dendrogram

n. a type of treelike diagram used in hierarchical clustering. It lists all of the participants at one end and then directs branches out from those participants who are similar and connects them with a node that represents a cluster. A dendrogram could be used, for example, to cluster individuals into various categories of HIV risk, depending on their number of sexual partners, their frequency of unprotected sex, and the perceived risk of their partners. Individuals who had few sexual partners with little or no unprotected sex and who perceived little or no partner risk of HIV infection would be branched into a cluster that could be labeled low risk, whereas individuals with high values on these three variables would branch into a high-risk cluster, with other individuals presumably clustering into a medium-risk group.

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Psychology term of the day

February 25th 2025

ritualization

n. the process by which a normal behavioral action becomes a communication signal representing the behavior or its physiological consequence. For example, among nonhuman animals, threat displays may be the ritualization of the conflict between attack and escape, incorporating aspects of both, or a ritualization solely of impending attack, as when dogs pull back their lips in a snarl in response to a threat. This lip-pulling began as a way for dogs to avoid biting themselves in an attack, but as other animals recognized this behavior as a precursor to biting, it became ritualized into a warning communication. Animals learn that ritualized behavior can be an effective form of avoiding a fight.