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incompetence

n.

1. the inability to carry out a required task or activity adequately.

2. in law, the inability of a defendant to participate meaningfully in criminal proceedings, which include all elements of the criminal justice system, from initial interrogation to sentencing. Defendants who do not have the ability to communicate with attorneys or understand the proceedings may be ruled incompetent to stand trial (see competency to stand trial). See also Dusky standard.

3. in law, the inability to make sound judgments regarding one’s transactions or personal affairs. See legal capacity. Also called incompetency. Compare competence. —incompetent adj.

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Psychology term of the day

February 14th 2025

social relations model

social relations model

a general framework used in studies of interpersonal perception in which a person’s behavior with a particular partner is considered to reflect aspects of the larger group to which the two individuals belong, as well as aspects of the individual emitting the behavior, aspects of the partner, and qualities unique to the two individuals’ relationship with one another. The model makes use of a round-robin rating design in which participants rate one another and their degree of perceptual accuracy in different areas is evaluated. Of particular interest are individual accuracy, or how well a person’s judgments of an individual correspond to how that individual tends to behave across interaction partners; and dyadic accuracy, or how well someone can uniquely judge how a specific individual will behave with him or her. [developed in 1981 by U.S. social psychologist David A. Kenny]