deductive-nomological model

an influential model of scientific explanation in which laws describing regularities in nature (see natural law) are used as initial premises or axioms to deduce working explanations of phenomena, which are then used to deduce specific testable predictions. See hypothetico-deductive method; nomology. See also covering-law model. [identified by German philosopher of science Carl Gustav Hempel (1905–1997)]

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Psychology term of the day

January 28th 2025

mixed receptive-expressive language disorder

in DSM–IV–TR, a developmental communication disorder that combines the symptoms of expressive language disorder with the symptoms of semantic comprehension problems, leading to difficulty with word associations, categorization, and verbal mediation in general.