Intuitive Judgments of Change represents the first systematic attempt to understand how people perceive change. Historically, social psychological work has emphasized the importance of stability and continuity among cognitive elements in analyzing cognitive processes. The author develops an hypothesis together with supporting evidence which suggests that change judgments are unique, ubiquitious, and pose no particular problem for people's cognitive apparatus. Intuitive Judgments of Change offers an innovative direction for future research on a topic which has as yet received little thoughtful attention.

Inhalt

1. The Ubiquity of Intuitive Change Judgments.- 2. Change and its Perception: Prior Research.- 3. A Framework for the Study of Change Judgments.- 4. Stability Reassessed: Finding Opportunities for Change Judgments.- 5. Judging Change with Informal Data.- 6. Looking for Change.- 7. Judgments of Person Change: A Closer Look.- 8. Judgments of Social Change: A Closer Look.- 9. Past and Future Directions for the Study of Change Judgments.- References.- Author Index.