COUN 533 MIDTERM EXAM REVIEW QUESTIONS AND
CORRECT ANSWERS LATEST VERSION 2026/2027
1. What does it mean for a counseling approach to be
phenomenological?
ANSWER : A phenomenological approach emphasizes that experiences
are important, but how a person perceives and interprets those
experiences is even more important.
2. What are common therapeutic factors shared across different
counseling approaches?
ANSWER : Common therapeutic factors include culturally appropriate
explanations, a healing setting, advice or education, an emotionally
charged therapist-client relationship, catharsis, exposure to feared stimuli,
therapist feedback, insight, positive experiences or hope, a working
alliance, therapist credibility, and trust in the therapist.
3. What are four suggestions for developing your own theoretical
orientation?
ANSWER :
1. Commit to a three-year action plan to develop your theoretical
orientation.
2. Remember that eclecticism requires expertise in multiple
approaches.
3. Do not confuse a theory with its theorist.
4. Choose an area of specialization and create a three-year action plan
to become proficient in it.
4. What is the sequence of Freud's psychosexual stages?
ANSWER : Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, and Genital. A mnemonic is
“Operas Are Pretty Lame Generally.”
5. What is transference?
ANSWER : Transference occurs when clients react to the counselor as
though the counselor were someone from their past, transferring
, emotions and reactions from previous relationships onto the therapeutic
relationship.
6. What is countertransference?
ANSWER : Countertransference refers to the counselor's emotional
reactions toward the client.
7. What theory did Freud initially present in “The Aetiology of
Hysteria”?
ANSWER : Freud presented cases suggesting that childhood sexual abuse
or trauma could lead to symptoms of hysteria and that psychoanalysis
could address these symptoms.
8. Why did Freud's initial theory receive a negative reaction?
ANSWER : The audience may have been uncomfortable with the sexual
subject matter, Freud's arrogance, or the lack of scientific rigor in his
presentation.
9. What alternative explanation did Freud develop through self-
exploration?
ANSWER : Freud developed the Oedipus theory as an alternative
explanation.
10. What is Freud's “basic rule” of psychoanalysis?
ANSWER : The basic rule is to say whatever comes to mind. This is also
known as free association.
11. What is the purpose of free association?
ANSWER : Free association encourages spontaneous talking while
minimizing external stimuli and internal distractions.
12. What are Freud's three components of personality?
ANSWER : The three components are the id, ego, and superego.
13. What are defense mechanisms according to Freud?
ANSWER : Defense mechanisms are automatic, unconscious processes
that protect a person from unacceptable impulses and help distort or alter
reality.
14. What are Freud's major defense mechanisms?
ANSWER : Denial, repression, projection, reaction formation,
displacement, rationalization, regression, sublimation, introjection,
identification, and compensation.
CORRECT ANSWERS LATEST VERSION 2026/2027
1. What does it mean for a counseling approach to be
phenomenological?
ANSWER : A phenomenological approach emphasizes that experiences
are important, but how a person perceives and interprets those
experiences is even more important.
2. What are common therapeutic factors shared across different
counseling approaches?
ANSWER : Common therapeutic factors include culturally appropriate
explanations, a healing setting, advice or education, an emotionally
charged therapist-client relationship, catharsis, exposure to feared stimuli,
therapist feedback, insight, positive experiences or hope, a working
alliance, therapist credibility, and trust in the therapist.
3. What are four suggestions for developing your own theoretical
orientation?
ANSWER :
1. Commit to a three-year action plan to develop your theoretical
orientation.
2. Remember that eclecticism requires expertise in multiple
approaches.
3. Do not confuse a theory with its theorist.
4. Choose an area of specialization and create a three-year action plan
to become proficient in it.
4. What is the sequence of Freud's psychosexual stages?
ANSWER : Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, and Genital. A mnemonic is
“Operas Are Pretty Lame Generally.”
5. What is transference?
ANSWER : Transference occurs when clients react to the counselor as
though the counselor were someone from their past, transferring
, emotions and reactions from previous relationships onto the therapeutic
relationship.
6. What is countertransference?
ANSWER : Countertransference refers to the counselor's emotional
reactions toward the client.
7. What theory did Freud initially present in “The Aetiology of
Hysteria”?
ANSWER : Freud presented cases suggesting that childhood sexual abuse
or trauma could lead to symptoms of hysteria and that psychoanalysis
could address these symptoms.
8. Why did Freud's initial theory receive a negative reaction?
ANSWER : The audience may have been uncomfortable with the sexual
subject matter, Freud's arrogance, or the lack of scientific rigor in his
presentation.
9. What alternative explanation did Freud develop through self-
exploration?
ANSWER : Freud developed the Oedipus theory as an alternative
explanation.
10. What is Freud's “basic rule” of psychoanalysis?
ANSWER : The basic rule is to say whatever comes to mind. This is also
known as free association.
11. What is the purpose of free association?
ANSWER : Free association encourages spontaneous talking while
minimizing external stimuli and internal distractions.
12. What are Freud's three components of personality?
ANSWER : The three components are the id, ego, and superego.
13. What are defense mechanisms according to Freud?
ANSWER : Defense mechanisms are automatic, unconscious processes
that protect a person from unacceptable impulses and help distort or alter
reality.
14. What are Freud's major defense mechanisms?
ANSWER : Denial, repression, projection, reaction formation,
displacement, rationalization, regression, sublimation, introjection,
identification, and compensation.
