NINJA PRITE FINAL COMBINED
EXAM SET QUESTIONS AND
CORRECT REVISED ANSWERS
2024-2025 LATEST UPDATE
What interventions are consistent w/ the theoretical assumptions of crisis tx? - Answer-
Reassurance, brief hospitalization, psychodynamic insight, treatment with psychotropic
medications (not focusing on past relationships)
What most likely represents an acceptable boundary crossing by a therapist as opposed
to a boundary violation? - Answer- Receiving cookies as an expression of gratitude by a
patient near termination
During last session of successful psychodynamic psychotherapy, pt warmly expresses
gratitude for everything, saying that the help the therapist has given has made a big
difference. Appropriate response? - Answer- Respond by saying that you too have
enjoyed the work
A 12 y/o F refuses to attend school b/c she fears her mother may die in an accident.
Initial management should include: - Answer- Returning the girl to her current classroom
After attending several sessions of individual psychotherapy for anxiety and depression,
a 24 y/o M revealed his homosexuality to his heterosexual male psychiatrist. The
therapist realizes he is uncomfortable when the pt expresses longings for a male. The
therapist also tends to overemphasize any material that might represent the pt's
heterosexual wishes. The next best step for the psychiatrist would be to: - Answer-
Seek consultation to discuss countertransference issues
Pt w/ mild MR in tx program designed to develop new behaviors by modeling and
reinforcement, then practice them - Answer- Social skills training
Therapist preoccupied w/ patient. Acknowledges this but unable to shake feeling -
Answer- Talk to supervisor
15 y/o male bib parents, does not want to speak with psych - Answer- Thank him for
coming in and ask him if he'd like to be seen alone or w/ his parents
One of chief factors in predicting outcome of therapy is: - Answer- Therapeutic alliance
,Couples therapy, husband complains that MD wife works too long hours, she says she
stays late to make sure everything is "right" checking and rechecking her work. Notes
that once in high school she wished her straight-A brother dead and later he died on
hunting trip. Her checking behavior is an example of: - Answer- Undoing
25 y/o AA M 1st year law student seeks therapy for "academic paralysis" brooding
about racial and socioeconomic differences between himself and roommates.
Comfortable w/ AA psychiatrist, open about racial slights. Most important goal: -
Answer- Use shared ethnic background to offer insight as how patient's alienation may
be rooted in something more than current situation
"Deficit model" of psychological illness in psychodynamic psychotherapy define
psychopathology as: - Answer- Weakened or absent psychic structures
43 y/o m very successful executive goes to psychiatrist because wife has threatened to
leave if he doesn't change. He does not understand wife's complaints that he is driven,
perfectionist, demanding, controlling and unavailable. He believes he is just a good
man. In recommending optimal initial treatment plan, key considerations for choice of
therapy should include: - Answer- The difficulty of demonstrating to the pt that his ego
syntonic traits are maladaptative.
