Test Bank
For
Gerard Egan’s
The Skilled Helper: A Problem-Management and Opportunity-Development Approach to Helping
Chapter 1: Introduction to Helping
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1.Which of the following is one of the formal helping roles in which practitioners are trained to help people manage the distressing problems of life?
a.police officer
b.psychologist
c.organizational consultant
d.parent
ANS: B
OBJ: Definition
REF: page 4
2.According to TheSkilled Helper by Gerard Egan, which of the following is an important goal of helping?
a.to identify problems
b.to develop new relationships
c.to transcend problems by taking advantage of new possibilities in life
d.to do away with negative emotions
ANS: C
OBJ: Conceptual
REF: page 6
3.According to Egan, which of the following is not a principle goal of helping?
a.to help clients understand the impact of their parents on their own lives
b.to help clients manage their problems in living more effectively and developing unused or underused resources and opportunities more fully
c.to help clients become better at helping themselves in their everyday lives
d. to help clients develop action-oriented prevention mentalities in their lives
ANS: A
OBJ: Definition
REF: page 6-9
4.According to Egan, in order to help clients live more fully helpers can benefit by having a conceptual model of what ______looks like.
a.immaturity
b.the client’s developmental history
c.optimal human functioning
d.defensive coping
ANS: C
OBJ: Conceptual
REF: page 9-10
5.Which of the following philosophies addresses the question of how we know what we know?
a.positivism
b.epistemology
c.optimism
d.constructivism
ANS: A
OBJ: Definition
REF: page 15-17
6.Evidence-based practice
a.can be learned through careful study and by adhering to professional standards of the helping practice.
b.is of no value because of the many complex variables that make it difficult to assess outcomes.
c.is very valuable because it ensures proper treatment of clients.
d.reflects an ongoing professional struggle to determine the most effective helping practices.
ANS: D
OBJ: Definition
REF: page 22-23
7.Which of the following four statements was not included in Surgeon General Satcher’s report on what constitutes good mental health?
a.Mental disorders are real health conditions.
b.A range of treatments exists for most disorders.
c.The efficacy of mental health treatment remains poorly documented.
d. Mental health is fundamental to physical or overall health.
ANS: C
OBJ: Conceptual
REF: page 19
8.Pooling the findings of leading international researchers who studied the effectiveness of helping, Boisvert and Faust found that:
a.therapy is helpful to the majority of clients.
b.in general, therapies achieve different outcomes.
c.the relationship between the therapist and the client is the best predictor of treatment outcome.
d!all of the above
ANS: D
OBJ: Application
REF: page 19-21
9.Which of the following is not characteristic of positive psychology, according to Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi?
a. subjective well-being, happiness, hope, optimism
b.interpersonal skills, the capacity for love, forgiveness, civility, nurturance, altruism
c.a strong and positive relationship between client and helper.
d.future mindedness, originality, creativity, talent
ANS: C
OBJ: Definition
REF: page 25-26
10.Which statement about helpers is not true?
a. By following established procedures, all helpers will achieve similar results with similar clients.
b. There is considerable variability in outcome within the caseloads of individual helpers.
c. Variations in success rates typically have more to do with the therapist than with the type of treatment.
d. Little has been written about how helpers deal with failures in therapy.
ANS: A
OBJ: Application
REF: page 27
11.According to Egan, which of the following statements characterizes a helper’s “working knowledge” within the helping situation?
a.a thorough understanding of a wide range of theories
b.a complete understanding of the client’s life
c.the translation of the broad range of theories into a personal theory that the helper uses in every situation.
d.the translation of theory and research into the kind of applied understandings that enable helpers to work with clients
ANS: D
OBJ: Conceptual
REF: page 27-28
12.According to Egan, which of the following examples of “working knowledge” is not a part of the professional curriculum?
a.a thorough understanding of the needs and experiences of one special population
b.abnormal psychology
c.the principles of cognitive psychology
d.applied social psychology
ANS: A
OBJ: Conceptual
REF: page 28
13.Egan suggests that “abnormal psychology” can be understood as ______.
