6,078 articles
Ideal type
Ideal type: Weber's methodological concept, an analytical construct formed by one-sided accentuation of viewpoints, used as a measuring rod for comparing real social cases; basis of ideal-type analysis in qualitative research.
Idealization and devaluation
Idealization and devaluation are paired defense mechanisms assigning all-good or all-bad qualities to a person, linked to splitting, borderline personality disorder, therapy dynamics, and stress-coping research.
Identity (social science)
Identity in social science is the self-definition of persons and groups through personal traits and group memberships. Central concepts include Tajfel's social identity theory, self-categorization theory, and Erikson's personal identity.
Identity crisis
Identity crisis: Erik Erikson's term for the adolescent psychosocial task of identity versus role confusion, operationalized by James Marcia's exploration and commitment statuses, with critiques, longitudinal findings, and cross-cultural extensions.
Identity formation
Identity formation: the developmental process of building a coherent self through exploration and commitment, central to Erikson's adolescence stage and Marcia's four identity statuses.
Ideomotor phenomenon
Ideomotor phenomenon: unconscious muscle movements triggered by thought or suggestion, coined by Carpenter (1852). Explains Ouija boards, dowsing pendulums, table-turning, and automatic writing; studied in modern action-control theory.
Idiosyncrasy
Idiosyncrasy, from Greek idiosynkrasia (idios + syn + krasis), means a peculiarity unique to an individual; originally a medical term for physical constitution, later a personality trait, linked to idiographic psychology.
Idiot
Idiot: English word from Greek idiōtēs (private person, layman), via Old French and Latin; early 14th century for mental deficiency; former clinical category below imbecile and moron, now an insult.
Igala–Idoma relations
Igala–Idoma relations are the historical, linguistic, and cultural interactions between the Igala people of the Niger-Benue confluence in Nigeria and their Idoma neighbors, including shared-origin traditions and Idoma migration through Igala territory between 1685 and 1751.
Igbo people
The Igbo (Ibo) are one of Nigeria's three largest ethnic groups, alongside the Hausa-Fulani and Yoruba, at about 15.2% of the population, speaking a Kwa Niger-Congo language, with decentralized precolonial town-assembly governance, the Nri and Aro institutions, and the 1967–70 Biafra war as central history.
Igboland
Igboland is the homeland of the Igbo people of southeastern Nigeria, a Kwa-speaking region of villages and towns organized without kings. Distinguishing facts: over 40 million Igbo today, settlements over two millennia old, councils of elders and oracles for social control, and a contested "stateless society" label.
Igorot people
Igorot, collective exonym for the indigenous ethnolinguistic peoples of the Gran Cordillera Central, northern Luzon, Philippines (from i- plus golot, mountain people). Covers Bontoc, Ifugao, Kankanaey, Ibaloi, Kalinga, and Apayao; term standardized by US colonial censuses and contested by some groups.
Ijaw people
The Ijaw (Ijo, Izon) are the fourth largest ethnic group of Nigeria's Niger Delta, around 15 million people speaking the distinct Ijoid Izon language, known for 7,000 years of delta settlement and oil-related nationalism.
IKEA effect
IKEA effect: consumer psychology bias, also called labor-leads-to-love, where people overvalue items they assembled themselves. Named for IKEA flat-pack furniture; defined by Norton, Mochon, and Ariely (2012), bounded by successful completion, pooled effect d = 0.57.
ILGA-Europe
ILGA-Europe: Brussels-based LGBTI umbrella NGO of 700+ organisations in 54 countries, region of ILGA since 1996; publishes the annual Rainbow Map ranking 49 countries on LGBTI laws and policies.
Ilie Ciocan
Ilie Ciocan (28 May/10 June 1913 – 27 May 2026) was a Romanian supercentenarian and World War II veteran, the oldest validated person ever in Romania and the Balkans at 112 years, 351 days, and Europe's oldest living man at death.
Illegal immigration
Illegal immigration, also called unauthorized, undocumented, or irregular migration, is entry or residence in violation of a country's immigration laws. Covers U.S. history, 1986 IRCA legalization, population estimates, economics, and crime research.
Illegal immigration to India
Illegal immigration to India: foreign nationals entering without valid travel documents or overstaying visas. Governed by the Citizenship Act 1955 and Immigration and Foreigners Act 2025; enforcement concentrated in Assam, with about 1.9 million excluded from its NRC.
Illegal immigration to the United States
Illegal immigration to the United States, also called unauthorized or undocumented immigration, is residence without legal status. Pew estimates a record 14 million unauthorized immigrants in 2023, up from 10.5 million in 2021, with probable decline after 2025 enforcement changes.
Illinois Confederation
The Illinois Confederation, known to the French as Illiniwek, was a loose group of up to 12 Algonquian-speaking tribes in the central Mississippi River valley, most of present-day Illinois, numbering about 10,000 in the early 1600s.
Illusion
Illusion (perceptual illusion): an experience conflicting with the physical stimulus, studied mainly as visual illusions such as Ebbinghaus, Müller-Lyer, and Ponzo. Key facts: weak inter-illusion correlations, cross-cultural susceptibility differences, use in animal and AI perception research.
Illusory superiority
Illusory superiority, also called the better-than-average or above-average effect, is the tendency of people to rate themselves above average; Svenson's 1981 study found 93% of American drivers did so.
Illusory truth effect
Illusory truth effect (validity effect, reiteration effect): repeated statements are judged more likely true than new ones, for true and false claims alike, driven mainly by processing fluency; meta-analytic size g = 0.37, reduced by warnings and initial accuracy focus.
Illyrians
Illyrians: ancient Balkan peoples of the eastern Adriatic coast (southern Slovenia to northwest Greece), named by Greek writers from the 5th century BC; Illyrian kingdom to 167 BC, then Roman Illyricum; language unattested by inscriptions.
Ilocano people
The Ilocano (Iloko, Ilokano) people are a major Philippine ethnolinguistic group of northwestern Luzon; 8,746,169 people (8.0%) reported Ilocano ethnicity in the 2020 census, with historic diasporas to Hawaii, California, and Cagayan.
Imagined community
Imagined community, Benedict Anderson's 1983 concept from Imagined Communities: a nation as an imagined, limited, sovereign political community formed through print capitalism and vernacular languages, later extended to diasporas, gender critique, and digital nationalism.
Immediate family
Immediate family: the closest circle of relatives, usually spouse, parents, and children. No single legal definition exists; US labor, criminal, immigration, state, Canadian, and Australian rules each define it differently.
Immigrant generations
Immigrant generations classify families after migration: first generation is foreign-born, second generation born in the country with at least one immigrant parent, third and higher with two native-born parents. Covers census definitions, the 1.5 generation, colloquial usage, and assimilation research.
Immigration
Immigration is the movement of people into a country other than where they were born, intending to settle there, with about 304 million international migrants by 2024.
Immigration effects of same-sex relationships
The immigration effects of same-sex relationships cover how binational LGBT couples obtain residency through partner sponsorship or asylum, a US pathway barred by DOMA until the Supreme Court struck it down in 2013.