Lone Star College System, North Harris - PSYC 1301

Chapter 15: Anxiety Responses and Anxiety Disorders Test Bank

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1)When assessing a patient who gives the impression of being anxious, a nurse seeks to validate this impression because anxiety is:

1. 1. necessary for survival.
   2. communicated interpersonally.
   3. an emotion without a specific object.
   4. a subjective experience of the individual.

2. A nurse determines that a patient is able to follow directions but appears to experience a narrowed perceptual field and focus on immediate concerns. The nurse determines that the patient is experiencing anxiety at which level?
   1. Mild
   2. Moderate
   3. Severe
   4. Panic

3. A patient has significant non-goal–directed motor activity, seems terror stricken, and experiences both distorted perceptions and disordered thoughts. When the nurse attempts to calm the patient, the patient does not respond. The level of patient anxiety can be assessed as:
   1. mild.
   2. moderate.
   3. severe.
   4. panic.

4. A psychiatric patient is experiencing panic-level anxiety. The initial intervention of highest priority is:
   1. provide for the patient’s safety.
   2. reduce all environmental stimuli.
   3. respect the patient’s personal space.
   4. encourage the patient to discuss the anxious feelings.

5. A patient is experiencing panic-level anxiety. Of these medications listed on the patient’s prn medication administration record, which should be given?
   1. Buspirone (BuSpar)
   2. Lorazepam (Ativan)
   3. Phenytoin (Dilantin)
   4. Fluoxetine (Prozac)

6. A nurse explains a patient’s behavior by stating, “The patient’s anxiety stemmed from being unable to attain a desired goal.” Which theory is the nurse basing the response upon?
   1. Learning
   2. Behaviorist
   3. Interpersonal
   4. Psychoanalytic

7. A patient whose current behavior includes pacing and cursing tells a nurse, “I’m feeling edgy and can’t concentrate.” The nurse can assess the patient’s level of anxiety as:
   1. mild.
   2. moderate.
   3. severe.
   4. panic.

8. During a staff conflict, one of your nursing peers defends her actions and asserts her own rights among the professional staff. Defending one’s actions and asserting one’s rights typify the coping mechanism of:
   1. emotion or ego focused.
   2. problem or task focused.
   3. physiological conversion.
   4. psychological conversion.

9. Defense mechanisms:
   1. involve some degree of self-deception.
   2. are rarely used by mentally healthy people.
   3. seldom make the person feel more comfortable.
   4. are rarely effective in resolving basic conflicts.

10. A patient tends to use the defense mechanism of displacement. When the patient’s spouse accuses the patient of being disorganized and flighty, the patient is most likely to react by:
    1. burning the spouse’s dinner.
    2. scolding the paperboy for being late.
    3. telling the spouse, “I’m so angry with you.”
    4. promising the spouse to try be more organized and calm.

11. A person who was raped several years ago denies having any memory of the event. The defense mechanism in use is:
    1. projection.
    2. repression.
    3. displacement.
    4. reaction formation.

12. If a penny-pinching patient rationalizes personal behavior, a nurse will expect that the patient is most likely to:
    1. call other people wasteful.
    2. start spending money liberally.
    3. claim to exemplify the virtue of thrift.
    4. give vast amounts of money to charity on death.

13. After hitting a playmate, a child untruthfully states, “The other kid hit me first!” This is an example of:
    1. projection.
    2. sublimation.
    3. displacement.
    4. rationalization.

14. A police officer who uses reaction formation to deal with fears of acting cowardly is most likely to:
    1. call others cowards.
    2. develop paralysis of the leg.
    3. volunteer for perilous duty.
    4. have nightmares about running from an assailant.

15. A patient calls the community mental health center and shares, “For the past 6 months, whenever I even think about leaving my house, my heart pounds, my body shakes, and I cry and feel dizzy. There’s no reason for me to feel this way, but I do.” These symptoms can be assessed as being most consistent with:
    1. panic disorder with agoraphobia.
    2. obsessive-compulsive disorder.
    3. posttraumatic stress disorder.
    4. generalized anxiety disorder.

16. A patient is very anxious and can only follow simple directions with great difficulty. The patient tells a nurse about a fear of keeping clean in such a public place and is observed repeatedly dusting the furniture. The nurse should assess the patient’s level of anxiety as:
    1. mild.
    2. moderate.
    3. severe.
    4. panic.

17. Which nursing intervention would be most therapeutic for a newly admitted patient diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) who is busily cleaning and straightening a bedroom?
    1. “I’ve inspected the room, and it’s very clean.”
    2. “Tell me why your clothes and room need to be cleaned.”
    3. “You will not be allowed in your room if you cannot control your cleaning behaviors.”
    4. “I can see how uncomfortable you are, but I would like you to take a short walk so I can show you the unit.”

18. A patient admitted to the psychiatric unit with a diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) tells a nurse of a need to perform oral hygiene at least 15 times each day while sleeping only 1 hour each night for the last 5 days. Within the next 48 hours, which outcome would best indicate that nursing interventions to relieve anxiety had been successful?
    1. The patient sleeps 6 hours nightly.
    2. The patient states that performing rituals is “silly.”
    3. The patient verbalizes that brushing one’s teeth 15 times each day is “too much.”
    4. The patient admits to being acutely anxious and wants help.

19. Physiological responses associated with anxiety are modulated by the brain through which system?
    1. Autonomic nervous
    2. Cardiovascular
    3. Neuromuscular
    4. Endocrine

20. Several months after being trapped in a collapsed building for several hours before being rescued, a patient admits to currently feeling “numb” and being unable to relate well with people. The patient sometimes re-experiences the terror associated with being trapped. The data collected about the patient are consistent with the symptoms of which problem?
    1. Agoraphobia
    2. Panic attacks
    3. Posttraumatic stress disorder
    4. Obsessive-compulsive disorder

21. A nurse who has spent an hour with a highly anxious patient shares with a peer, “I’m really feeling uptight! I need a quiet place to be alone.” This can be attributed to:
    1. hypersensitivity on the nurse’s part.
    2. anxiety resulting from the patient contact.
    3. fatigue from the effort of establishing a relationship.
    4. a threat to the nurse’s self-esteem created by a difficult patient.

22. A patient experiences double approach-avoidance conflicts associated with the need to replace maladaptive behaviors with more adaptive behaviors. This tendency is exhibited when the patient:
    1. wishes to both pursue and avoid the same goal.
    2. is required to choose between two undesirable goals.
    3. seeks to pursue two equally desirable but incompatible goals.
    4. sees both desirable and undesirable aspects of two alternatives.

23. In the cognitive realm, which assessment finding most indicates depression?
    1. Uncertainty in negative evaluations
    2. Selective and specific negative appraisals
    3. Global view that nothing will turn out right
    4. Tentatively regards defects or mistakes as revocable

24. A patient diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) tells a nurse, “I’m such a stupid person for behaving this way.” The most therapeutic nursing response would be to:
    1. change the subject.
    2. agree that the behavior is problematic.
    3. ask about the feelings experienced before using the behavior.
    4. support the insight by asking for immediate behavioral change.