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Aiming to pass the ASWB exam? Here's a free practice question to help get you ready:

A  mother tells a social worker that her six-year-old daughter panics--hyperventilating and breaking into a sweat-- whenever she sees a spider. The child insists her parents check her room for spiders before she goes to sleep at night, and is refusing to go camping with her family because she doesn't want to sleep in a tent where there might be spiders. What is the MOST likely diagnosis for this child?

A. Specific phobia.   

B. Unspecified anxiety disorder.   

C. Panic disorder.   

D. Adjustment disorder with anxiety.

What do you think?

Let's take the answers one at a time.

Adjustment disorder is diagnosed when a client is having difficulty adjusting to change. There's no mention of change here. Just a profound dislike of spiders.

Panic disorder requires panic that comes out of the blue. This child's panic has a trigger (spiders).

Unspecified anxiety disorder would be a good fit if the client didn't meet criteria for any of the other offered answers, but…

Specific phobia is a very good fit. The child's panic is directly related to a fear of spiders, and is interfering with her daily activities. The proper diagnosis (not just the best of the offered answers) is specific phobia.

If you knew the criteria for specific phobia, this one was probably easy. The presence of panic in the stem may have drawn some to a panic disorder diagnosis. Now, if a choice like this appears on the licensing exam, you'll be ready.

Get ready for lots of different types of questions (not just DSM ones) by taking SWTP's full-length practice tests. Sign up to get started.

Happy studying and good luck on the exam!

Here's a new video walk-through all about the criteria for NPD. Follow along and see how you do. Stick around for a quick bonus question at the end of the video.

For more DSM-focused practice, try our DSM Booster, available here. Happy studying and good luck on the exam!

Here's a video walk-through for a question that appeared on the SWTP blog a while back. How well do you know the Trauma- and Stressor-Related Disorders chapter of the DSM? Test you knowledge.

A client at an inpatient facility asks to be transferred from a young social worker to a veteran social worker. What should the veteran social worker do? What does the NASW Code of Ethics say?

Walk-through the choices and learn how to get to the correct answer with a combination of social work wisdom, common sense, and a process of elimination in this video.

Get practice, get licensed!

Here's a question buried in the SWTP blog that we've revived for this video walk-through (a growing series).

Working together at a residential facility, a therapist and case manager develop a strong attraction to each other. Both are social workers and want to be mindful of ethical guidelines as they begin to explore a relationship outside of work. Which of the following BEST describes NASW guidelines for relationships between social work colleagues?

Do you have an answer before seeing the offered answers? Great. But the answer you conjure may not always appear in the answers offered. Hit play. Subscribe to SWTP on Facebook or YouTube to get these as they post.

Happy studying and good luck with the exam!

--Will Baum, LCSW