The Accessibility of Group Memberships

Abstract

The authors performed 2 experiments to examine the accessibility of thoughts about group memberships (i.e., collective self-cognitions) relative to thoughts about traits, states, and behaviors (i.e., private self-cognitions). Few collective self-cognitions were accessible for the present participants from an individualist culture. Furthermore, collective self-cognitions were highly associated with each other in a self-structure. The findings were interpreted in terms of the two-baskets theory that private and collective self-cognitions tend to be stored relatively separately in memory (D. Trafimow, H. C. Triandis, & S. G. Goto, 1991).

Key Words:

• collective self-cognitions
• group attributes
• group memberships
• private self-cognitions
• self-structure