While caring for a hospitalized client diagnosed with schizophrenia, a nurse observes that the client is listening to the radio. The client tells the nurse that the radio commentator is speaking directly to the client. The nurse interprets this finding as which type of thinking?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The client is exhibiting referential thinking, that is, the belief that neutral stimuli, such as the radio, have special meaning to that person, such that the radio commentator is talking directly to him. Autistic thinking involves restriction of thinking to the literal and immediate so that the individual has private rules of logic and reasoning that make no sense to anyone else. Concrete thinking reflects a lack of abstraction in thinking with the inability to understand punch lines, metaphors, and analogies. Illusional thinking occurs when a person misperceives or exaggerates stimuli that actually exist in the external environment.

While Caring for a Hospitalized Client Diagnosed with Schizophrenia, a Nurse