1 Comprehensive Exam Review Lecture for Counseling Tamara Olive, Ph.D., LPC, NCC Please note that the materials and handouts in this review were submitted by various instructors in the graduate counseling program. Counseling graduate students, the time has come to prepare for your comprehensive exam! Make certain, as you prepare for graduation that you have submitted the following (and that each has been signed and approved): (1) Master s degree plan in counseling on file for you (2) Application for candidacy for the master s degree (3) Application to take the master s degree comprehensive examination (4) Application for graduation for the master s degree You will not be permitted to graduate without these four items complete and approved. Pay particular attention to the deadlines for each. If you do not submit each by the specific deadline, you may be faced with the possibility of a delayed graduation. This responsibility lies with you and is a demonstration of your professionalism as a graduate counseling student. I suggest as you near your graduation, that you place a call to the departmental secretary to be certain your file is complete with all required documents. As a reminder, you must have an overall 3.0 GPA to be considered for graduation. You may access these forms at the Sul Ross Education Department, or you may download and print them at the following: http://www.sulross.edu/pages/3203.asp They must completed, signed, and returned to the Sul Ross Education Department. If you have any questions, you may contact Elizabeth Kim, the Education Department secretary, at 432-837-8170, or via email at ekim@sulross.edu Now, let s turn our attention to the review! You have been provided with this lecture and six handouts. The handouts are as follows: Comp Review HGD (Human Growth and Development) Comp Review Ethical & Legal Issues Comp Review Counseling Process Comp Review Counseling Microskills Comp Review Career Counseling Comp Review Assessment Please download and print these six handouts so that you can spend time reviewing the areas indicated. NOTE: These handouts are only a portion of the comprehensive exam review; they are supplementary. The remaining component is contained in this lecture, so make
2 sure to download and print this document. Also please note that there are additional areas on the comprehensive exam for which you are responsible that are NOT addressed within the handouts or in this lecture. This review, consisting of this lecture and the six handouts, is not designed to cover everything. In essence, in the comprehensive exam, the student is responsible for anything covered in textbooks, lectures, activities, and exams for the entire duration of their master s program. This comp review is merely intended to give you direction for your study and emphasize some major areas. You may find, as you review, that you do not remember certain points. Don t panic; simply go back to your course materials and locate those items. Study groups can be helpful. It is expected that you will remember certain areas better than others; for that reason, you were encouraged early in the program to keep your course materials, handouts, etc. in anticipation of this time! Students, you can do this! In the following material, you will notice that some questions apply to professional counselors. Both school and human service counseling students need to know the answers to this material. Note that you will not be expected to answer questions from courses specific to LPC track students, such as ED 6341-Psychopathology, ED 6345-Family Counseling, or ED 6342- Addictive Disorders. These courses are not addressed on the comprehensive exam. You will notice that some of the material in this review contains some family counseling questions, but these areas were covered in Group Counseling or in Techniques of Counseling textbooks/materials. Let s take one area at a time. First, let us examine Ethics! ETHICS How long to professional counselors have to report suspected child abuse or neglect? Here s your answer 48 hours! Is there such a thing as absolute confidentiality? What do we mean by confidentiality? What are the limits to confidentiality? Does relationship based on trust foster disclosure from the client? What is your correct course of action if a former client requests copies of records for her new therapist in the city to which she has moved? Answer: The client must first sign a release, then you may speak with the new therapist, but you don t simply send copies of your files. What if you are counseling a wife who is being abused by her husband? What should be your recommendation? Do you have a responsibility to keep the abusing spouse away from the wife? In a situation in which you are individually counseling a husband, and the wife, who initially did not want to engage in marriage counseling, changes her mind, what do you do? Do you agree to continue individual counseling with the wife, and also provide marriage counseling for the husband? Consider who is the client? If you are working as a school counselor, and you find out that your client s friend is engaging in stealing from other students on the school campus, what do you do? For your answer, consider harm to self or others in breaking confidentiality (it doesn t have to be physical harm). Could you consider notifying the principal?
