Chapter 5: Psychodynamic Theory

Test Bank

Multiple Choice

1. According to Freud, the ______ houses key drives (e.g., sex and aggression) which seek gratification.

a. self

b. id

c. ego

d. superego

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Key Conceptual Elements of Freud

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. According to Freud, the ______ functions include the use of judgment, reason, frustration tolerance, and problem solving and relationship skills.

a. self’s

b. id’s

c. ego’s

d. superego’s

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Key Conceptual Elements of Freud

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. According to Freud, the ______ is a person’s conscience or seat of morality.

a. self

b. id

c. ego

d. superego

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Key Conceptual Elements of Freud

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. ______ is defined as the individual’s means of coping with anxiety by refusing to engage in self-reflection or self-analysis that could lead to change and growth.

a. Defense

b. Resistance

c. Repression

d. Projection

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Resistance

Difficulty Level: Easy

5. ______ refers to a professional attributing character traits and feelings of significant others to the client.

a. Transference

b. Countertransference

c. Resistance

d. Ego

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Transference and countertransference

Difficulty Level: Easy

6. ______ refers to the client ascribing character traits and attitudes of significant others in their past to the social worker.

a. Transference

b. Countertransference

c. Resistance

d. Ego

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Transference and countertransference

Difficulty Level: Easy

7. ______ addresses the psychological, intrapsychic elements of human functioning that are continually changing, contribute to motivation, and influence behavior.

a. Behavioral theory

b. Cognitive theory

c. Psychodynamic theory

d. Intrapsychic theory

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Brief Introduction to Freudian Ideas

Difficulty Level: Easy

8. What did Sigmund Fred do as a psychologist?

a. challenged the repression of sexuality common in the Victorian society of his day

b. helped the “patient” closely examine the conscious processes underlying their problems

c. repressed sexuality and ignored the effects of trauma (e.g., sexual abuse) on children

d. failed to address the distress that interfered with people’s everyday functioning

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Brief Introduction to Freudian Ideas

Difficulty Level: Medium

9. ______ became one of the first social work scholars to describe the pivotal impact of Freud’s ideas on social work theory and practice.

a. Virginia Robinson

b. Otto Rank

c. John Bowlby

d. Anna Freud

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Psychodynamic Theories’ Early Influences on Social Work Practice

Difficulty Level: Easy

10. The functional theory of casework differed from the diagnostic theory of social casework because social workers of the functional school ______.

a. focus on the professional’s role in first studying, assessing, and then, treating a client who is having difficulties in adapting to the real world

b. interact with clients in such a way as to help them have a “corrective emotional experience”

c. provide limits and structure or provide a warm, inviting relationship with clients who had not experienced these healthy relational elements in childhood

d. operate from a psychology of growth and with an emphasis on creativity and the impact of social and cultural influences on human development

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Psychodynamic Theories’ Early Influences on Social Work Practice

Difficulty Level: Medium

11. ______ broke from Freud and countered his emphasis on the uncontrollable wishes and desires of the unconscious.

a. Virginia Robinson

b. Otto Rank

c. John Bowlby

d. Anna Freud

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Psychodynamic Theories’ Early Influences on Social Work Practice

Difficulty Level: Easy

12. ______ emphasizes human potential and people’s strengths and resilience.

a. Drive theory

b. Object relations theory

c. Ego psychology

d. Self-psychology

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Extensions of Psychodynamic Theory

Difficulty Level: Medium

13. ______ suggests that the way people relate to others and to the environment in adult life is shaped by caregiving experiences during infancy.

a. Drive theory

b. Object relations theory

c. Ego psychology

d. Self-psychology

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Ego Psychology

Difficulty Level: Medium

14. ______ have challenged psychodynamic theory for its assumption that the practitioner is an objective observer who is able to make expert judgments about the client’s reality which are not accessible to the client.

a. Conflict theorists

b. Ego psychologists

c. System theorists

d. Social constructionists

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Other challenges to psychodynamic theory

Difficulty Level: Medium

15. ______ focuses on the transformation of the negative will expression into positive and eventually creative expression.

a. Drive theory

b. Will psychology

c. Ego psychology

d. Self-psychology

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Will Psychology

Difficulty Level: Medium

16. Which of the following arguments is based on Rank’s will psychology?

a. The human individual merely reflects her/his external biological and cultural milieu.

b. The individual has the power of self-determination which can be used intentionally to shape her/his psychosocial world.

c. The human will is “bad” because it represents genetically inherited aggressive/sexual instincts that must be somehow overcome or sublimated.

d. It is a psychology that presumes to impose pre-determined morals on people, namely clients in therapy.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Will Psychology

