LSW Exam Mastery Guide 2025/2026: NASW Code of Ethics,
Crisis Intervention, Personality Disorders & Social Work
Theory Review
Positive reinforcement - correct answer Increases probability that behavior
will occur - praising, giving tokens, or otherwise rewarding positive behavior
Negative reinforcement - correct answer behavior increases because a
negative stimulus is removed
Positive punishment - correct answer presentation of undesirable stimulus
following a behavior for the purpose of decreasing or eliminating that behavior
(hitting, shocking)
Negative punishment - correct answer removal of a desirable stimulus
following a behavior for the purpose of decreasing or eliminating that behavior
(removing something positive such as a token or dessert)
Aversion therapy - correct answer any treatment aimed at reducing the
attractiveness of a stimulus or a behavior by repeated or pairing of it with an
aversive stimulus.
Biofeedback - correct answer behavior training program that teaches a
person how to control certain functions such as heart rate, blood pressure,
temp and muscular tension.
Extinction - correct answer withholding a reinforcer that normally follows a
behavior. Behavior that fails to produce reinforcement will eventually cease.
Flooding - correct answer a treatment procedure in which a client's anxiety
is extinguished by prolonged real or imagined exposure to high intensity
feared stimuli.
,In vivo desensitization - correct answer pairing and movement through
anxiety hierarchy from least to most anxiety provoking situation; takes place in
"real" setting.
Modeling - correct answer method of instruction that involves an individual
(the model) demonstrating the behavior to be acquired by a client.
Rational emotive therapy - correct answer a cognitively oriented therapy in
which a social worker seeks to change a client's irrational beliefs by argument,
persuasion, and rational reevaluation and by teaching a client to counter self-
defeating thinking with new, nondistressing self statements
Shaping - correct answer method used to train a new behavior by
prompting and reinforcing successive approximations of the desired behavior.
Systematic desensitization - correct answer an anxiety-inhibiting response
cannot occur at the same time as the anxiety response. Anxiety-producing
stimulus is paired with relaxation producing response so that eventually an
anxiety producing stimulus produces a relaxation response.
Timeout - correct answer removal of something desirable - negative
punishment technique
Token economy - correct answer a client receives tokens as reinforcement
for performing specified behaviors. The tokens function as currency.
Cognitive Theory - correct answer Piaget- these stages address the
acquisition of knowledge and how humans come to gradually acquire it.
1. Sensorimotor- 0-2 years
, 2. Preoperational 2-7 years
3. Concrete operations 7-11 years
4. Formal Operations 11-maturity
Learning Theory - correct answer a conceptual framework describing how
information is absorbed, processed, and retained during learning. Cognitive,
emotional, and environmental influences, as well as prior experience, all play
a part in how understanding, or a worldview, is acquired or changed.
Learning theory - Behaviorist - correct answer (Pavlov, Skinner) Learning is
viewed through change in behavior and the stimuli in the external environment
are the locus of learning. Social workers aim to change the external
environment in order to bring about desired change.
Learning theory-Cognitive - correct answer (Piaget) Learning is viewed
through internal mental processes (including insight, information processing,
memory and perception) and the locus of learning is internal cognitive
structures. SW's aim to develop opportunities to foster capacity and skill to
improve learning.
Learning theory-Humanistic - correct answer (Maslow) Learning is viewed
as a person's activities aimed at reaching his or her full potential, and the
locus of learning is in meeting cognitive and other needs. SW's aim to develop
the whole person
Learning theory- Social/Situational - correct answer (Bandura) Learning is
obtained between people and their environment and their interactions and
observations in social contexts. Social workers establish opportunity for
conversation and participation to occur.
Person-in-environment (PIE) - correct answer PIE perspective highlights
the importance of understanding individual behavior in light of the
Crisis Intervention, Personality Disorders & Social Work
Theory Review
Positive reinforcement - correct answer Increases probability that behavior
will occur - praising, giving tokens, or otherwise rewarding positive behavior
Negative reinforcement - correct answer behavior increases because a
negative stimulus is removed
Positive punishment - correct answer presentation of undesirable stimulus
following a behavior for the purpose of decreasing or eliminating that behavior
(hitting, shocking)
Negative punishment - correct answer removal of a desirable stimulus
following a behavior for the purpose of decreasing or eliminating that behavior
(removing something positive such as a token or dessert)
Aversion therapy - correct answer any treatment aimed at reducing the
attractiveness of a stimulus or a behavior by repeated or pairing of it with an
aversive stimulus.
Biofeedback - correct answer behavior training program that teaches a
person how to control certain functions such as heart rate, blood pressure,
temp and muscular tension.
Extinction - correct answer withholding a reinforcer that normally follows a
behavior. Behavior that fails to produce reinforcement will eventually cease.
Flooding - correct answer a treatment procedure in which a client's anxiety
is extinguished by prolonged real or imagined exposure to high intensity
feared stimuli.
,In vivo desensitization - correct answer pairing and movement through
anxiety hierarchy from least to most anxiety provoking situation; takes place in
"real" setting.
Modeling - correct answer method of instruction that involves an individual
(the model) demonstrating the behavior to be acquired by a client.
Rational emotive therapy - correct answer a cognitively oriented therapy in
which a social worker seeks to change a client's irrational beliefs by argument,
persuasion, and rational reevaluation and by teaching a client to counter self-
defeating thinking with new, nondistressing self statements
Shaping - correct answer method used to train a new behavior by
prompting and reinforcing successive approximations of the desired behavior.
Systematic desensitization - correct answer an anxiety-inhibiting response
cannot occur at the same time as the anxiety response. Anxiety-producing
stimulus is paired with relaxation producing response so that eventually an
anxiety producing stimulus produces a relaxation response.
Timeout - correct answer removal of something desirable - negative
punishment technique
Token economy - correct answer a client receives tokens as reinforcement
for performing specified behaviors. The tokens function as currency.
Cognitive Theory - correct answer Piaget- these stages address the
acquisition of knowledge and how humans come to gradually acquire it.
1. Sensorimotor- 0-2 years
, 2. Preoperational 2-7 years
3. Concrete operations 7-11 years
4. Formal Operations 11-maturity
Learning Theory - correct answer a conceptual framework describing how
information is absorbed, processed, and retained during learning. Cognitive,
emotional, and environmental influences, as well as prior experience, all play
a part in how understanding, or a worldview, is acquired or changed.
Learning theory - Behaviorist - correct answer (Pavlov, Skinner) Learning is
viewed through change in behavior and the stimuli in the external environment
are the locus of learning. Social workers aim to change the external
environment in order to bring about desired change.
Learning theory-Cognitive - correct answer (Piaget) Learning is viewed
through internal mental processes (including insight, information processing,
memory and perception) and the locus of learning is internal cognitive
structures. SW's aim to develop opportunities to foster capacity and skill to
improve learning.
Learning theory-Humanistic - correct answer (Maslow) Learning is viewed
as a person's activities aimed at reaching his or her full potential, and the
locus of learning is in meeting cognitive and other needs. SW's aim to develop
the whole person
Learning theory- Social/Situational - correct answer (Bandura) Learning is
obtained between people and their environment and their interactions and
observations in social contexts. Social workers establish opportunity for
conversation and participation to occur.
Person-in-environment (PIE) - correct answer PIE perspective highlights
the importance of understanding individual behavior in light of the
