reality testing

noun

, Psychiatry.

1. the objective evaluation of situations, defective in certain psychoses, that enable one to distinguish between the external and the internal worlds and between the self and the nonself.

Word History and Origins

Origin of reality testing¹

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

You can also make a habit of reality testing—that is, practicing looking twice at text to see if it changes.

From Nautilus