refers to the ability to recognize
the nature of one's own attitude, emotions, and
behavior.
refers to a remission of symptoms
in mental illness when the patient’s reasoning and
judgment appear to be normal to brief period.
are sensory perceptions that
occur in the absence of an actual external stimulus.
They may be auditory, visual, olfactory, gustatory, or
tactile in nature. Hallucinations occur in clients with
substance-related disorders, schizophrenia, and manic
disorders.
Misperception of actual environmental
stimuli.
overall slowed
movements
maintenance of posture or
position over time even when it is awkward or
uncomfortable
refers to the client’s pervasive and enduring
emotional state.
is the outward expression of the client’s
emotional state.
showing little or a slow-to-
respond facial expression
displaying a full range of emotional
expressions
showing no facial expression
displaying a facial
expression that is incongruent with mood or situation;
often silly or giddy regardless of circumstance
When the client exhibits
unpredictable and rapid mood swings from depressed
and crying to euphoria with no apparent stimuli
Contradictory or opposing emotions,
attitudes, ideas, or desires for the same person, thing,
or situation
: term used when a
client eventually answers a question but only after
giving excessive unnecessary detail
a fixed, false belief not based in reality
excessive amount and rate of
speech composed of fragmented or unrelated ideas
Ideas of reference: client’s inaccurate interpretation
that general events are personally directed to him or
her such as hearing a speech on the news and
believing the message had personal meaning
disorganized thinking that
jumps from one idea to another with little or no
evident relation between the thoughts
wandering off the topic
and never providing the information requested
flow of unconnected words that
convey no meaning to the listener
refers to the client’s recognition of
person, place, and time; that is, knowing who and
where he or she is and the correct day, date, and
year.
 Example: Nurse: “How have you been sleeping
lately?” Client: “I think people have been following
me.” Nurse: “Where do you live?”
are ideas that are related
Client: “At my place people have been following me.”
to one another based on sound or rhyming rather
Nurse: “What do you like to do in you free time?”
than meaning.
Client: “Nothing because people are following me.”
Example: “I will take a pill if I go up the hill but not if
is a combination of jumbled words
my name is Jill, I don’t want to kill.”
and phrases that are disconnected or incoherent and
are words invented by the client.
make no sense to the listener.
Example: “I’m afraid of grittiz. If there are any grittiz
Example: “Corn, potatoes, jump up, play games, grass,
here, I will have to leave. Are you a grittiz?”
cupboard.”
is the stereotyped repetition of
words or phrases that may or may not have meaning
to the listener.
exaggerated or
Example: “I want to go home, go home, go home, go
home.” unrealistic sense of importance, power, or identity

is the client’s imitation or repetition of Belief that others

what the nurse says. are out to cause harm or to persecute or antagonize

Example: Nurse: “Can you tell me how you’re feeling?” Belief that everything

Client: “Can you tell me how you’re feeling, how in the environment is somehow related to oneself
you’re feeling?” An
is use of words or phrases unrealistic belief that about the body
that are flowery, excessive, and pompous. Belief that someone or
Example: “Would you be so kind, as a representative something is controlling oneself
of Florence Nightingale, as to do me the honor of Belief that
providing just a wee bit of refreshment, perhaps in the someone is putting ideas or thoughts into one’s mind
form of some clear spring water?” Belief that one has a
is the persistent adherence to a special status with God
single idea or topic and verbal repetition of a Belief that someone famous is in love
sentence, phrase, or word, even when another with him

person attempts to change the topic.

Reference: Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing by Sheila Videbeck