Glossary C

Glossary C

Categories (--->Category) means discrete classifications. Many of the mental disorders in the current diagnostic system are presented as categorical in nature, meaning that people are judged either to have the disorder or not have it.

Categories of thought refer to those innate attributes of the mind that Kant postulated to explain subjective experiences we have that cannot be explained in terms of sensory experience alone, like for example - the experiences of time, causality, and space.

Categorization refers to a Brunerian concept referring to the process of identifying objects or events on the basis of the attributes they share with other instances. Likewise, Categorization is also defined as: 1. the organization of information into coherent, meaningful groups;. 2. the process of arranging, classifying, recognizing and identifying or describing somethings by labeling or naming; or 3. the natural tendency of humans to sort objects into groups. (see Category )

Category refers to a grouping of items sharing one or more similarities; an aggregation of people or things that share some common attribute or are related in some way. Moreover, Category refers to a term Bruner used to describe a grouping of related objects or events. In this sense, a category is both a concept and a percept. Bruner also defines it as a rule for classifying things as equivalent. (See Coding system.)

Category format refers to a rating-scale format that usually uses the categories 1 to 10.

Category prototype refers to an abstract representation of a category, reflecting the central tendency, or "best example,'' of a category.

Category typicality refers to the idea that some items are more representative of the category prototype than others. Items that are highly typical of a category have more features in common with the category prototype than do less typical items.

- Category-based expectancies : Category-based expectancies refer to expectations about people based on the groups to which they belong, such as expecting someone to love going to parties because he or she belongs to a party-loving fraternity or sorority