AP Psychology · Topic 5.5
Treatment of Psychological Disorders Practice
Part of Mental and Physical Health.
Practice questions
38
Sample questions
5 of 38 — sign in to practice the rest with adaptive difficulty and mastery tracking.
Sample 1difficulty 2/5
A 45-year-old patient presents with recurrent major depression. Her clinician notes a family history of mood disorders, recent job loss, chronic insomnia, ruminative thinking patterns, and limited social support. The treatment plan integrates an SSRI, cognitive-behavioral therapy, sleep hygiene coaching, and a peer support group.
Within CBT, the patient's ruminative thinking would most directly be addressed through:
- A
Aversive conditioning paired with negative thoughts
- Bcheck_circle
Identifying and restructuring maladaptive automatic thoughts
- C
Free association to surface unconscious wishes
- D
Unconditional positive regard from the therapist
Why
CBT targets automatic thoughts and core beliefs through cognitive restructuring. Free association is psychoanalytic, unconditional positive regard is humanistic (Rogers), and aversive conditioning is a behavior-therapy technique not appropriate for rumination.
- A
Sample 2difficulty 2/5
A randomized clinical trial enrolled 240 combat veterans diagnosed with PTSD. Participants were assigned to one of three conditions: prolonged exposure therapy, cognitive processing therapy, or a waitlist control. After 12 weeks, both active treatments produced large reductions in PTSD symptom severity compared with the waitlist, with no statistically significant difference between the two active arms.
Prolonged exposure therapy reduces PTSD symptoms primarily by leveraging which learning principle?
- A
Insight into unconscious conflict
- Bcheck_circle
Extinction of conditioned fear responses
- C
Modeling of adaptive behavior
- D
Operant punishment of avoidance
Why
Prolonged exposure relies on classical-conditioning extinction: repeatedly confronting trauma cues without aversive consequences weakens the conditioned fear response. Punishment, psychodynamic insight, and modeling are not the active mechanism in exposure-based protocols.
- A
Sample 3difficulty 2/5
A 30-year-old woman with obsessive-compulsive disorder reports that intrusive thoughts about contamination prompt repeated handwashing rituals lasting hours each day. Her therapist begins a treatment in which she touches a doorknob and refrains from washing her hands, gradually working up a hierarchy of feared situations.
Which medication class is the first-line pharmacological treatment for OCD?
- A
Typical antipsychotics
- B
Benzodiazepines
- C
Stimulants
- Dcheck_circle
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)
Why
SSRIs (often at higher doses than for depression) are first-line for OCD. Benzodiazepines treat acute anxiety, stimulants treat ADHD, and typical antipsychotics treat psychotic disorders.
- A
Sample 4difficulty 2/5
A health psychologist runs an 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) group for patients with chronic pain. At week 8, participants report lower perceived pain interference and higher quality of life on validated scales, although objective measures of tissue inflammation are unchanged from baseline.
Which interpretation best explains the pattern of results?
- A
The lack of inflammatory change proves MBSR is a placebo effect.
- Bcheck_circle
MBSR alters the cognitive and emotional appraisal of pain rather than its underlying physiology.
- C
Self-report measures are invalid and should be ignored.
- D
MBSR cures chronic pain by eliminating the inflammatory source.
Why
Mindfulness-based interventions typically modify how patients relate to pain (appraisal, attention, acceptance), improving function and quality of life without necessarily changing peripheral pathology. The other options overstate or dismiss the data.
- A
Sample 5difficulty 2/5
A community clinic randomly assigned 120 adults with social anxiety disorder to either 12 weeks of group cognitive-behavioral therapy or 12 weeks of individual cognitive-behavioral therapy. Both therapy formats produced significant reductions on the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, with no statistically significant difference between formats. The group format cost roughly one-third as much per patient.
Which therapeutic factor is uniquely available in group rather than individual CBT for social anxiety?
- A
A trained therapist providing structured cognitive restructuring
- Bcheck_circle
In-session opportunities for naturalistic interpersonal exposure with peers
- C
Behavioral homework between sessions
- D
Use of Socratic questioning to challenge beliefs
Why
Group format provides repeated, real-time interpersonal exposure—a distinctive therapeutic mechanism for social anxiety. Therapist guidance, Socratic questioning, and homework occur in both formats.
- A