compulsive disorder

any disorder in which the individual feels forced to perform acts that are against his or her wishes or better judgment. The act may be associated with an experience of pleasure or gratification (e.g., compulsive gambling, drinking, or drug taking) or with the reduction of anxiety or distress (e.g., rituals in obsessive-compulsive disorder). See intermittent explosive disorder; kleptomania; paraphilia; pathological gambling; pyromania; substance abuse; trichotillomania. See also impulse-control disorder.

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Psychology term of the day

May 10th 2024

inferential statistics

inferential statistics

a broad class of statistical techniques that allow inferences about characteristics of a population to be drawn from a sample of data from that population while controlling (at least partially) the extent to which errors of inference may be made. These techniques include approaches for testing hypotheses, estimating the value of parameters, and selecting among a set of competing models. Also called inductive statistics. Compare descriptive statistics.