TEXES AAFCS COMPOSITE EXAM SCRIPT 2025/2026
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS RATED A+
✔✔Murray Bowen's Family Systems Theory - ✔✔four basic family relationship patterns
within what he called the Nuclear Family Emotional System; patterns dictate where
problems develop when the family system is under tension
1) Marital conflict
2) Spousal dysfunction
3) child impairment
4) emotional distance
✔✔marital conflict - ✔✔Bowen; spouses project their increasing anxiety into the marital
relationship. Each partner becomes preoccupied with the other's shortcomings, tries to
control them, and resists being controlled.
✔✔spousal dysfunction - ✔✔Bowen; involves the partner pressuring the other to
behave in certain ways, and the other acceding to that pressure. If tensions increase,
the subordinate partner gives up enough self-control yielding to dominant partner to
become significantly more anxious.
✔✔child impairment - ✔✔Bowen; parents project their own anxieties onto their child;
view child idealistically, either negatively or idealistically. Child reciprocated by focusing
excessively on the parents, overreacting to parental expectations, need, and attitudes.
✔✔emotional distance - ✔✔Bowen; occurs in relation to others; when interactions
between family members become too intense, they develop emotional distance to
decrease intensity. Can become overly isolated, and lose intimacy in their relationship
✔✔substance abuse - ✔✔a disorder in which an indiv begins to overuse or becomes
dependent on a particular drug or a group of drugs that ultimately has a negative impact
on their health and human development
✔✔Problem solving steps - ✔✔1.identify problem and determine cause
2.develop list of solutions
3.attempt to determine benefits of each solution
4.choose one that best solves problem
5.monitor to make sure solved
6.decide whether worked or try something else
✔✔empowerment - ✔✔feeling control over one's decisions and behavior, resulting in
inspiration
✔✔inactive decision making style - ✔✔cannot or do not make choices; lack control,
accountability, and the ensuing self-confidence and empowerment
, ✔✔reactive decision-making style - ✔✔let others make decisions for them, needing
others to like them and being easily influenced by others also impede self-confidence
and empowerment
✔✔proactive decision-making style - ✔✔those involving analyzing a necessary decision,
identifying, and evaluating potential actions, choosing one action, and taking
responsibility for the consequences of taking that action
✔✔A model for responsible decision-making to students - ✔✔1.describe the situation
requiring you to make a decision
2.list all of the decisions you could potentially make
3.share this list of potential decisions with an adult you trust
4.Evaluate what the consequences of each of decisions could be
5.determine which of the decisions you identified is the most appropriate and
responsible one
6.take action on the decision you've chosen
7.evaluate the outcomes of the decision that you have made
✔✔conflict - ✔✔a situation wherein both or either party perceives a real or imagined
threat. Confronting and resolving conflicts stop them from going on indefinitely
✔✔affective skill - ✔✔How effectively an individual can recognize, understand and
handle emotions and relationships. Allows an individual to feel appropriate emotion in
response to certain situations or stimuli.
✔✔cognitive skill - ✔✔ability to gather and understand information allows to
comprehend new situations and apply the knowledge that they gathered elsewhere
✔✔psychomotor skill - ✔✔ability to coordinate physical movements. Control over simple
and complex motor functions.
✔✔pareto analysis system - ✔✔decision making model which assumes that
approximately 80% of the benefits that an organ receives from a particular task are
result of 20% of the effort that the various individuals within the organ put into the task.
80% of problems produced by 20% of the factors.
-list all problems
-group so similar benefits and factors together
-each group then given score based on how affects overall organ
✔✔Jean Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development - ✔✔Theorizes that children will
learn more effectively if they are allowed to actively adapt to the world around them
through play and exploration. Four stages are:
1) sensorimotor stage - ages 0-2
2) preoperational stage -ages 2-7
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS RATED A+
✔✔Murray Bowen's Family Systems Theory - ✔✔four basic family relationship patterns
within what he called the Nuclear Family Emotional System; patterns dictate where
problems develop when the family system is under tension
1) Marital conflict
2) Spousal dysfunction
3) child impairment
4) emotional distance
✔✔marital conflict - ✔✔Bowen; spouses project their increasing anxiety into the marital
relationship. Each partner becomes preoccupied with the other's shortcomings, tries to
control them, and resists being controlled.
✔✔spousal dysfunction - ✔✔Bowen; involves the partner pressuring the other to
behave in certain ways, and the other acceding to that pressure. If tensions increase,
the subordinate partner gives up enough self-control yielding to dominant partner to
become significantly more anxious.
✔✔child impairment - ✔✔Bowen; parents project their own anxieties onto their child;
view child idealistically, either negatively or idealistically. Child reciprocated by focusing
excessively on the parents, overreacting to parental expectations, need, and attitudes.
✔✔emotional distance - ✔✔Bowen; occurs in relation to others; when interactions
between family members become too intense, they develop emotional distance to
decrease intensity. Can become overly isolated, and lose intimacy in their relationship
✔✔substance abuse - ✔✔a disorder in which an indiv begins to overuse or becomes
dependent on a particular drug or a group of drugs that ultimately has a negative impact
on their health and human development
✔✔Problem solving steps - ✔✔1.identify problem and determine cause
2.develop list of solutions
3.attempt to determine benefits of each solution
4.choose one that best solves problem
5.monitor to make sure solved
6.decide whether worked or try something else
✔✔empowerment - ✔✔feeling control over one's decisions and behavior, resulting in
inspiration
✔✔inactive decision making style - ✔✔cannot or do not make choices; lack control,
accountability, and the ensuing self-confidence and empowerment
, ✔✔reactive decision-making style - ✔✔let others make decisions for them, needing
others to like them and being easily influenced by others also impede self-confidence
and empowerment
✔✔proactive decision-making style - ✔✔those involving analyzing a necessary decision,
identifying, and evaluating potential actions, choosing one action, and taking
responsibility for the consequences of taking that action
✔✔A model for responsible decision-making to students - ✔✔1.describe the situation
requiring you to make a decision
2.list all of the decisions you could potentially make
3.share this list of potential decisions with an adult you trust
4.Evaluate what the consequences of each of decisions could be
5.determine which of the decisions you identified is the most appropriate and
responsible one
6.take action on the decision you've chosen
7.evaluate the outcomes of the decision that you have made
✔✔conflict - ✔✔a situation wherein both or either party perceives a real or imagined
threat. Confronting and resolving conflicts stop them from going on indefinitely
✔✔affective skill - ✔✔How effectively an individual can recognize, understand and
handle emotions and relationships. Allows an individual to feel appropriate emotion in
response to certain situations or stimuli.
✔✔cognitive skill - ✔✔ability to gather and understand information allows to
comprehend new situations and apply the knowledge that they gathered elsewhere
✔✔psychomotor skill - ✔✔ability to coordinate physical movements. Control over simple
and complex motor functions.
✔✔pareto analysis system - ✔✔decision making model which assumes that
approximately 80% of the benefits that an organ receives from a particular task are
result of 20% of the effort that the various individuals within the organ put into the task.
80% of problems produced by 20% of the factors.
-list all problems
-group so similar benefits and factors together
-each group then given score based on how affects overall organ
✔✔Jean Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development - ✔✔Theorizes that children will
learn more effectively if they are allowed to actively adapt to the world around them
through play and exploration. Four stages are:
1) sensorimotor stage - ages 0-2
2) preoperational stage -ages 2-7
