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Conceptions of states and traits: dimensional attributes with ideals as prototypes
W F Chaplin1, O P John, L R Goldberg
1Oregon Research Institute, Eugene 97401.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
|April 1, 1988
Summary
People understand traits as stable, internal characteristics and states as temporary, external conditions. These psychological concepts are prototype-based, defined by ideal attributes rather than averages, aiding social understanding and prediction.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Human understanding of self and others relies on abstract social concepts like traits and states.
- Previous research often focused on average attributes for category prototypes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how people conceptualize traits and states.
- To identify the defining attributes of prototypical traits and states.
- To explore the functional goals served by these psychological concepts.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of implicit psychological causality within language.
- Examination of prototype-based categorization for abstract social concepts.
- Identification of ideal (extreme) attribute values defining category cores.
Main Results:
- Traits are prototypically perceived as stable, enduring, and internally caused.
- States are prototypically perceived as temporary, brief, and externally caused.
- Category prototypes are defined by ideal attribute values, not averages, with fuzzy boundaries.
Conclusions:
- Trait and state concepts function as complementary schemas within a theory of psychological causality.
- Trait concepts facilitate prediction from past behavior; state concepts aid in identifying controllable behaviors.
- Abstract social concepts exhibit distinct category standards, attributes, and interrelations compared to object categories.