Psychology Test - 14

The correct answer is All of the above.

Key Points

Developing as an Effective Psychologist. 

• They cover a range of knowledge that a psychologist should possess when entering the profession after completing their education and training.
• These apply to practitioners, academicians, and researchers whose roles involve consulting with students, business, industry, and broader community.
• It is recognised that it is difficult to develop, implement and measure competencies required in a subject like psychology as the criteria for specification, identification and evaluation are not yet fully agreed upon.

The basic skills or competencies which psychologists have identified for becoming an effective psychologist fall into three broad sections, namely,

General Skills: 

• These skills are generic in nature and are needed by all psychologists irrespective of their field of specialisation. These skills are essential for all professional psychologists, whether they are working in the field of clinical and health psychology, industrial/ organisational, social, educational, or inenvironmental settings, or are acting as consultants.

Observational Skills:  

• A great deal of what psychologists as researchers and practitioners do in the field is to pay attention, watch and listen carefully. They use all the senses, noticing what is seen, heard, smelt, tasted, or touched. A psychologist, thus, is like an instrument that absorbs all sources of information from the environment. 

Specific Skills: 

• These skills are core/basic to the field of psychological service. For example, psychologists working in clinical settings need to be trained in various techniques of therapeutic interventions, psychological assessment, and counselling.

The correct answer is Congruency.

Key Points

Body Language

• We all know that it is possible to communicate a great deal even without using verbal language.
• We are aware that non-verbal acts are symbolic and closely connected to any talk in progress. Such non-verbal acts are part of what is called ‘body language’.
• Body language is composed of all those messages that people exchange besides words.
• While reading body language, we must remember that a single non-verbal signal does not carry complete meaning.
• Factors such as gestures, postures, eye contact, clothing style, and body movement — all of them have to be considered together, that is, in a cluster.
• Also, in verbal communication, non-verbal signs can have many different meanings.
• For example, crossing arms over the chest may suggest that a person likes to keep aloof.
• But, crossed arms accompanied by an erect posture, tightened body muscles, a set clenched jaw, and narrowing of the eyes are likely to communicate anger. 
• A person’s background and past patterns of behaviour are also considered when we analyse body language.
• The consistency between current and past patterns of behaviour, as well as harmony between verbal and non-verbal communication, is termed as congruency.
• When you say to your friend, “you do not look well today”, you are basing your statement on an evaluation of the person’s appearance today and comparing it with how s/he looked in the past.
• In other words, something has changed, and you see that difference.
• If you did not have experience to draw on, you would not have noticed the change

The correct answer is None of the above.

Key Points

Interviewing skills: 

• An interview is a purposeful conversation between two or more people that follows a basic question and answer format.
• Interviewing is more formal than most other conversations because it has a preset purpose and uses a focused structure. There are many kinds of interviews.
• The employment interview is one which most of you are likely to face.
• Some other formats are information gathering interview, counselling interview, interrogatory interview, radio-television interview, and research interview.

Types of Interview Questions 

• Direct Question: They are explicit and require specific information. For example, “Where did you last work?”
• Open-ended Question: They are less direct and specify only the topic. For example, “How happy were you with your job on the whole?”
• Close-ended Question: They provide response alternatives, narrowing the response variations. For example, “Do you think knowledge of a product or communication skill is more important for a salesperson?”
• Bipolar Question: It is a form of close-ended question. It requires a yes or no response. For example, “Would you like to work for the company?”
• Leading Question: It encourages a response in favour of a specific answer. For example, “Wouldn’t you say you are in favour of having officer’s union in the company?”
• Mirror Question: They are intended to get a person to reflect on what she or he had said and expand on it. For example, you said “I work so hard but I am unable to get success.” Please explain as to why this happens.

Answering Interview Questions

• If you do not understand the question, ask for clarification.
• Restate the question in your answer.
• Answer one question at a time.
• Try to turn negative questions into positive ones.  

The correct answer is Counselling.

Key Points

• Counselling provides a system for planning the interview, analysing the counsellor’s and client’s behaviour, and determining the developmental impact on the client. 
• Counselling involves helping relationship, that includes someone seeking help, and someone willing to give help, who is capable of or trained to help in a setting that permits help to be given and received.
• The following elements about counselling are common to the major theoretical approaches to counselling :

1. Counselling involves responding to the feelings, thoughts, and actions of the clients.
2. Counselling involves a basic acceptance of the client’s perceptions and feelings, without using any evaluative standards.
3. Confidentiality and privacy constitute essential ingredients in the counselling setting. Physical facilities that preserve this quality are important.
4. Counselling is voluntary. It takes place when a client approaches a counsellor. A counsellor never uses any kind of coercion for obtaining information.
5. Counsellors and clients both transmit and receive verbal and non-verbal messages during the process.

• Therefore, awareness and sensitivity to the nature of the message is an important prerequisite for a counsellor’s effectiveness.

The correct answer is Sympathy.

