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manic episode

a period characterized by elevated, expansive, or irritable mood, often with several of the following symptoms: an increase in activity or psychomotor agitation; talkativeness or pressured speech; flight of ideas or racing thoughts; inflated self-esteem or grandiosity; a decreased need for sleep; extreme distractibility; and intense pursuit of activities that are likely to have unfortunate consequences (e.g., buying sprees, sexual indiscretions). In DSM–IV–TR and DSM–5, a distinguishing criterion between a manic and a hypomanic episode is their duration, with manic episodes lasting at least a week and hypomanic episodes lasting at least 4 consecutive days. One or more manic episodes are characteristic of bipolar disorder. See also mixed episode.

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Psychology term of the day

December 21st 2024

partially ordered scale

partially ordered scale

a scale that falls partway between a nominal scale and an ordinal scale, in that the scaling units can be ranked from lowest to highest in most but not all cases.