Traits as goal-based categories: The importance of goals in the coherence of dispositional categories.

It is argued that goals are central to the meaning and structure of many traits and help define the prototypicality structure of those traits. Partly on the basis of L. W. Barsalou's (1985) work on goal-derived categories, it was predicted that goals help define the judged prototypicality of many trait-related behaviors and the confidence with which people make trait inferences from those behaviors. Consistent with this hypothesis, ratings of the extent to which behaviors achieved the goal associated with a trait strongly predicted the typicality of the behaviors. Furthermore, the rated goal-relatedness of a behavior also strongly predicted the confidence with which people would make a trait inference from that behavior. It is suggested that goals play a major role in the conceptual coherence of traits and other social categories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Explaining basic categories: Feature predictability and information.

The category utility hypothesis holds that categories are useful because they can be used to predict the features of instances and that the categories that tend to survive and become preferred in a culture (basic-level categories) are those that best improve the category users' ability to perform this function. Starting from this hypothesis, a quantitative measure of the utility of a category is derived. Application to the special case of substitutive attributes is described. The measure is used successfully to predict the basic level in applications to data from hierarchies of natural categories and from hierarchies of artificial categories used in category-learning experiments. The relationship of the measure to previously proposed indicators of the basic level is discussed, as is its relation to certain concepts from information theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting features for members of natural categories when categorization is uncertain.

An important function of concepts is to allow the prediction of unseen features. A Bayesian account of feature prediction suggests that people will consider all the categories an object could belong to when they judge the likelihood that the object has a feature. The judgment and decision literature suggests that they may instead use a simpler heuristic in which they consider only the most likely category. In 3 experiments, no evidence was found that participants took into account alternative categories as well as the most likely one when they judged feature probabilities for familiar objects in meaningful contexts. These results, in conjunction with those of G. L. Murphy and B. H. Ross (1994), suggest that although people may consider alternative categories in certain limited situations, they often do not. Reasons for why the use of alternative categories may be relatively rare are discussed, and conditions under which people may take alternative categories into account are outlined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Traits and social stereotypes: Levels of categorization in person perception.

A theoretical distinction is made between trait categorization in person perception and categorization by means of well-articulated, concrete social stereotypes. Three studies test the prediction that social stereotypes are both more associatively rich and more distinctive than are trait-defined categories. In Study 1, subjects sorted adjectives related to extraversion and introversion. A cluster analysis using similarity measures derived from the sorting indicated that distinct social stereotypes were associated with each trait. This supports and extends earlier findings (Cantor & Mischel, 1979). In Study 2, subjects generated attributes of the trait categories and stereotypes that emerged in Study 1. More nonredundant attributes, especially visible features, were listed for the stereotypes than for the trait categories. Study 3 elicited the explicit associative structure of traits and related stereotypes by having subjects rate the association between a series of attributes (derived from the responses in Study 2) and each category label. Results showed that social stereotypes have distinctive features that are not shared with the related trait category, whereas trait categories share virtually all of their features with related stereotypes. The implications of the trait/stereotype distinction for social information processing are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ideal Is Typical.

A well-established finding in research on concepts and categories is that some members are rated as better or more typical examples than others. It is generally thought that typicality reflects centrality, that is, that typical examples are those that are similar to many other members of the category. This interpretation of typicality is based on studies in which participants had little knowledge about the relevant categories. In the present study, experienced fishermen were asked to give goodness-of-example ratings to familiar freshwater fish. These fishermen were of two cultural groups with somewhat different goals and ideals. Typicality was well predicted by fishes' desirability and poorly predicted by their centrality. Further, the two cultural groups differed in their typicality ratings in ways that corresponded to their different goals and ideals. For knowledgeable reasoners typicality in natural taxonomic categories appears based on ideals rather than on centrality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Promoting health, promoting women: the construction of female and professional identities in the discourse of community health workers