Key Points

Characteristics of Effective Helper

• Being a trained helper, the counsellor has the responsibility for ensuring that her/his client is benefited from counselling and its therapeutic effects are achieved.
• To a large extent, however, the success of a counselling process depends on the skill, knowledge, attitude, personal qualities and behaviour of a counsellor, any or all of which can enhance or diminish the helping process.
• Four qualities that are associated with effective counsellors.
• These include: (i) Authenticity, (ii) Positive regard for others, (iii) Ability to empathise, and (iv) Paraphrasing.
• Authenticity: It means that your behavioural expressions are consistent with what you value and the way you feel and relate to your inner self-image.
• Positive Regard for Others: In a counselling-counsellor relationship, a good relationship allows freedom of expression. It reflects acceptance of the idea that the feelings of both are important.
  • We should remember that when we form a new relationship, we experience feelings of uncertainty and anxiety.
  • Such feelings get minimised when a counsellor extends a positive regard to the client by accepting that it is all right to feel the way the client is feeling. 
• Empathy: This is one of the most critical competencies that a counsellor needs to have. Empathy is the ability of a counsellor to understand the feelings of another person from her/his perspective.
• Paraphrasing: This involves the ability of a counsellor to reflect on what the client says and feels using different words

The correct answer is American Psychological Association (APA). 

Key Points

• The American Psychological Association (APA) has developed a code of ethical conduct for behaviour and decision-making in actual clinical settings.
• The practical knowledge of these ethical domains can guide the practice of counselling in achieving its desired purpose. Some of the APA practice guidelines are:
• Knowledge of ethical/professional codes, standards, and guidelines; knowledge of statutes, rules, regulations, and case law relevant to the practice of psychology.
• Recognise and analyse ethical and legal issues across the range of professional activities in the clinical setting. 
• Recognise and understand the ethical dimensions/features of her/his own attitudes and practice in the clinical setting.
• Seek appropriate information and consultation when faced with ethical issues.
• Practice appropriate professional assertiveness related to ethical issues.

The correct answer is ​Continuous.

Key Points

Characteristics of Communication

• Communication is dynamic because the process is constantly in a state of change. As the expectations, attitudes, feelings, and emotions of the persons who are communicating change, the nature of their communication also changes.
• Communication is continuous because it never stops, whether we are asleep or awake we are always processing ideas or thoughts. Our brain remains active.
• Communication is irreversible because once we send a message we cannot take it back. Once we have made a slip of tongue, given a meaningful glance, or engaged in an emotional outburst, we cannot erase it. Our apologies or denials can make it light but cannot stamp out what was communicated.
• Communication is interactive because we are constantly in contact with other people and with ourselves. Others react to our speech and actions, and we react to our own speech and actions, and then react to those reactions.

The correct answer is All of the above.

Key Points

Listening

• Listening is an important skill that we use daily.
• Your academic success, employment achievement, and personal happiness, to a large extent, depend upon your ability to listen effectively.
• At first, listening may appear to you as a passive behaviour, as it involves silence.
• But this image of passivity is far from true.
• Listening requires a person to be attentive. S/he should be patient, non-judgmental and yet have the capacity to analyse and respond.
• Hearing and listening are not the same.
• Hearing is a biological activity that involves reception of a message through sensory channels.
• It is only a part of listening, a process that involves reception, attention, assignment of meaning, and listener’s response to the message presented.

The correct answer is Attitude of subjectivity.

Key Points

Psychological Testing Skills

• They involve psychological assessment, evaluation and problem solving with individuals and groups, organisation, and the community.
• Psychologists have always been interested in understanding individual differences from the time of Galton in the late 19th century. Psychological tests have been devised and are primarily used for the determination and analysis of individual differences in general intelligence, differential aptitudes, educational achievement, vocational fitness, personality, social attitudes, and various nonintellectual characteristics.  
• Psychological tests have also been used for studying a variety of psychological studies on groups besides making an assessment of a particular individual.
• Psychologists study these differences based on factors such as occupation, age, gender, education, culture, etc.
• While using psychological tests an attitude of objectivity, scientific orientation, and standardised interpretation must be kept in mind.

The correct answer is Both 2 and 3.

Key Points

Observation skills

• A psychologist engages in observing various facets of surroundings including people and varying events.
• To begin with, a psychologist may begin with carefully scrutinising the physical setting in order to capture its “atmosphere”.
• S/he might look at the colour of the floor/ceiling, size of the window/doors, type of lighting, artefacts/paintings/sculptures, etc.
• These small, subtle, and irrelevant looking signals influence human behaviour, which is why a psychologist notes such signals in the surroundings. 

The following points are taken into consideration while making an observation:

• Observe patiently;
• Pay close attention to your physical surroundings — who, what, when, where, and how;
• Be aware of people’s reactions, emotions, and motivations;
• Ask questions that can be answered while observing;
• Be yourself, give information about yourself, if asked;
• Observe with an optimistic curiosity; and
• Be ethical, you have to respect privacy, norms of people you are observing;