ASWB Exam Study Guide
!@#$%%%%%
Piaget's stage: Sensorimotor - (ANSWERS)0-2 years of age. Retains image of objects, develops
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primitive logic in manipulating objects, begins intentional actions, play is imitative, signals
meaning - infants invests meaning in event (babysitter arriving means mother is leaving),
symbol meaning (language) begins in last part of stage. P. 40
Piaget's stage: Peoperational - (ANSWERS)2-7 years of age. Progress from concrete to abstract
thinking, can comprehend past, present and future, night terrors, acquires words and symbols,
magical thinking, thinking is not generalized, thinking is concrete, irreversible, egocentric,
cannot see another point of view besides own, thinking is centered on one detail or event. P. 40
Piaget's stage: Concrete Operations - (ANSWERS)7-11 years of age. Beginnings of abstract
thought, plays games with rules, cause and effect relationships understood, logical
implications are understood, thinking is independent of experience, thinking is reversible, rules
of logic are developed. P. 40
Piaget's stage: Formal Operations - (ANSWERS)11 through maturity. Higher level of abstraction,
planning for future, thinking hypothetically, assumes adult roles and responsibilities. P. 40
What are some main themes of sexuality in infants and toddlers? - (ANSWERS)Children are
sexual even before birth.
By age 2 children know their gender and are aware of differences in genders. P. 42
What are some main themes of sexuality in children (3-7)? - (ANSWERS)Children can be more
affectionate around this age. They begin to be more social.
Children will play doctor displaying normal curiosity. By age 5 or 6 children become more
modest and private about dressing and bathing.
They start to be aware of marriage and understand living together based on family experiences,
so they role play house or being married. P. 42
What are some main themes of sexuality in pre-adolescent youth (8-12)? - (ANSWERS)Puberty
hits anywhere between 9 and 12 for most.
Children become more self conscious. Masturbation increases.
Exploring same sex sexuality is usually around this age.
Group dating begins. P. 42
What are some main themes of sexuality in adolescent youth (13-19)? - (ANSWERS)Increase in
romantic sexual relationships.
Experience strong emotional attachments to romantic partners. P. 43
What is attachment theory? - (ANSWERS)A lasting psychological connectedness between
human beings that can be understood within an evolutionary context in which a caregiver
provides safety and security for a child. P. 43
,ASWB Exam Study Guide
What is the critical period for developing attachment? - (ANSWERS)Before the!@#$%%%%%
age of 5. P. 51
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What is the order of Maslow's Hierarchy of needs pyramid? - (ANSWERS)1. Physiological needs
2. Safety needs
3. Social Needs (Love and Belonging)
4. Esteem Needs
5. Self Actualization
P. 53
What is strength? - (ANSWERS)Any ability that helps an individual (or family) to confront and
deal with a stressful life situation and to use the challenging situation as a stimulation for
growth. P. 55
What are examples of strength attributes? - (ANSWERS)cognitive abilities, coping mechanisms,
personal attributes, interpersonal skills, and external resources. P. 55
What are examples of Family strengths? - (ANSWERS)Kinship bonds, community supports,
religious connections, flexible roles, strong ethnic traditions, and more. P. 55
What is the strengths perspective? - (ANSWERS)Focusing on understanding clients (or families)
on the basis of their strengths and resources (internal or external) and mobilizing the resources
to improve their situation. P. 55
The strengths perspective is based on what? - (ANSWERS)The assumption that clients have the
capacity to grow, change, and adapt (Humanistic Approach). P. 55
Compensations - (ANSWERS)Enables one to make up for real or fancied deficiencies ( a person
who stutters becomes a very expressive writer). P. 56
Conversion - (ANSWERS)Repressed urge is expressed disguised as a disturbance of body
function, usually of the sensory, voluntary nervous system (as pain, deafness, blindness
paralysis, convulsions, tics). P. 56
Dissociation - (ANSWERS)A process that enables a person to split mental functions in a manner
that allows him or her to express forbidden or unconscious impulses without taking
responsibility for the action, either because he or she is unable to remember the disowned
behavior, or because it is not experienced as his or her own (pathologically expresses as fugue
states, amnesia, or dissociation neurosis, or normally expressed as day dreaming). P. 56
Incorporation - (ANSWERS)Primitive mechanism in which psychic representation of a person
(parts of a person) is/are figuratively ingested. P. 57
, ASWB Exam Study Guide
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Intellectualization - (ANSWERS)Where the person avoids uncomfortable emotions by focusing
on facts or logic. P. 57 %%%%%%
Reaction Formation - (ANSWERS)persons adopts affects, ideas, attitudes, or behaviors that are
opposites of those he or she harbors consciously or unconsciously (excessive moral zeal
masking strong, but repressed asocial impulses or being excessively sweet to mask
unconscious anger). P. 57
Splitting - (ANSWERS)defensive mechanism associated with borderline Personality Disorder in
which a person perceives self and others as "all good" or "all bad." Splitting serves to protect
the good object. A person cannot integrate the good and the bad in people. P. 58
Sublimation - (ANSWERS)Potentially maladaptive feeling or behaviors are diverted into socially
acceptable, adaptive channels (a person who has angry feelings channel them into athletics.
