[en] We apply boson expansion methods to an extended exactly solvable Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model including anharmonicities in analogy with previous microscopic calculations. We study the effects of different approximations present in these calculations, among which the truncation of the Hamiltonian and of the space, in connection with the study of the properties of two-phonon states. By comparing the approximate results on the spectrum with the exact ones we conclude that the approximations made in the microscopic calculations on two-phonon states are well justified. We find also that a good agreement with the exact results for the three-phonon state is obtained by using a bosonic Hamiltonian truncated at the fourth order. This result makes us confident that such approximation can be used in future realistic calculations, thus allowing a theoretical study of triple excitations of giant resonances