Domain I · Values and Ethics · 36% of the exam
Values and Ethics: the NASW Code, confidentiality, and diversity and social justice
Outline: draftBy The Licensure Professor
Study material in progress. This is a lesson outline, not finished lesson text. Nothing on this page is official exam content. Items were written for this site and checked against published sources. They have not yet been reviewed by a licensed clinical social worker.
Learning objectives
- Apply the NASW Code of Ethics to confidentiality, informed consent, and the limits of confidentiality.
- Work through an ethical dilemma step by step and identify the first and best response.
- Distinguish boundary issues, dual relationships, and conflicts of interest and say what a social worker does about each.
- Explain mandatory reporting, documentation, billing, and electronic practice duties.
- Describe anti-oppressive practice, privilege, bias, and social justice principles as they apply to client systems.
Key terms
- Informed consent
- Limits of confidentiality
- Self-determination
- Dual relationship
- Conflict of interest
- Mandatory reporting
- Duty to warn
- Competence
- Burnout and compassion fatigue
- Intersectionality
- Implicit bias
- Microaggression
- Anti-oppressive practice
Suggested sources
- National Association of Social Workers. (2021). Code of ethics of the National Association of Social Workers. NASW.
- Reamer, F. G. (2024). Social work values and ethics (6th ed.). Columbia University Press.
- Barsky, A. E. (2023). Essential ethics in social work practice. Oxford University Press.
- Sue, D. W., Rasheed, M. N., & Rasheed, J. M. (2016). Multicultural social work practice: A competency-based approach to diversity and social justice (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
- National Association of Social Workers, Association of Social Work Boards, Council on Social Work Education, & Clinical Social Work Association. (2017). Standards for technology in social work practice. NASW.
- National Association of Social Workers & Association of Social Work Boards. (2013). Best practice standards in social work supervision. NASW.
- Association of Social Work Boards. (2026). ASWB examination guidebook (08/2026). https://www.aswb.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2026-Social-Work-Licensing-Exam-Guidebook-5.4.2026.pdf
Ethics content on this section follows the NASW Code of Ethics (National Association of Social Workers).