Difficulty Level: Hard

17. Which of the following arguments is consistent with Freud’s theory?

a. The individual is trapped between the id impulses and superego parental/societal values.

b. People have the potential to break free from their inherited culture’s mores altogether.

c. The individual has the power of self-determination which can be used intentionally to shape her/his psychosocial world.

d. Each person becomes “more human’ by embracing more authentic life-giving endeavors.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Will Psychology

Difficulty Level: Hard

18. According to Rank, which of the following is the best understanding about the trauma of birth?

a. It denotes only the traumatic physical event of being born.

b. It denotes only the traumatic psychological event of being born.

c. It involves the process of becoming a separate individual, both physically and psychologically.

d. It happens when one conforms to one’s internal will and desires.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Trauma of Birth

Difficulty Level: Medium

19. According to Rank, which of the following is the best understanding about the guilt problem?

a. It happens when one conforms to or ignores one’s internal will and desires.

b. It involves the process of becoming a separate individual psychologically.

c. It happens when one conforms to one’s internal will and desires.

d. It happens when one ignores one’s internal will and desires.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Guilt Problem

Difficulty Level: Medium

20. Will therapy is different from Freud’s approach to therapy because it ______.

a. offers a disease/pathology-based therapy

b. involves meeting one-on-one with a trained therapist

c. provides a universally prescribed cure for mental illness

d. recognizes that suffering is rooted in a person’s existential condition

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Will Therapy

Difficulty Level: Hard

21. What is TRUE about the role of Rankian therapists?

a. They are an analyst—someone who sits, detached and likely behind the client, who lies on the couch.

b. They discourage a client to express his/her emotions and consider his/her authentic beliefs, values and intentions.

c. They help a client develop the most important characteristic of psychological health which is self-acceptance.

d. They view therapy as an attempt to force people into conformity with any ethical or other type of regulatory thought or behavior system.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Change Mechanisms and Therapeutic Methods

Difficulty Level: Hard

22. What is one of the assumptions of the more recent developments of psychodynamic theory?

a. the use of a medical model or deficit-based approach to working with clients

b. the crucial role of the mother infant bond in contributing to adult development

c. defense mechanisms which can be maladaptive or lead to healthy ego development

d. childhood experiences as contributing to the adult growth and development

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Application of Psychodynamic Theory

Difficulty Level: Medium

23. Research methods based in psychodynamic approaches typically include ______.

a. real-world case studies and qualitative research

b. quantitative research and qualitative research

c. real-world case studies and quantitative research

d. simulation case studies and real-world case studies

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: What Are the Sources of Knowledge That Support This Theory?

Difficulty Level: Easy

24. Which of the following theories are evolved based on the original psychodynamic theory developed by Freud?

a. attachment theory, drive theory, will therapy, and cognitive theory

b. attachment theory, drive theory, will therapy, and object relations

c. attachment theory, systems theory, will therapy, and object relations

d. attachment theory, drive theory, behavioral therapy, and object relations

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Application of Psychodynamic Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

25. What is one of the assumptions of the classical psychodynamic theory?

a. the professional role and involvement (e.g. two-person therapy) and clinical relationship

b. the crucial role of the mother infant bond in contributing to adult growth and development

c. the importance of people’s creativity, potential and strengths to human growth and development

d. childhood experiences as contributing to the adult growth and development

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Application of Psychodynamic Theory

Difficulty Level: Medium

True/False

1. According to Freud, childhood relationships contribute to and shape adult development and functioning.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Childhood experiences and their impact on adult development.

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. Ego defense mechanisms are understood to help individuals navigate or adapt to their environment.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Ego defense mechanisms

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. Psychoanalytic theory is the more expansive term than psychodynamic, encompassing a broad range of theories and perspectives.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Brief Introduction to Freudian Ideas

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. Freud understood human beings to be plagued by conflicts of the will, which potentially lead to guilt and inhibitions that create problems for people in various ways in their lives.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Will Psychology

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Current research such as attachment theory and the infant–caregiver bond increasingly supports the effectiveness of psychodynamic theories.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: What Are the Sources of Knowledge That Support This Theory?

Difficulty Level: Medium

Short Answer

1. Use an example to explain why countertransference is important in social work practice.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Transference and countertransference

Difficulty Level: Hard

2. Elaborate how Otto Rank’s theory was different from Freud.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Psychodynamic Theories’ Early Influences on Social Work Practice

Difficulty Level: Hard

3. Explain how the diagnostic school and the functional school are different.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Summary of Overview

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. Use three examples to discuss how psychodynamic theory can be critiqued.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Other challenges to psychodynamic theory

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Define will according to Rank’s will psychology. Using Rank’s theory, explain how will can be used.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Will Psychology

Difficulty Level: Medium