Categorization in Social Psychology

Craig McGarty is Professor of Psychology at Western Sydney University. He received his undergraduate training in psychology at the University of Adelaide and his PhD from Macquarie University in 1991 (where he was a tutor from 1985 until 1989). He spent 1990 as a lecturer in social psychology/social interaction at the University of Western Sydney and moved in 1991 to the Australian National University as a research associate. He was Reader and Head of the School of Psychology before moving to Murdoch University in Western Australia as the Director of the Centre for Social and Community Research and then Director of the Social Research Institute. He has worked on a wide range of topics in experimental social psychology, and his current research includes a social audit of the aspirations and solutions of a remote Indigenous community and studies of the reconciliation process in post-genocide Rwanda. His books include Stereotypes as Explanations (with Vincent Yzerbyt and Russell Spears, 2002) and Categorization and Social Psychology (1999).

PART ONE: COGNITIVE AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO CATEGORIZATION Some Starting Assumptions Perceivers' Perspectives and Social Consensus Categorization and Cognition I Introducing Category Function and Structure Categorizationand Cognition II Category Learning, Formation and Use The Categorization Process in Social Psychology I Biased Stimulus Processing and Knowledge Activation Categorization as Meaning Creation I Self-Categorization Theory and Some Other Developments Categorization as Meaning Creation II Other Sense-Making Approaches Contrasting Perspectives on Motivated Relative Perception PART TWO: SOME EXPLORATIONS IN SOCIAL CATEGORIZATION Group Variability and Consistency The Constraints of the Social Context on Categorization Categorization, Covariation and Causal Explanation Conclusion Categorization as Explanation