Deck 12: Constructivist Approaches

Question 1

All of the following except whom was a philosophical precursor to constructivism?

A) Plato
B) Vico
C) Kant
D) Vaihinger
E) Lao Tzu

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Which best describes the role of a client in constructivist counseling?

A) engaged
B) a student
C) passive
D) a consumer
E) C and D only

Answer 2

A

Question 3

From a constructivist counselor's perspective, why do people seek counseling?

A) because they have a mental disorder
B) because they have a mental illness
C) because their capacities for balance, cohesion, and organization of experience are not capable of meeting the demands of their current lives
D) because their organismic valusing process is experiencing a fundamental incongruence with the narrative of their environment
E) C and D only

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Which of the following is true of people's capacities for change?

A) It is so limitless that we should assure people that they can overcome any problem in their life.
B) It is completely limited by their genetic inheritance.
C) It is completely limited by their early childhoods.
D) It may not be limitless, but it is much greater than most theories have appreciated.
E) Change is limited by one's abaility to contrinute to the greater good.

Question 5

Which of the following is not a characteristic of an effective constructive counselor?

A) being expert enough to have a complete understanding of clients
B) encouraging-but not forcing-clients' emotional expression
C) allowing oneself to feel emotional in the process of counseling
D) trusting that clients can endure their pain and develop through it
E) All of the above are characteristics

Question 6

Solution-focused therapy emphasizes all of the following except

A) goal setting.
B) problem or symptom talk.
C) solution identification.
D) strengths of clients.
E) C and D only

Question 7

Which of the following approaches comes closest to following a linear progression of stages?

A) developmental constructivism
B) narrative therapy
C) solution-focused therapy
D) personal construct therapy
E) enviornmental construct therapy

Question 8

Which of the following is not one of the general elements of narrative counseling?

A) telling one's story
B) exploring alternatives
C) writing new stories
D) All of the above are general elements of narrative counseling.
E) A and C only

Question 9

Which of the following is a technique that Mahoney created?

A) thought stopping
B) empty chair work
C) push-button
D) writing unsent letters
E) mirror time

Question 10

Which of the following is not true of clients in constructivist counseling?

A) They hold the primary responsibility for change.
B) They must have insight into the early childhood causes for their current problems.
C) They must focus primarily on the present.
D) They must be collaboratively involved with the therapist.
E) none of above

Question 11

According to Mahoney, health involves which of the following?

A) balance
B) wholeness
C) transcendence
D) all of the above
E) B and C only

Question 12

What psychologist played a key role in the development of a constructivist therapy based on the idea of "personal constructs"?

A) Milton Erickson
B) Jean Piaget
C) George Kelly
D) Erik Erickson
E) John Parker

Question 13

Which of the following was not a constructivist?

A) Piaget
B) Skinner
C) Kelly
D) Mahoney
E) Erickson

Question 14

Which statement most accurately reflects Mahoney's "developmental" constructivism?

A) Objectivism: we can accurately know the world as it "really" is.
B) Extreme relativism: all views are equally valid.
C) Radical constructivism: our minds are 100% responsible for our perception of reality; there is no "real" world independent of our minds.
D) Critical constructivism: despite the profound influence that our minds play in the co-construction of our perceived realities, it acknowledges the existence of an external, though ultimately unknowable, world.
E) Narrativism: All peola have a story and that story is reflected in all they do and is greatly shaped by other people's stories.

Question 15

According to constructivists, what is the primary function of the psyche?

A) to maximize pleasure and minimize pain
B) to process information
C) to make the unconscious conscious
D) to bring awareness to the organism
E) to provide order, organization, and meaning to experience

Question 16

Which of the following, according to Mahoney, is not one of the 5 overlapping themes shared by most constructivists?

A) Ordering processes are fundamentally emotional and tacit.
B) Self-organizing activities are strongly influenced by social-symbolic processes.
C) Early childhood experiences exert fixed limits on what is possible.
D) The organization of personal activity results in a sense of self.
E) All of the above are overlapping themes.

Question 17

The difference between psychological functions and psychological structures

A) is firmly believed by some counselors.
B) is largely a matter of time scale (how quickly something changes)
C) partly involves issues such as conceiving of structures in terms of processes and verbs rather than mechanisms and nouns.
D) all of the above
E) A and C only

Question 18

Which of the following is true of constructivist perspectives?

A) The individual is viewed as being in a "dialectic relationship" with the environment.
B) Because we all create our realities, the environment doesn't really influence us.
C) The environment completely explains why people are the way they are.
D) none of the above
E) A and B only

Question 19

Which of the following best describes how constructivists conceive of an "unhealthy" person?

A) by strictly following the DSM
B) someone who is currently unable to obtain a sense of balance, wholeness, and integration in her life
C) someone whose ordering processes are either rigidly over-stabilizing or extremely under-stabilizing
D) B and C only
E) none of above

Question 20

Which of the following most accurately represents a constructivist view of pharmacotherapy?

A) It is seen as a panacea.
B) It can be an important aspect of some clients' healing and growth, especially when each client's perspectives on medication are explored (especially the meanings such medications have for the client)
C) It is never to be used, because it denies the client's ability to construct new realities.
D) It is seen as merely a crutch.
E) Medications should be chosen based on the type of reality the client wishes to construct.