Deck 8: Professional Competence and Training

Question 1

According to the authors,a good training program encourages students to:

A) build on their life experiences and personal strengths and provides opportunities for expanding self-awareness.
B) emphasize skill training without consideration of personal development.
C) achieve a high enough GPA to pursue a doctorate.
D) specialize in one theory with the techniques and strategies that are unique to that theory.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

___________ is an organized system by which practitioners within a profession assess one another's services.

A) Networking
B) Mentoring
C) Monitoring
D) Peer review

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Those who are responsible for educating and training mental health professionals are ethically and professionally obligated to:

A) focus exclusively on mentoring trainees.
B) invest all of their efforts into mentoring trainees and being advocates for them and their clients.
C) balance their roles as advocate and mentor of trainees with their gatekeeping role.
D) focus exclusively on their gatekeeping responsibilities.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

To qualify as a substance abuse counselor,the CACREP (2016)standards identify specific knowledge,skills,and practices in all of the following areas EXCEPT:

A) personal substance abuse experience.
B) counseling,prevention,and intervention.
C) diversity and advocacy.
D) research and evaluation.

Question 5

When a practitioner has a license,he or she is:

A) competent to work with all populations.
B) competent to work with populations he or she had never worked with before.
C) not competent to work with all populations.
D) finally exempt from having his or her competence evaluated.

Question 6

As a part of the process of screening candidates for a therapist training program,counselor educators should complete all of the following EXCEPT:

A) provide candidates with information about what will be expected of them.
B) encourage candidates to screen the program to ensure a good fit.
C) place most of the emphasis on candidates' GRE scores.
D) inform candidates they are expected to engage in self-disclosure and to participate in various self-growth activities.

Question 7

Referring clients to other professionals is:

A) appropriate when counselors do not have the clinical training or expertise to work with certain clients.
B) unethical since it leaves the client feeling abandoned.
C) indicative of poor character.
D) illegal in some states.

Question 8

According to the American Counseling Association,counselors practice only within the boundaries of their competence,based on:

A) their knowledge,skills,and practices in the following areas: foundations,diversity and politics,assessment,research and evaluation,and diagnosis.
B) psychology does not currently have methods to readily or reliably assess the performance of professional functions.
C) peer review boards or other appropriate bodies.
D) their education,training,supervised experience,state and national professional credentials,and appropriate professional experience.

Question 9

In ___________,the Supreme Court considered that the student had been informed of the faculty's dissatisfaction with her clinical performance,and the student knew that unless she made significant improvement in this area,she would be dismissed from the program.The Court held that the decision to dismiss the student from medical school was based on a careful and deliberate evaluation by the faculty,and thus the student's dismissal was not a violation of her constitutional rights.

A) Board of Curators of the University of Missouri v.Horowitz
B) Shuffer v.Trustees of California State Universities and Colleges
C) Jablonski v.the United States
D) Hedlund v.Superior Court

Question 10

In the ______________ court case,the court ruled that the student was provided adequate due process,that the university had the obligation to uphold professional standards,that the university's policies and procedures were enunciated in the graduate catalog and other departmental documents,and that the faculty had followed these procedures.

A) Board of Curators of the University of Missouri v.Horowitz
B) Southwest Texas State University
C) Jablonski v.the United States
D) Hedlund v.Superior Court

Question 11

From an ethical perspective,counselor educators and trainers are expected to present varied theoretical positions.Training programs would do well to offer students:

A) a variety of therapeutic techniques and strategies that can be applied to a wide range of problems with diverse clients.
B) the opportunity to specialize in one theoretical approach.
C) a program with few bureaucratic constraints when teaching.
D) the opportunity to learn to diagnose clients to fit the basic concepts of the theory being taught.

Question 12

Barriers to dismissing a student who demonstrates dysfunctional interpersonal behavior from a training program include all of the following EXCEPT:

A) lack of adequate procedures in place to support a dismissal decision.
B) concern about the heightened resistance or defensiveness in the trainee.
C) the potential for receiving criticism from other faculty or supervisors who were not involved in the trainee's remediation.
D) the potential for receiving criticism from other faculty members who were not involved in the trainee's remediation.

Question 13

According to the American School Counseling Association,in order to apply our knowledge and skills competently:

A) professional school counselors must be perfectly healthy.
B) professional school counselors monitor emotional and physical health and practice wellness to ensure optimal professional effectiveness.
C) self-care routines must be rigidly adhered to by professional school counselors on a daily basis.
D) professional school counselors must attend to physical and emotional well-being more often than mental or spiritual well-being.

Question 14

_____________ is an end point evaluation typically completed at the end of a professional program or when applying for licensure status.

