,NSG 527 Midterm Exam Psychopathology Questions And Answers
2026/2027 Wilkes University
Q1. Which statement best captures the central focus of existential
psychotherapy?
A) Psychological symptoms should be reduced primarily through behavioral
conditioning
B) Individuals are helped to examine meaning, choice, responsibility, and
their subjective experience of existence
C) Treatment should focus exclusively on unconscious childhood drives
D) Therapy is primarily concerned with correcting distorted automatic
thoughts
Correct Answer: B) Individuals are helped to examine meaning, choice,
responsibility, and their subjective experience of existence
Rationale: Existential psychotherapy emphasizes how individuals
experience being alive and how they respond to fundamental concerns such
as freedom, responsibility, isolation, mortality, authenticity, and meaning.
Q2. Which set contains Yalom’s four major existential givens?
A) Death, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness
B) Trust, autonomy, identity, and intimacy
C) Attachment, security, belonging, and mastery
D) Anxiety, depression, guilt, and grief
Correct Answer: A) Death, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness
Rationale: Yalom identified death, freedom, existential isolation, and
meaninglessness as fundamental conditions of human existence that can
generate anxiety and become important themes in psychotherapy.
Q3. Which existential “world” refers primarily to the individual's
relationship with the self?
A) Umwelt
B) Mitwelt
C) Überwelt
, D) Eigenwelt
Correct Answer: D) Eigenwelt
Rationale: Eigenwelt refers to the private or personal world and the
individual's relationship with the self, including self-awareness, identity, and
personal experience.
Q4. Which existential world most directly describes relationships
with other people and the social environment?
A) Eigenwelt
B) Umwelt
C) Mitwelt
D) Überwelt
Correct Answer: C) Mitwelt
Rationale: Mitwelt refers to the interpersonal or social world and describes
how an individual relates to other people, communities, and social
relationships.
Q5. Which description best reflects normal existential anxiety?
A) Anxiety that always indicates psychiatric illness
B) Anxiety caused solely by distorted thoughts
C) An understandable response to genuine threats, uncertainty,
responsibility, or the realities of existence
D) Anxiety that must always be eliminated before growth can occur
Correct Answer: C) An understandable response to genuine threats,
uncertainty, responsibility, or the realities of existence
Rationale: Existential theory views some anxiety as an unavoidable and
potentially constructive part of living. Normal anxiety can promote
awareness, decision-making, growth, and more authentic engagement with
life.
Q6. Which feature most clearly distinguishes neurotic anxiety from
normal existential anxiety?
A) Neurotic anxiety always has a medical cause
2026/2027 Wilkes University
Q1. Which statement best captures the central focus of existential
psychotherapy?
A) Psychological symptoms should be reduced primarily through behavioral
conditioning
B) Individuals are helped to examine meaning, choice, responsibility, and
their subjective experience of existence
C) Treatment should focus exclusively on unconscious childhood drives
D) Therapy is primarily concerned with correcting distorted automatic
thoughts
Correct Answer: B) Individuals are helped to examine meaning, choice,
responsibility, and their subjective experience of existence
Rationale: Existential psychotherapy emphasizes how individuals
experience being alive and how they respond to fundamental concerns such
as freedom, responsibility, isolation, mortality, authenticity, and meaning.
Q2. Which set contains Yalom’s four major existential givens?
A) Death, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness
B) Trust, autonomy, identity, and intimacy
C) Attachment, security, belonging, and mastery
D) Anxiety, depression, guilt, and grief
Correct Answer: A) Death, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness
Rationale: Yalom identified death, freedom, existential isolation, and
meaninglessness as fundamental conditions of human existence that can
generate anxiety and become important themes in psychotherapy.
Q3. Which existential “world” refers primarily to the individual's
relationship with the self?
A) Umwelt
B) Mitwelt
C) Überwelt
, D) Eigenwelt
Correct Answer: D) Eigenwelt
Rationale: Eigenwelt refers to the private or personal world and the
individual's relationship with the self, including self-awareness, identity, and
personal experience.
Q4. Which existential world most directly describes relationships
with other people and the social environment?
A) Eigenwelt
B) Umwelt
C) Mitwelt
D) Überwelt
Correct Answer: C) Mitwelt
Rationale: Mitwelt refers to the interpersonal or social world and describes
how an individual relates to other people, communities, and social
relationships.
Q5. Which description best reflects normal existential anxiety?
A) Anxiety that always indicates psychiatric illness
B) Anxiety caused solely by distorted thoughts
C) An understandable response to genuine threats, uncertainty,
responsibility, or the realities of existence
D) Anxiety that must always be eliminated before growth can occur
Correct Answer: C) An understandable response to genuine threats,
uncertainty, responsibility, or the realities of existence
Rationale: Existential theory views some anxiety as an unavoidable and
potentially constructive part of living. Normal anxiety can promote
awareness, decision-making, growth, and more authentic engagement with
life.
Q6. Which feature most clearly distinguishes neurotic anxiety from
normal existential anxiety?
A) Neurotic anxiety always has a medical cause
