HL - Group dynamics - resolution of conflict

Question 1

Tajfel and Turner (1979)

Answer 1

THEORY

Through education we can help members of opposing groups either to understand how their group is not in competition with the other group (clarifying the group identities so that they’re no longer so comparable) or we can demonstrate that the two groups are so close that, in fact, they’re the same (Sherif 1961).

Evaluation ->

✔
✔

❌
❌

Question 2

Sherif (1961)

Answer 2

Aim ->
To investigate

Method + results ->

22 white, 11-year-old boys were sent to a special remote summer camp. The boys were split into two groups and developed an attachment to their groups throughout the first week of the camp by doing various activities together like hiking, swimming, etc. During a four-day series of competitions between the groups prejudice began to become apparent between the two groups (both physical and verbal). During the subsequent two-day cooling off period, the boys listed features of the two groups. The boys tended to characterize their own in-group in very favourable terms, and the other out-group in very unfavourable terms. Sherif then attempted to reduce the prejudice, or inter-group conflict, shown by each group. However, simply increasing the contact of the two groups only made the situation worse. Alternatively, forcing the groups to work together to reach common goals, eased prejudice and tension among the groups.

Conclusion ->
This experiment confirmed Sherif’s realistic conflict theory (also called realistic group conflict theory), the idea that group conflict can result from competition over resources.

Evaluation ->

✔
✔

❌
❌

Question 3

Allport (1954)

Answer 3

Stated the intergroup contact hypothesis and states that people need four things for conflict to be resolved. Equal status, co-operation, shared goals, and support from social and institutional authority.

Evaluation ->

Three problems found by Pettigrew
❌ Independent variable specification problem ->
What conditions are actually to be specified? What is required for positive intergroup contact to occur? Different studies have added different conditions that they claim lead to the most successful intergroup interactions. What is the difference between facilitating and essential conditions?
❌ Unspecified processes of change problem ->
The hypothesis predicts when intergroup contact might lead to conflict resolution but now how or why.
❌ The generalisation of effects problem ->
Even if intergroup contact leads to reductions in prejudice for those involved in the experience, how might this spread to different situations, to the rest of the ingroup, or to outgroups members not present in the contact scenario?

Question 4

Realistic conflict theory (RCT)

Answer 4

Intergroup hostility can arise as a result of conflicting goals and competition over limited resources, and it also offers an explanation for the feelings of prejudice and discrimination toward the outgroup that accompany the intergroup hostility. Where SIT states that conflict arises from the inside, this theory states that conflict arises from the outside (competition of limited resources)

Question 5

Realistic conflict theory (RCT)

Answer 5

Intergroup hostility can arise as a result of conflicting goals and competition over limited resources, and it also offers an explanation for the feelings of prejudice and discrimination toward the outgroup that accompany the intergroup hostility. Where SIT states that conflict arises from the inside, this theory states that conflict arises from the outside (competition of limited resources)