Post on 13-Apr-2017
CATEGORIZATION AS MEANINGCREATION 1: SELF
CATEGORIZATION & OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
Marketing Mix Seminar 2014By Federico Triolo
Marketing Mix Seminar: Federico Triolo
The social categorization tradition
CATEGORIZATION: is a sense-making which allows perceivers to derive meaning by making different classes coherent, separable and clear
1. People form categories by detecting equivalences among stimuli and store those categories for future use
2. The detection of similarities depends upon a pre-existing knowledge
Marketing Mix Seminar: Federico Triolo
Social identity theory SID (H.Tajfel)
CATEGORIZATION: Individuals spontaneously tend to form categories based on different aspects (age, gender..) INGROUP & OUTGROUP
IDENTIFICATION: the different belongings gives the psychological base in order to build the own social identity
SOCIAL COMPARISON: individuals constantly value their group with out-group (E.g. K-pop)
Marketing Mix Seminar: Federico Triolo
Implementation of SIDTwo more principles to categorization
Identification Comparison
Social Identification (self-esteem)
Marketing Mix Seminar: Federico Triolo
Social Identification is based on the idea of identity and identification Identity Identification
Marketing Mix Seminar: Federico Triolo
Social Identity creates auto-esteem in the group, some authors (as Shaller) misconceived this idea:SOCIAL IDENTITY PREJUDICE STEREOTYPES AND DISCRIMINATION
This view is too simplistic unless it leads to ACHIEVE SUPERIORITY (e.g.Nazism)
Marketing Mix Seminar: Federico Triolo
The implication of the original idea of social identity in social categorization had led to:
1) Members of overlapping categories showed reduced intergroup discrimination
2) Effect on Intergroup contact (cognitive analysis, E.g. Ku Klux Can)
Decategorization: when people see themselves as unique individuals rather than group members
Recategorization:members who see themselves as part of a group
Marketing Mix Seminar: Federico Triolo
3) Consequences of the effects of social categorization for the perceptions of social groupsThe level of perceived homogeneity within a
group can have consequences for the treatment of the group. Homogeneous group are more likely to be the targets of Intergroup Bias (Skku vs Snu)
Marketing Mix Seminar: Federico Triolo
Self-Categorization theory SCT (J.Turner)
Is a theory of self-perception which anticipates that aspects of social behaviour, especially group behaviour can be explained by variants in self perception (the product of a cognitive system). A person acts in social situations depending on the way that they perceive themselves in such situations, and in particular, the way in which people perceive themselves to be similar to or different from other people
Marketing Mix Seminar: Federico Triolo
Self categorization relevant terms
Salience: is the social category that is currently in use
Perceiver readiness: it reflects a person’s past experiences, present expectations, values, goals and needs. It is the relevant aspects of cognition that the perceiver brings to the environment (S.K.)
Comparative fit: is determined by the meta-contrast principle which is the ratio of the average similarity of the individual to out-group members over the average similarity of the individual to in-group members
Marketing Mix Seminar: Federico Triolo
Normative fit: is based on the social meaning of behaviour or attributes of an individual or groups which vary with the type of social-categorization made
Stimulus distinctiveness: is the stimulus which allow perceivers to best capture its features in a category (Italian cuisine)
Marketing Mix Seminar: Federico Triolo
Level of abstraction (inclusiveness): self-categorization theory assumes that the self can be categorized at various levels of abstraction. In other words, humans may categorize the self as a singular “I”(personal identity), or as a more inclusive “we”(social identity).
Marketing Mix Seminar: Federico Triolo
SCT maintains cognitive activity in the form of pre-existing knowledge and perceived similarities and differences constrain category use.
Perceived equivalence
Category useBackground knowledge
Social meaning
Marketing Mix Seminar: Federico Triolo
Perceived similarities and difference constrain category in use
At the same time the range of categories that can be used is constrained by the active body of knowledge
The perception of similarity and difference is constrained by the knowledge about the social meaning of categories
Long term knowledge is constrained by category use (we use knowledge which is relevant depending on category used)
Marketing Mix Seminar: Federico Triolo
Prior knowledge can be considered under the heading of normative fit based on the social meaning (attributes, content) which vary with the type of social categorization made.
