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philosophy

n. the intellectual discipline that uses careful reasoned argument to elucidate fundamental questions, notably those concerning the nature of reality (metaphysics), the nature of knowledge (epistemology), and the nature of moral judgments (ethics). As such, it provides an intellectual foundation for many other disciplines, including psychology. Psychology as a scientific discipline has its roots in the epistemological preoccupations of 18th- and 19th-century philosophy and continues to be influenced by philosophical ideas. See philosophical psychology. —philosopher n. —philosophical adj.

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Psychology term of the day

March 28th 2024

standard error of measurement

standard error of measurement

(symbol: SEM) an index of the reliability of an assessment instrument, representing the variation of an individual’s scores across multiple administrations of the same test. The larger the standard error of measurement, the greater the score variation across administrations. In essence, the standard error of measurement provides an indication of how confident one may be that an individual’s obtained score on any given measurement opportunity represents his or her true score.