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egocentrism

n.

1. the tendency to emphasize one’s own needs, concerns, and outcomes rather than those of others. Also called egocentricity. See also idiocentric. Compare sociocentrism.

2. in Piagetian theory, the tendency to perceive the situation from one’s own perspective, believing that others see things from the same point of view as oneself and that events will elicit the same thoughts, feelings, and behavior in others as in oneself. —egocentric adj.

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Psychology term of the day

March 12th 2025

sequence effect

sequence effect

in within-subjects designs, a difference in scores that emerges because of a particular arrangement of treatments—that is, the presentation of one level of the independent variable has an effect on responses to another level of that variable. A researcher can test for a sequence effect by administering the treatments in various different arrangements (e.g., the arrangement ABC vs. ACB, vs. BCA, and so forth). The sequence effect is not to be confused with the order effect.