Abstract
In an effort to further the understanding of social action, we explored the processes by which people interpret or understand the meaning of social behaviors, and also how social behaviors are constructed when people wish to communicate a specific meaning in a social action . This involved two phases. First, participants gene rated behaviors that expressed a given set of semantic features. These were then rated by a second group of participants on scales representing the dimensions of dominance and affiliation as a measure of accuracy. The second phase investigated the process by which meaning is derived from a social behavior and was accomplished by participants rating a number of given behaviors on the same set of scales. Analysis of variance of the resulting mean s show that, generally, behaviors that were submissive and dissociative were the hardest to produce and comprehend accurately.