Making Sense of Difference: Defaults and Embodiment.

Categorization involves generalizing and particularizing, and the category systems used to lump and split the world are developed through embodied development and can include the self. In this talk I describe a program of research, informed by social theory but pursued by experimental psychology, that examines how ordinary laypeople and professional psychologists make sense of group similarities and differences. I argue that category defaults (such as the assumption that people are male, White, or heterosexual by default) and the embodiment of spatial cognition have affected the ways that psychologists explain, hypothesize and visualize group differences. I will describe the implications for this research for current practices of researcher reflexivity and transparency in psychology.

Professor Peter Hegarty studied in Ireland and the USA prior to settling in the UK in 2002. He currently co-directs the Open Psychology Research Centre at the Open University UK. He is the co-author/author of 140 books, articles and book chapters in psychology, history, sexuality and gender studies, and linguistics. His current interests are in intersex studies.