Categorisation salience and ingroup bias: The buffering role of a multicultural ideology

The current work sought to test the moderating role of a multicultural ideology on the relationship between categorisation salience and ingroup bias. Accordingly, in one experimental study, we manipulated categorisation salience and the accessibility of a multicultural ideology, and measured intergroup attitudes. Results show that categorisation salience only leads to ingroup bias when a multiculturalism (MC) ideology is not made salient. Thus, MC ideology attenuates the negative effects of categorisation salience on ingroup bias. These results pertain to social psychology in general showing that the cognitive processes should be construed within the framework of ideological contexts.     

A social categorisation approach to distributive justice

In this chapter, I put forward an approach to distributive justice in terms of categorisation processes. It is assumed that a hierarchical set of social categorisations determine the identity of those individuals or groups considered for an allocation in a given situation, and whether or how these potential recipients are subcategorised and differentiated for decisions on their relative entitlement. I review empirical evidence for the approach and its predictions that (1) the salience of a shared inclusive identity enhances perceptions of equal entitlement, whereas (2) perceptions of different entitlements are based on the perceived defining values of the relevant inclusive category. Following from either process, (3) people are more justice motivated when they identify with the relevant inclusive category. Further, (4) subgroup identities influence the representation of the inclusive categorisation and/or the target of one's justice concerns, and thus the meaning of justice.     

A social neuroscience approach to self and social categorisation: A new look at an old issue

We take a social neuroscience approach to self and social categorisation in which the current self-categorisation(s) is constructed from relatively stable identity representations stored in memory (such as the significance of one's social identity) through iterative and interactive perceptual and evaluative processing. This approach describes these processes across multiple levels of analysis, linking the effects of self-categorisation and social identity on perception and evaluation to brain function. We review several studies showing that self-categorisation with an arbitrary group can override the effects of more visually salient, cross-cutting social categories on social perception and evaluation. The top-down influence of self-categorisation represents a powerful antecedent-focused strategy for suppressing racial bias without many of the limitations of a more response-focused strategy. Finally we discuss the implications of this approach for our understanding of social perception and evaluation and the neural substrates of these processes.     

Embodiment, spatial categorisation and action

Despite the subjective experience of a continuous and coherent external world, we will argue that the perception and categorisation of visual space is constrained by the spatial resolution of the sensory systems but also and above all, by the pre-reflective representations of the body in action. Recent empirical data in cognitive neurosciences will be presented that suggest that multidimensional categorisation of perceptual space depends on body representations at both an experiential and a functional level. Results will also be resumed that show that representations of the body in action are pre-reflective in nature as only some aspects of the pre-reflective states can be consciously experienced. Finally, a neuro-cognitive model based on the integration of afferent and efferent information will be described, which suggests that action simulation and associated predicted sensory consequences may represent the underlying principle that enables pre-reflective representations of the body for space categorisation and selection for action.     

The role of holistic processing in judgments of facial attractiveness

Previous work has demonstrated that facial identity recognition, expression recognition, gender categorisation, and race categorisation rely on a holistic representation. Here we examine whether a holistic representation is also used for judgments of facial attractiveness. Like past studies, we used the composite paradigm to assess holistic processing (Young et al 1987, Perception 16 747-759). Experiment 1 showed that top halves of upright faces are judged to be more attractive when aligned with an attractive bottom half than when aligned with an unattractive bottom half. To assess whether this effect resulted from holistic processing or more general effects, we examined the impact of the attractive and unattractive bottom halves when upright halves were misaligned and when aligned and misaligned halves were presented upside-down. The bottom halves had no effect in either condition. These results demonstrate that the perceptual processes underlying upright facial-attractiveness judgments represent the face holistically. Our findings with attractiveness judgments and previous demonstrations involving other aspects of face processing suggest that a common holistic representation is used for most types of face processing.     

