remote cause

a cause that is removed from its effect in time or space but is nevertheless the ultimate or overriding cause. In a causal chain, it may be considered to be the precipitating event without which the chain would not have begun (the original cause). For example, the proximate cause of Smith’s aggression may be a trivial snub, but the remote cause may be Smith’s early childhood experiences. See also causal latency; delayed effect.

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Psychology term of the day

December 22nd 2024

dendrogram

n. a type of treelike diagram used in hierarchical clustering. It lists all of the participants at one end and then directs branches out from those participants who are similar and connects them with a node that represents a cluster. A dendrogram could be used, for example, to cluster individuals into various categories of HIV risk, depending on their number of sexual partners, their frequency of unprotected sex, and the perceived risk of their partners. Individuals who had few sexual partners with little or no unprotected sex and who perceived little or no partner risk of HIV infection would be branched into a cluster that could be labeled low risk, whereas individuals with high values on these three variables would branch into a high-risk cluster, with other individuals presumably clustering into a medium-risk group.