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Results for “Reality Testing”

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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Reality testing and self-reported AIDS self-care behavior.

This investigation examined the relationship between reality testing and AIDS self-care behavior for 509 urban college students. It was hypothesized that reality testing may become impaired in sexual interactions that carry the risk of HIV infection, leading to imperfect adoption of safer sex practices. Reality testing, measured by the Bell Object Relations and Reality Testing Inventory, was significantly related to AIDS knowledge as measured by the AIDS Prevention Survey of Thomas and not significantly related to self-reported safer sex behavior, measured by Bassman's HIV Infection Prevention Scale.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1989

Reality testing and judgment.

Both clinical and research efforts will be enhanced when professionals clearly understand the meaning of the terms reality testing and judgment. Until recently, clinicians and writers often failed to differentiate between them and also introduced other similar words and phrases that further diminished the specificity of the term reality testing. After reviewing some recent efforts to clarify the terminology, the author discusses the critical role of sensation as a precursor to perception and cognition, and the interaction of all three elements in the development of reality testing. He concludes with proposals to clarify the clinical applications of the terminology.

Ego↗
PubMed1978

Reality testing and Rorschach perceptual regression in female patients.

In an effort to study the relationship between severity of psychological disturbances and developmental level scoring of the Rorschach, 43 female psychiatric inpatients were divided into two groups based on whether or not they were displaying behavioral evidence of poor reality testing. As expected, the poor reality testers group produced a significantly greater percentage of responses at the lowest developments level (amorphous responses). The more intact group produced a greater percentage of vague responses, as would be anticipated in patients fending off further regression or emerging from a regressive state. Findings add to the information available on the developmental system's utility within clinical settings and its applicability to female patients.

Adult↗
PubMed1975

Transcendental meditation, altered reality testing, and behavioral change: a case report.

This paper presents the case of a 39-year-old woman who, several weeks following initiation into transcendental meditation (TM), experienced altered reality testing and behavior. We discuss the course of this episode, present evidence for a causal relationship between her practive of TM and altered behavior, and discuss the appropriate treatment of such phenomena.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

The testing of reality from the standpoint of the body self.

Traditionally, the body self has been regarded as involved in reality testing principally in the determination of the distinction between the source of a stimulus being internal or external. The body has been closely related to instinctual drives, to urgency, and thus to conflicts that are crucial to normal and pathological development. However, the concept of the body self comprising all the psychic experiencing of body sensation, body functioning, and body image is broader than the body's connection to inner-outer reality testing and id pressures. The findings from childhood observations and from clinical research indicate that at each stage of the child's life, from earliest infancy on, the maturation and development of the body self becomes integrated with the whole group of psychic regulatory activities that contribute to the individual's sense of reality. The development of the body self at each period involves criteria by which some aspect of reality is tested. The subject of this paper has been the developmental pattern of experiences that contribute to the individual's sense of his body in particular and to the sense of reality of the self in general.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

A first Volunteer Case Aid programme in a mental hospital. Revealing the voluntary helper's role of reality testing between staff and patients.

A pilot Voluntary Case Aid programme in an English Mental Hospital using National Health Service resources is described. The selection of ten volunteers and ten patients and the preparation of all personnel was followed by regular contacts for at least a year. Subsequent evaluation suggested high motivation with both Case Aids and patients. Changes towards improved social functioning were evident in most cases by the end of the project. A relationship starting, continuing and finishing is reported in detail and from this study it is clear that the volunteer was a reality tester for staff and patient alike, constructively disturbing and modifying their mutual projections. This was true of most of the Case Aid interventions and the implications are discussed. A method of group supervision for Case Aids is reported.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

A comparison of Rorschach developmental level and form-level systems as indicators of psychosis.

Psychotic and nonpsychotic psychiatric inpatients were tested on the Rorschach. "Reality-testing" was measured by four form-level scoring systems designed by Beck, Mayman, Becker, and Wilensky. The psychotic subjects were dichotomized on three diagnostic dimensions: schizophrenia, paranoia, and premorbid social adjustment. No significant differences were found for the Beck system. With the other systems, psychotics showed significantly poorer reality testing than nonpsychotics. No differences were found for the schizophrenic and paranoid dimensions. The Phillips premorbid adjustment score was negatively correlated with all four measures of "reality-testing." The conclusion drawn was that Rorschach measures of "reality testing" are associated with psychotic and poor premorbid functioning, but do not differentiate schizophrenic from nonschizophrenic psychotics or paranoid schizophrenics from nonparanoid schizophrenics.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Dying without death: the third wish in suicide.

A hypothesis is proposed that the nonpsychotic patient in the presuicidal state may have impaired reality testing in which the act of suicide is perceived as not leading to injury or death. Impaired reality testing may be enhanced by intense affects, drugs, and sleep deprivation.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Identity integration and ego pathology in disturbed adolescents.

Utilizing the Rorschach and the Wechsler, groups of borderline adolescents (n = 26) and adolescents with other personality disorders (n = 26) were compared to determine whether there were differences in magnitude and type of disturbances in ego functioning. The specific aspects of ego functioning that were studied included disturbances in identity integration, reliance on primitive defensive operations, vulnerability to regressive thinking, and lapses in reality appreciation. Results indicated that during adolescence the borderline personality represents a more severe form of character pathology than other personality disorders, as revealed by more disturbances in identity integration, a greater regression to primary-process thinking in unstructured settings, and more frequent lapses in reality testing. This contrast was most striking in the area of identity integration, where identity disturbances tended to be associated with lapses in reality testing in borderline adolescents, while there was essentially no relationship between these two indicators of ego pathology in non-borderline adolescents. This supports the notion that disturbances in identity integration, or the sense of self, form an important part of the borderline diagnosis, even during adolescence.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Differentiating ego functions of borderline and narcissistic personalities.

This study investigated differences in ego functions of borderline and narcissistic personality disorders through examining responses to Rorschach structural and content variables. Reality testing, thought process, affective regulation, impulse control, and the defenses of splitting and grandiosity were examined from Rorschach protocols of 50 borderlines and 26 narcissists. The borderlines produced greater distortion in reality testing, p less than .05; the narcissists produced more insidious thought process disturbance, p less than .05; and higher functioning groups demonstrated greater control of impulses, p less than .05. Borderlines in this sample demonstrated more affective constriction than the narcissists and used more splitting, p less than .05; narcissists used more grandiosity, p less than .05. Implications of this study are (a) ego functions mature inconsistently, (b) affective responsivity influences ego disorganization, and (c) level of functioning and IQ are related to the production of Rorschach variables.

Adolescent↗