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Number 1/2006
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Perspectives of agent and recipient: Beyond the dichotomy
Mirosław Kofta
Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw
Abstract |
Until recently, research on action control and on the content of social information
processing formed quite distant, separate domains of psychological inquiry.
The work of Wojciszke and Baryła provides a highly promising attempt of bridging
these two fields of investigation. In particular, they hypothesize (and present
compelling evidence in support of the idea) that being in a position of the agent
of a goal-directed activity strongly promotes access to ability categories,
whereas being in a position of a recipient of another person's intended action
strongly promotes access to communal (e.g. interpersonal) categories.
In my comment I address three questions. First, I propose to "go beyond the dichotomy"
to consider the importance of the position of a neutral (uninvolved) observer.
In contrast to agent and recipient, the neutral observer may be able to engage in
more complex and less biased processing of social information. Second, I suggest
that not only position in an interaction, but also the content of the goal matters:
It seems reasonable to assume that an agent with a pro-social goal will have at least
partial access to communal categories. Finally, I suggest that the communal
perspective - considered by the Authors as a unified entity - may actually be
comprised of two distinct qualities: interpersonal content and intergroup content.
So far, the research of Wojciszke and Baryła has been focused on the interpersonal,
not intergroup perspective.
Key words: action control, competence vs. communal contents, uninvolved observer, prosocial goals, interpersonal vs. intergroup relations
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