NCE-ABE Leak Questions

In the Professional Practice and Ethics domain, counselors are expected to understand basic research concepts so they can evaluate the quality of studies and apply findings responsibly. When a researcher examines factors such as:

History (events occurring between pretest and posttest),

Differential mortality (attrition of participants from groups),

Pretesting procedures (testing effects),

Statistical regression (regression toward the mean),

they are evaluating threats to internal validity.

Internal validity (Option C) refers to the degree to which changes in the dependent variable can confidently be attributed to the independent variable, rather than to extraneous or confounding factors. Examining these threats is central to determining how well the experimental design supports cause-and-effect conclusions.

Why the other options are incorrect:

A. Content validity – Concerns whether a measure adequately samples the domain of content it is supposed to cover (e.g., whether a test of math skills adequately represents the math curriculum), not the design’s vulnerability to history or mortality threats.

B. External validity – Involves the generalizability of findings to other populations, settings, and times, not the internal threats listed.

D. Construct validity – Refers to whether a test or procedure actually measures the theoretical construct it purports to measure, not the impact of history, testing effects, or attrition on experimental outcomes.

NBCC-aligned counselor work behaviors emphasize that ethically responsible practitioners must be able to critically evaluate research methods, including recognition of internal validity threats, to determine how much confidence to place in study results they might use to inform practice.

In the Professional Practice and Ethics domain, counselors are expected to follow a systematic ethical decision-making process and to document:

The model or steps they used.

The consultations they sought.

The options considered and the actions taken, along with the rationale.

This documentation serves several purposes, but a key function is to show that the counselor acted in a thoughtful, reasonable, and professionally responsible manner if their decisions are later questioned by a licensing board, court, or ethics committee. This most directly aligns with:

C. to protect the counselor if decisions are challenged.

Why the other options are less accurate:

A. to protect the client if records are subpoenaed – good documentation can benefit the client, but the primary emphasis in ethical decision-making documentation is on demonstrating professional due diligence.

B. to protect the profession when reviewed by other professionals – while sound documentation reflects well on the profession, this is not the main purpose.

D. to protect the integrity of the client–counselor relationship – maintaining integrity is crucial, but documentation of an ethical decision-making model is primarily a risk management and accountability tool.

NBCC Counselor Work Behavior Areas stress that ethical practice includes using structured decision-making models and documenting the process to demonstrate adherence to professional standards and to protect the counselor in the event of scrutiny or challenge.

The term that encompasses a client’s background, values, morals, traditions, and ways of living within a social context is culture.2 Culture is commonly understood as the shared patterns of beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that a group uses to cope with the world and pass on to future generations. It shapes:

Worldview and meaning-making

Interpersonal expectations and communication styles

Attitudes toward counseling, mental health, and help-seeking

Thus, Option B (culture) is correct.

Why the other options are incorrect:

A. Individualism – Refers to a value orientation emphasizing personal autonomy, independence, and self-reliance. It is one possible cultural value, not the full description of a client’s total human experience.

C. Collectivism – The opposite value orientation to individualism, emphasizing group harmony, interdependence, and group goals. Again, it is one type of cultural value, not the overarching construct.

D. Race – Refers to a category often (problematically) based on physical characteristics and socially constructed groupings. While race can influence experience and oppression, it does not by itself encompass the entirety of background, values, morals, and traditions; those are more fully covered by the broader concept of culture.2

In the Professional Practice and Ethics area, NBCC highlights that ethically competent counselors must understand and respect clients’ cultural contexts, integrating these into assessment, case conceptualization, and intervention.

In assessment, counselors are expected to understand basic statistics used to interpret test scores. The standard deviation is the measure that indicates, on average, how far individual scores fall from the mean of a distribution. It is a key index of variability around the average.

When the standard deviation is small, scores cluster closely around the mean.

When it is large, scores are more spread out.

Thus, option C. Standard deviation is correct.

Why the others are incorrect:

A. Correlation coefficient measures the degree and direction of relationship between two variables, not the average distance from the mean.

B. Range is the difference between the highest and lowest score; it is a simple measure of spread but does not reflect the average distance of scores from the mean.

D. Standard score (e.g., z-score, T-score) is a transformed score that indicates how far an individual score lies from the mean in standard deviation units, but it is not the name of the variability index itself.

Knowledge of how to interpret scores using concepts like the mean and standard deviation is part of Intake, Assessment and Diagnosis, as counselors must interpret test results accurately to inform case understanding and decision-making.