Frain, Andrew James
Description
Transference and social categorisation
Abstract: This thesis concerns transference as a social
psychological phenomenon, where transference has come to mean
inferring that further characteristics of a significant other are
present in a newly encountered target person after some
observation of shared characteristics between those two figures.
This thesis argues for the adoption of a social categorisation
based approach to transference that is heavily informed...[Show more] by the
social identity approach, and self-categorisation theory in
particular. This approach is contrasted with the social cognitive
model of transference, which is currently the dominant
theoretical account of transference in social psychology. In
terms of the empirical contribution of this thesis, three studies
are reported that each attempt to test the predictive advantages
of a proposed social categorisation model of transference. Study
1 leverages the social identity approach concept of comparative
fit and consequently tests whether the characteristics of other
people in the perceiver’s frame of reference (i.e., in addition
to the target of transference) can moderate the extent of
transference. Study 2 and Study 3 leverage the social identity
approach concept of perceiver readiness and test whether the
current goals of the perceiver can moderate the extent of
transference. Study 3 also seeks to test whether the current
goals of the perceiver can moderate the content of transference.
Although the results of neither Study 1 or Study 2 conform to
predictions, the results of Study 3 provide initial support for
the utility of a social identity based understanding of
transference. Possible future empirical directions for a social
categorical account of transference are explored, as are the
theoretical and practical implications, with particular attention
paid to the implications for clinical practice. Overall a social
categorisation approach to transference is shown to have some
predictive advantages, in addition to providing advantages in
terms of theoretical and metatheoretical coherence.
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