Question 1: A
Rationale: The woman's pervasive depressed mood and common associated symptoms (agitation, impaired memory) suggest a major depressive episode. Delusions are not uncommon in Major Depressive Disorder and often involve a belief that one is being persecuted because of immorality or a personal inadequacy.
Question 2: D
Rationale: Beck has conducted longitudinal research to identify the best predictors of suicide among depressed individuals. When answering questions about Beck, keep in mind that he focuses primarily on distorted cognitions rather than on overt behaviors or other external phenomena. In one study, Beck found that scores on his hopelessness scale accurately predicted suicide in 91% of cases. See A. T. Beck et al., Hopelessness and eventual suicide: A 10-year prospective study of patients hospitalized with suicidal ideation, American Journal of Psychiatry, 142(5), 559-563, 1985.
Question 3: C
Rationale: Sue and Zane note that, when discussing cross-cultural counseling, most authors focus on cultural knowledge and the use of culture-specific techniques. These investigators argue, however, that these factors are only the means to an end, which is establishing credibility [S. Sue and N. Zane, The role of culture and cultural techniques in psychotherapy: A critique and reformulation, American Psychologist, 42(1), 37-45, 1987]. According to Sue and Zane, the therapist's credibility is a key determinant of therapy outcome. Cultural knowledge and the use of culture-specific techniques are beneficial only to the extent that they contribute to the therapist's credibility.
Question 4: C
Rationale: Compensatory behavior is a diagnostic criterion for Bulimia Nervosa but not for Binge Eating Disorder and, therefore, differentiates the two disorders.
Question 5: A
Rationale: Adding or subtracting a constant to every score in a distribution changes the measures of central tendency but not the measures of variability. Adding 12 points will increase the mean and other measures of central tendency by 12 points but will have no effect on the standard deviation or other measures of variability.
Question 6: C
Rationale: In this situation, the young woman has changed her mind about the college in response to being rejected. Cognitive dissonance predicts that, in this situation, the woman will change her attitude about the school in order to relieve the tension she feels as a result of not being accepted by the school.
Question 7: B
Rationale: This question is asking about the elaboration likelihood model, which is described in the Social Psychology chapter of the written study materials. According to this model, whether a person uses the central route (carefully considers an argument) or peripheral route (relies on heuristic criteria) depends on several factors including the nature of the message and the person's mood. With regard to the latter, a person is more likely to rely on the peripheral route when he or she is in a good mood.
Question 8: A
Rationale: Neuroimaging techniques are divided into two types - structural and functional. CT and MRI are both structural techniques. MRI uses magnetic fields to produce detailed cross-sectional images of the brain. An important advantage of MRI over a CT scan is that MRI has better resolution.
Question 9: C
Rationale: The MMPI-2 includes several validity scales and indices that are used to determine the validity of an examinee's scores. The F-K Index is used to determine if an examinee has attempted to "fake bad" (exaggerate problems) or to "fake good" (deny problems). It is calculated by subtracting the examinee's raw K-Scale score from his or her raw F-Scale score. When the result is positive and greater than 12, the examinee may have attempted to "fake bad." When the result is negative, this suggests that the examinee has attempted to "fake good." See, e.g., R. P. Granacher, Traumatic brain injury: Methods for clinical and neuropsychiatric assessment, Boca Raton, FL, CRC Press, 2008.
Question 10: A
Rationale: People with SAD usually experience hypersomnia, increased appetite and weight gain, and a craving for carbohydrates.
Question 11: B
Rationale: Broca's and Wernicke's areas are the two primary speech areas in the brain. Wernicke's area is located in the left temporal lobe - or, more specifically, on the posterior portion of the left superior temporal gyrus.
Question 12: A
Rationale: Data on ambulatory medical care visits in the United States is collected yearly by the National Center on Health Statistics and released in several reports [S. Raofi and S. M. Schappert, Medication therapy in ambulatory medical care: United States, 2003-04, Vital Health Stat, 13(163), 2006]. The surveys have consistently shown that, overall, central nervous system medications are most frequently provided, prescribed, or continued at ambulatory care visits in primary care offices, followed by medical specialty offices. There are a few exceptions to this general conclusion for specific types of CNS medications, however - e.g., antipsychotics and antimanics are more often provided or prescribed in medical specialty offices, which include the offices of psychiatrists and neurologists.
Question 13: D
Rationale: The distinction between a fact witness and an expert witness is an important one. As their names imply, a fact witness testifies only to the facts, while an expert witness can offer an opinion. Note that, in this question, Dr. Tout has been asked to serve as a fact witness. This issue is addressed by T. P. Remley in Preparing for court appearances, American Counseling Association, Alexandria, VA, 1991. Remley notes that a fact witness should not render an opinion at a hearing or trial and, if asked to give an opinion, should note that he or she is not in a position to do so because of potential bias, insufficient information on which to base an opinion, etc. (A psychologist may be required to give an opinion when ordered to do so by the court. However, even in this situation, the psychologist should qualify the opinion with a statement about its potential limitations.)
