Wiktionary
n. The scientific study of psychology and motivation in history.
Wikipedia
Psychohistory is the study of the psychological motivations of historical events. It attempts to combine the insights of psychoanalysis with the research methodology of the social sciences to understand the emotional origin of the social and political behavior of groups and nations, past and present. Its subject matter is childhood and the family, and psychological studies of anthropology and ethnology.
Psychohistory is a fictional science in Isaac Asimov's Foundation universe which combines history, sociology, and mathematical statistics to make general predictions about the future behavior of very large groups of people, such as the Galactic Empire. It was first introduced in the three short stories (1942–1944) which would later be collected as the 1951 novel Foundation.
Usage examples of "psychohistory".
So it was necessary to suppose that human beings in general did not know what the predictions of psychohistory were and therefore would not tailor their activities to suit.
Hal’s memories told him she was resident at the University of Cerulea, doing postgraduate research in psychohistory.
For over thirty years psychohistory had developed in what might almost be considered a straight line-progress creepingly slow but moving straight ahead.
For over thirty years psychohistory had developed in what might almost be considered a straight line--progress creepingly slow but moving straight ahead.
There are twenty million variables for every instant of time, and no system of mathematics-no mathematic psychohistory, to coin a phrase-has yet been developed to handle that ocean of varying functions.
There are twenty million variables for every instant of time, and no system of mathematics - no mathematic psychohistory, to coin a phrase - has yet been developed to handle that ocean of varying functions.
He had been thirty when the first hint of psychohistory had come to him, thirty-two when he delivered his famous lecture at the Decennial Convention, following which everything seemed to happen to him at once.
The kinetic theory assumes that gases are made up of nothing but molecules, and psychohistory will only work if the hosts of intelligence are made up of nothing but human beings.
The story is-if you want tradition-that Hari Seldon devised psychohistory by modeling it upon the kinetic theory of gases.
The story isif you want traditionthat Hari Seldon devised psychohistory by modeling it upon the kinetic theory of gases.
The story is--if you want tradition-that Hari Seldon devised psychohistory by modeling it upon the kinetic theory of gases.
I modeled my concept of psychohistory on the kinetic theory of gases, which I had been beat over the head with in my physical chemistry classes.
Still, each year sees us further advanced and I look forward confidently to the establishment of psychohistory as a legitimate and useful technique for dealing with the future.
It would make psychohistory something exciting and much more than a mathematical game.
Don't you suppose they know that your psychohistory has been predicting this for years?