Artikelen

Actor Analysis and Depersonalization

Auteurs

  • Lindenberg,Siegwart

Trefwoorden:

individual, supra-individual, abstract-situational, anonymous, residual types, perception changes, relative frequencies

Samenvatting

A new kind of analysis (action/analysis) is suggested & applied to the investigation of entities relevant to various studies of depersonalization. Five kinds of actors & recipients of actions (targets) are defined: individual, supra-individual, abstract/situational, anonymous, & residual. Changes in the perception of these entities are tapped through changes in the relative frequency of these actors & targets in front page newspaper reports. A content analysis of the New York Times in sample years from 1852 through 1969 shows that relative frequency changes in the following ways: (1) it declines for individual & residual actors & targets, (2) it sharply increases for supra-individual actors, but remains constant for supra-individual targets, (3) it remains constant for abstract/situational actors, but sharply increases for abstract/situational targets, & (4) it declines for anonymous actors, but increases for anonymous targets. An analysis of these changes shows that only the frequencies of supra-individual actors & abstract/situational targets reflect genuine cognitive changes, so that one can speak of a supra-individualization of actors & of abstraction & anonymization of targets. It is further found that over time, actors became independent of targets & vice versa. This indicates that particular actor-target links vanish. The joint structural effect of all these tendencies is a dichotomization of the actor-target structure into an active node (supra-individual actors) & two passive nodes (abstract/situational & anonymous targets). Two possible counterarguments to the interpretation of the data are discussed & refuted. 5 Figures, 4 Tables. Modified HA.

Biografie auteur

Lindenberg,Siegwart

Gepubliceerd

1976-06-01

Nummer

Sectie

Artikelen