社会分类的特性,维度及心理效应

社会分类是个体基于共享相似性将人群分为不同类别的一种主观心理过程, 具有自动化,灵活性和潜在模糊性等特性.社会分类的维度既包括性别,年龄和种族等自然线索, 也包括语言,职业和社会身份等重要社会线索.在社会分类过程中, 不同维度往往具有相对重要性, 表现为优势维度效应; 不同维度相互之间也会发生作用, 产生交叉分类效应, 研究者从不同的视角对这种交叉分类效应进行了解释.未来研究应该采用多样化的方法和技术从分类主体,分类目标,分类情境以及社会文化因素等多角度探讨社会分类的心理加工机制, 构建更具整合性的社会分类理论模型.

The characteristics,dimensions and psychological effect of social categorization

Social categorization is a subjective process in which an individual classifies others into groups based on perceived similarities. Social categories are often automatic, flexible and multifaceted, including dimensions of both natural cues (such as gender, age and race) and social cues (such as language, occupation and social status). In such multidimensional social categories (e.g., “rich old celibate bachelor”), some of the constituent categorical dimensions contribute disproportionately to the traits attributed to the category overall. This is termed the “dominant dimension effect,” and is influenced by the valence of the dimensions. Different dimensions will also interact with each other, resulting in a cross-categorization effect. We review these effects in the context of social categorization, and highly important questions that remain for social psychologists interested in processing mechanism of social categorization from the perspective of observer, actor and social situation.