Theories in Social Psychology, 2nd Edition

12 From Culture to Cognition: Social Categorization Theory Reloaded

Richard J. Crisp, Angela T. Maitner, and Andrew J. Marcinko

Our world presents us with a tremendously complex and intricate array of identities from which to construct a definition of ourselves and others. The psychology of social categorization – how we understand and make sense of these identities – has been articulated in numerous theoretical accounts. Yet the world in which these accounts were developed has changed. We live in a climate of unprecedented intercultural exchange, a world where the geographical boundaries that segregated different colors and cultures in the 20th century are rapidly breaking down. Many societies are increasingly multicultural, where awareness of our own, and others’, multiple affiliations is unavoidable. This increasing societal complexity presents an intriguing challenge to existing theoretical accounts of social categorization, and to understand the effects of these social changes we must re-visit and refine our theoretical models. In this chapter, we provide a timely extension to existing theoretical expositions of categorization processes – an extension that builds upon, qualifies, and applies social categorization theory to the complexity of contemporary intergroup relations.

Categorization is an integral and essential part of social perception (Allport, 1954; Chaiken & Trope, 1999; Fiske & Neuberg, 1990; Tajfel, 1978; Wilder, 1986). Whether the people we meet are black ...