Community health worker (CHW) programs are implemented in the third world and among racial minorities in the U.S. by public health professionals with the goal of improving people's access to basic health services. There is a shared view that women's roles as mothers make them effective CHWs because most health practices are located within the realm of the family. The objective of this paper is to inquire how and what concepts of woman are constructed and promoted in CHW programs. Viewing CHW as a discourse, I examine literature on CHWs using a critical feminist perspective and insights from narrative and rhetorical analyses. I argue that CHW positions women living in the third world and non-white Hispanic women in the U.S. as the "other" woman. The natural attributes of this other woman include mother, care giver, oppressed, child-like, and victim of patriarchy, religion, poverty, and diseases. These attributes are used to define categories of the female such as "the third world woman" and "Hispanic woman". These categories, in turn, define two unnamed opposite categories: "the first world woman" and "the public health professional". I conclude that CHW is a colonizing discourse and that public health professionals and feminists need to practice reflexivity.     

Emotional response categorization.

Traditional theories of categorization in which categories are assumed to be grounded in perceptual similarity or theories ignore an important basis of conceptual structure: the emotion that a stimulus elicits in a perceiver. This article discusses the nature of, constraints on, and conditions of use of emotional response categories. Experiments in which participants sorted triads of concepts that shared both emotional and nonemotional relations indicate that individuals use emotional response categories when they are experiencing emotional states. Multidimensional scaling of similarity judgments by emotional and nonemotional perceivers supports a selective attention mechanism of these effects. Participants induced to feel happy or sad emotional states weighted the emotional responses associated with stimuli more heavily than people in relatively neutral states. The triad and multidimensional scaling findings, along with functional considerations, suggest that emotional response categorization is not only tenable, but necessary for a complete account of categorization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The spyglass self: A model of vicarious self-perception.

Self-perception theory posits that people sometimes infer their own attributes by observing their freely chosen actions. The authors hypothesized that in addition, people sometimes infer their own attributes by observing the freely chosen actions of others with whom they feel a sense of merged identity--almost as if they had observed themselves performing the acts. Before observing an actor's behavior, participants were led to feel a sense of merged identity with the actor through perspective-taking instructions (Study 1) or through feedback indicating that their brainwave patterns overlapped substantially with those of the actor (Studies 2-4). As predicted, participants incorporated attributes relevant to an actor's behavior into their own self-concepts, but only when they were led to feel a sense of merged identity with the actor and only when the actor's behavior seemed freely chosen. These changes in relevant self-perceptions led participants to change their own behaviors accordingly. Implications of these vicarious self-perception processes for conformity, perspective-taking, and the long-term development of the self-concept are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tuning of orientation detectors in human vision

This paper reviews some of the characteristics of the informants as well as some of the attributes of the DICA-R interview that could influence the test-retest reliability in a sample of 109 psychiatric outpatients aged 7-17 years. Different regression models using reliability coefficients constructed from the kappa statistic were obtained. Of those characteristics evaluated in the children, a high level of psychological impairment proved to be significant when it came to predicting the lowest test-retest reliability of the answers; none of the subject-related characteristics were significant in the adolescent patient model. The attributes of the questions that proved to be significant when explaining the lower reliability obtained for the individual question in the children's model were the length of the questions (longest questions), the content (internalising), the presence of time concepts, comparison with the peer group, and the need to exercise judgement; in the adolescents' model, the significant attributes were found to be the internalising content, the presence of time concepts, evaluation concerning the impairment caused by the disorder, and the need to exercise judgement. In the group of children our results are in accordance with the original paper. Similar results were found with adolescents. These findings have implications for the development and revision of new interview schedules.     

Self-esteem, construal, and comparisons with the self, friends, and peers.

