Deck 13: Postmodern Approaches

Question 1

A solution-oriented therapist might ask her client, a compulsive shopper, which of the following questions?

A) Where can I get the best prices for food, Pick n Pay or Checkers?
B) If a miracle happened and your shopping compulsion was solved overnight, how would you know it was solved, and what would be different?
C) Who in your family is most affected when you go on a spending spree?
D) At what point in your life did you develop this fixation on shopping?

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which of the following statements about creating alternative stories is not true?

A) Constructing new stories goes hand in hand with deconstructing problem-saturated narratives.
B) The narrative therapist analyses and interprets the meaning of a client's story.
C) The therapist works with clients collaboratively by helping them construct more coherent and comprehensive stories that they live by.
D) The development of alternative stories is an enactment of ultimate hope.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

The role of the leader in solution-focused therapy groups is not:

A) to set the tone of focusing on solutions.
B) to provide clients with simple solutions to their problems.
C) to create a setting where the client feels resourceful and capable.
D) to skillfully ask questions to guide clients to finding solutions to their problems.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

It is within the scope of SFBT practice to allow for some discussion of _ to validate clients' experience.

A) presenting problems
B) behavioural issues in the past
C) therapist personal issues
D) past issues

Question 5

All of the following are techniques used in solution-focused therapy except for:

A) using the reflecting team.
B) scaling questions.
C) the miracle question.
D) formula first session task.

Question 6

Narrative therapists pay attention to 'sparkling moments'. These are:

A) moments when the client feels exhilarated.
B) identifying instances when the problem did not completely dominate the client's life.
C) times when significant others give the client unconditional love.
D) events characterised by a striving to overcome barriers.

Question 7

In the solution-oriented approach, which is not considered one of the three basic parts to the structure of summary feedback?

A) Compliments
B) A bridge
C) Expressing concern
D) Suggesting a task

Question 8

Which of these solution-focused therapy techniques involves asking clients to describe times in their lives when they were able to solve their problem or when their problem was less severe?

A) Pre-therapy change
B) The miracle question
C) Exception questions
D) Scaling

Question 9

Dimakatso believes that no one will ever want to hire her because she has a timid personality. Her solution-focused therapist would be most inclined to:

A) explore her early childhood experiences about being rejected.
B) consider her irrational belief to be indicative of psychopathology.
C) ask Dimakatso to examine another side of the story she is presenting about herself and think of times when she was accepted by others.
D) prescribe medication for her anxiety issues.

Question 10

Of the following, what is an interest that social constructionists tend to share?

A) Helping clients better understand objective reality
B) Using paradoxical techniques
C) Using a diagram to teach families about conflicts
D) Generating new meaning in the lives of individuals

Question 11

The techniques of externalisation and developing unique events are associated primarily with:

A) solution-oriented therapy.
B) the linguistic approach.
C) the narrative approach.
D) the reflecting team.

Question 12

Narrative therapists attempt to do all of the following except:

A) engage people in deconstructing problem-saturated stories.
B) discover preferred directions and new possibilities.
C) create new stories.
D) encourage free association.

Question 13

Social constructionism explains how values are transmitted through language by the social environment and suggests that individuals are constantly changing with the influences of all of the following except:

A) family.
B) culture.
C) behaviour.
D) society.

Question 14

In the view of the postmodern therapist, the most essential element of therapy is:

A) assessment.
B) the collaborative therapeutic relationship.
C) diagnosis.
D) brief course of treatment.

Question 15

Narrative therapy has been found to be particularly effective with diverse client populations for all of the following reasons except:

A) it was founded in a sociocultural context.
B) it allows clients to tell their unique stories from their perspective.
C) it defines problems within a social, cultural, political, and relational context.
D) it teaches diverse clients to replace their own narratives with ones that conform more closely to the ideals and values of mainstream culture.

Question 16

All of the following are true of solution-focused brief therapists except that they:

A) have little interest in a client exploring past problems.
B) focus on the client's early childhood experiences.
C) believe that the cause of a problem is not necessarily related to its solution.
D) expect that two clients may have different solutions to the same problem.

Question 17

The postmodern view incorporates all of the following concepts except for the idea that:

A) reality is objectively defined.
B) reality is based on the use of language.
C) reality is socially constructed.
D) each individual experiences their own unique reality.

Question 18

Solution-focused brief therapy has parallels with , which concentrates on what is right and what is working for people rather than dwelling on deficits, weaknesses, and problems.

A) brief psychodynamic therapy
B) positive psychology
C) Adlerian therapy
D) REBT

Question 19

From a social constructionist perspective, change begins with:

A) deconstructing the power of cultural narratives.
B) understanding the roots of a problem.
C) the therapist's skill in using confrontational techniques.
D) understanding and accepting objective reality.

Question 20

Which of the following is false as it applies to the practice of solution-focused brief therapy?

A) Individuals who come to therapy have the capability of behaving effectively.
B) There are advantages to a positive focus on solutions and on the future.
C) Clients want to change, have the capacity to change, and are doing their best to make change happen.
D) Using techniques in therapy is a way of discounting a client's capacity to find his or her own way.

Question 21

A limitation of the postmodern approaches is:

A) therapists require extensive training in providing brief therapy.
B) inexperienced therapists may over rely on techniques and appear mechanistic.
C) the use of open-ended questioning.
D) its lack of applicability to group counselling.

