Lecture 5: Prominent Theories in Intergroup Relations ll Flashcards
social identity
The aspect of our self-concept that is derived from our group memberships
social identity theory states that
People fundamentally want to:
1. Achieve and maintain a positive social identity
2. Distinguish their social groups from other social groups
tajfel on social identity theory
people’s context-specific attention to their personal and social identities is driven by their motivation to feel positively about themselves. To the extent that people are motivated to regard themselves positively, they will also be motivated to differentiate themselves from outsiders.
minimal groups paradigm
creating artificial and arbitrary ingroups/outgroups
Tajfel et al., 1971
divided people into meaningless groups (Klee and Kandinsky) and had people distribute money to other participants. Found that people favoured their own group
self-categorization
the flexibility that one has in how one perceives themself
self-categorization ->
social identity
self-categorization is
situational
what happens when an ingroup is threatened
identity becomes more salient
optimal distinctiveness theory (brewer, 1993)
people want to strike a balance between their group identities and their personal identities
what happens when an ingroup is too distinct
stigma, not included, undesirable, deviant
what happens when an ingroup isn’t distinct enough?
lack individuality, too constraining
self-esteem hypothesis (Hogg & Abrams, 1990)
Self-esteem is intrinsically linked to group identity
Basking in Reflected Glory (BIRGing)
celebrating the ingroup’s success as your own but derogation following a failure
example of BIRGing
Students are more likely to wear college apparel after a football win than a loss (Cialdini, 1976)
derogating outgroups and self-esteem
Derogating outgroups can increase self-esteem
effect of low self-esteem on ingroup/outgroup relationships
Lowered self-esteem increases the tendency to discriminate against outgroups
relative deprivation theory
The belief that one is getting less than one deserves relative to other people or some other standard
who do we compare ourselves to?
people who are similar, relevant, and proximal
when does relative deprivation arise
when one perceives an undeserved discrepancy between a desired outcome and an actual outcome
when do people believe there is a discrepancy
when there is a perceived lack of distributive and procedural justice
distributive justice
rewards and costs are justly allocated
procedural justice
fairness of procedures for distributing rewards and costs
Occupy Wall Street Movement and Distributive Justice
discrepancies in inflation-adjusted household incomes