A) Formative assessment
B) Summative assessment
C) Therapist competence
D) Technique

Question 15

Even though mental health professionals may not intend to harm clients,_________ is often a major contributing factor in causing harm.

A) incompetence
B) unconscious impulses of an aggressive nature
C) participation in a training program that is not CACREP accredited
D) a decreased emphasis on ethics in training programs

Question 16

___________ is a developmentally informed process that provides useful feedback during one's training and throughout one's professional career.

A) Formative assessment
B) Summative assessment
C) Developmentally informed assessment
D) Technique assessment

Question 17

The skills and training required to effectively and appropriately treat clients in a specific area of practice,and is both an ethical and legal concept,is the definition for:

A) formative assessment.
B) summative assessment.
C) therapist competence.
D) techniques.

Question 18

Which of the following statements is NOT true with respect to counselor competence?

A) Practitioners are required to practice within the boundaries of their competence.
B) Only when the therapist completes a doctoral program are they competent to practice with all specialties.
C) The practitioner can develop competency by working with professionals with more experience.
D) Conferences,workshops,and continuing education are means toward developing competency.

Question 19

Most professional organizations support efforts to:

A) require pro bono work at the rate of at least 20% of the work week for all professionals.
B) write regulations that encourage competition.
C) make continuing education a mandatory condition of relicensing.
D) require personality tests from all practitioners to ensure that those who enter the field are in good mental health.

Question 20

Registry is generally a voluntary listing of individuals who use a title or provide a service.________ represents the least degree of regulation of professional practice.

A) Certification
B) Licensure
C) Registration
D) Accreditation

Question 21

Continuing professional education is important because:

A) the continuing education schools are in need of the income.
B) some practitioners did not receive the information in their educational program; until they attend continuing education programs,they cannot be held responsible for their actions.
C) a practitioner's level of competence may diminish over time; changes in laws pertaining to mental health,evolving ethical standards,and new trends in professional and evidence-based practices continue to be made.
D) the information they reveal has never been shared in academic programs before.

Question 22

A school counselor was working with Quan,whose presenting problem was anxiety pertaining to academic success in college.This was within the scope of the school counselor's training.However,during the course of therapy,Quan became very depressed and engaged in self-mutilation and other forms of self-destructive behavior.Quan's counselor recognized that these symptoms and behaviors reflected a problem area that was outside the scope of his practice.Ethical practice required that the school counselor:

A) attempt to work with Quan's problems and only refer if he becomes suicidal.
B) have another school employee present in all sessions after the discovery is made.
C) make a referral to another professional who is competent to treat Quan's problems.
D) make a referral to a substance abuse counselor because all client's with these symptoms are self-medicating.

Question 23

If each professional organization developed specific guidelines pertaining to students' successful completion of a program,faculty in training programs:

A) would not have to work as hard to help students understand the material.
B) would then have the backing of their professional association in determining the evaluation procedures to be used when decisions regarding retaining or dismissing students are made.
C) would have the correct information needed to train students to become therapists.
D) would be able to give the students the guidelines to study without training them.

Question 24

____________ is a basic component of practitioner competence.

A) Competence
B) Techniques
C) Accreditation
D) Training

Question 25

Students should be advised as early as possible if their behavior is problematic,and:

A) they should be given direction and opportunities to improve problem areas.
B) they should be terminated from the program immediately.
C) they should be ridiculed in a public arena.
D) they should be allowed to continue without further direction.

Question 26

____________ statutes determine and govern professional practice.

A) Certification
B) Licensure
C) Registration
D) Accreditation

Question 27

When a therapist believes referring a client to be the appropriate course of action due to a lack of competence in the client's issue:

A) it would be considered unethical to not refer to a more competent therapist.
B) it is the client's choice whether to accept or decline the termination.
C) it is the therapist's choice to decide when and if termination should take place.
D) the therapist should only refer the client if a conflict has been created.

Question 28

______________ is a voluntary attempt by a group to promote a professional identity.

A) Certification
B) Licensure
C) Registration
D) Accreditation

Question 29

When therapists extend the boundaries of their practice,or when they branch out into an area requiring specialty competence,they should:

A) be sufficiently prepared if they read books and journal articles pertaining to the new specialty area.
B) seek consultation with a competent practitioner.
C) return to graduate school and receive another degree.
D) gain competence on their own before consulting with other professionals.

Question 30

Training programs have a responsibility to complete all of the following EXCEPT:

A) honor their commitment to the students they admit.
B) protect future consumers who will be served by those who graduate.
C) screen candidates so the public will be protected from incompetent practitioners.
D) continue evaluating students up to five years after graduation.