What Is Typification?

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Typification is the process of relying on general knowledge as a way of constructing ideas about people and the social world. As we participate in social life, most of what you know of other people does not take the form of direct personal knowledge, but rather general knowledge about the social world.

Examples

When you go to a bank, you do not usually know the bank teller personally, and yet you enter the situation with some kind of knowledge of the teller as a type of person and of banks as a type of social situation. This enables you to predict what you can expect and what will be expected of you.

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Crossman, Ashley. "What Is Typification?" ThoughtCo, Aug. 27, 2020, thoughtco.com/typification-3026721. Crossman, Ashley. (2020, August 27). What Is Typification? Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/typification-3026721 Crossman, Ashley. "What Is Typification?" ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/typification-3026721 (accessed April 23, 2024).