25 y/o F never on a date after 6 mo of psychodynamic psychotherapy. Began to
struggle w/ positive feelings about M therapist that she finds hard to accept. At the same
time she starts to date. Therapist believes it is transference. Therapist said nothing, he
believed an interpretation might interfere w/ positive learning experience. This is
example of: - Answer- A practical/supportive approach
Determines if pt has ego strength for therapy - Answer- Assessment of quality of
relationships
Goals of brief psychodynamic psychotherapy compared to long-term psychodynamic
psychotherapy differ how - Answer- Discussion of transference in the latter
Primary intervention in highly expressive psychotherapy: - Answer- Interpretation
pt is often tardy. Supervisor warns not to be late. Pt has anxiety about losing job. When
father dies he leaves town w/o telling supervisor. Again given warning. Next day a train
causes him to be late. In therapy, the overlapping of multiple potential causes for
tardiness is an example of what? - Answer- Overdetermination
38 y/o patient in dynamic psychotherapy for depression says she is lesbian and is
dissatisfied with her otherwise good relationship with her partner of 7 yrs b/c she wants
a child and her partner does not. She thinks about leaving the relationship but this
makes her feel sadness and a sense of loss. What is best intervention? - Answer-
Suggest that conjoint therapy with the patient and her partner might be a productive way
to explore this complicated issue
,What best describes current psychoanalytic thinking about the source of
countertransference phenomena in the therapist - Answer- The therapists total
emotional reaction to the patient
32 y/o F, divorced 3 times, sees a male psychiatrist, saying she needs therapy because
she is paralyzed about choosing a career. The patient has started and stopped college
twice, held several waitress and clerk jobs. She hoped the therapist could tell her what
job to pursue. In the initial interview she asks the therapist to send bills directly to her
father, who manages her money because she has difficulty managing bills and credit
cards. She explained she has to live at home to save money, but hates this because
she frequently fights bitterly with her father who always wants to control her. A
transference issue that the therapist should expect to be a central theme in the therapy
is that the patient will: - Answer- Try to get advice but then be angry at the therapist for
giving it
"Deficit model" of psychological illness in psychodynamic psychotherapy define
psychopathology as: - Answer- Weakened or absent psychic structures
In psychodynamic therapy, interpretation of transference and resistance until insight
fully integrated is called: - Answer- Working through
Primary focus of a cognitive therapy approach to suicidal behavior: - Answer-
Addressing all or nothing beliefs and helping pt learn problem solving
Programmed practice, or exposure therapy, is an indicated treatment for what disorder?
- Answer- Agoraphobia
Pt with depression being treated with CBT tells psychiatrist about waking up and being
worried about work. Pt has big project that is due in two weeks and is half done, but pt
is sure work will not be finished on time. Example of which cognitive error? - Answer-
Catastrophizing
Patient has severe stress and conflict at work, therapist identifies the problem of
maladaptive responses based on rigid thought schemas and decides to target automatic
negative thoughts through reality checking and guided association. What type of
therapy is this? - Answer- CBT
Flooding, graded exposure, and participant modeling: - Answer- Confrontation of
anxiety-provoking experiences
An important technique or goal of cognitive therapy is? - Answer- Eliciting and testing
automatic thoughts
Which psychotherapeutic technique is most clearly indicated for treatment of simple
phobia? - Answer- Exposure therapy
, Take agoraphobic to crowded place and stay there until anxiety dissipates - Answer-
Flooding
The LEAST utilized approach used in cognitive therapy in pt w/ substance dependence
- Answer- Interpretation of interactional process
A CBT therapist works with a therapist, amongst other things, to identify and correct: -
Answer- Overgeneralization
In cognitive therapy, "selective abstraction" is what? - Answer- Patient's focus on a
detail taken out of context and conceptualizes a experience based on this element
Cognitive error: when asked about his day, pt replies "I was late for work b/c I misplaced
my keys" then "I didn't speak up in the staff mtg." - Answer- Selective abstraction
What behavioral therapy has relaxation training, hierarchy construction, and visual
imagery of stimulus? - Answer- Systematic desensitization
All of the following are strategies for change in cognitive therapy: - Answer- Using
reattribution, developing alternatives, questioning the evidence, fantasizing
consequences. (NOT employing interpretation)
When conducting marital therapy with a couple who begin to talk about divorce, what
should the psychiatrist's stance be? - Answer- Focus on the couple's responsibility to
decide the future of their relationship
Which tx is contraindicated in initial treatment of pt experiencing domestic violence? -
Answer- Conjoint marital therapy
The basis for a self-psychological strategy in marital therapy is best indicated by what? -
Answer- Demonstrating the conflicts arising from each spouse's need to have his or her
self-object needs met by the other
Couples therapy: what is the goal of acceptance work? - Answer- Each partner taught to
understand the other's position and release the struggle to change him or her
In a session, a couple seems blissfully content when happy but enraged when frustrated
by the other. They alternate between overidealizing and devaluing the other. This is an
example of? - Answer- Splitting
Dialectical behavior therapy is utilized for - Answer- Borderline personality do
Which type of therapy has individual sessions to analyze self-destructive
cognitions/feelings/actions, and group sessions with skills training to improve
relationships and decrease impulsivity? - Answer- Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
