weighted average

an average calculated to take into account the relative importance of the items making up the average: Different values or weights are assigned to different data points to reflect their relative contribution. For example, in examining grade-point average, one might give grades A through F the weights of 4, 3, 2, 1, and 0, respectively. One would multiply the number of A grades a student obtained by 4, the number of B grades by 3, and so forth and then divide the resulting sum by the total number of grades to obtain the student’s overall weighted average. Also called weighted mean.

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Psychology term of the day

March 17th 2025

enactment

1. the acting out of an important life event rather than expressing it in words. See psychodrama.

2. in some forms of psychoanalytic psychotherapy, the patient’s reliving of past relationships in the transference relationship with the therapist and, conversely, the therapist’s move away from active neutrality to unwittingly intertwine personal issues into symbolic interactions with the patient (a countertransference phenomenon). Attunement to the relational patterns that emerge in this therapeutic relationship offers the therapist an opportunity to help the patient acknowledge and work through similar patterns in the patient’s relationships with others. See also relational psychoanalysis; self psychology.

3. in some forms of couples therapy, a technique in which the therapist recreates areas of conflict between partners in order to facilitate bonding moments.

4. see structural family therapy.