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pain disorder

in DSM–IV–TR, a somatoform disorder characterized by severe, prolonged pain that significantly interferes with a person’s ability to function. The pain cannot be accounted for solely by a medical condition, and there is evidence of psychological involvement in its onset, severity, exacerbation, or maintenance. Although not feigned or produced intentionally (compare factitious disorder; malingering), the pain may serve such psychological ends as avoidance of distasteful activity or gaining extra attention or support from others. Pain disorder was formerly referred to as psychogenic pain disorder or somatoform pain disorder. The diagnosis has been eliminated from DSM–5, although the new term somatic symptom disorder retains mention of such a disorder “with predominant pain.”

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Psychology term of the day

February 22nd 2025

emergent feature

emergent feature

an entity produced by the interaction of small or simple elements (e.g., short line segments) in the visual system, such an entity (e.g., a polygon) being more salient to human perception than are the elements themselves. In ergonomics, object displays are usually designed to make use of emergent features; the display configurations yield an overall image (e.g., a rectangle or pentagon) that can be perceived holistically by the operator of a machine system and therefore rapidly analyzed to assess the state of the system. When a component of the system is not in the appropriate or normal state, the image will be distorted, alerting the operator to potential problems.