Question 14: B
Rationale: Standard 10.04 of the Ethics Code states that, "In deciding whether to offer or provide services to those already receiving mental health services elsewhere, psychologists carefully consider the treatment issues and the potential client's or patient's welfare." This is most consistent with the requirements of the Ethics Code. The best thing to do in this situation would be to discuss the implications of continuing therapy with the client while he is seeing another therapist. In addition, you should encourage the client to discuss this matter with the other therapist.
Question 15: A
Rationale: Methylphenidate (Ritalin) is associated with a number of adverse side effects. However, these symptoms can often be alleviated by reducing the dosage of the drug. In children, loss of appetite, abdominal pain, insomnia, and tachycardia are the most common side effects of Ritalin.
Question 16: D
Rationale: A careful reading of this question reveals that it is describing "backwards conditioning." Backwards conditioning rarely works: For classical conditioning to be effective, the conditioned stimulus must be presented before the unconditioned stimulus.
Question 17: A
Rationale: This is a fairly easy question since "relevance" is what it sounds like. Test items are relevant when they are germane to the purpose of testing. For example, some educators use a "test relevance index" to determine the extent to which test items on achievement tests are relevant to the goals of the curriculum.
Question 18: B
Rationale: Estimates of the prevalence rates for Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia vary, with rates increasing as age increases. The studies indicate that, of adults over 65 with dementia, between two-thirds to three-fourths have Alzheimer's disease. See, e.g., H. C. Hendrie, Epidemiology of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 6(2 Suppl. 1), S3-18, 1998.
Question 19: D
Rationale: Decision-making strategies have been categorized in terms of several basic types. One strategy is referred to as rational decision-making; as its name implies, it involves examining alternatives in a rational way to identify the best one. Herbert Simon has proposed that rational decision-making often fails because the decision-maker often "satisfices" (rather than "maximizes"); i.e., he or she chooses the first satisfactory alternative rather than continue to search for the optimal alternative due primarily to inadequate information about the problem and alternative solutions, to a lack of time and money, and to limits on the decision-maker's own intelligence.
Question 20: D
Rationale: The studies have shown that mothers with chronic and severe depression are less engaged with their children and have problems setting limits and that these parenting behaviors are associated with certain child outcomes. Several studies have confirmed that the toddlers of mothers with chronic and severe depressive symptoms are more likely than other children to have adjustment problems. For example, there is evidence that children of severely depressed mothers have low levels of independence and tend to be passively noncompliant (i.e., they ignore requests rather than more actively refuse to comply). See, e.g., L. Kuczynski and G. Kochanska, Development of children's noncompliance strategies from toddlerhood to age 5, Developmental Psychology, 26(3), 398-408, 1990.
Question 21: C
Rationale: Whenever a sample is drawn from a population, there is a good chance that the sample will not be entirely representative of that population. As the result of random (chance) factors, the sample may not "mirror" the population in terms of important characteristics. This is referred to as sampling error.
Question 22: B
Rationale: A subpoena legally requires a psychologist to appear at a designated time at a deposition or trial. When the client invokes the privilege, the subpoena is still valid, and the psychologist must appear unless he or she has been released from it. This issue is addressed by S. H. Behnke and J. T. Hilliard (The essentials of Massachusetts mental health law, W. W. Norton, New York, 1998). They note that, when the client invokes the privilege, the psychologist should contact the client's attorney or his or her own attorney to discuss the matter. In addition, the psychologist can contact the attorney who issued the subpoena to request to be released from it. Unless the psychologist receives a written release, he or she must appear as requested (but, of course, will not reveal confidential information without the client's consent). Additional information about responding to a subpoena is provided in the Ethics and Professional Issues chapter of the written study materials.
Question 23: A
Rationale: A test-retest reliability coefficient is obtained by correlating scores on a test with scores on the same test when the same set of examinees retakes it. A test-retest reliability coefficient is most appropriately used with traits that are stable over time. Otherwise, any variance in scores between administrations of the test may reflect the natural change in the trait rather than the test's lack of reliability. Of the traits listed, general intelligence is probably least likely to change significantly over time. Thus, scores on intelligence tests should not change over time and a reliable (accurate and consistent) intelligence test will yield similar scores even when administered at different times.
Question 24: B
Rationale: The DSM-5 distinguishes between Major and Mild Neurocognitive Disorders. The diagnosis of a Major Neurocognitive Disorder requires a significant decline from a previous level of cognitive functioning that interferes with independence in everyday activities; while the diagnosis of a Mild Neurocognitive Disorder requires a modest decline from a previous level of cognitive functioning that does not interfere with independence in everyday activities.
Question 25: B
Rationale: The MMPI-2 includes several validity scales that measure an examinee's response sets and test-taking attitudes. This is an accurate description of the F (Frequency) Scale.