a disorder characterized by a failure to resist impulses, drives, or temptations to commit acts that are harmful to oneself or to others. Examples include intermittent explosive disorder, kleptomania, pathological gambling, pyromania, and trichotillomania. Other disorders that may involve problems of impulse control include substance use disorders, paraphilias, conduct disorders, and mood disorders.
a type of research procedure in which a person’s responses (e.g., scores) are compared only to other responses of that person rather than to the responses of other people. It is thus an idiographic approach rather than a normative one.