discordance

1. the state or condition of being at variance. Affective discordance may be observed, for example, when a person relates a particularly disturbing experience without any facial or vocal indication of distress.

2. in twin studies, dissimilarity between a pair of twins with respect to a particular trait or disease. Compare concordance. —discordant adj.

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Psychology term of the day

January 18th 2025

consistent missing

in parapsychology experiments using Zener cards or similar targets, the phenomenon in which a participant’s “calls,” or guesses, are consistently wrong or significantly below chance expectations. Some people attribute such systematic failure to processing error or a conscious or nonconscious reluctance to confirm psychic ability. See also psi-missing.