animal magnetism

a hypothetical physical force that allegedly can have a curative effect when focused on ailing parts of the body, often through the use of a magnetized wand, magnetized rods, or a magnetized bath (see baquet). This method was proposed in 1779 and popularized by Franz Anton Mesmer, who claimed some treatment success with it. In the 1840s, James Braid investigated the curative effects of animal magnetism, concluding that it worked not through the application of magnets to ailing parts of the body but through the practitioner’s induction of a sleeplike state in patients and through the interplay of patient belief and healer suggestion to elicit a positive result. Braid revised the treatment under the term hypnotism (see hypnosis). Both hypnosis and its forerunner, animal magnetism, are also sometimes called mesmerism.

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Psychology term of the day

May 9th 2024

overmatching

1. unnecessary matching: the pairing of research participants on an excessive number of characteristics or on characteristics having little or no potential influence upon the outcome of interest. For example, a researcher investigating a new drug treatment for cancer might create two groups whose members are of the same age and sex, administering the drug to one group and a placebo to the other group. Such group comparability would allow the researcher greater validity in attributing any changes between them to the treatment rather than to sex or age differences. If, however, the researcher were to pair the groups on such additional factors as area of residence and household income, overmatching would be present and likely to mask the true nature of the relationship under investigation and lead to statistical bias, such as by reducing the power and efficiency of analyses.

2. see matching law.