Racial healthcare disparities: A social psychological analysis

Around the world, members of racial/ethnic minority groups typically experience poorer health than members of racial/ethnic majority groups. The core premise of this chapter is that thoughts, feelings, and behaviours related to race and ethnicity play a critical role in healthcare disparities. Social psychological theories of the origins and consequences of these thoughts, feelings, and behaviours offer critical insights into the processes responsible for these disparities and suggest interventions to address them. We present a multilevel model that explains how societal, intrapersonal, and interpersonal factors can influence ethnic/racial health disparities. We focus our literature review, including our own research, and conceptual analysis at the intrapersonal (the race-related thoughts and feelings of minority patients and non-minority physicians) and interpersonal levels (intergroup processes that affect medical interactions between minority patients and non-minority physicians). At both levels of analysis, we use theories of social categorisation, social identity, contemporary forms of racial bias, stereotype activation, stigma, and other social psychological processes to identify and understand potential causes and processes of health and healthcare disparities. In the final section, we identify theory-based interventions that might reduce ethnic/racial disparities in health and healthcare.     

Between Subjugation and Survival: Women, Borderline Personality Disorder and High Security Mental Hospitals

Women in high security mental health care are frequently diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Such women commonly report histories of child abuse, in particular child sexual abuse, and the vast majority also self-harm. In this paper, we draw on social constructionist theory to develop a framework for understanding these women, the effects of abuse and the reasons they self-harm. We demonstrate how a social model of intervention provides a comprehensive framework for identifying and exploring relevant factors within therapy. We argue that diagnostic categorisation has limited utility in directing therapeutic work with this particular group of women, because it directs attention away from the social world to internal pathology. We demonstrate that it is with reference to women's past and current relationships that borderline behaviour can be understood to be meaningful and partially adaptive. We conclude that treatment is more usefully organised around and directed towards those factors, such as abuse and self-harm, that are implicated in women's ongoing relationship difficulties.     

Further attempts to clarify the importance of category variability for categorisation

The issue of how category variability affects classification of novel instances is an important one for assessing theories of categorisation, yet previous research cannot provide a compelling conclusion. In five experiments we reexamine some of the factors thought to affect participant performance. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants almost always classified the test item as belonging to the high variability category. By contrast, in Experiment 3 we employed an alternative experimental paradigm, where the difference in variability of the two categories was less salient. In that case, participants tended to classify a test item as belonging to the low variability category. Two additional experiments (4 and 5) explored in detail the differences between Experiments 1, 2 on the one hand, and 3 on the other. Some insight into the underlying psychological processes can be provided by computational models of categorisation, and we focus on the continuous version of Anderson's (1991) Rational Model, which has not been explored before in this context. The model predicts that test instances exactly halfway between the prototypes of two categories should be classified into the more variable category, consistent with the bulk of empirical findings. We also provided a comparison with a slightly reduced version of the Generalised Context Model (GCM) to show that its predictions are consistent with those from the Rational Model, for our stimulus sets.     

Similarity chains in the transformational paradigm

Rips’ (1989) results with the transformational paradigm have often been cited as supporting accounts of categorisation not based on similarity, such as involving necessary or sufficient features (or a belief in such features), which guarantee a categorisation outcome once their presence has been established. We discuss a similarity account of the transformational paradigm based on similarity chains, which predicts that when the transformation is more gradual the identity of the transformed object is less likely to change. Conversely, we suggest that an essentialist approach to categorisation predicts that essences are more likely to change in gradual transformations, across generations, as is the case with evolutionary change of species. In two experiments we examined the scope of the similarity versus the essentialist account in the transformational paradigm. With space aliens, the similarity account was superior to the essentialist one, but the converse was true with earth creatures. We suggest that an essentialist mode of categorisation is more likely than a similarity one for stimuli that are in better correspondence with our naïve understanding of the world.     

The crossed-categorization hypothesis: Evidence of reductions in the strength of categorization, but not intergroup bias

Deschamps and Doise’s (1978) classic crossed categorization hypothesis states that both category differentiation and intergroup bias should be reduced in crossed conditions (e.g., race × gender groups comprised of Asian females, Asian males, White females, and White males) compared to simple conditions, where people vary on just one social category. Although there has been extensive work testing this hypothesis, we suggest that conclusions from this work are limited because (1) almost none of it has examined category differentiation outcomes, (2) several studies that have examined intergroup bias effects have not directly tested the classic hypothesis, and (3) no studies have examined both categorization and bias outcomes simultaneously. We conducted two experiments to overcome these limitations. In Experiment 1, target race (Asian or White) and gender were manipulated. In Experiment 2, target relationship status (single or significant other) and hometown size (big town or little town) were manipulated. In both experiments, categorization was weaker in crossed than simple conditions, but there was no evidence of reduced intergroup bias in crossed contexts.     

