Psych test 4 test bank Exam Questions
and Answers (Latest Update 2026)
Verified Answers (100% Questions)
1. A patient tells a nurse about being in a relationship with a significant other for more than 1 year and
states, "the person is available when I need support, but neither of us tries to control the other." The
nurse can correctly assess this relationship as:
a.narcissistic.
b.enmeshed.
c.disconnected.
d.interdependent. - CORRECT ANSWERS ANS: D
Interdependent relationships allow reliance on others as well as independence. Each lets the other be
dependent or independent without needing to control the person's behavior.
2. Which statement best describes persons with personality disorders?
a.The patient's coping skills are severely impaired by cognitive impairment.
b.The patient's maladaptive behaviors involve only a single aspect of personality.
c.The patient has enduring ways of relating that often provoke negative reactions.
d.The patient has considerable resilience when faced with stressful life situations. - CORRECT ANSWERS
ANS: C
The three features of personality disorders are (1) the individual has acquired few strategies for relating,
and his or her approaches are inflexible and maladaptive; (2) the individual's needs, perceptions, and
behavior tend to foster vicious circles that continue unhelpful patterns and provoke negative reactions
from others; and (3) the individual's adaptation is characterized by tenuous stability, fragility, and lack of
resilience when faced with stress. The patient's treatment plan is directed toward improvement of
patient condition, but it does not guarantee improvement or cure.
3. Which comment about relationships would be most characteristic of a patient with antisocial
personality disorder?
a."The only reason for interacting is to take advantage of others."
b."'Live and let live' is as good a philosophy as any to live by."
c."I've always found that 'help one another' is a good policy."
,d."I'll be your doormat. Feel free to take advantage of me." - CORRECT ANSWERS ANS: A
Antisocial individuals are exploitative and manipulative. They prefer to control others to avoid being
controlled. The attitudes of "live and let live" and "help one another" are not reflective of an individual
with antisocial personality disorder since they are incapable of empathy or sympathy. Being a "doormat"
reflects a poor sense of self-esteem and personal worth.
4. A nursing diagnosis appropriate to consider for a patient with antisocial personality disorder is:
a.risk for self-directed injury.
b.impaired social interaction.
c.disturbed personal identity.
d.disturbed sensory perception. - CORRECT ANSWERS ANS: B
Impaired social interaction describes a state in which the person participates in insufficient, excessive, or
ineffective social exchange. The remaining options are not typically exhibited by a patient with antisocial
personality disorder.
5. Which behavior would be most characteristic of an individual with narcissistic personality disorder?
a.A lifelong pattern of social withdrawal
b.Refusal to enter into relationships for fear of rejection
c.Belief in entitlement to special privileges that others may not have
d.Belief in possessing the ability to know what others are thinking - CORRECT ANSWERS ANS:
C
Narcissistic individuals are egocentric people who have fragile self-esteem that drives them to seek
admiration and appreciation. As part of this, they display a sense of entitlement, believing they have
rights to special treatment.
6. A patient regularly uses manipulation to control situations. Staff working to reduce this behavior
should first convey the message that:
a.while the patient is accepted, the behavior is rejected as inappropriate.
b.if the patient cannot control the behavior, staff will establish external controls.
c.manipulative behavior results in frustration and anger among staff and patients.
d.manipulation of patients is no more acceptable than manipulation of unit staff. - CORRECT ANSWERS
ANS: A
, The staff always must seek to convey acceptance of the patient because this is a building block for a
therapeutic relationship. Inappropriate behaviors such as manipulation should be identified, their
negative consequences to the patient should be discussed, and more adaptive behaviors should be
substituted when the therapeutic relationship has been established.
7. Before the community meeting, a patient with antisocial personality disorder was overheard coaching
other patients to strongly object to the "no smoking" policy. Which response would be most
characteristic of this patient when approached by staff members who wish to discuss the behavior?
a."I knew they'd mess this up. I've learned to speak for myself in the future."
b."Hey, it's not my fault. They object to you people running this place like a jail."
c."I think the patients and staff should talk about the rules and negotiate some changes."
d."I've learned something valuable from this. We'll talk about this in my therapy session." - CORRECT
ANSWERS ANS: B
Patients with antisocial personality disorder usually do not accept responsibility for their actions. They
are unable to problem solve constructively, and they are unlikely to voluntarily seek help with changing
their behaviors.
8. The majority of the treatment team maintains that a patient diagnosed with antisocial personality
disorder needs external limits and careful observation, however two nurses state, "The patient is really a
pleasant person. We shouldn't be so judgmental." The most likely reason for the difference in staff
opinions is that the patient has been using which coping mechanisms?
a.Idealization and devaluation
b.Projection and rationalization
c.Splitting and projective identification
d.Reaction formation and identification - CORRECT ANSWERS ANS: C
Splitting is the inability to integrate good and bad aspects of an object, resulting in treating the object as
all good or all bad. Projective identification is the practice of projecting certain aspects of the self onto
another, who then responds to the negative or positive projections in a manner consistent with the
projections. When a patient idealizes the nurse, the nurse has a tendency to lose objectivity and move
toward overinvolvement, overprotection, and indulgence. In this instance, two staff members are
protective and indulgent, whereas others are more realistic.
