Mental Status Exam Terminology

Vocabulary flashcards reviewing key terms related to mental status examination and psychiatric assessment.

Insight

Ability to understand the true nature of one’s situation and accept personal responsibility for it.

Judgment

Capacity to interpret one’s environment correctly and adapt behavior and decisions accordingly.

Self-concept

The way one views oneself in terms of personal worth and dignity.

Automatisms

Repeated, purposeless behaviors (e.g., drumming fingers, twisting hair) often indicating anxiety.

Psychomotor retardation

Overall slowing of physical movements.

Waxy flexibility

Maintaining a posture for a long time even when it is awkward or uncomfortable.

Mood

A person’s pervasive and enduring emotional state.

Affect

Outward expression of a person’s emotional state.

Blunted affect

Showing little or slow-to-respond facial expression.

Broad affect

Displaying a full range of emotional expressions.

Flat affect

Showing no facial expression.

Inappropriate affect

Facial expression incongruent with mood or situation; often silly or giddy regardless of circumstances.

Restricted affect

Displaying one type of expression, usually serious or somber.

Labile

Exhibiting rapidly changing moods.

Thought process

How a client thinks, inferred from speech and patterns of talk.

Thought content

What the client actually says; whether ideas make sense and flow logically.

Neologisms

Made-up words that only the client understands.

Circumstantial thinking

Providing excessive, unnecessary detail but eventually answering the question.

Delusion

Fixed false belief not based in reality.

Flight of ideas

Rapid speech with fragmented or unrelated ideas.

Ideas of reference

Belief that general events are personally directed at oneself.

Loose association

Disorganized thinking that jumps from one idea to another with little or no connection.

Tangential thinking

Wandering off topic and never providing the requested information.

Thought blocking

Abruptly stopping in the middle of a thought and sometimes being unable to continue.

Thought broadcasting

Delusion that others can hear or know one’s thoughts.

Thought insertion

Delusion that others are putting ideas or thoughts into one’s head.

Thought withdrawal

Delusion that others are taking one’s thoughts away.

Word salad

Flow of unconnected words that convey no meaning to the listener.

Abstract thinking

Ability to make associations or interpretations about a situation (e.g., explaining a proverb).

Concrete thinking

Taking phrases or proverbs literally without deeper meaning.

Hallucinations

False sensory perceptions not based in external stimuli; can involve any of the five senses or bodily sensations.