veryday life as dramaturgical (the entire world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players...' Shakespeare). To disrupt this would be to change the script, and break out of the conformity of the social group, self-to-self and to others. Even so, this illustrates that through our ability to categorize, we have the ability to particularize and 'do more with the stimuli than accumulate more instances of predetermined categories' (Billig, 1985). In Billig's alternative approach to stereotyping, he also raises the point of category selection - a problem that cognitive psychologists have often overlooked. Tversky and Gati (1978) found that different stimuli are judged on their similarities and differences before categorization and this judgment can be different depending on what way the stimuli is perceived. Billig's point is that we must particularize before categorizing and thus a link has been formed.Categorization implies rigidity in our cognition. Stereotypes, by nature, are over generalizations. Such inflexibility is not a possible process of our cognition - 'categorization do not exist in isolation' (Billig, 1985). As categorization leads to many categories, through its definition, surely only one such category could possibly be so rigid and inflexible, as other categories must be used by it, and thus be flexible. Therefore, categorization is not a rigid process, but involves change - which is reflective of our cognition and change is possible (conflicting with Allport's definition).The difference between two groups affects other attributes of the out-group, including those that are similar to the in-group. By subdividing further such similarities, we are initiating a defense change in our attitudes and categories. This inventiveness is another example of the flexibility of categorization. In the most extreme cases, this can lead to inventiveness demonstrated by racial theorists, which in fact, contradicts their prejudice and ...
