Glossary / Lexicon

Analysis

Deutsch: Analyse / Español: Análisis / Português: Análise / Français: Analyse / Italiano: Analisi /

Analysis means breaking down the whole of a complex problem into manageable elements.

Description

In psychology, analysis refers to the process of examining complex mental phenomena, behaviors, or experiences to gain understanding or insight. It involves breaking down information into its component parts, exploring relationships between them, and identifying underlying patterns or mechanisms. Analysis in psychology often employs various theoretical frameworks and research methodologies, such as qualitative or quantitative approaches, to delve into the intricacies of human thought, emotion, and behavior. It can be used to explore individual differences, developmental trajectories, cognitive processes, emotional responses, and social interactions, among other aspects of human psychology. Psychologists use analysis to uncover underlying motives, unconscious processes, and psychological mechanisms that drive behavior or influence mental health.

Application Areas

  • Clinical psychology
  • Cognitive psychology
  • Developmental psychology
  • Social psychology
  • Neuropsychology
  • Industrial-organizational psychology
  • Educational psychology

Treatment and Risks

  • Treatment: Analysis in psychology can inform therapeutic interventions, such as psychoanalysis, cognitive-behavioral therapy, or psychodynamic therapy, aimed at addressing mental health issues or facilitating personal growth.
  • Risks: There are risks associated with overanalyzing situations or becoming too focused on particular details, which may lead to rumination, increased anxiety, or misunderstanding of complex psychological phenomena.

Examples

  • Analyzing dreams to uncover unconscious conflicts or desires.
  • Conducting content analysis of written or spoken language to study underlying cognitive processes.
  • Using statistical analysis to examine the relationship between personality traits and behavior.
  • Analyzing observational data to understand social interaction patterns.
  • Applying functional neuroimaging techniques to study brain activity associated with psychological processes.

Similar Concepts and Synonyms

  • Examination
  • Investigation
  • Interpretation
  • Evaluation
  • Scrutiny
  • Inquiry

