The fit of the self-category is based on two aspects (Turner et al. 1987):
- 1) The comparative fit (metacontrast)
- 2) The normative fit

Fit of self-categories

Refers to how a person's past experiences, and current expectations, motives values, goals and needs are influential in deciding how the perceiver "selects" and "uses" particular self-categories based on how central, relevant and advantageous they may be at present (Gurin and Markus 1988).

Relative accessibility ("readiness")

The variation of how people self-categorize is a rule rather than exception. Variation is dependent on two factors (Oakes 1987):
-  1) the "readiness" of the individual to adopt the categorization (relative accessibility)
- 2) the "fit" of the categorization and the "stimulus reality" being represented

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

The process that dictates self-categorization based on context, is not random, arbitrary or chaotic. There exists a systematic and lawful method (a general principle) that accounts for the variation of self-categorization based on context. Possibly the fit hypothesis (Haslem and Turner 1992).

Systematic variability of self-categorization

Turner, J. C., Oakes, P. J., Haslam, S. A., & McGarty, C. (1994). Self and collective: Cognition and social context. Personality and social psychology bulletin, 20(5), 454-463.

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