Social Work Exam Prep: Psychiatric Terms Quiz

If you followed the link on the previous post to Wikipedia's glossary of psychiatric terms, you may have gotten a little overwhelmed. There's a lot there that never has and never is likely to show up on the social work licensing exam. But some of those concepts are a part of social work and a potential part of the exam. So, with that in mind, here's a quick quiz for you. We'll put the terms up top and the definitions after the break. See if you can summon the definitions without straining too much. Good luck on the quiz and good luck on the exam!

Define:

1. Anhedonia

2.  Clang associations (aka Clanging)

3.  Flight of Ideas

4.  Folie à deux

5.  Thought Blocking

6.  Word Salad

Answers (via Wikipedia):

1. Anhedonia refers to an inability to experience pleasure, and may be described as a feeling of emotional emptiness. It can be a negative symptom of schizophrenia. It also may be seen in severe depressive states and schizoid personality disorder.

2.  Clang associations are ideas that are related only by similar or rhyming sounds rather than actual meaning. Example: "He ate the skate, inflated yesterdays gate toward the cheese grater."

3.  Flight of ideas describes excessive speech at a rapid rate that involves fragmented or unrelated ideas. It is common in mania.

4.  Folie à deux.  Also called induced psychosis, folie à deux is a delusional disorder shared by two or more people who are closely related emotionally. One has real psychosis while the symptoms of psychosis are induced in the other or others due to close attachment to the one with psychosis. Separation usually results in symptomatic improvement in the one who is not psychotic.

5.  Thought blocking refers to an abrupt stop in the middle of a train of thought; the individual may or may not be unable to continue the idea. This is type of formal thought disorder that can be seen in schizophrenia.

6.  Word Salad is characterized by confused, and often repetitious, language with no apparent meaning or relationship attached to them. It is often symptomatic of various mental illnesses, such as psychoses, including schizophrenia.

How'd you do?