Weblinks

Articles with 'Analysis' in the title

  • Analysis of dreams: Analysis of dreams refers to a psychoanalytic technique that attempts to shed light on unconscious material. Because dreams are regarded as heavily laden with unconscious wishes in symbolic form, the analysis of dreams is believed to provid . . .
  • Applied behavior analysis: Applied behavior analysis refers to a technology of behavior in which basic principles of behavior are applied to real-world issues. Moreover, Applied behavior analysis is an intervention that uses systematic operant conditioning strategies . . .
  • Archival analysis: Archival analysis refers to a form of the observational method, whereby the researcher examines the accumulated documents, or archives, of a culture (eg
  • Auditory scene analysis: Auditory scene analysis refers to the process by which listeners sort superimposed vibrations into separate sounds. See also Principles of Auditory grouping
  • Behavior Analysis: Behavior Analysis refers to an effort to identify as many factors as possible that could be contributing to a child’s problem behavior, thoughts, and feelings, and to develop hypotheses about which ones are the most important and/or most . . .
  • Bioenergetic analysis: Bioenergetic analysis refers to a method of understanding personality in terms of the body and its energy flow which was developed principally by Alexander Lowen
  • Bivariate analysis: Bivariate analysis refers to the analysis of two (2) variables simultaneously, for the purpose of determining the empirical relationship between them. The construction of a simple percentage table or the computation of a simple correlation . . .
  • Cohort analysis: Cohort analysis refers to a social scientific technique which studies a population that shares common characteristics, over time. Cohort analysis usually begins at birth and traces the development of cohort members until they reach a certai . . .
  • Content analysis: Content analysis refers to a set of procedures used to make valid inferences about text- using the techniques of behavioral observation to measure the occurrence of specific events in literature, movies, television programs, or similar medi . . .
  • Conversation analysis: Conversation analysis refers to a meticulous analysis of the details of conversation, based on a complete transcript which includes pauses, hems, and also haws
  • Discriminantability analysis: Discriminantability analysis refers to a multi-variate data analysis method for finding the linear combination of variables that best describes the classification of groups into discrete categories
  • Dream analysis: Dream analysis refers to a major technique in Jungian therapy where interpretations reveal the client's Unconscious dilemmas, archetypal enactments, and solutions to current issues
  • Ecological analysis: Ecological analysis refers to the examination of issues and problems at different levels of the human ecosystem ranging from the individual to macrosystems, examples, cultures or societies
  • Ego analysis: Ego analysis refers to an alternative to traditional Psychoanalysis that is characterized by relative de-emphases on the role of the unconscious and the exploration of childhood experience and relative emphases on the adaptive functions of . . .
  • Experimental analysis of behavior: Experimental analysis of behavior refers to a phrase typically associated with Skinner’s system. Reflects radical behaviorism’s emphasis on the objective analysis of the variables involved in behavior, specifically, what the organism do . . .
  • Factor analysis: Factor analysis refers to statistical technique used to reduce large amounts of data (eg. answers to personality questionnaires given to large numbers of people) into groups of items, or factors, that correlate highly with each other but no . . .
  • Fleishman Job Analysis Survey: Fleishman Job Analysis Survey refers to a job analysis method in which jobs are rated on the basis of the abilities needed to perform them.
  • Functional analysis: Functional analysis is defined as a central feature of behavioral assessment. In a Functional analysis, careful analyses are made of the stimuli preceding a behavior and the consequences following from it to gain a precise understanding of . . .
  • Functional Analysis of Behavior: Functional Analysis of Behavior : Functional Analysis of Behavior refers to an effort to identify as many factors as possible that could be contributing to a child’s problem behavior, thoughts, and feelings, and to develop hypotheses ab . . .
  • Functional Job Analysis: Functional Job Analysis is defined as a job analysis method developed by Fine that rates the extent to which a job incumbent is involved with functions in the categories of data, people, and things
  • Genetic linkage analysis: genetic linkage analysis refers to the study that seeks to match the inheritance pattern of a disorder to that of a genetic marker. This helps researchers establish the location of the gene responsible for the disorder
  • Handwriting analysis: Handwriting analysis which is also known as Graphology is a term that is usually misunderstood. Perhaps that is because there are two different kinds of Handwriting analysts, who each study- handwriting by entirely different methodologies a . . .
  • Interaction process analysis: Interaction process analysis: Interaction process analysis is a method devised by Bales in which observers code the behavior of group members in terms of various categories
  • Item analysis: Item analysis refers to an assessment of whether each of the items included in a composite measure makes an independent contribution or merely duplicates the contribution of other items in the measure
  • Level of analysis: Level of analysis refer to the views of ourselves that reside at different levels of conscious awareness. Level of analysis also refers to the specific focus of study chosen from a graded or nested sequence of possible foci
  • Meta-analysis: A meta-analysis (Plural: meta-analyses) is a statistical analysis that combines the results of multiple scientific studies. Meta-analyses can be performed when there are multiple scientific studies addressing the same question, with each in . . .
  • Multivariate analysis: Multivariate analysis refers to the analysis of the simultaneous relationships among several variables. Multivariate analysis is a set of methods for data analysis that considers the- relationships between combinations of three (3) or more . . .
  • Narco analysis test: Narco analysis test refers to a test using the "truth serum". Narco analysis test is conducted by mixing 3 grams of Sodium Pentothal or Sodium Amytal dissolved in 3000 ml
  • Pattern analysis: Pattern analysis refers to a method of neuropsychological test interpretation in which the basic pattern of scores on tests is examined to see whether it matches a pattern that has been reliably associated with a specific neurological injur . . .
  • Position Analysis Questionnaire: The Position Analysis Questionnaire refers to a structured Job analysis method developed by McCormick. The Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) is a job analysis tool used in industrial and organizational psychology to determine the key ch . . .
  • Principle of visual analysis: Principle of visual analysis is finding differences that look convincing. If conditions are divided and stable, differences are convincing. The principle of visual analysis is a concept in psychology that refers to the process of making sen . . .
  • Qualitative analysis: Qualitative analysis refers to: - (1) The non-numerical examination and interpretation of observations, for the purpose of discovering underlying meanings and patterns of relationsh ips
  • Single-factor analysis of variance: The Single-factor analysis of variance is a hypothesis test that evaluates the statistical significance of the mean differences among two or more sets of scores obtained from a single-factor multiple group design
  • Threshold Traits Analysis: Threshold Traits Analysis refers to a 33-item questionnaire developed by Lopez that identifies traits necessary to perform a job successfully. Threshold Traits Analysis is a statistical method used in psychology to determine the existence a . . .
  • Transactional Analysis: Transactional Analysis refers a theory of personality and communication, and a psychotherapeutic method. TA suggests that the personality contains three ego states: 'Parent' (containing
  • Daseinanalysis: Daseinanalysis is Binswanger's method of Psychotherapy that requires that the therapist understand the client's worldview. Daseinanalysis examines a person's mode of "being-in-the-world"
  • Freudian Psychoanalysis: Freudian Psychoanalysis refers to a theoretical approach that seeks to explain behavior by looking at the deep unconscious forces inside the person. Psychoanalysis is a school of Psychology that stresses the conflict between the animalistic . . .
  • Graphoanalysis: Graphoanalysis refers to the largest group of practitioners of Graphology in the United States and Canada which were trained by an organization known as the International Graphoanalysis Society (IGAS)
  • Group psychoanalysis: Group psychoanalysis is defined as an approach to group therapy that is grounded in Sigmund Freud’s method of treatment, and so includes a directive therapist who makes use of free association, interpretation, and transference processes
  • Narcoanalysis: Narcoanalysis refers to the use of truth serum. Narcoanalysis is a term which is derived from the Greek word narkc which means "anesthesia" or "torpor" and is used to describe a diagnostic and psychotherapeutic technique that uses psychotro . . .
  • Psychoanalysis: Psychoanalysis refers to a theory and system of practice that relies heavily on the concepts of the unconscious mind, inhibited sexual impulses, early development, and the use of the "free association " technique and dream analysis

Summary

Analysis in psychology involves the systematic examination of mental phenomena, behaviors, and experiences to gain understanding or insight into various aspects of human psychology. It encompasses breaking down information, exploring relationships, and identifying patterns to uncover underlying motives or mechanisms. Applied across diverse areas of psychology, analysis informs research, therapy, and the understanding of individual and group behavior. However, it's essential to be mindful of the risks associated with overanalyzing and to use appropriate methodologies and frameworks to ensure accurate interpretation and meaningful insights.