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).

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

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

Fit/Readiness Hypothesis 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.

 Self and collective: Cognition and social context (Turner 1994)

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

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