psychologize

American  

[sahy-kol-uh-jahyz] / saɪˈkɒl əˌdʒaɪz /

especially British, psychologise

verb (used without object)

psychologized, psychologizing

1. to make psychological investigations or speculations, especially those that are naive or uninformed.

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psychologize British  

/ saɪˈkɒləˌdʒaɪz /

verb

1. to make interpretations of behaviour and mental processes

2. to carry out investigation in the field of psychology

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Other Word Forms

• overpsychologize verb
• psychologizer noun

Etymology

Origin of psychologize

First recorded in 1820–30; psycholog(y) + -ize

Example Sentences

Whether fake-wrestling or barhopping with women or trying to psychologize each other, neither guy really knows what’s fun or illuminating anymore.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 11, 2025

He oozes capability, of the mental and physical sorts, and though he has a tragic backstory he doesn’t seem particularly marked by it, as much as other characters might want to psychologize him.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 28, 2024

As often as not, his portraits suppress our impulse to psychologize by showing their subjects dead-eyed or asleep.

From Washington Post • Oct. 6, 2022

That’s one way to think about it, the cynical, uncharitable, myopic way, the way you’d think about it if you wanted to psychologize Bill Cosby as Cliff Huxtable.

From New York Times • Apr. 27, 2018

Pestalozzi dreamed that he might be able to psychologize instruction and reduce all to an orderly procedure, which, once learned, would make one a master teacher.

From The History of Education; educational practice and progress considered as a phase of the development and spread of western civilization by Cubberley, Ellwood Patterson