What is Congruence?

On the ASWB clinical exam outline, you'll find the item "The concept of congruence in communication." It's in the Therapeutic Relationship section. So, what's congruence? As usual, the Internet stands ready with many answers. First, a definition:

a communication pattern in which the person sends the same message on both verbal and nonverbal levels.

Okay, that rings a bell. Here's more detail in a definition of mood congruence:

consistent with one's mood, a term used particularly in the classification of mood disorders. In disorders with psychotic features, mood-congruent psychotic features are grandiose delusions or related hallucinations occurring in a manic episode or depressive delusions or related hallucinations in a major depressive episode, while mood-incongruent psychotic features are delusions or hallucinations that either contradict or are inconsistent with the prevailing emotions, such as delusions of persecution or of thought insertion in either a manic or a depressive episode. 

And that's that--for the licensing exam, you're up to speed. Will this show up on the exam? Maybe not as a "define this" question, but as a subtle part of an assessment vignette? Could be.

Want more? Keep on clickin':

Mood congruence (Wiki)
Congruent communication (PeoplePolarity.com)
Active Listening (AnalyticTech.com)

Good luck with the exam!