Idealization

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Idealization is the process by which scientific models assume facts about the phenomenon being modeled that are certainly false. Often these assumptions are used to make models easier to understand or solve. Many times idealizations do not harm the predictive accuracy of the model for one reason or another. Most debates surrounding the usefulness of a particular model often are about the appropriateness of different idealizations.

[edit] Examples of idealization

In psychology, idealization refers to a person who perceives another to be better (or have more desirable attributes) than would actually be supported by the evidence. This sometimes occurs in child custody conflicts. The child of a single parent frequently may imagine ("idealize") the (ideal) absent parent to have those characteristics of a perfect parent. But imagination is better than reality. Upon meeting that parent, the child may be happy for awhile, but disappointed later when learning that the parent does not actually nurture, support and protect as the former caretaker parent had.

In physics, people will often solve for Newtonian systems without friction. While, we know that friction is present in actual systems, solving the model without friction can provide insights to the behavior of actual systems where the force of friction is negligible.

Also, in economic models individuals are assumed to be maximally rational choice rational. This assumption, although known to be violated by actual humans, can often lead to insights about the behavior of human populations.