Learning on Work Placement: The Narrative Development of Social Competence

This paper explores the development of social competence by examining examples of research interviews conducted with 35 British undergraduate students on work placements. Work placement schemes are a characteristic of contemporary higher education, which is particularly geared towards students’ development of employability and transferable skills. Among these skills is that of social competence which is often taken for granted as emerging from normative adult developmental processes. Research on social competence is mostly confined to developmental psychology and focused on studying children and adolescents in their social settings. Moreover, the methodology of social competence is often developed from a child-developmental perspective, neglecting the situation-specific development beyond childhood. The paper argues that social competence is examinable as situated discursive practice and that it is essential to understanding career development. Membership categorisation analysis identifies the participant’s fluid positioning in narrating experiences of work and university. Lastly the paper addresses implications for theories of development and learning and considers ways in which this study can be expanded in the future.

How Should We Foster the Professional Integrity of Engineers in Japan? A Pride-Based Approach

I discuss the predicament that engineering-ethics education in Japan now faces and propose a solution to this. The predicament is professional motivation, i.e., the problem of how to motivate engineering students to maintain their professional integrity. The special professional responsibilities of engineers are often explained either as an implicit social contract between the profession and society (the "social-contract" view), or as requirements for membership in the profession (the "membership-requirement" view). However, there are empirical data that suggest that such views will not do in Japan, and this is the predicament that confronts us. In this country, the profession of engineering did not exist 10 years ago and is still quite underdeveloped. Engineers in this country do not have privileges, high income, or high social status. Under such conditions, neither the social-contract view nor the membership-requirement view is convincing. As an alternative approach that might work in Japan, I propose a pride-based view. The notion of pride has been analyzed in the virtue-ethics literature, but the full potential of this notion has not been explored. Unlike other kinds of pride, professional pride can directly benefit the general public by motivating engineers to do excellent work even without social rewards, since being proud of themselves is already a reward. My proposal is to foster a particular kind of professional pride associated with the importance of professional services in society, as the motivational basis for professional integrity. There is evidence to suggest that this model works.     

Integrating sociological and psychological perspectives on informal care

In this response to Ungerson we present evidence to support the respresentativeness of the sample and argue that the exclusion of ‘minimal’ carers from caregiving research is not justified. Ungerson's arguments for the consideration of large scale social processes are addressed by examining the role of gender as a determinant or moderator of care outcomes. No support was found for a model in which care work satisfaction mediated associations between gender and willingness to care. Nor did gender moderate associations between care work and appraised impact. Gender was found to moderate associations between two of the seven measures of care work and willingness to care. These findings suggest that the impact of care work on carers is not gender specific, but that women experiencing similar levels of negative impact as men may feel greater obligation to continue caring.     

Why are you telling me that? A conceptual model of the social function of autobiographical memory

In an effort to stimulate and guide empirical work within a functional framework, this paper provides a conceptual model of the social functions of autobiographical memory (AM) across the lifespan. The model delineates the processes and variables involved when AMs are shared to serve social functions. Components of the model include: lifespan contextual influences, the qualitative characteristics of memory (emotionality and level of detail recalled), the speaker's characteristics (age, gender, and personality), the familiarity and similarity of the listener to the speaker, the level of responsiveness during the memory-sharing process, and the nature of the social relationship in which the memory sharing occurs (valence and length of the relationship). These components are shown to influence the type of social function served and/or, the extent to which social functions are served. Directions for future empirical work to substantiate the model and hypotheses derived from the model are provided.     

