Attribution and Identity Construction: Some Comments

This paper presents a tentative theoretical framework for investigating the process of identity construction. It is suggested that, at any given time, the perceiver's construction of the other's identity may be characterized by either one of two inferential perspectives. "Viewing the other qua performer" involves the attribution of role-relevant qualities on the basis of observing behavior as role performance. "Viewing the other qua person" entails the linking of observed behavior to psychological causes which have their origin in the other's personality. When the identity-construction process is envisaged in the particular case where the other is a stranger to the perceiver, an initial branching is postulated. This branching is constituted of two inferential paths (corresponding to the two inferential perspectives) potentially open to the perceiver in his construction of the other's identity. Several factors that may be invoked to account for, or to predict the nature of the perceiver's inferential activity are discussed; these include: the perceiver's needs and objectives, his expectancies concerning the likelihood of events to be encountered, his preference for certain cues in making inferences, the consequences implied by alternative categorizations and their relative value to the perceiver, the need for adjusting to situational requirements, and the kind of cues exhibited.