Research article summary (published 29 Sep 1992):

The four elementary forms of sociality: framework for a unified theory of social relations.

Full Abstract

The motivation, planning, production, comprehension, coordination, and evaluation of human social life may be based largely on combinations of 4 psychological models. In communal sharing, people treat all members of a category as equivalent. In authority ranking, people attend to their positions in a linear ordering. In equality matching, people keep track of the imbalances among them. In market pricing, people orient to ratio values. Cultures use different rules to implement the 4 models. In addition to an array of inductive evidence from many cultures and approaches, the theory has been supported by ethnographic field work and 19 experimental studies using 7 different methods testing 6 different cognitive predictions on a wide range of subjects from 5 cultures.

Author information

Author/s: Fiske, A P (AP);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104-6196.

Grants: 1 R29 MH43857-01 (Agency:NIMH NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.; Review

Journal: Psychological review (Psychol Rev), published in UNITED STATES. (Language: eng)

Reference: 1992-Oct; vol 99 (issue 4) : pp 689-723

Dates: Created 1993/01/06; Completed 1993/01/06; Revised 2007/11/14;

PMID: 1454904, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult Aged Culture Female Humans

Interpersonal Relations Male Middle Aged Social Identification Socialization

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