Definition
Alpha Press: the objective characteristics of a stimulus, one’s environment, or a situation
Beta Press: a person’s interpretation of a stimulus, one’s environment, or a situation
Introduction
For some the world is a hostile place where men are evil and dangerous; for others it is a stage for fun and frolic. It may appear as a place to do one’ s duty grimly; or a pasture for cultivating friendship and love. – Gordon Allport (1961, p. 266)
Individuals differ in the ways in which they perceive the world around them. Despite such individual differences, perceptions of the social world are nearly always constructed from physical reality. Henry Murray (1938) distinguished between objective reality and such subjective perceptions coining the terms alpha and beta press:
In identifying press we have found it convenient to distinguish between 1, the alphapress, which is the press that actually exists, as...
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References
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Serfass, D.G., Brown, N.A., Sherman, R.A. (2017). Alpha and Beta Press. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_489-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_489-1
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