a.a systematic understanding of psychosis
b.a systematic understanding of people who are not part of the mainstream
c.a systematic understanding of the ways in which individuals get into cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and social trouble
d.a systematic understanding of personal idiosyncrasies
ANS: C
OBJ: Definition
REF: page 29
14.All those things that adversely affect the helping relationship, process,
outcomes, and impact in substantive ways but are not identified and
explored by helper or client or even by the profession itself are called ______.
a.client intractability
b.counter transference
c.the shadow side of helping
d.the human condition
ANS: C
OBJ: Definition
REF: page 33-34
15.Which of the following statements characterizes an effective helper?
a.The most effective helpers are those who most skillfully apply theory to clinical practice.
b.Effective helpers understand the limitations not only of helping theories, frameworks, and models but also of helpers, the helping profession, clients, and the environments that affect the helping process.
c.Effective helpers understand that there are no limitations to what one can accomplish when one has completely mastered the helping framework.
d.The most effective helpers understand that there is no place for personal wisdom in the helping process since clinical work must be thoroughly grounded in impersonal research and science.
ANS: B
OBJ: Conceptual
REF: page 34
ESSAYS
1.Discuss what Egan means by problem situations, missed opportunities and unused potential in people’s lives. How does be believe they can be used in helping? To support your answer, use examples from the case of Martha.
2.What are the three goals of helping as identified by Egan? Discuss how helpers can help clients achieve these goals. What limitations might helpers face in working with clients on these goals?
3.Emotional Intelligence (EI), Social Intelligence (SI) and Social-Emotional Intelligence (SEI) are similar models of mature or optimal human functioning. Provide a brief definition of each. Identify what they have in common and what distinguishes them from each other.
4. Egan identifies many challenges to the helping profession. Select and define three. Offer your own thoughts on what would need to happen to meet each of those challenges.
5.What is the shadow side of counseling, and how might it affect the helping process?
6.What are the characteristics of a helper’s wisdom?
Chapter 2 - The Helping Relationship: Values in Action
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
1.The term working alliance refers to which of the following?
a.the national association of counselors, social workers, and psychologists
b.the relationship between the client and the mental health establishment
c.the collaboration between the client and the helper based on their agreement on the goals and tasks of counseling
d.the rules of counseling that define the schedule and any fees associated with the helping experience
ANS: C
OBJ: Definition
REF: page 37
2.Which of the following is true about the collaborative nature of the relationship between helper and client?
a.The helper’s primary goal is to cure the client.
b.Both helper and client have work to do in the problem-management and opportunity-development stages and tasks, and both have responsibilities related to outcomes.
c.The helper must follow the stages and tasks of the helping process so that the client can be guided towards a successful outcome.
d.The client needs to be as expressive and clear about problems as possible.
ANS: B
OBJ: Conceptual
REF: page 38
3.Outcome research indicates that within the working alliance, ______.
a.the helping experience should be organized around the client’s resources, perceptions, experiences, and ideas
b.the helper should regularly make every effort to help the client to see the truth of what is bothering the client
c.helping is most successful when the helper helps the client to face difficult or painful feelings
d.helping immediately exposes how social and cultural pressures have caused serious difficulties for the client
ANS: A
OBJ: Conceptual
REF: page 39
4.According to Egan, culture can be understood as which of the following?
a.a person’s racial or ethnic background
b.the music, painting, architecture, and literature in which a person is interested
c.the shared beliefs and assumptions that interact with shared values and produce shared norms that drive shared patterns of behavior
d.the way people interact
ANS: C
OBJ: Definition
REF: page 40
5.Which of the following is not part of a person’s personal culture?
a.assumptions and beliefs, or what people think about themselves, other people, and the world around them
b.values, or what people prize in their lives
c.patterns of internal and external behavior, or the way people live their lives
d.norms, or what the helper reinforces as what the client should or should not do
ANS: D
OBJ: Definition
REF: page 40
6.According to Egan, values within the helping situation refer to which of the following?
a.that which the client says is most important in life
b.the worth of something to the client
c.a set of practical criteria for making decisions that drives behavior
d.the set of ideal criteria for making decisions that the client must eventually learn to use
ANS: C
OBJ: Definition
REF: page 41
7.What is the first rule of helping?
a.Maintain neutrality toward the client.
b.Make sure the client understands the impact of culture on his or her life.
c.Empathy will get the client to talk to you honestly.
d.Do no harm.
