THEORETICAL EVALUATION SELF-TEST

Instructions: TEST is an educational tool as well as a research instrument, so it is designed to give immediate feedback on your theoretical preferences.

Select the number which best reflects your agreement or disagreement with each item. When completed, you will have an opportunity to receive and interprete your score.

TIP: Use "Tab" to move from response to response.

1. One central therapeutic factor is the symbolic recreation of a nurturing caretaker relationship with the therapist.

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2. The therapist should educate the client about the relationship of patterns of cognition and many mental health problems.

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3. The therapist's unconditional positive regard for the client is a crucial therapeutic factor.

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4. It is important for therapists to see clients together with their families.

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5. The therapeutic alliance is important primarily to provide a foundation for collaborative case management.

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6. Human behavior is shaped by patterns of reinforcements and punishments in the environment.

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7. Change occurs in therapy because of the therapist's empathic, non-judgmental,positive attitude towards the client.

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8. Psychoeducation about the benefits and side effects of medications is an important part of treatment.

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9. Dreams discussed in therapy can uncover significant unconscious wishes, conflicts and feelings.

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10. Most psychotherapy theories are distractions from the central task of solving the client's problems.

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11. Advocacy with other providers on behalf of clients is a central role of the therapist.

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12. It is important for the therapist to respond to clients with spontaneous, genuine affect.

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13. Primary emphasis should be placed on the client's interactions with his or her family.

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14. The role of the therapist is to advise and guide the client.

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15. Client's problems are often caused by negative patterns of thinking.

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16. Psychological problems vary with the culture of the client.

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17. Many mental health problems are effectively treated with medication.

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18. The therapist should be active, directive and goal-oriented.

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19. Client's problems are often contributed to by social problems and gaps in the social service system.

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20. It is important to attend to what the client is projecting onto the therapist.

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21. The therapist should teach clients techniques to address problem areas.

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22. When one person in a family is experiencing problems, it is usually the expression of family communication and relationship problems.

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23. Many clients can benefit from psychiatric medication.

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24. It is important to assess not only the person seeking services, but his or her environment as well.

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25. Change occurs in therapy through restoring healthy family structures.

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26. It is essential for therapists to be aware of the values and worldview of their own culture and how they might affect clients.

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27. Change occurs in therapy because of the client's insight into characteristic ways of relating with others set in early childhood.

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28. It is helpful to ask questions to lead the client to realize their mistakes or misperceptions.

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29. There is evidence that most mental health problems have biological causes.

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30. Denial, repression, intellectualization and other defense mechanisms are important to understanding psychology.

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Click on "Compute" to calculate and display your scores in the table below.

INTERPRETING YOUR RESULTS

INTERPRETING YOUR SCORE: The subscales used to add up your scores(psychodynamic, biological, etc) are derived from a factor analysis of the responses of 130 subjects. See below for sample information. Some participants have found it helpful to refer back to their responses to individual items to see if there are parts of a theory they tend to agree with more or less. The column, "Sample of 130", provides the means and standard deviations of the sample of 130 community clinicians. Since these are from one selectively drawn sample, they provide a reference point but are not "norms". (These are means of the summed scale scores, not standarized to the 1 item level). To aid you in interpretation of the mean +/- 1 standard deviation would include 68% of the sample, and +/- 2 standard deviations would include 95% of the sample. One caution is that the reliability of the scale is adequate to discriminate group differences, but not individual differences. These scores should be used to stimulate reflection, but not as precise measurements of individual theoretical orientation. Sample Information: (n=130) Fifty-six (43%) of the subjects were MSW students, and 74 (57%) were practicing clinicians. Ninety-three (72%) were social work associated (students and practitioners) and 37 (28%) were from the other mental health professions. The average age of subjects was 35 (sd=13.7). The average practice experience of practictioners was 13.8 years (sd=11.2).
Use the scroll bar to the right of the text box to find out how you can interpret your score.