Social categorization is a cognitive process through which we place others into social clusters. Once we put people into social groups, we tend to think of them more as members of the social cluster than as individuals (Macrae, & Bodenhausen, 2000). The schema, prototype, and the exemplar social cognitive memory models explain the ways through which human beings categorize others in a social setting. Consider the below occurrence in the media.
A few weeks ago, I was watching an inter-school debate competition on live television. A group of five students from each school would face another set of five students from the opponent school for a heated debate on an assigned topic. On two different occasions, the participants made remarks that made me unintentionally place some of the learners in social clusters. In one particular instance, a male student made a remark that made me categorize him as a sexist individual. He was responding to a claim by one of the female participants that girls can do equally well as boys in science subjects. In response, the male opponent argued that the only subjects girls can in excel are those that do not involve intensive brain work. In another instance, a student made a racist comment, which made me categorize her as a racist.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
In both of these instances, the schema, prototype, and exemplar models influenced my memory, which led to the categorization. The schema model, for example, would explain the elicited memories of experience due to the racist comment made by the student in the debate (Baldwin, 1992). A schema is described as a cognitive framework that helps in the interpretation of information (Moskowitz, 2005). My mental representations of racists from experience made it possible to place the learner in the social cluster of racists. The prototype model, on the other hand, influenced the categorization of the sexist individual.
A prototype is described as a representation of a typical cluster member where a set of characteristics common in a social group are most likely to be found in a cluster member. For instance, in the sexist categorization, the arrogance shown by the student as he put across his argument is a common trait of sexists. Similarly, the exemplar model explains the distinction of qualities exemplified by social group members which enable an individual to form an impression of how new individual fits into that group (Moskowitz, 2005). In both instances, the exemplar model influenced my cognitive memories to categorize the two students. In my future role as a social psychologist practitioner, I will be able to use a schema model to study social issues such as stereotyping and prejudice (Raghubir, & Valenzuela, 2006). Research on these issues will enable me to come up with practical solutions on how individuals can use their schemas to influence social interactions positively.
References
Baldwin, M. W. (1992). Relational schemas and the processing of social information. Psychological bulletin , 112 (3), 461.
Macrae, C. N., & Bodenhausen, G. V. (2000). Social cognition: Thinking categorically about others. Annual review of psychology , 51 (1), 93-120.
Moskowitz, G. B. (2005). On schemas and cognitive misers: Mental representations as the building blocks of impressions. GB Moskowitz, Social Cognition: Understanding Self and Others , 153-192.
Raghubir, P., & Valenzuela, A. (2006). Center-of-inattention: Position biases in decision-making. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes , 99 (1), 66-80.
