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involuntary hospitalization

the confinement of a person with a serious mental illness to a mental hospital by medical authorization and legal direction (as in involuntary civil commitment). Individuals so hospitalized may be considered dangerous to themselves or others, may fail to recognize the severity of their illness and the need for treatment, or may be unable to have their daily living and treatment needs otherwise met in the community or to survive without medical attention. Compare voluntary admission.

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Psychology term of the day

December 22nd 2024

family

family

n.

1. a kinship unit consisting of a group of individuals united by blood or by marital, adoptive, or other intimate ties. Although the family is the fundamental social unit of most human societies, its form and structure vary widely. See biological family; extended family; nuclear family; permeable family; stepfamily.

2. in biological taxonomy, a main subdivision of an order, consisting of a group of similar, related genera (see genus).

3. a collection of mathematically or statistically related entities. For example, a set of statistical tests conducted when there are more than two groups for an independent variable within an analysis of variance constitutes a family of tests. See also family-wise alpha level; family-wise error rate. —familial adj.