ABSTRACT
The identification of action has been one of the most significant and persistent problems in social-psychological theory. Many of the early pioneers of modern social psychology were clearly and consistently concerned with this problem, and offered important theoretical insights that led to recent developments in attribution and attitude theory. A number of very different questions, and approaches to answering them, can be formulated regarding the perception of action. Action can be understood both in terms of universal (i.e., culturally invariant) structures (frame domain), and in terms of culturally variant phenomena that give meaning to these structures. Prescriptive conceptual schemata may be thought of as abstract rules of interpersonal behavior in various types of contexts or social environments. By definition, such schemata are culturally-defined ideas. As cognitive rules, they can be expected to facilitate the processing of relevant information about particular interaction episodes.
