Essay Questions
2. What are the mechanisms underlying social categorization?
Key Points:
- Before we can apply a schema to a social object, we have to categorize (or label) it as something; in other words, we identify objects, people and events as members of a category, similar to others in that category and different from members of other categories.
- Mostly we employ categories automatically and with little conscious effort.
- Categories help to impose order on the stimulus world, and are fundamental to perception, thought, language and action.
- Research on categorization stems from the pioneering work of cognitive scientist Eleanor Rosch and her colleagues.
- The categorization of social objects, people and events is assumed to be a more complex process than categorization of inanimate objects, because social objects are variable, dynamic and interactive.
- Nevertheless, members of a social category share common features.
- Some instances contained in the category are considered to be more typical than others – the most typical, or prototypical, representing the category as a whole.
- The more features an instance shares with other category members, the more quickly and confidently it is identified as a member.
- In contrast to the prototype model, an exemplar-based model suggests that categories are represented by specific and concrete instances (exemplars) of the category.
- People may rely on a combination of prototype and exemplar-based models, depending on the social objects in question and the conditions under which the information is processed.
- Categories are hierarchically structured, with more abstract and general categories of information at the top of a pyramid structure and more specific categories at the bottom.
- Like natural object categories, social stereotypes can be differentiated into lower-order sub-categories, or sub-types; listing the prototypical features of these category sub-types is considerably easier, as they contain more detailed information than broader and more abstract super-ordinate categories.
