10 - Social Identity

Question 1

social identity

Answer 1

The part of the self-concept that is derived
from what the individual knows and feels
about her/his group memberships

It has to be a meaningful group
• You can have more than one!

Question 2

Self-Categorization

Answer 2

Process of seeing oneself as a member of a group

• We learn about our groups and what it means to be a member of a group through experience and socialization
• Some groups culturally specific
• Based on fact, but often on stereotypes
• Shifts easily

Question 3

identity activation

1.

2.

3.

4.

Answer 3

Our identities can be brought to mind
What increases accessibility?:

•1.Reminders of group membership

2. Presence of outgroup members
3. Being in the minority
4. Conflict with another group

Question 4

o Brewer and Weber (1994)
• When people are in the minority it makes their identity more salient

Answer 4

• 2 x 2 x 2
 IV 1: Participant is majority or minority
 IV 2: Target is ingroup or outgroup
 IV 3: Target was attractive/competent or sloppy/incompetent

• To what extent does social identity influence your own social evaluations?
Majority:
• When they saw someone in the outgroup, they didn’t care what that person was doing because it didn’t impact their social identity
 Minority:
• The reverse was true of the majority group
• You pay a lot of attention to what the outgroup does

Question 5

o Basking in Reflected Glory (Cialdini et al., 1976)

Answer 5

• People use group’s successes to boost their own self-esteem
• When students were told they did not succeed on the test (low self-esteem), people used a lot of “we” language when the team won, but used a lot less when the team lost

Question 6

o Cutting Off Reflected Failure (CORFing)

Answer 6

Snyder, Higgins, & Stucky (1976)
• After failure, people less willing to attend a group
presentation
• Also less likely to take and wear team ‘badge’

Question 7

The Consequences of
Self-Categorization

Answer 7

• Effects on perception of others and behavior
o We think of other group members as being similar to ourselves
o Prolonged exposure allows us to see uniqueness of group members
o Treating ingroup members more fairly, behaving altruistically toward them
o Outgroup homogeneity effect: When we think about an outgroup, we tend to view them as more similar than they actually are

 People possess a need for individuation
• In the ingroup, we learn about the little things that differentiate us
• With the outgroup, the category is enough to differentiate us from them

Question 8

o Minimal group paradigm (a.k.a. minimal intergroup situation)

Answer 8

• Randomly assign people to a group
• No knowledge of the people in the groups
 Thus, no stereotypes
• Given choice between two potential options
 Option A: 11 pts to ingroup, 7 to outgroup
 Option B: 17 points to each (more points overall, but equal for both teams)
• Most people preferred option A even though they got less points overall!
• People favor their ingroup relative to outgroup, even when the action results in absolute loss for ingroup
 Punish outgroup with no advantage to ingroup

Question 9

Social Identity Theory

Answer 9

The need to derive positive self-regard and “self-esteem” is the driving force behind ingroup/outgroup effects

Conditions for having a social identity

1. • Meaningful
2. • Sense of shared fate
3. • Collective action

Question 10

Fein &
Spencer (1997)

Answer 10

• IV1: Participants received either neutral or negative feedback on an intelligence test
• Then participants read a passage about an actor living in the East Village
• IV2: Implied actor was gay or straight
• DV: How much do you like Greg?
• People who received neutral feedback liked Greg
• People who received negative feedback said they liked him less, especially when they were led to believe that Greg was gay (all participants were straight)