Pickett, Chen CH 6 (3) Flashcards
collective self
self-definition in terms of group membership
accentuation principle of categorization
when stimuli are placed into categories
minimal group paradigm
- No face-to-face interaction between subjects
- Total anonymity
- No rational link between categorization criteria and response
- No benefit to self of particular response
- And yet…people care!
depersonalization
process whereby individuals perceive themselves less as unique individual and more as an “interchangeable exemplar” of a particular category
self-stereotyping
people are assimilated to the relevant group prototype and the traits that are stereotypical of the group came to be seen as characteristic of the self
frog-pond effect
-the idea that people generally like to be a “big fish in a little pond”
social identity
the individual’s knowledge that he belongs to certain social groups together with some emotional and value significance to him of this group membership
McDougall’s concept of the group mind
to reflect the idea that crowds (or groups of individuals) sometimes appear to have a mental life of their own and that the traits, values, and behaviors that emerge in a group context may be quite distinct from that of the individual group members
factors that diminished interest in studying the collective self
- split between sociology and psychology
- increased popularity of behaviorism
functional benefits of group membership **
- enhanced prospects for survival and reproduction
- teaches to behave in appropriate and functional ways according to group
- sense of belonging and security
how are social categories represented
-prototypes= fuzzy sets of attributes that prescribe thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that capture commonalities among people within a group an distinguish that group from other groups
psychological mechanism involved in creating the collective self **
- depersonalization
- self stereotyping
Reid and Deaux (1996) design
- collected information from study participants regarding their collective identities and the traits that comprised those identities
- researchers presented participants with the traits and identities that participants had previously listed in an unordered list of words.
- participants were asked to recall as many of the words from the list as they could remember.
hierarchical process model of self
- emphasizes that only one level of self-representation is functionally salient at any one time – individual , relational, or collective
- the self is a specific product of a context dependent comparison
McFarland and Buehler (1995) results
the basis for self-evaluation shifts as a function of an individual’s level of self-representation
what is the dominant motivational concern at the collective level of self-representation
the welfare of one’s group
- individuals will behave in ways that benefit their group even if it comes at their own personal expense
general finding from studies using minimal group paradigm **
participants would act in ways that benefited their in-group over the outgroup
-allocated more resources to the in-group and evaluated the in-group more positively
why do participants in minimal group studies discriminate in favor of their group?
doing so results in a favorable comparison between the ingroup and out-group, thereby enhancing positive social identity and allowing participants to achieve a positive self-evaluation in terms of that identity
interpersonal-intergroup continuum
social behavior varies along. a continuum of interpersonal to intergroup
- interpersonal: interaction is determined by the personal characteristics of the individuals and their personal relationships
- intergroup: individuals interact with each other purely as a function of their respective group memberships
self-esteem hypothesis
proposes the existence of a fundamental individual motivation for self-esteem which is satisfier in an intergroup contest by maximizing the difference between in-group and outgroup
Rubin and Hewstone’s (1998) conclusions about the two corollaries derived from the self-esteem hypothesis
- first corollary:intergroup discrimination enhances self-esteem
- second corollary: little evidence was found in support
self-categorization theory
personal and social identities represent different levels of self-definition, and as one moves from one level to the other, one’s subjective sense of self changes
hogg and Turner (1987) design, results, conclusions
D-had men and women interact in intrasex dyads or intersex four person groups
R-in the intergroup condition (where gender was salient) subjects considered themselves to be more typical of members of their sex and also self-stereotyped more than subjects who had interacted within same-sex dyads.
C-participants’ perceptions of their similarity to other group members was enhanced when group identity became salient, and this was true particularly on positive group traits.
optimal distinctiveness theory **
social identity is conceptualized as deriving “from a fundamental tension between human needs for validation and similarity to others (on the one hand) and a countervailing need for uniqueness and individuation (on the other)
