How do you get to licensure? Practice, practice, practice. Here's a free question to help you get ready to pass the social work licensing exam:
In Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, if a client believes at root that they are worthless and unlovable, that's an example of:
A. A cognitive distortion
B. An automatic negative thought
C. A core belief
D. A dysfunctional assumption
What do you think?
If you know your CBT, this should give you too much trouble. Let's take take the answers one at a time.
Is the client's thinking they're worthless and unlovable a cognitive distortion? Not really. If they though someone else was thinking that, that would better illustrate a cognitive distortion (mind reading, in that case). Let's see if there's a better answer.
Automatic negative thought. That seems to fit. The thought is certainly negative. Current lead possibility.
Core belief. Oh, wait. We're talking about the client's root understanding of who they are-not just a passing or recurring thought. That makes this the best pick of the bunch. Unless…
Dysfunctional assumption. That's just another way of saying cognitive distortion, isn't it? It gets eliminated for the same reason.
So we have a winner: C, A core belief.
This question might've been answerable just by matching "root" and "core." But take care with that kind of simple associative answer picking. Sometimes questions can be trickier than this one turned out to be.
Need to brush up on CBT basics? Here's a walk-though. And here's another.
Is CBT important to know for the ASWB exam? It is. The ASWB has increasingly focused (as has social work at large) on evidence-based practice. CBT is that.
For more questions about CBT and the wide range of topics covered on the social work licensing exam, check out our full-length practice tests. Create an account to get started.
May all of your automatic thoughts be positive. Happy studying and good luck on the exam!