open society

a form of social organization characterized by respect for human rights, freedom to voice dissenting opinions, elective government, and the rule of law. Essential to this concept is an awareness of the imperfect nature of government and the need for constant critical evaluation of social policy so that it evolves with changing circumstances or new insights. A closed society, by contrast, is one characterized by inflexible social structures and a fixed ideology that cannot accept criticism or tolerate difference. See also democracy. [described by French philosopher Henri Bergson (1859–1941) and later developed by Austrian-born British philosopher Karl Popper (1902–1994)]

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Psychology term of the day

February 11th 2025

Q sort

a data-collection procedure, often used in personality measurement, in which a participant or independent rater sorts a broad set of stimuli into categories using a specific instruction set. The stimuli are often short descriptive statements (e.g., of personal traits) printed on cards. Examples of the instruction set are “describe yourself,” “describe this child,” and “describe your friend.” In the classic or structured Q sort, raters are constrained to use a predetermined number of stimuli in each category. Often, general categories are used to reflect the normal distribution, with raters assigning fewer stimuli to the extreme categories and many more stimuli to the middle categories. See Q methodology.