Lecture 8 - Sherif Flashcards
Who was Muzafer Sherif, and when was he born?
Muzafer Sherif was a Turkish-American social psychologist, born in 1906 in Ödemiş, Turkey.
What was Sherif’s main area of interest in psychology?
Sherif was primarily interested in how group norms develop through group dynamics, focusing on leadership, stereotyping, and intergroup behavior.
What significant early experience did Sherif have during his childhood?
Sherif witnessed the invasion of Turkey during World War I (1915/16).
What key experiment did Sherif conduct, and what was its purpose?
Sherif conducted the Summer Camp Studies (1949, 1953, 1954) to explore how groups develop, interact, and experience intergroup conflict and cooperation.
What were the hypotheses tested in Sherif’s Summer Camp Studies?
- Group formation (Stage 1&2): Hierarchical structure develops within groups.
- Intergroup competition (Stage 3): Hostile attitudes and actions will emerge between groups.
- Cooperation (Stage 4, 1954 only): Hostility can be reduced by making groups cooperate to achieve superordinate goals.
What were the participants of Sherif’s Summer Camp Studies like?
24 boys aged 11-12, socially well-adjusted, academically successful, from stable, white, Protestant, middle-class homes.
How were the boys in Sherif’s study grouped?
The boys were split into two groups, who were initially allowed to form their own friendships and later competed for resources, which led to hostility between the groups.
What happened when the two groups in Sherif’s study began to compete for scarce resources?
Hostile attitudes emerged, including derogatory stereotypes and increasing solidarity within groups. The boys engaged in raids, sabotaging the other group’s activities.
What superordinate goals were used to reduce intergroup hostility in the 1954 study?
The groups had to cooperate to pool money for a movie, find a water leak, and tow a broken-down truck to achieve shared goals.
What were the main findings of Sherif’s studies?
- Group norms and hierarchy formed quickly.
- Competition for resources led to prejudice and hostility.
- Cooperation on superordinate goals reduced intergroup hostility and prejudice.
How does Realistic Conflict Theory (RCT) relate to Sherif’s studies?
RCT suggests that intergroup conflict arises from competition for scarce resources, as demonstrated in Sherif’s Summer Camp Studies.
What were the ethical concerns surrounding Sherif’s field experiments?
Concerns included the experimental control over group dynamics, potential disruption to the boys’ cohesion, and the manipulation of the environment to provoke conflict.
How did Billig (1976) critique Sherif’s studies?
Billig suggested that the experimenters themselves acted as an “outgroup,” influencing the boys’ behavior, and that some aspects of the study, like “planned frustrations,” might have been overly manipulative.
What is social reality in the context of Sherif’s work?
Social reality refers to the idea that psychological processes like leadership, prejudice, and conflict are rooted in material social circumstances, such as competition for resources, not just individual psychological factors.
According to Sherif, what is the key to reducing prejudice and conflict between groups?
Sherif argued that reducing prejudice and conflict requires creating positive interdependence (cooperation towards shared, superordinate goals) rather than focusing on individual attitudes or cognitive changes.
What are the implications of Sherif’s work for leadership and team building?
Sherif’s work suggests that leadership should focus on person-situation fit and that teams should be built around cooperation for shared goals, not just charismatic leadership.
What was Sherif’s view on stereotyping and prejudice?
Sherif believed that stereotyping and prejudice were social problems rooted in group dynamics and competition for resources, not just cognitive problems in individuals.
What is the difference between realistic conflict and symbolic conflict?
Realistic conflict refers to tangible competition for resources (e.g., jobs, wealth), while symbolic conflict arises from differences in values and ideologies between groups.
How do ingroup bias and evolutionary conflict explain group behavior?
Ingroup bias is the tendency to favor one’s own group, while evolutionary conflict suggests that group conflict may have evolutionary roots as part of human nature.
How does Sherif’s work influence conflict resolution and negotiation strategies?
Sherif’s findings suggest that conflict resolution should focus on finding superordinate goals that require cooperation, rather than focusing on the competitive aspects of intergroup relations.
