The standard approach guiding research on the relationship between categories and causality views categories as reflecting causal relations in the world. We provide evidence that the opposite direction also holds: categories that have been acquired in previous learning contexts may influence subsequent causal learning. In three experiments we show…

This study examined spoken attributions of 18 families during diagnostic therapy following serious child abuse. Patterns of attributions successfully predicted classification of families by therapists as good, uncertain, and poor in terms of prognosis for rehabilitation. Case accounts illustrate use of attributional analysis to understand the…

This paper puts forward "The Conceptual Referent Theory of Happiness" (CRT), which states that a person's conceptual referent for a happy life plays a role in the judgment of her life and in the appraisal of her happiness. A typology of eight conceptual referents for happiness is made on the basis of a review of philosophical essays on…