The ability to evaluate the external world objectively and to differentiate adequately between it and the internal world. Falsification of reality, as with massive denial or projection, indicates a severe disturbance of ego functioning and/or of the perceptual and memory processes on which it is partly based.
Behavior aimed at testing or exploring the nature of a person’s social and physical environment. Often used more specifically to refer to the testing of the limits of permissiveness of a person’s social environment.
The attempt by the individual to evaluate and understand the real world and his or her relation to it.