P. 58
Symbolization - (ANSWERS)A mental representation stands for some other thing, class of
things, or attribute. This mechanism underlies dream formation and some other symptoms
(such as conversation reactions, obsessions, compulsions) with a link between the latent
meaning of the symptom and the symbol; usually unconscious. P. 58
Undoing - (ANSWERS)A person uses words or actions to symbolically reverse or negate
unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or actions (a person compulsively washing hands to deal with
obsessive thoughts). P. 58
Who has the eight stages with two possible outcomes? - (ANSWERS)Erikson. P. 58
What are Erikson's eight stages? - (ANSWERS)1. Trust Vs. Mistrust
2. Autonomy Vs. Shame and Doubt
3. Initiative Vs. Guilt
4. Industry Vs. Inferiority
5. Identity Vs. Role Confusion
6. Intimacy Vs. Isolation
7. Generativity Vs. Stagnation
8. Ego Vs. Despair
P. 58-59
Define Groupthink - (ANSWERS)When a group makes faulty decisions because of group
pressures. P. 61
What is a family systems approach? - (ANSWERS)A family systems approach argues that in
order to understand a family system, the social worker must look at the family as a whole, rather
than focusing on its members. P. 62
!@#$%%%%%
Piaget's stage: Sensorimotor - (ANSWERS)0-2 years of age. Retains image of objects, develops
%%%%%%
primitive logic in manipulating objects, begins intentional actions, play is imitative, signals
meaning - infants invests meaning in event (babysitter arriving means mother is leaving),
symbol meaning (language) begins in last part of stage. P. 40
Piaget's stage: Peoperational - (ANSWERS)2-7 years of age. Progress from concrete to abstract
thinking, can comprehend past, present and future, night terrors, acquires words and symbols,
magical thinking, thinking is not generalized, thinking is concrete, irreversible, egocentric,
cannot see another point of view besides own, thinking is centered on one detail or event. P. 40
Piaget's stage: Concrete Operations - (ANSWERS)7-11 years of age. Beginnings of abstract
thought, plays games with rules, cause and effect relationships understood, logical
implications are understood, thinking is independent of experience, thinking is reversible, rules
of logic are developed. P. 40
Piaget's stage: Formal Operations - (ANSWERS)11 through maturity. Higher level of abstraction,
planning for future, thinking hypothetically, assumes adult roles and responsibilities. P. 40
What are some main themes of sexuality in infants and toddlers? - (ANSWERS)Children are
sexual even before birth.
By age 2 children know their gender and are aware of differences in genders. P. 42
What are some main themes of sexuality in children (3-7)? - (ANSWERS)Children can be more
affectionate around this age. They begin to be more social.
Children will play doctor displaying normal curiosity. By age 5 or 6 children become more
modest and private about dressing and bathing.
They start to be aware of marriage and understand living together based on family experiences,
so they role play house or being married. P. 42
What are some main themes of sexuality in pre-adolescent youth (8-12)? - (ANSWERS)Puberty
hits anywhere between 9 and 12 for most.
Children become more self conscious. Masturbation increases.
Exploring same sex sexuality is usually around this age.
Group dating begins. P. 42
What are some main themes of sexuality in adolescent youth (13-19)? - (ANSWERS)Increase in
romantic sexual relationships.
