Comprehensive exams for Mental Health Q 184
Which of the following descriptions of a client’s experience and behavior can be assessed as an illusion?
A. The client tries to hit the nurse when vital signs must be taken.
B. The client says, “I keep hearing a voice telling me to run away”.
C. The client becomes anxious whenever the nurse leaves the bedside.
D. The client looks at the shadow on a wall and tells the nurse she sees frightening faces on the wall.
Correct Answer: D. The client looks at the shadow on a wall and tells the nurse she sees frightening faces on the wall.
Minor memory problems are distinguished from dementia by their minor severity and their lack of significant interference with the client’s social or occupational lifestyle. The psychological concept of illusion is defined as a process involving an interaction of logical and empirical considerations. Common usage suggests that an illusion is a discrepancy between one’s awareness and some stimulus.
Option A: In psychology, the term aggression refers to a range of behaviors that can result in both physical and psychological harm to yourself, others, or objects in the environment. This type of behavior centers on harming another person either physically or mentally. It can be a sign of an underlying mental health disorder, a substance use disorder, or a medical disorder.
Option B: Auditory hallucinations are the sensory perceptions of hearing voices without an external stimulus. This symptom is particularly associated with schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders but is not specific to it. Auditory hallucinations are one of the major symptoms of psychosis. Nonpsychotic disorders known to be associated with auditory hallucinations are mood disorders, trauma-related, substance-related, neurological, personality, as well as their occurrence in “healthy” individuals.
Option C: Other options would be included in the history data but don’t directly correlate with the client’s lifestyle. Anxiety is linked to fear and manifests as a future-oriented mood state that consists of a complex cognitive, affective, physiological, and behavioral response system associated with preparation for the anticipated events or circumstances perceived as threatening. Pathological anxiety is triggered when there is an overestimation of perceived threat or an erroneous danger appraisal of a situation which leads to excessive and inappropriate responses.