3 If you are working as a school counselor and your 15 year old client tells you she is pregnant, but she doesn t want you to tell her parents, must you tell them? Why? What if you don t know for sure the correct course of action regarding an ethical issue, and you have been diligent examining the statutes and codes, and you ve consulted with other respected counselors, but you re still not sure, then what must you do? Know the conditions for malpractice. Why do we have a code of ethics? Know the answer. Who is protected with such a code? Do we counselors have a responsibility to become both familiar with the law (the legal system), and with those operating within the legal system? Is it important for counselors to become knowledgeable regarding those elements that are common to the law and to our field, mental health? Why? How do you deal with confidentiality in public? For example, you run into a client at a social function. What do you do? Know what items are required to be included in a client s record. What if you re providing marriage counseling to a couple, and the husband tells you by telephone that he is planning to file for divorce, but he doesn t want you to tell his wife. Must you tell the husband that you must inform the wife? What if you re working with a family and you see signs of child abuse, but both parents deny any abuse. You suspect, in spite of their protests. What must you do? Do you stop seeing the family? Do you inform them that you must report to CPS? Know the difference between civil and criminal liability. Know the difference between principle ethics and virtue ethics. What is the purpose of the counseling profession having a standard of care? If, in the course of providing family therapy, you find out that the mother committed incest with her 10 year old daughter 6 months before they began therapy with you. What is your immediate concern? Must you take any action? If so, when? Know the difference between ethics, values, and morality What are some words commonly associated with morality? Is is possible to demonstrate unprofessionalism and still not act unethically? Okay, students, let s move on to an examination of Assessment! ASSESSMENT Know what a percentile score means. For example, if a client scored 79%, what does that mean? Make sure you can compute a z-score. Know about different validation processes. Know about different types of tests (achievement, aptitude, interest psychological, intelligence, etc.) Not only should you know the different fundamentals, such as reliability, validity, etc., you may be expected to understand, for example, different types of validity, etc.
4 Know commonly administered tests and their purpose, such as Stanford-Binet (IQ), Wechsler (IQ), Myers-Briggs (Personality), Thematic Apperception Test (Personality) What is a mental status exam? You had this in techniques class, too! Where is it administered? (For example, would it be administered in a school counseling venue or a clinical setting, such as a professional counselor s office or hospital?) Why would we administer a mental status exam? Know about standard deviation and standard error of measurement. What do we mean when we state content-referenced or criterion-referenced or norm referenced? Okay, now let s take another look at Theories and Techniques (some of my personal favorites!). THEORIES AND TECHNIQUES Know the definition of kinesics, proxemics, paralanguage, neurolinguistics. What is systematic desensitization? Review the theories. For example, in person centered theory, what do we believe about the nature of people, and what is the main technique? Know the fundamental foundation of gestalt, cognitive, behavioral, reality therapy, REBT, psychoanalytic, Adlerian, etc., and also transactional analysis. Which of them diagnose; which do not? Go back to the cheat sheet from ED 7303-Techniques class and spend time with it, as well as the supplementary materials I supplied for the same Techniques course. (Everyone has this supplementary material; it was either supplied with a hard copy in class, or you were asked to download it off Blackboard. It was about 60 pages in length, and it addresses a number of theories, as well as some major developmental information, such as Erikson s developmental stages, etc. Please do not ask your former instructor for a copy of this; if you cannot locate it, you will need to ask a fellow student for a copy. Thank you.) Is the identified patient or the scapegoat always really the problem in the family? Know the different defense mechanisms (such as denial, repression, rationalization, etc.) Go back to your Techniques handout on behavioral therapy; know operant and classical conditioning, and which techniques go with each (ex: Is token economy part of operant or classical conditioning?) Is self-disclosure a component of genuineness? Know the counselor core conditions. There are 3 of them. Review Carl Rogers! What is successive approximation? What is shaping? What is fixed ratio reinforcement? Know the counseling stages. Remember the Techniques midterm bonus question! I told you these would show up again and again! Why do we have theory? What are our tasks in crisis counseling? Do we provide support immediately, or are there some other tasks we must address first? What is the Social Influence Model?
