A therapist encourages her patient to speak freely about whatever comes to mind, without censorship or direction, and later guides the patient in interpreting recurring themes in their dreams.
Which of the following therapeutic approaches is this therapist using?
Psychodynamic therapy
Cognitive-behavioral therapy
Person-centered therapy
Systematic desensitization
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A psychotherapist is treating a patient who discloses that they are experiencing serious thoughts of harming a specific named individual. The therapist, without informing the patient, contacts the police and the intended victim to warn them. The patient later discovers this and feels their privacy was violated.
Which of the following best evaluates the therapist's actions from an ethical standpoint?
The therapist acted unethically because therapists must maintain absolute confidentiality under all circumstances
The therapist acted unethically because the information should have been shared with the patient's family rather than the police
The therapist acted ethically because the APA guidelines permit breaching confidentiality to protect a third party from serious and imminent harm
The therapist acted unethically because sharing information with external parties requires written consent from the patient regardless of circumstances
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A clinical psychologist assessed eight patients diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) before and after a 12-week course of trauma-focused therapy. Symptom severity was measured using a validated 80-point scale at the start and end of treatment, where higher scores indicate more severe symptoms.
The data are shown in the table below. The psychologist did not use a control group or randomly assign patients to conditions.
Patient | Pre-therapy score | Post-therapy score |
|---|---|---|
1 | 61 | 42 |
2 | 55 | 38 |
3 | 53 | 44 |
4 | 49 | 31 |
5 | 44 | 28 |
6 | 42 | 35 |
7 | 38 | 22 |
8 | 38 | 19 |
The psychologist reports that all eight patients showed a reduction in symptom scores following therapy and concludes that trauma-focused therapy causes a reduction in PTSD symptom severity.
Which of the following most accurately describes a flaw in this conclusion?
Because there was no control group and no random assignment, it cannot be established that therapy caused the reduction in symptoms
The mean symptom score is not an appropriate measure for evaluating treatment effectiveness in clinical studies
The sample size of eight patients is sufficient to generalize the findings to all individuals diagnosed with PTSD globally
The validated symptom scale cannot measure PTSD severity because the disorder involves subjective experience
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