NASW Code of Ethics: The Exam-Relevant Summary (Standards 1–6)
Ethics questions appear on every ASWB exam and cluster around specific standards. This is the high-yield summary — what each standard says and how it appears in vignettes.
1. Social Workers' Ethical Responsibilities to Clients
- 1.02 Self-Determination: Default to client choice — unless actions pose a serious, foreseeable, and imminent risk. Exam cue: "client wants X, family/worker disagrees" → usually honor the capacitated client's choice.
- 1.03 Informed Consent: Ongoing, in understandable language, covering risks/benefits, alternatives, and the right to refuse. Exam cue: recording, group work, and third-party payers require specific consent conversations.
- 1.05 Cultural Awareness: Difference between cultural competence and cultural humility; seek consultation rather than pretend expertise.
- 1.06 Conflicts of Interest / Dual Relationships: Avoid when risk of exploitation exists; when unavoidable (rural practice), set safeguards. Exam cue: bartering, personal relationships with clients — ask "who benefits?"
- 1.07 Privacy & Confidentiality: Exceptions are narrow and specific: legal requirement (court order, not subpoena alone), serious foreseeable and imminent harm, and (some jurisdictions) communicable disease partner notification. Exam cue: "duty to warn" vs. "duty to protect" — the latter is the broader, more accurate standard.
- 1.08 Access to Records: Clients generally have access, with limited exceptions (e.g., serious, foreseeable harm from disclosure).
- 1.10 Physical Contact, 1.11 Sexual Relationships: Sexual contact with current clients is always prohibited — no exceptions. Former clients: prohibited where risk of exploitation exists (forever in some state laws).
2. Responsibilities to Colleagues
Respect, confidentiality in consultations, accurate representation of others' qualifications, and — heavily tested — 2.10 (a-c) sexual relationships with supervisees/students: never with current supervisees/students; with former ones, only where no risk of exploitation.
3. Responsibilities in Practice Settings
Supervision quality (3.01–3.02), performance evaluation (3.03 — honest, not discriminatory), education (3.07 — no exploitative relationships with students), and documentation (3.04 — timely, accurate, relevant). Exam cue: falsified records → address through organizational channels first.
4. Responsibilities as Professionals
Competence (4.01 — only practice within training), discrimination (4.02), private conduct (4.03), dishonesty/fraud (4.04 — includes insurance billing), and impairment (4.05) — seek help and take protective action.
5. Responsibilities to the Social Work Profession
Integrity of the profession (5.01 — don't fabricate credentials), evaluation and research ethics (5.02 — informed consent, IRB, no dual-role exploitation of clients as research subjects).
6. Responsibilities to the Broader Society
6.01 welfare of society and 6.04 social and political action — challenge discrimination, promote culturally informed policy. Exam cue: institutional racism/discrimination → the worker acts (advocacy, channels) rather than staying silent.
How It Gets Tested
Ethics vignettes almost never ask "what does the standard say" — they ask which ACTION embodies it. Our free LMSW and LCSW practice questions include full ethics scenarios with rationales explaining why the tempting wrong answer violates a specific standard.