Definition

1. Noun:
   • (Psychology) Stimulus Generalization: The transfer of a learned response from one specific stimulus to other, similar stimuli.
   • (Logic) Inductive Reasoning: The process of reasoning from specific, detailed facts or instances to form broader, general principles or conclusions.
   • (Cognitive Process) Concept Formation: The mental process of formulating a general concept by identifying and abstracting the common properties shared by multiple specific instances.
   • A General Statement or Principle: An idea, conclusion, or statement that has broad application, often omitting specific details or exceptions.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • The child's fear of a specific white dog showed generalisation to all small, fluffy animals. (Psychology: transfer of response)
  • Through careful observation of numerous falling objects, the scientist made a generalisation about gravity. (Logic: reasoning from specifics)
  • The generalisation of the concept "vehicle" comes from seeing cars, buses, and bicycles. (Cognitive: forming a concept)
  • His speech was full of sweeping generalisations and lacked supporting evidence. (A broad, often oversimplified statement)

Advanced Usage

• "Hasty Generalisation": A logical fallacy where a broad conclusion is drawn from insufficient or unrepresentative evidence.

  • Claiming all politicians are corrupt based on one scandal is a hasty generalisation.

• "Overgeneralisation": Applying a rule or conclusion too broadly, often beyond its valid context.

  • The linguistic overgeneralisation led the child to say "goed" instead of "went".

Variants and Related Words

• Generalize (verb): To make a general statement or form a general principle.

  • It is dangerous to generalize about an entire culture from a single experience.

• General (adjective): Involving or applicable to all or most cases; not specific.

  • She provided a general overview before discussing the details.

Synonyms

• Abstraction: The process of considering something independently of its associations or attributes.
• Induction: The inference of a general law from particular instances.
• Stereotype: A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing (often carries a negative connotation when used as a synonym for an unsupported generalization).

Related Phrases

• To make a generalization: To state a general rule or principle.

  • Based on the data, we can make a generalization about consumer trends.

• Broad generalization: A statement that is very wide-ranging and lacks precision.

  • The report was criticized for its broad generalizations about economic causes.

Related Idioms

• "The exception that proves the rule": Often used when a generalization is challenged by a counterexample, implying the generalization is still mostly true.
  • He's very tidy, which is the exception that proves the rule about messy artists. (Note: This idiom is frequently used to defend a generalization.)

Noun

1. (psychology) transfer of a response learned to one stimulus to a similar stimulus
2. reasoning from detailed facts to general principles
3. the process of formulating general concepts by abstracting common properties of instances
4. an idea or conclusion having general application
   • he spoke in broad generalities