9. A patient with borderline personality disorder tells the nurse, "When I met my boyfriend he was
simply perfect. Now he is the worst person in the world. I tell him to leave and then I feel so empty and
awful that I have to cut myself." The description of the boyfriend is strongly influenced by the patient's
inclination to:
a.use splitting.
and Answers (Latest Update 2026)
Verified Answers (100% Questions)
1. A patient tells a nurse about being in a relationship with a significant other for more than 1 year and
states, "the person is available when I need support, but neither of us tries to control the other." The
nurse can correctly assess this relationship as:
a.narcissistic.
b.enmeshed.
c.disconnected.
d.interdependent. - CORRECT ANSWERS ANS: D
Interdependent relationships allow reliance on others as well as independence. Each lets the other be
dependent or independent without needing to control the person's behavior.
2. Which statement best describes persons with personality disorders?
a.The patient's coping skills are severely impaired by cognitive impairment.
b.The patient's maladaptive behaviors involve only a single aspect of personality.
c.The patient has enduring ways of relating that often provoke negative reactions.
d.The patient has considerable resilience when faced with stressful life situations. - CORRECT ANSWERS
ANS: C
The three features of personality disorders are (1) the individual has acquired few strategies for relating,
and his or her approaches are inflexible and maladaptive; (2) the individual's needs, perceptions, and
behavior tend to foster vicious circles that continue unhelpful patterns and provoke negative reactions
from others; and (3) the individual's adaptation is characterized by tenuous stability, fragility, and lack of
resilience when faced with stress. The patient's treatment plan is directed toward improvement of
patient condition, but it does not guarantee improvement or cure.
3. Which comment about relationships would be most characteristic of a patient with antisocial
personality disorder?
a."The only reason for interacting is to take advantage of others."
b."'Live and let live' is as good a philosophy as any to live by."
c."I've always found that 'help one another' is a good policy."
,d."I'll be your doormat. Feel free to take advantage of me." - CORRECT ANSWERS ANS: A
Antisocial individuals are exploitative and manipulative. They prefer to control others to avoid being
controlled. The attitudes of "live and let live" and "help one another" are not reflective of an individual
with antisocial personality disorder since they are incapable of empathy or sympathy. Being a "doormat"
reflects a poor sense of self-esteem and personal worth.
4. A nursing diagnosis appropriate to consider for a patient with antisocial personality disorder is:
a.risk for self-directed injury.
b.impaired social interaction.
c.disturbed personal identity.
d.disturbed sensory perception. - CORRECT ANSWERS ANS: B
Impaired social interaction describes a state in which the person participates in insufficient, excessive, or
ineffective social exchange. The remaining options are not typically exhibited by a patient with antisocial
personality disorder.
5. Which behavior would be most characteristic of an individual with narcissistic personality disorder?
a.A lifelong pattern of social withdrawal
b.Refusal to enter into relationships for fear of rejection
c.Belief in entitlement to special privileges that others may not have
d.Belief in possessing the ability to know what others are thinking - CORRECT ANSWERS ANS:
C
Narcissistic individuals are egocentric people who have fragile self-esteem that drives them to seek
admiration and appreciation. As part of this, they display a sense of entitlement, believing they have
rights to special treatment.
6. A patient regularly uses manipulation to control situations. Staff working to reduce this behavior
should first convey the message that:
a.while the patient is accepted, the behavior is rejected as inappropriate.
b.if the patient cannot control the behavior, staff will establish external controls.
c.manipulative behavior results in frustration and anger among staff and patients.
d.manipulation of patients is no more acceptable than manipulation of unit staff. - CORRECT ANSWERS
ANS: A
, The staff always must seek to convey acceptance of the patient because this is a building block for a
therapeutic relationship. Inappropriate behaviors such as manipulation should be identified, their
negative consequences to the patient should be discussed, and more adaptive behaviors should be
substituted when the therapeutic relationship has been established.
7. Before the community meeting, a patient with antisocial personality disorder was overheard coaching
other patients to strongly object to the "no smoking" policy. Which response would be most
characteristic of this patient when approached by staff members who wish to discuss the behavior?
a."I knew they'd mess this up. I've learned to speak for myself in the future."
b."Hey, it's not my fault. They object to you people running this place like a jail."
c."I think the patients and staff should talk about the rules and negotiate some changes."
d."I've learned something valuable from this. We'll talk about this in my therapy session." - CORRECT
ANSWERS ANS: B
Patients with antisocial personality disorder usually do not accept responsibility for their actions. They
are unable to problem solve constructively, and they are unlikely to voluntarily seek help with changing
their behaviors.
8. The majority of the treatment team maintains that a patient diagnosed with antisocial personality
disorder needs external limits and careful observation, however two nurses state, "The patient is really a
pleasant person. We shouldn't be so judgmental." The most likely reason for the difference in staff
opinions is that the patient has been using which coping mechanisms?
a.Idealization and devaluation
b.Projection and rationalization
c.Splitting and projective identification
d.Reaction formation and identification - CORRECT ANSWERS ANS: C
Splitting is the inability to integrate good and bad aspects of an object, resulting in treating the object as
all good or all bad. Projective identification is the practice of projecting certain aspects of the self onto
another, who then responds to the negative or positive projections in a manner consistent with the
projections. When a patient idealizes the nurse, the nurse has a tendency to lose objectivity and move
toward overinvolvement, overprotection, and indulgence. In this instance, two staff members are
protective and indulgent, whereas others are more realistic.
9. A patient with borderline personality disorder tells the nurse, "When I met my boyfriend he was
simply perfect. Now he is the worst person in the world. I tell him to leave and then I feel so empty and
awful that I have to cut myself." The description of the boyfriend is strongly influenced by the patient's
inclination to:
a.use splitting.
