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overgeneralization

n.

1. a cognitive distortion in which an individual views a single event as an invariable rule, so that, for example, failure at accomplishing one task will predict an endless pattern of defeat in all tasks.

2. the process of extending something beyond the circumstances to which it actually applies. It is a common linguistic tendency of young children to generalize standard grammatical rules to apply to irregular words (e.g., pluralizing foot to foots). See overextension; overregularization.

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Psychology term of the day

May 9th 2024

hierarchically nested design

hierarchically nested design

any research design that involves several levels of sampling, such that the entities on the lower levels of the design are nested or subsumed within higher order groups. For example, a hierarchically nested design for an educational study might involve students (A), who are nested within classrooms (B), which are nested within schools (C), which are further nested within school districts (D). Several statistical procedures (e.g., analysis of variance, regression analysis, hierarchical linear models) also incorporate a hierarchical aspect. Also called hierarchical design; nested design.