Extending the better than average effect, 3 studies examined self-, friend, and peer comparisons of personal attributes. Participants rated themselves as better off than friends, who they rated as superior to generalized peers. The exception was in direct comparisons, where the self and friends were not strongly differentiated on unambiguous negative attributes. Self-esteem and construal played moderating roles, with persons with high self-esteem (HSEs) exploiting both ambiguous positive and ambiguous negative traits to favor themselves. Persons lower in self-esteem exploited ambiguous positive traits in their favor but did not exploit ambiguous negative traits. Across self-esteem level, ratings of friends versus peers were exaggerated when attributes were ambiguous. HSEs seemed to take advantage of ambiguity more consistently to present favorable self-views; people with low self-esteem used ambiguity to favor their friends but were reluctant to minimize their own faults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Statistical models of implicit personality theory: A comparison.

Evaluated factor analytic (FA), cluster analytic (CA), and multidimensional scaling (MDS) models of implicit personality theory in a methodological study that compared statistically derived dimensions and categories of traits and stimulus persons with S-generated groups of traits and stimulus persons. 60 undergraduate and graduate students rated 10 familiar and 10 unfamiliar people on 20 diverse traits and, from these traits and persons, formed groups of related traits and groups of similar people. The trait ratings were subjected to FA, CA, and MDS procedures, computed for each S individually. Comparison of the direct groups with the derived FA and MDS dimensions and CA categories, using 4 different match indices, indicated that the CA model provided the best match. A tendency toward better matching for traits than persons was observed, as well as greater differentiation in cluster space for familiar than unfamiliar persons. It is concluded that when Ss categorize rather than dimensionalize stimulus objects, a model such as CA may be more appropriate. Problems associated with testing the complementary hypothesis—that a dimensional model is more appropriate when perceivers dimensionalize—are discussed. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When we talk about American ethnic groups, what do we mean?

American ethnic groups are often thought of as discrete categories to which people belong and that explain some aspects of psychological functioning. However, ethnicity is a complex multidimensional construct that, by itself, explains little. To understand its psychological implications, it is necessary to identify and assess those aspects of ethnicity that may have an impact on outcomes of interest. In this article, the author examines 3 key aspects of ethnicity: cultural norms and values; the strength, salience, and meaning of ethnic identity; and the experiences and attitudes associated with minority status. These aspects are best understood in terms of dimensions along which individuals and samples vary, rather than as categories into which individuals can be classified. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A new look at defensive projection: thought suppression, accessibility, and biased person perception

It has long been assumed that people perceive in others qualities that they wish to deny in themselves, but empirical evidence for defensive projection is limited and controversial. A new model for projection is presented in this article. People might try to actively suppress thoughts about the possibility that they have undesirable personality traits, but it was hypothesized that this response to threat ultimately causes thoughts about the unwanted traits to become chronically accessible. As a result, those trait concepts will be used to interpret others' behavior. Studies 1-4 showed that those people who both avoid thinking about having threatening personality traits and deny possessing them (repressors) also readily infer those traits from others' behavior. Studies 5-6 provided experimental support for the model. Unfavorable traits were attributed to participants, who, when they were asked or predisposed to not think about the traits, subsequently projected them onto someone else.     

Prototype effects and peak shift in categorization.

People asked to categorize exemplars of 2 categories often respond more accurately to the prototypes of those categories than to other exemplars. The authors suggest that this prototype effect may often have been confounded with a peak shift as is observed when pigeons are trained to discriminate between two wavelengths (S+?=?550 nm and S–?=?560 nm), and the peak of their postdiscrimination gradient lies at 540 or 530 nm rather than at 550 nm. Three experiments established that a similar peak shift can occur when people are asked to categorize 2 sets of stimuli, but the authors also provide evidence of a true prototype effect uncontaminated by any peak shift. These results appear to pose considerable problems for exemplar-based theories of categorization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inference and Classification Learning of Abstract Coherent Categories.

Category learning research has primarily focused on how people learn to classify items using simple observable features. However, classification is only 1 way to learn categories. In addition, many concepts have an underlying coherence that explains the featural similarity among exemplars, such as abstract coherent concepts whose instances differ greatly on their observable features. In 3 experiments, the authors investigated how abstract coherent categories are acquired through 2 common means of category learning, classification and inference. Because inference promotes more focus on within-category information than does classification, they hypothesized that inference learning would lead to a better understanding of the underlying coherence of abstract coherent categories. All 3 experiments support this prediction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental representation of normal subjects about the sources of knowledge in different semantic categories and unique entities.

