Multiple categorization : choices and constraints in the perception of individuals and groups

Abstract

Categorization is widely accepted in social psychology as integral to group-based perception. However, it is less commonly endorsed as a process that applies to individual or person-based perception. This thesis challenges the traditional social cognition view that categorization predominantly applies to group-based perception and shows that fundamental categorization processes are equally relevant to person-based perception. To demonstrate the ubiquitous nature of the categorization process and how it applies beyond group-based perception, this thesis applies Self Categorization Theory's (SCT) category salience model across multiple levels of abstraction. The thesis shows that categorization is valid at the intra-personal and inter-personal levels as well as at the inter-group level. The thesis also discusses how categorization applies to other person-based models of social perception. SCTs category salience model, which has previously been investigated in intra{u00AD} and inter-group contexts, is contrasted with an intra-personal model of social perception, specifically the Cognitive Affective Processing System (CAPS) model, as well as an inter-personal model of social perception, specifically Attribution Theory's covariation model. Although each theory has traditionally been applied at different levels of analysis this thesis integrates CAPS and Attribution Theory into an SCT framework. By doing this using the methodological approach taken, the thesis demonstrates how the relevant concepts in each theory can be experimentally manipulated or measured in terms of an underlying process of categorization. The thesis shows how the category salience model can be used to further expand on some key heoretical constructs in these theories and provides empirical evidence suggesting that each of these theories share a common underlying categorization process. The key question guiding this thesis is: Do perceivers make sense of behavioural variability at the inter-group, inter-personal and intra-personal levels of analysis using the same categorization process? To explore whether the category salience model could account for perceivers judgements at each level of abstraction a new methodology was developed for the Who-Said-What paradigm. The new methodology enables this paradigm, which was specifically developed to investigate group-level categorization processes, to be used at multiple levels of abstraction with multiple categories. The new analysis reports the results in a way consistent with the category salience model, that is, using the traditional salience index, which measures the combined impact of category memory and expectation-based processing. In addition, two new salience indices are developed that separate these two types of processing. The thesis presents data from 6 studies, each using three categories at different levels of analysis. These are the first studies to use the Who-Said-Paradigm with three category dimensions and the results demonstrate that it is the interaction between comparative fit, normative fit and perceiver readiness that predicts category use. That is, perceivers clearly use the category salience mechanism to make sense of variability at all levels of abstraction. At the intra- and inter-personal levels, the findings show that perceivers use person, situation and other non-group categories to make sense of variability. At the inter-personal level, the category salience mechanism enables perceivers to discriminate between persons and situations. At the intra-personal level, category salience helps perceivers to integrate person and situation information. At the inter-group level the findings demonstrate the power of perceiver readiness in affecting a perceiver's ability to recall stimuli fit. Interactions between the strength of perceivers' stereotypes and fit are found in each group study and the findings reveal that expectations moderate fit-based recall, especially under counter-normative fit conditions. The thesis discusses the implications of these findings for SCT, the CAPS model and Attribution Theory. For SCT, the primary contribution of the thesis is to show that the category salience mechanism applies to non-group categories as well as to group categories. While previous research demonstrates that the category salience mechanism is used by perceivers to make sense of people at the inter-group level using social categories, this thesis shows that perceivers also use the category salience mechanism to make sense of people at the inter-personal and intra-personal levels using non-group categories. Persons and situations are shown to operate as categories at the inter- and intra-personal levels in the same way that perceivers use social categories to make sense of people on the basis of group memberships. For Attribution Theory, the primary implication of this thesis is to suggest that attribution follows the most salient category. This is consistent with the idea that one of the primary outcomes of category formation is the ability to make inferences about the causes of behaviour. While Attribution Theory has not previously been fully conceptualized in categorization terms, this thesis clearly demonstrates that person and situation categories can be used independently at the inter-personal level of analysis, as Attribution Theory would suggest, if persons and situations were conceptualized in terms of categories. In addition, the thesis shows how person and situation categories are used interactively as the CAPS model suggests. Therefore, for the CAPS model the primary contribution of this thesis is to show how the category salience mechanism can predict which encoding categories may be activated in a given context. Taken together, the 6 studies provide evidence suggesting that the category salience mechanism underlies person-based perception as well as group-based perception. Further exploration of person and group-based perception using the new Who-Said-What analysis will also enable other models of social perception to better examine the role of categorization in how perceivers form impressions and make judgments of other individuals and groups. Show more