LMSW Values and Ethics: What to Study for the ASWB Masters Exam

What the 35% covers

Thirty-five percent of 110 scored questions is 38.5, so expect roughly 38 or 39 ethics items. That figure applies the outline weight to the scored set. It is not a promise about your form. What is on the LMSW exam? shows how this area sits beside the other two.

The area has three competencies:

• IA Ethical Principles and Responsibilities: informed consent, confidentiality and its legal and ethical limits, responsibilities to clients, colleagues, the profession, and society, resolving ethical dilemmas, core professional values, burnout, secondary trauma and compassion fatigue, self-care, and ongoing professional development.
• IB Ethical Service Delivery: boundaries, self-determination, mandatory reporting, documentation, the effect of government policy on services, death and dying, ethics in supervision and management, billing, electronic practice, and termination.
• IC Diversity and Social Justice: anti-oppressive and anti-racist approaches, justice principles, culture and intersectionality, accessibility, privilege and bias, exploitation of marginalized communities, restorative practices, and immigration and refugee status.

ASWB's Masters reference list for this area includes the NASW Code of Ethics (2021), the Canadian Association of Social Workers code, and published standards on cultural competence, technology in social work practice, and supervision. You do not need to memorize any of them. You do need to recognize which duty a vignette is testing.

Decision rules and traps by topic

The decision rules below are Passy study rules, written to match the NASW Code as published. They are not ASWB answer keys, and the Code pointers show where to read more.

Three vignettes worked through

These are original Passy examples, not ASWB items. Each shows why the kind-sounding answer loses.

1. The investigator who dreads the visits. A child protective services investigator, two years into the job, has been dreading home visits since a case in which a toddler was badly hurt. She sleeps poorly, snaps at coworkers, and has started cutting visits short. What should she do FIRST?

The near-miss is taking a few unannounced days off. It sounds like self-care, but it leaves families and coworkers without notice and does nothing about the cause. Waiting for a vacation next month lets the shortened visits continue. FIRST, she raises it with her supervisor: what she is noticing, how it is affecting her visits, and what support or caseload changes would help. The outline lists burnout, secondary trauma, compassion fatigue, and self-care under IA. The NASW Code says that when personal problems or distress interfere with practice, a social worker should promptly seek consultation and take steps such as getting help or adjusting the workload, and it calls professional self-care "paramount" for competent, ethical practice.

2. A family asks the social worker to change a decision. A social worker at a dialysis center meets with a 68-year-old man who has advanced kidney disease and has the capacity to make his own decisions. He has decided to stop dialysis and move to hospice care. His adult children ask the social worker to talk him out of it. What is the social worker's BEST response to the children?

The near-miss is agreeing to persuade him, because it sounds like supporting a worried family. It substitutes their preference for his decision. The stronger answer explains that the decision is their father's to make and offers a family meeting, with his consent, where he can share his reasons and they can voice their concerns. This applies self-determination, which the outline lists with medical treatment and the right to refuse services, to the outline's statement on death and dying. It also respects confidentiality, because the social worker needs his consent before discussing his care with them.

3. The social worker who is leaving. A social worker at a community counseling agency has accepted a job in another city and will leave in three weeks. One client, who has been making steady progress, has not been told. The social worker plans to wait until their final session so the client stays focused. What should the social worker do FIRST?

The near-miss is waiting for the last session. It sounds protective, but it leaves no time to talk about the ending or plan what comes next. Offering a personal phone number so the two can keep in touch socially after the move would start a relationship outside the professional one. FIRST, the social worker tells the client now, explains the options for continuing services, and works with the agency on a transfer that fits the client's needs and preferences. The NASW Code's termination standard asks social workers to notify clients promptly when services will end or be interrupted, to seek transfer or continuation of services, and, when leaving an agency, to inform clients of their options.

In all three, a limit decides the key: competence and self-care in the first, self-determination in the second, and continuity of care in the third. The qualifier tells you whether the stem wants the first step or the best overall response, which the FIRST, NEXT, BEST, and MOST guide covers. When you can explain why each near-miss loses, check yourself on the ethics items in the free LMSW set →, where every option comes with an explanation.

Using the Code without memorizing it

The NASW Code says plainly that it does not give a set of rules for every situation, and it does not rank its values when they conflict. When a conflict with law or agency policy cannot be reasonably resolved, it tells social workers to seek proper consultation before deciding. On the exam, consultation is often part of a good answer, but it is not a way around knowing the standard. When the Code is clear about the action, the item expects you to take it.

Laws that shape ethics answers vary by jurisdiction. Examples include duty-to-warn rules, minors' consent, and reporting thresholds. Exam items test the principle, so do not import one state's statute into a vignette that does not mention it. This page is exam preparation, not legal advice or consultation on a case you are carrying.

Where ethics meets the other two areas

Ethics questions often start in another area. A risk question that turns on confidentiality belongs partly to Assessment and Planning. A boundary question during a group or a termination belongs partly to Intervention and Practice. Give ethics its larger share of your study hours without dropping the other two, and when the same kind of ethics miss keeps showing up, go back to its row in the decision-rule table. To check the fix, work the free LMSW set, then use Review mistakes → to reread the explanation for each item you missed in that session.