Experience strong emotional attachments to romantic partners. P. 43
What is attachment theory? - (ANSWERS)A lasting psychological connectedness between
human beings that can be understood within an evolutionary context in which a caregiver
provides safety and security for a child. P. 43
,ASWB Exam Study Guide
What is the critical period for developing attachment? - (ANSWERS)Before the!@#$%%%%%
age of 5. P. 51
%%%%%%
What is the order of Maslow's Hierarchy of needs pyramid? - (ANSWERS)1. Physiological needs
2. Safety needs
3. Social Needs (Love and Belonging)
4. Esteem Needs
5. Self Actualization
P. 53
What is strength? - (ANSWERS)Any ability that helps an individual (or family) to confront and
deal with a stressful life situation and to use the challenging situation as a stimulation for
growth. P. 55
What are examples of strength attributes? - (ANSWERS)cognitive abilities, coping mechanisms,
personal attributes, interpersonal skills, and external resources. P. 55
What are examples of Family strengths? - (ANSWERS)Kinship bonds, community supports,
religious connections, flexible roles, strong ethnic traditions, and more. P. 55
What is the strengths perspective? - (ANSWERS)Focusing on understanding clients (or families)
on the basis of their strengths and resources (internal or external) and mobilizing the resources
to improve their situation. P. 55
The strengths perspective is based on what? - (ANSWERS)The assumption that clients have the
capacity to grow, change, and adapt (Humanistic Approach). P. 55
Compensations - (ANSWERS)Enables one to make up for real or fancied deficiencies ( a person
who stutters becomes a very expressive writer). P. 56
Conversion - (ANSWERS)Repressed urge is expressed disguised as a disturbance of body
function, usually of the sensory, voluntary nervous system (as pain, deafness, blindness
paralysis, convulsions, tics). P. 56
Dissociation - (ANSWERS)A process that enables a person to split mental functions in a manner
that allows him or her to express forbidden or unconscious impulses without taking
responsibility for the action, either because he or she is unable to remember the disowned
behavior, or because it is not experienced as his or her own (pathologically expresses as fugue
states, amnesia, or dissociation neurosis, or normally expressed as day dreaming). P. 56
Incorporation - (ANSWERS)Primitive mechanism in which psychic representation of a person
(parts of a person) is/are figuratively ingested. P. 57
, ASWB Exam Study Guide
!@#$%%%%%
Intellectualization - (ANSWERS)Where the person avoids uncomfortable emotions by focusing
on facts or logic. P. 57 %%%%%%
Reaction Formation - (ANSWERS)persons adopts affects, ideas, attitudes, or behaviors that are
opposites of those he or she harbors consciously or unconsciously (excessive moral zeal
masking strong, but repressed asocial impulses or being excessively sweet to mask
unconscious anger). P. 57
Splitting - (ANSWERS)defensive mechanism associated with borderline Personality Disorder in
which a person perceives self and others as "all good" or "all bad." Splitting serves to protect
the good object. A person cannot integrate the good and the bad in people. P. 58
Sublimation - (ANSWERS)Potentially maladaptive feeling or behaviors are diverted into socially
acceptable, adaptive channels (a person who has angry feelings channel them into athletics.
P. 58
Symbolization - (ANSWERS)A mental representation stands for some other thing, class of
things, or attribute. This mechanism underlies dream formation and some other symptoms
(such as conversation reactions, obsessions, compulsions) with a link between the latent
meaning of the symptom and the symbol; usually unconscious. P. 58
Undoing - (ANSWERS)A person uses words or actions to symbolically reverse or negate
unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or actions (a person compulsively washing hands to deal with
obsessive thoughts). P. 58
Who has the eight stages with two possible outcomes? - (ANSWERS)Erikson. P. 58
What are Erikson's eight stages? - (ANSWERS)1. Trust Vs. Mistrust
2. Autonomy Vs. Shame and Doubt
3. Initiative Vs. Guilt
4. Industry Vs. Inferiority
5. Identity Vs. Role Confusion
6. Intimacy Vs. Isolation
7. Generativity Vs. Stagnation
8. Ego Vs. Despair
P. 58-59
Define Groupthink - (ANSWERS)When a group makes faulty decisions because of group
pressures. P. 61
What is a family systems approach? - (ANSWERS)A family systems approach argues that in
order to understand a family system, the social worker must look at the family as a whole, rather
than focusing on its members. P. 62
