Cultural Context Of Social Relations

Question 1

Social Identity Theory

Answer 1

People seek self-esteem through group membership

In an attempt to assure themselves that they are in the right or best group, they devalue other groups

People will favour their ingroup in distribution of resources or rewards (Group Favouritism)

Minimal Group Paradigm - people establush salient group boundaries based on even the most banal or minimal difference (eg over-counters and under-counters)

Question 2

Allport’s Intergroup Contact Hypothesis

Answer 2

Intergroup contact can be beneficial under the right conditions:

1. Equal Status
2. Common Goals
3. Interdependant Cooperation
4. Support of Authorities, Laws & Customs

Question 3

Pettigrew’s (1998) Reformulation of Intergroup Contact Theory

Answer 3

“The power of cross-group friendship to reduce prejudice and generalize to other outgroups demands a fifth condition for the contact hypothesis:

The contact situation must provide the participants with the opportunity to become friends.”

Question 4

Acculturation

Answer 4

The dual process of cultural and psychological change that takes place as a result of contact between two or more cultural groups and their individual members

• At the group level: involves changed in social structures and institutions and in cultural practices
• At the individual level, it involves changes in a person’s behavioural repertoire
• These cultural and psychological changes come about through a long-term process, sometimes taking years, sometimes generations, and sometimes centuries