inferiority complex

a basic feeling of inadequacy and insecurity, deriving from actual or imagined physical or psychological deficiency, that may result in behavioral expression ranging from the withdrawal of immobilizing timidity to the overcompensation of excessive competition and aggression. Compare superiority complex. [introduced in 1907 by Alfred Adler]

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Psychology term of the day

April 27th 2024

curve fitting

any of various statistical techniques for obtaining a function that graphically represents a given set of data as closely as possible, with minimal error. A simple example of curve fitting occurs in linear regression, where a straight line function is said to provide the closest approximation to the expected values of the outcome with a specific predictor and have the fewest discrepancies between the predicted values and the actual, observed values.