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F distribution

a theoretical probability distribution widely used in the analysis of variance, multiple regression, and other statistical tests of hypotheses about population variances. It is the ratio of the variances of two independent random variables each divided by its degrees of freedom. In an analysis of variance, for example, the F distribution is used to test the hypothesis that the variance between groups is significantly greater than the variance within groups, thus demonstrating evidence of some differences among the means. See F ratio; F test.

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Psychology term of the day

February 23rd 2025

radical feminism

radical feminism

a branch of feminist thought that holds as its main tenets that (a) the oppression of women is pandemic, the most fundamental of all historical instances of oppression, and thus a paradigm case of oppression; (b) because the oppression of women is systemic and ubiquitous, sweeping social change is the only remedy radical enough to overcome it; (c) traditional gender roles are constraining to both sexes and ought to be overcome; (d) biology should not determine the destiny or shape the lives of women; and (e) consciousness raising, in which women come to see their personal problems as symptomatic, is the beginning of liberation. These tenets have been adopted in one form or another by many strains of feminism.