5 If we are using person-centered counseling, how do we use questions? Do we use questions? Which is more predictive (according to clients) of successful outcomes? Trustworthiness or attractiveness? Review Bandura (review social learning), Carkhuff (core communication terminology) What is our primary focus in elementary school counseling comprehensive programs? (prevention or remediation) What would be our focus in high school? (prevention or individual planning?) If you re holding a family session with mom, dad, and son, and dad walks out, what do you do? Do you stop the session; do you continue without dad and work with the remaining family members; or do you take a break and allow the family time to re-enter the session? What are some indicators that a teenaged client is seriously intending to commit suicide? Know what triangulation and enmeshment mean. What happens when counselors get detached, tired, have other physical symptoms, and maybe even cynical to the point that they are not functioning well in their counseling role? What do we call it? Know about different attachment styles. What is separation-individuation? All right, students, let s have another look at Group! GROUP Know the advantages of groups. What purpose can breaking into dyads serve in group? Also, can it help noninvolved group members? How? Know group terminology such as contagion, cohesiveness, etc. What can be a consequence of immaturity, lack of discipline, and low morale in a particular group? Who coined the term group psychotherapy? What is the difference in group counseling and group guidance? Which focuses on the cognitive? Which focuses on the affective? Give some examples of self-help groups. Know the stages of groups. (Forming, etc.) Are they always linear? Which stage is usually longest? What do we mean by transition? What do we mean by primary and secondary tension? Know different types of group leaders (authoritarian, democratic, laissez-faire) What kind of boundaries does a group leader need to establish? Are these physical? Psychological? Know purpose of screening and orientation for group. If you have been conducting group for some months, and the group is transparent, functioning well, and the sessions have been filled with emotional material, how can you
6 build on previous sessions in an opening? Do you single anyone out to begin the next session? Know group techniques such as rounds, cutting off, focusing, linking, etc. What are the benefits of cohesiveness? What can occur when it is not achieved? Know when it is important to set the tone for the group. Know definition for group dynamics and group process. What are some things that occur in pre-interview? What do we mean by group collusion? Okay, we just have a couple of other areas to examine. The first is Advanced Human Growth and Development! ADVANCED HUMAN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT Know Erickson s stages, Piaget s stages, and Kohlberg s moral development stages. Know Adler s theory about child development. What does Adler suggest about birth order? Know different parenting styles (authoritative, permissive, etc.) What is the purpose of play therapy? Keep in mind that children don t yet have skills in abstraction Remember the symbols in play? What is a mid-life crisis? What is the purpose of utilizing theories of human development? Can this assist in goal setting, etc.? What about predicting normal changes as clients develop. For example, can you imagine counseling a 45 year-old man who is still psychologically in adolescence? What stage did he not resolve? Will this impact his goals? Know Bandura s social learning theory (self-efficacy). Know Selye s different types of stress. What are the four modes of language development? (Bruner) Know Bowlby s theory of attachment. What hormones are associated with aggression? (which ones increase and which ones decrease aggression) Know the stages of grief. Review the brain hemispheres and their functioning. All right, students, last but not least, Multiculturalism! MULTICULTURAL Review definitions such as accommodation, assimilation, etc. Review cultures that value independence versus interdependence, etc. Review different cultural perspectives on mental illness. Review terms such as gender bias, discrimination, stereotyping, etc.
7 What is the difference between etic and emic? Students, after you examine this lecture, be certain that you also study the six handouts mentioned at the start of this document. You have quite a bit of material to review, but you can do it! Best of luck as you sit for your master s comprehensive exam in counseling! Dr. Olive