Jump to content

psychometry

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

From psycho- +‎ -metry.

Noun

[edit]

psychometry (countable and uncountable, plural psychometries)

  1. (parapsychology) The paranormal ability to discover information about an object's past, and especially about its past owners, merely by handling it.
    • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:
      "Their power and knowledge are as closely limited as ours. But this is not a matter for the spirit people. What I did then was psychometry, which, so far as we know, is a power of the human soul."
  2. (psychology) The use of psychological tests to measure intelligence, abilities, attitudes, and personality traits.
    • 1960, Indian Journal of Psychology, XXXV-XXXVII, page 25:
      In psychometry and paedometry his original contributions will be little unless he had equipped himself well with the subjects like mathematics and statistics.
    • ibidem, page 27:
      Again, barring in a few universities psychometry and physiological psychology are not regarded as compulsory papers.

Synonyms

[edit]
  • (the use of psychological tests to measure traits): psychometrics

Translations

[edit]

See also

[edit]