randomized design

any of various experimental designs in which individual participants are assigned to different conditions (groups) using a purely chance process, such as rolling a die. A crucial assumption underlying randomized designs is that any systematic differences between treatment groups will be due to the experimental conditions themselves and not to any other unmeasured factors. Also called randomized group design. Compare nonrandomized design.

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Psychology term of the day

March 16th 2025

symptom specificity

a hypothesis stating that people with psychosomatic disorders display abnormal responses to stress in particular physiological systems. According to this hypothesis, a person’s complaints will center around a particular organ (e.g., the heart) and set of related symptoms (e.g., cardiovascular symptoms) rather than involving a variety of complaints about different organs or systems.