LCSW Values & Ethics: What to Study for the ASWB Clinical Exam

Thirty-six percent changes the study week

On 110 scored questions, 36% is roughly two-fifths of the scored set. The other two areas are 32% each. Put ethical decisions into short vignettes in Passy → before you spend equal time on three areas that are not equal.

The Clinical outline’s first competencies are ethical principles and responsibilities, ethical service delivery, and diversity and social justice. What is on the LCSW exam? shows how those competencies sit beside assessment and intervention. This page is only the ethics slice.

Applied statements worth recognizing

You do not need to recite every line. You do need to recognize the decision:

Confidentiality has limits. HIPAA and privacy matter, and so do danger, mandated reporting, and duty to warn. A promise of absolute secrecy is usually the wrong option when the stem includes a specific threat.

Consent is a process. Who can agree, what was explained, and the right to refuse services show up together. A signed form without an explanation is incomplete.

Boundaries are about power. Dual relationships, gifts, self-disclosure, and conflicts of interest are in the outline. A discounted second role is still a second role.

Records and money are ethical. Documentation, termination, electronic practice, supervision, and responsible billing are listed. Deleting a risk note to soothe a client is not a documentation strategy.

Justice is not a separate elective. Culture, bias, access, and the effect of policy on services are inside this 36%, not an optional chapter after “real” clinical work.

Assessment and planning starts when the question turns to risk formulation or a diagnosis. Intervention starts when the question turns to which method to use. FIRST, NEXT, BEST is how those stems are worded.

What not to do with the Code

The NASW Code appears in ASWB’s reference list. The exam still writes one correct action for a vignette. Two options can both sound kind. The qualifier and the limit decide.

These pages prepare you for an exam. They are not personal ethics consultation and not legal advice for a case you are carrying.

Return to the ethics item you rationalized too quickly in Passy →.

Two kind-sounding options can both fit the Code. The qualifier and the professional limit decide which action the item wants.

Then mix ethics back in with assessment and intervention in Passy → so the 36% does not become the only thing you can answer.

Memorizing the NASW Code is not the same task as choosing one action in a vignette.

Give ethics its larger share of the week in Passy → without dropping the other two areas.