Deck 4: Communicating, Interviewing and Assessing

Question 1

The purposes of the psychiatric interview include all except

A) Gaining an understanding of the patient's illness
B) Obtaining information efficiently
C) Providing education about psychiatric disorders
D) Establishing a therapeutic alliance

Answer 1

Providing education about psychiatric disorders

Question 2

During an initial assessment, the relevant features of communication are its ability to

A) Promote a therapeutic alliance and increase understanding.
B) Prompt a disclosure of past successes and failures.
C) Bring about changes in behavior.
D) Educate the patient about what is important to disclose.

Answer 2

Promote a therapeutic alliance and increase understanding.

Question 3

For a patient who is overinclusive or rambling, the clinician

A) Asks the patient to tell his story
B) Uses direction and redirection
C) Increases the amount of eye contact
D) Interviews the person accompanying the patient

Answer 3

Uses direction and redirection

Question 4

In using the communication technique of reflection, the clinician

A) Interprets the difference between a patient's thoughts and his or her behaviors
B) Repeats something that the patient has said to encourage the patient to give more information
C) Provides prompts such as "tell me more"
D) Seeks more information in order to have a more clear understanding

Question 5

In a biopsychosocial assessment, which of the following questions might be used to assess the social domain?

A) Did any medical conditions precipitate the psychiatric symptoms?
B) Did the patient have any childhood attentional problems or school phobia?
C) Has the patient ever attempted suicide or harmed himself?
D) Have the symptoms affected the patient's social and work functioning?

Question 6

Validation is a communication strategy used to

A) Let the patient know that his or her feelings are reasonable.
B) Evaluate change in symptoms or behaviors.
C) Prompt the patient to continue talking.
D) Elicit more information about a response.

Question 7

To encourage the patient to talk freely during the interview, the clinician

A) Uses direct questioning
B) Explains behavior/brain interaction theory
C) Takes notes conscientiously
D) Provides empathetic response.

Question 8

Closed-ended questions

A) Are used to gather specific information
B) Allow the patient to talk without interruption
C) Are characterized by the use of reflection
D) Are used to obtain difficult or emotionally laden material

Question 9

Open-ended questions

A) Are useful in obtaining direct responses
B) Define the focus of interest
C) Are useful in the beginning of an interview
D) Define the boundaries of the therapeutic alliance

Question 10

Patients' perceptual difficulties may have an adverse effect on the therapeutic alliance. Which of the following is likely to have the greatest negative effect?

A) The patient perceives the office seating arrangement as belittling.
B) The patient perceives the clinician as being part of her delusional system.
C) The patient perceives the sound in the hall as messages for the patient.
D) The patient perceives the clinician's glancing at his watch as nonvalidating.

Question 11

During the initial assessment of a patient with schizophrenia, in response to the question "What brought you to the clinic today?" a patient's response of "the van" is an example of

A) Poverty of speech
B) Concrete thinking
C) Oppositional behavior
D) Tangentiality