Toward an integrative CAPS approach to racial/ethnic relations

J Pers. 2009 Oct;77(5):1365-79. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6494.2009.00585.x. Epub 2009 Jul 22.

Abstract

The original CAPS formulation focused on the role of the individual's CAPS system in relation to situations, formalizing a person-situation framework. Subsequent research and theorizing on the culturally embedded CAPS system (C-CAPS) began to spell out how culture, context, and group-level processes intersect with both persons and situations. The contributions in this special section provide insights into the enormous complexity and the multiple layers through which context and persons "make each other up" in racial/ethnic relations. The challenge for personality psychologists is to examine and illuminate this interpenetration of context and person concretely and with increasing depth and precision. The CAPS framework provides a meta-level guide for this mission, and the present contributions illustrate the framework's heuristic value.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Cultural Characteristics
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Interpersonal Relations*
  • Male
  • Prejudice
  • Psychological Theory
  • Race Relations*
  • Self Concept*
  • Social Conformity
  • Social Identification
  • Social Perception*
  • Socioeconomic Factors
  • Stereotyped Behavior
  • Stereotyping*