Continuity and transformation in the psychological meaning of categorization breadth

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9788282
AutoresJack Block (University of California, Berkeley, autor de correspondencia), Per F Gjerde, Jeanne H Block
Año1986
Volumen22
Número6
Páginas832-840
Fecha de publicación1986-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaDevelopmental Psychology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0012-1649 • E-ISSN: 1939-0599
EditorialAmerican Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1037/0012-1649.22.6.832
OpenAlexW2075580753
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas12

As part of an ongoing longitudinal project, measures of breadth of categorization were administered to subjects at age 4 and again at age 11. The category breadth indexes from each age were related to personality data available at ages 3,4, 7, 11, and 14 in the form of independent California Child QSort (CCQ) descriptions. Although the two breadth indexes were not correlated over the 7-year time span, many relations were observed between each of the categorization indexes and personality descriptions. Independently of gender, the preschool-based breadth composite was related to a core set of personality relations. Broad categorizers identified at age 4 were described at all five ages as lacking in autonomous structure and being more susceptible to environmental distraction. Although the relation between breadth of categorization as indexed at age 11 and personality could not be evaluated for girls, many significant relations were obtained for boys. Boys who categorized broadly at age 11 were described at all five ages as able to organize information about the world in a resourceful manner. Furthermore, breadth of categorization at age 4 correlated negatively with intelligence, whereas breadth of categorization at age 11 correlated positively with intelligence. This reversal in relation was highly significant statistically. The observed transformation in the psychological meaning of the results suggests that the use of relatively broad categories in early childhood reflects an inability as yet to organize experience effectively; by preadolescence, however, the use of relatively broad categories reflects a creative ability to see as importantly equivalent those instances that superficially are unrelated. Categorization refers to how individuals classify objects or events by applying rules of similarity. In categorizing, an individual, for the purposes of that categorization, treats all objects in the same category as equivalent and as different from objects not in that category. Categorization is cognitively economical because it reduces the potentially infinite number of possible perceptual discriminations down to personally useful proportions (Bruner, Goodnow, & Austin, 1956; Rosch, 1978). Because of the inevitable diversity of perceptual inputs, one must, for such tasks as recognition, learning, and judgment, have the ability to categorize stimuli and to classify events by similarity (Tversky, 1977)

Age groups · Categorization · Cognitive psychology · Developmental psychology · Distraction · Epistemology · Linguistics · Meaning (existential · Personality · Personality development · Preadolescence · Psychotherapist · Relation (database · Set (abstract data type · Transformation (genetics · Child and Animal Learning Development · Cognitive Abilities and Testing · Cognitive and developmental aspects of mathematical skills · Demography · Education and Professional Development · Educational Methods and Teacher Development · Psychology · Social Psychology