Question 22

There are three kinds of solution-focused therapeutic relationships. In which kind of relationship does the client come to therapy because someone else a spouse, parent, teacher, or probation officer) thinks the client has a problem?

A) Customer
B) Complaint
C) Visitor
D) Shopper

Question 23

The solution-focused brief therapy therapeutic process rests on the foundation that clients are:

A) in need of an expert.
B) unable to make decisions.
C) the experts on their own lives.
D) passive participants in their journey.

Question 24

There are three kinds of solution-focused therapeutic relationships. In which kind of relationship do the client and therapist jointly identify a problem and a solution to work toward?

A) Customer
B) Complaint
C) Visitor
D) Shopper

Question 25

A main task of the narrative therapist is to help clients construct a:

A) negative story line.
B) preferred story line.
C) new façade.
D) second personality.

Question 26

SFBT is an optimistic, anti-deterministic, future-oriented approach based on the assumption that clients have the ability to change quickly and can create a problem-free language as they strive for a new reality.

Question 27

In regards to brief therapy, the average length of therapy is _, with the most common length being only one session.

A) one to two months of sessions
B) two to three weeks
C) one to three sessions
D) three to eight sessions

Question 28

Narrative therapy has been effectively applied in school settings.

Question 29

The use of techniques is fundamental in narrative therapy.

Question 30

A key theme of SFBT is, when you know what is working, do more of it. If something is not working, try something different.

Question 31

There are three kinds of solution-focused therapeutic relationships. In which kind of relationship does the client have a problem but is not able or willing to assume a role in constructing a solution, believing that a solution is dependent on someone else's actions?

A) Customer
B) Complaint
C) Visitor
D) Shopper

Question 32

During the solution-focused initial therapy session, it is common for solution-focused therapists to ask, 'What have you done since you called for the appointment that has made a difference in your problem?' This describes:

A) formula first session task.
B) the miracle question.
C) pretherapy change.
D) exception questions.

Question 33

The founders) of narrative therapy is are):

A) Michael White and David Epston.
B) Insoo Kim Berg and Steve de Shazer.
C) Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck.
D) Donald Meichenbaum.

Question 34

One narrative technique for consolidating the gains a client makes involves a therapist writing letters to the person. This technique is:

A) externalisation and deconstruction.
B) search for unique outcomes.
C) alternative stories and reauthoring.
D) documenting the evidence.

Question 35

Narrative conversations do not follow a linear progression; it is better to think of these steps in terms of progression.

A) lateral
B) cyclical
C) parallel
D) perpendicular

Question 36

From the very first solution-focused interview, the therapist is mindful of working toward:

A) the miracle question.
B) pretherapy change.
C) formula first session task.
D) termination.

Question 37

Constructing counter stories goes hand in hand with:

A) deconstruction.
B) reconstruction.
C) demolition.
D) rebuilding.

Question 38

The founders) of solution-focused brief therapy is are):

A) Michael White and David Epston.
B) Insoo Kim Berg and Steve de Shazer.
C) Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck.
D) Donald Meichenbaum.

Question 39

The creation of the self, which dominated the modernist search for human essence and truth:

A) is being replaced by postmodernists with the concept of socially storied lives.
B) is also a key concept of the postmodern approaches.
C) is more relevant in the narrative approach than it is in solution-oriented therapy.
D) has proven to be completely irrelevant to all counsellors and therapists practising today.

Question 40

Narrative therapists pay significant attention to a client's past as it helps them understand the origins of client's stories.

Question 41

The solution-focused approach was originally designed as a brief model of psychotherapy.

Question 42

Narrative therapy is a strengths-based approach that emphasises collaboration between client and therapist to help clients view themselves as empowered and living the way they want.

Question 43

Assessment and therapy techniques are more important than empathy to a social constructionist.

Question 44

In postmodern thinking, language and the use of language in stories create meaning.

Question 45

Clients are never stuck in a pattern of living a problem-saturated story that does not work.

Question 46

Solution-focused brief therapy is based on the optimistic assumption that people are healthy and competent and have the ability to construct solutions that can enhance their lives.

Question 47

Externalising conversations counteract oppressive, problem-saturated stories and empower clients so that they feel competent to handle the problems they face.

Question 48

The main goal of brief therapy is to help clients to resolve problems efficiently and to move forward as quickly as possible.

Question 49

In solution-focused therapy, exceptions represent instances when a particular problem in a client's life was not prominent.

Question 50

Modernists believe in the ability to describe objective reality accurately and assume that it can be observed and systematically known through the scientific method.

Question 51

All social constructionist theories emphasise listening to clients without judgement or blame, affirming and valuing them.

Question 52

In social constructionism, the therapist assumes the role of expert, rather than adopting a collaborative or consultative stance.

Question 53

Solution-focused therapists often use scaling questions.

Question 54

Without the cultural conditions that accept the concept of depression, talking about a person as depressed would mean nothing.

Question 55

Even science is not free from the influence of such processes of social construction.

Question 56

The narrative emphasis on creating an appreciative audience for new developments in an individual's life lends itself to group counselling.

Question 57

The linguistic approach stresses the expert role of the therapist in suggesting solutions to a family's problems.

Question 58

In solution-focused therapy, behaviour change is viewed as the most effective approach to assisting people in enhancing their lives.

Question 59

Solution-focused brief therapy differs from traditional therapies by avoiding the past in favour of both the present and the future.

Question 60

In solution-focused brief therapy, the role of the client is to create, explore, and co-author his or her evolving story.