Transformation of Adolescent Peer Relations in the Social Media Context: Part 2—Application to Peer Group Processes and Future Directions for Research

As social media use becomes increasingly widespread among adolescents, research in this area has accumulated rapidly. Researchers have shown a growing interest in the impact of social media on adolescents’ peer experiences, including the ways that the social media context shapes a variety of peer relations constructs. This paper represents Part 2 of a two-part theoretical review. In this review, we offer a new model for understanding the transformative role of social media in adolescents’ peer experiences, with the goal of stimulating future empirical work that is grounded in theory. The transformation framework suggests that the features of the social media context transform adolescents’ peer experiences by changing their frequency or immediacy, amplifying demands, altering their qualitative nature, and/or offering new opportunities for compensatory or novel behaviors. In the current paper, we consider the ways that social media may transform peer relations constructs that often occur at the group level. Our review focuses on three key constructs: peer victimization, peer status, and peer influence. We selectively review and highlight existing evidence for the transformation of these domains through social media. In addition, we discuss methodological considerations and key conceptual principles for future work. The current framework offers a new theoretical perspective through which peer relations researchers may consider adolescent social media use.     

Intergroup emotions and gateway groups: Introducing multiple social identities into the study of emotions in conflict

After 2 decades of extensive empirical studies on affective intergroup processes, it is now clear that emotional processes play a critical role in the dynamics of intergroup conflict. However, it seems that much of the research in this domain views intergroup relations in a dichotomous manner of pure in‐groups and out‐groups despite the developments in the realm of social identity that suggest otherwise. We here suggest that the incorporation of more complex social identity models into the study of affective social science can not only help to better understand intergroup conflict dynamics but can also offer new possible venues for conflict resolution. Specifically, we claim that the presence of groups with multiple identities, which include both the in‐group's and the out‐group's identity (e.g., biracial groups that encompass both a White and a Black social identity) can impact intergroup emotional processes between the different groups comprising those multiple identities (e.g., between Whites and Blacks). Accordingly, we review recent developments in the literatures of emotion in intergroup conflict and multiple social identity and offer a conceptual integration of the two. Thus, we attempt to enrich the theory in both fields, better explain intergroup conflict, and possibly pave the way for the development of novel conflict resolution methods.     

A multi‐level perspective on the synergies between work and family

In this paper we lay the conceptual foundation for work‐family facilitation. Work‐family facilitation is a process representing the synergies between the domains of work and family. We formally define facilitation as the extent to which an individual's engagement in one social system, such as work or family, contributes to growth in another social system. We develop the process through which facilitation occurs, provide a model and case studies of this process, and delineate additional theoretical and empirical research necessary to understand work‐family facilitation so that it can be managed and cultivated within organizations.     

A goal model of catharsis

Although research in social psychology has repeatedly refuted the idea that aggression reduces subsequent aggression (e.g., Bushman, 2002), we suggest a more fine-grained analysis of catharsis. We will present and discuss a social-cognitive goal model of cathartic effects in aggression that predicts under which conditions aggression increases or reduces subsequent aggression. The model assumes that the accessibility of aggression-related constructs is a function of goal fulfilment: Prior to goal fulfilment constructs related to the goal are highly accessible in order to facilitate goal fulfilment. However, after goal fulfilment this heightened accessibility loses its functionality and aggressive constructs are consequently inhibited. In the present article we will review empirical work testing this model. Moreover, we will extend this model to the effects of violent computer games. Finally we will discuss theoretical challenges and applied relevance of our model for intervention strategies aimed at reducing aggression.     

Top-down influences in social perception

The present chapter makes a case for the importance of the study of social perception as a phenomenon separate from impression formation and social categorisation, and of great significance for social psychology. We claim specifically that the development of tasks for studying perception is critical for addressing the question of whether top-down processes influence perception. Three series of studies conducted by the authors, and which relied on newly developed tasks, are presented. The first two series examine the effects of emotion and adult attachment orientation on the perception of facial expression of emotion. The third examines the influences of emotion concepts on perceptual memory for facial expression. The studies together provide good support for influences of emotional state, personality factors, and prior knowledge on the perception of facial expression of emotion, and call, we hope, for greater attention to perceptual processes in social psychology.     

The Internalisation of Group Identities in Childhood

This paper provides an account of key findings from a decade-long programme of research on children’s internalisation of social group identities. Our starting point is to note a pervasive failure of previous work to differentiate between categorisation of the self in group terms and subjective identification with a social group. Thus, previous research had sought to cast light on identification with groups but, owing to methodological weaknesses, typically examined only categorisation of the self in group terms. Following a review of relevant literature, we report the findings of our own research which has adapted methods drawn from cognitive social psychology. We conclude that even by the age of 5 years children are capable of subjectively identifying with collectivities. Directions for future research are discussed.