ANS: D
OBJ: Conceptual
REF: page 42
8.Which of the following is not a norm associated with the value of respecting the client?
a.The values of the helping profession come first in working with difficult clients in order to maintain their safety.
b.Do no harm.
c.Become competent and committed.
d.Do not rush to judgment.
ANS: A
OBJ: Conceptual
REF: page 42-43
9.______is a helper’s commitment to work at understanding each client from his or her point of view together with the feelings surrounding this point of view and efforts to communicate this point of view when it is helpful.
a.Empowerment
b.Empathy
c.Diversity
d.Working alliance
ANS: B
OBJ: Definition
REF: page 42
Definition, msp, 8 B
10.Which of the following does not reflect an aspect of empathy?
a.Empathy is a commitment to work at understanding each client from his or her point of view together with the feelings surrounding this point of view and to communicate this understanding whenever it is deemed helpful.
b.Empathy is a commitment to understand individuals in and through the context of their lives.
c.Empathy is a commitment to bring the client’s values in line with the helper’s to achieve clinical goals
d.Empathy is a commitment to understand the dissonance between the client’s point of view and reality.
ANS: C
OBJ: Conceptual
REF: page 44-48
11..According to the text, which of the following is an empowerment-based norm?
a.Do not challenge the way clients think and act.
b.You must remain in control of the helping process.
c.Help clients see counseling sessions as work sessions.
d.Focus on helping instead of learning.
ANS: C
OBJ: Conceptual
REF: page 56
12.To help clients become more active agents of their own lives (“doers” rather than “reactors”), the helper should ______.
a.listen carefully and remain passive so the client can be the more active participant
b.focus on the client’s fantasies about what life should be like
c.be active with his or her clients by engaging in dialogue
d.take an active role in pointing out everything that gets in the way of the client’s success
ANS: C
OBJ: Conceptual
REF: page 58
13.Which of the following is not a diversity and multicultural competency for a helper?
a.understanding and appreciating diversity
b.making the best possible effort to help a client from another country to accept American values to help them to assimilate
c.challenging one’s own cultural biases
d.tailoring your interventions in a diversity-sensitive way
ANS: B
OBJ: Conceptual
REF: page 58
14.Which of the following is not a way to develop multicultural awareness in working with clients of backgrounds different from your own?
a.becoming more aware of your own culture including your own biases to better understand and appreciate cultures different from your own
b.understanding how all kinds of diversity, cultural and otherwise, contribute to each client’s dynamic makeup
c.creating a list of values that you think your clients need to work on to help them better understand mainstream American culture
d. realizing that mainstream Western psychological theory, methods of inquiry, diagnostic categories, assessment procedures, and professional practices might not fit other cultures or might need some adaptation
ANS: C
OBJ: Application
REF: page 59
15.Which of the following is not one of the common flaws in the working alliance resulting from the shadow side of helping?
a.real-life focus
b.trouble in the relationship
c.flawed contracts
d.vague and violated values
ANS: A
OBJ: Conceptual
REF: page 60
ESSAY QUESTIONS
1.Define the concept of working alliance in helping relationships and describe the three components of the working alliance in the problem management and opportunity development helping process.
2.What does Egan mean by saying that each individual has a personal culture? How do the personal culture of the client and the counselor influence the helping process? Identify and explore three aspects of your own personal culture and how they might help or hurt your work with a client.
3.Identify and define the elements of respect in the client-helper relationship as presented by Egan? How do they affect the helping process?
4.Why is empathy a primary orienting value in the helping process? What is the relationship between empathy and diversity? Do you think that one person can really understand a person from a very different background? Why or why not?
5.Egan presents three norms for empowerment and self-responsibility. Identify and define each. To help realize these norms, Egan suggests creating a working charter between the helper and the client. What does he mean by “working charter?” What are the elements that make up a working charter?
6.Egan describes a group of four guidelines for developing a style in counseling that follows the best in the diversity and multicultural traditions. Discuss these guidelines and explain why they are important in the therapeutic process.
7.How do the shadow side realities influence the helping process? How can the helper successfully deal with shadow side realities?