Example: being intelligent in different contexts: in a racist milieu or in football supporters
Marketing Mix Seminar: Federico Triolo
Meta contrast principle (comparative fit)
We categorize through the comparison of stimulus: intraclass less different than interclass
Meta contrast ratio is the ratio of the average similarity of the individual to out-group members over the average similarity of the individual to in-group members
Meta contrast ratio of stimulus is more used and it defines how much the stimulus is representative of this category homogeneity
Marketing Mix Seminar: Federico Triolo
Does Normative fit match reality in terms of content and not just the comparative fit of dimension????
Ex: art and science students Comparative fit was manipulated: either conflict or consensus Attributes: art students (enjoy social life) science students (hard work) Findings: Normative fit higher during stereotypical feedback of the groups
(consistent position) than inconsistent position Normative fit higher in consistent/conflict than in the
consistent/consensus because of the position espoused e.g. by the science students in the consensus is actually inconsistent with their stereotypical position
Normative fit constrains the dimensions on which groups can be seen as similar and different, which in turn constrains category use (perceiver readiness)
Marketing Mix Seminar: Federico Triolo
Perceiver readiness: it reflects a person’s past experience, present expectations. The way in which perception is constrained by the perceiver’s vantage point at a particular time.
Four difficult cases:1. Stimuli are mediated by previous past experience and
body of ideas (ignorance)2. Selective categorization is based on personal needs,
goals (coffee mug or precious vase)3. Evaluate reality by personal norms, ideas4. It represents reality from the personal vantage point of
view
Marketing Mix Seminar: Federico Triolo
Depersonalization: is not a loss of identity, but it refers to a transition in identity from the personal to the social. Goals and values shift from an individual level to the group one e.g (army officer)Einstein quote: “ if my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue France will say I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew”
Marketing Mix Seminar: Federico Triolo
PERCEIVER WORK CATEGORY
German Success German
German Failure Jew
French Success Citizen of the world
French Failure German
An Illustration of how self-categories can be used flexibly. + least abstract self category− higher abstract self category in order to distinguish the self
Marketing Mix Seminar: Federico Triolo
Reynold’s point of viewHer work on impression formation showed that
the dimensions are categorized by higher level category E.g. 2 female science students were categorized as woman and then as students
Category use: “Do X and Y belong to
category A?"
Activation of relevant dimensions that
distinguish A from non-A and X from Y
Perceived equivalence (or non-equivalence) of
X and Y on relevant dimensions
Marketing Mix Seminar: Federico Triolo
In this case normative fit and perceiver readiness are implicit. (you already know category differences)
Differentiated meaning: perceiver is ready to distinguish category A with non A and the elements X and Y
To say something is, we need to know what is not and why is not
This approach leads to out-group homogeneity and in-group heterogeneity because it uses intragroup knowledge differentiation and not intergroup
Marketing Mix Seminar: Federico Triolo
Illusionary correlation effect
The erroneous perception of a relationship between variables It occurs when judging 2 groups of differing size and
perceivers are asked to distinguish members of 2 groups:More a group dimension clearly reveals one group more the
other one. More in the other group phenomena will increase as follow :
1. Non perceived of equivalence of the 2 groups2. Perceived of equivalence of the group members example of nationalities
Marketing Mix Seminar: Federico Triolo
Flexibility in cognitive constructSCT suggests that stability in self-perception is
afforded by constancy in relations between social groups
However, the process of category use is fluid
Turner and Onorato do address alternatives to flexible category:• Relevant self categories are stored prior to
activation, but how a person can have unlimited long-term memory and it does not provide how new categories are formed
Marketing Mix Seminar: Federico Triolo
Future research proposalHow we can investigate the epistemological approach in relation of categorization in a postmodern society, in order to best launch new products?
Marketing Mix Seminar: Federico Triolo
THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION
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