According to the “sensory-motor model of semantic knowledge,” different categories of knowledge differ for the weight that different “sources of knowledge” have in their representation. Our study aimed to evaluate this model, checking if subjective evaluations given by normal subjects confirm the different weight that various sources of knowledge have in the representation of different biological and artifact categories and of unique entities, such as famous people or monuments. Results showed that the visual properties are considered as the main source of knowledge for all the living and nonliving categories (as well as for unique entities), but that the clustering of these “sources of knowledge” is different for biological and artifacts categories. Visual data are, indeed, mainly associated with other perceptual (auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and tactual) attributes in the mental representation of living beings and unique entities, whereas they are associated with action-related properties and tactile information in the case of artifacts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning outcomes and their effects: Useful categories of human performance.

The outcomes of learning are persistent states that make possible a variety of human performances. While learning results are specific to the task undertaken, learning investigators have sought to identify broader categories of learning outcomes in order to foresee to what extent their findings can be generalized. Five varieties of learning outcomes have been distinguished and appear to be widely accepted. These categories are intellectual skills (procedural knowledge), verbal information (declarative knowledge), cognitive strategies (executive control processes), motor skills, and attitudes. Each of these categories may be seen to encompass a broad variety of human activities. It is held that results indicating the effects on learning of most principal independent variables can be generalized within these categories but not between them. Five categories exist because (1) they differ as human performances, (2) the requirements for learning them are different despite the pervasiveness of such general conditions as continguity and reinforcement, and (3) the effects of learning differ. It is argued that these categories represent a functional middle ground and are well-suited as a basis for future research. (50 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perception of variability in category development: Instance- versus abstraction-based stereotypes.

We conducted two experiments to investigate the acquisition and representation of social categories, with an emphasis on the perception of variability of group members. In Experiment 1, subjects learned about a group that was sociable and intelligent and either high or low in variability with respect to these attributes. Differences in the actual variability of group members were reflected in subjects' estimates of variability, in their tendency to generalize from the traits and goals of a single member to the entire group, and in their classification judgments of new instances, which reflected their expectations of group members' future behavior. Memory for instances of the category also played a role in these judgment tasks. In Experiment 2, subjects who first learned about the behaviors performed by group members and then about general characteristics of the group perceived the group as more variable than did those who learned the same information in the reverse order. In both experiments, we manipulated memory for specific behaviors such that either the most extreme behaviors or behaviors at the center of the distribution were most memorable. This manipulation did not affect estimates of perceived variability, suggesting that these were constructed and stored on-line rather than from a retrieved set of category exemplars. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Automatic activation of self-discrepancies and emotional syndromes: When cognitive structures influence affect.

Different types of self-discrepancies are associated with different negative affects. Two studies were conducted to determine whether automatic activation of specific actual-self: self-guide mismatches, as cognitive structures, would induce distinct emotional states. Subjects possessing significant discrepancies between their actual self and either their ideal self-guide (attributes that someone wishes or hopes the person would possess) or their ought self-guide (attributes that someone believes the person has the duty or obligation to possess) responded verbally to an audiotape while "thinking about other people." Study 1 involved two kinds of priming attributes: self-relevant and yoked (another subject's self-relevant attributes). Activating mismatches induced momentary syndromes of dejection (sadness, decreased arousal) in ideal-discrepant subjects but induced agitation (nervousness, increased arousal) in ought-discrepant subjects. In Study 2, subjects were randomized to either self-relevant/nondiscrepant, self-discrepant, or yoked priming. The findings of Study 1 were replicated for the self-discrepant priming condition alone. Results indicate that (a) mismatches constitute cognitive structures and (b) automatic activation of different mismatches via contextual priming induces distinct types of emotional discomfort. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)