Download Understanding the Meaning and Change in Clothing: A Contextual Framework - Prof. Linda Art and more Papers Production and Operations Management in PDF only on Docsity! 1 The Social Psychology of Clothing: Towards a Contextual Framework Taken from (Kaiser, 2001) What is a contextual perspective? The exploration of the various contexts or circumstances in which we understand the social meanings of cloths Lets break this down further☺ What is “context”? Circumstances of daily life in which clothing is worn. Includes: Attributes of the wearer Attributes of the perceiver History of the relationship between wearer and perceiver Setting of the interaction Culture and historical meanings 2 What is “meaning”? What is intended to be expressed or understood by something Meanings can be altered by individual appearances, social situations, culture, and history We seek to understand meanings and their potential for change Meaning and change Three different theoretical perspectives or “schools of thought” Cognitive Symbolic interactionists Cultural Each seeks to define thought processes, meanings of dress in social situations, and the influence that culture has on the continuity and change in the meanings of dress Cognitive Perspective Focus on how people form impressions about one another and to some extent themselves The thought processes that people use A focus on personal traits and qualities 5 Basic Assumptions Certain appearances and objects come to represent shared values within a culture Gender, social class, age The concept of ideology Beliefs and values that characterize a culture, group or movement Shared meanings in everyday objects that people do not question and interpret with ease People can transform their own realities by manipulating the objects in their cultural worlds. Culture provides abstract pictures or representations of social life Abstract or hypothetical representations not identical to everyday life Older women in cartoons Combine elements of each of these: The Contextual Framework 6 The Contextual Framework How people manage and perceive appearances in everyday life. Considers social situations as well as the larger cultural or historical contexts Looks at individual viewpoints as well as common cultural viewpoints Contextualizing: Seeing changes in meaning as contexts dissolve into one another Analyzing the transitions and connections of different contexts A fuller understanding of: • How cloths have meanings for people • Conditions under which meanings are altered • Where meanings come from and how they are socially modified • Individual manipulations contributes to a larger cultural context Basic Assumptions Meanings of clothing and appearance are altered by the contexts in which they are found Meanings of clothing and appearance are a dynamic part of historical and fashion change Social life is a complex mixture of confusion and continuity Discovery of meanings is an exploration of this change and continuity 7 People use codes with deeper cultural meanings Habitual pattern of expression and meaning Codes provide relationships • Suit and briefcase Codes provide guidelines for similar interpretations within cultures Codes provide rules • What should be worn with what
