaluate risk of exploitation, power differential, duration, termination clarity, and whether the relationship harms the client.

Boundary crossings (benign, sometimes growth-enhancing) differ from boundary violations (exploitative, harmful); documentation and consultation are used to distinguish them.

Counseling relationship core conditions (Rogers): congruence/genuineness, unconditional positive regard, and accurate empathic understanding.

Clinical supervision is a triadic relationship (supervisor, supervisee, client); supervisors hold gatekeeping responsibility for trainee competence and client welfare.

Cultural competence model (Sue, Arredondo, McDavis): three dimensions - awareness of own assumptions/values/biases, knowledge of the client's worldview, and skills in culturally appropriate intervention strategies.

Racial/cultural identity development (Sue & Sue): Conformity, Dissonance, Resistance and Immersion, Introspection, and Integrative Awareness - movement is not strictly linear and regression can occur.

Microaggressions are categorized as microassaults (deliberate, overt), microinsults (unintentional demeaning communication), and microinvalidations (negating the client's experience).

Etic (universal, culture-general) versus emic (culture-specific, within-group) perspectives: effective practice integrates both rather than assuming universality.

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

Erikson's psychosocial stages: trust vs. mistrust (infancy), autonomy vs. shame (1–3), initiative vs. guilt (3–6), industry vs. inferiority (6–12), identity vs. role confusion (adolescence), intimacy vs. isolation (young adulthood), generativity vs. stagnation (middle adulthood), integrity vs. despair (late life).

Kohlberg's moral development: preconventional (punishment/obedience, instrumental exchange), conventional (good boy/nice girl, law and order), postconventional (social contract, universal ethical principles).

Bronfenbrenner's ecological model: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem - development is shaped by nested environmental systems.

Acculturation strategies (Berry): integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalization, based on maintenance of heritage culture and participation in the host culture.

Reliability refers to consistency of measurement; validity refers to whether a test measures what it claims. A test can be reliable without being valid, but cannot be valid without being reliable.

Standard error of measurement (SEM) = SD × √(1 − r), where r is the reliability coefficient; SEM is used to build confidence intervals around an observed score.

Standard error of the estimate (SEE) is used when predicting a criterion from a test score; it is always less than or equal to the test's SD.

Classical test theory: observed score = true score + error (X = T + E); error is assumed random and normally distributed.

Criterion validity splits into concurrent (test and criterion measured at the same time) and predictive (criterion measured in the future).

DSM-5-TR diagnostic thresholds commonly tested: major depressive disorder requires ≥5 symptoms for ≥2 weeks, including depressed mood or anhedonia; generalized anxiety disorder requires ≥6 months of excessive worry; panic disorder requires recurrent unexpected panic attacks plus ≥1 month of concern or maladaptive behavior change.

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

Intelligence testing conventions: deviation IQ has a mean of 100 and SD of 15; intellectual disability requires deficits in intellectual and adaptive functioning with onset during the developmental period (IQ cutoff approximately 70, ±5 measurement error).

Test score interpretations must account for measurement error, base rates, and the client's cultural and linguistic background to avoid misdiagnosis.

Type I error (alpha) is rejecting a true null hypothesis (false positive); Type II error (beta) is failing to reject a false null hypothesis (false negative). Power = 1 − beta.

Statistical significance depends on effect size, sample size, and alpha level; a small p-value does not by itself indicate practical or clinical significance.

Parametric tests (t-test, ANOVA) assume normality and homogeneity of variance; nonparametric alternatives include Mann-Whitney U, Wilcoxon signed-rank, and Kruskal-Wallis.

Correlation coefficient r ranges from −1 to +1 and measures the strength and direction of a linear relationship; r² is the proportion of variance shared between two variables.

Internal validity threats: history, maturation, testing effects, instrumentation, selection bias, attrition, and regression to the mean. External validity concerns generalizability across populations, settings, and time.

Qualitative research approaches: grounded theory (theory building from data), phenomenology (lived experience), ethnography (culture), and case study (in-depth single unit).

Career development theories: Holland's RIASEC typology (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional), Super's life-span/life-space theory, and Krumboltz's social learning theory of career decision-making.

Group stages (Tuckman-type): forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning; group leaders screen members and set norms during forming.

Program evaluation types: formative (during program implementation, for improvement) versus summative (after completion, for outcome judgment).