karma

1. in Hinduism, a concept signifying (a) a mental or physical action, (b) the consequence of a mental or physical action, (c) the sum of all consequences of the actions of a person in this or some previous life, and (d) the chain of cause and effect in the world of morality.

2. in Buddhism, the universal law of cause and effect. The effect of an action, which can be of the body, speech, or mind, is not primarily determined by the act itself but by the intention of the actor. When a deed cannot be done but the intention to do it exists, this still produces an effect. [Sanskrit, literally: “deed”] —karmic adj.

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Psychology term of the day

November 18th 2024

skewness

n. the degree to which a set of scores, measurements, or other numbers are asymmetrically distributed around a central point. A normal frequency distribution of data is shaped like a bell, with equal values for each of its three indices of central tendency—the mean, the median, and the mode. Approximately 68% of the scores lie within 1 standard deviation of the mean and approximately 95% of the scores lie within 2 standard deviations of the mean. When a distribution has a few extreme scores toward the high end relative to the low end (e.g., when a test is difficult and few test takers do well), it has a positive skew (or is positively skewed), such that the mean is greater than the mode. When a distribution has a few extreme scores toward the low end relative to the high end (e.g., when a test is easy and most test takers do well), it has a negative skew (or is negatively skewed).