prejudice: social identity theory

Question 1

what does SIT suggest brings about prejudice?

Answer 1

the presence of another group

Question 2

define ‘social identity’

Answer 2

A person’s sense of who they are based on their group membership.

Question 3

Give 3 examples of social groups.

Answer 3

• social class
• gender
• ethnicity

Question 4

What did Tajfel (1979) propose causes stereotyping?

Answer 4

tendency to group things together

Question 5

Define ‘in-group’.

Answer 5

the group we belong to

Question 6

define ‘out group’

Answer 6

a group different to our own

Question 7

What mentality leads to in and out groups?

Answer 7

us and them

Question 8

How do in-groups enhance their self-esteem?

Answer 8

By seeking negative aspects of the out-groups.

Question 9

Tajfel proposed that there are 3 cognitive processes involved in evaluating others as “us” and “them”, what are they?

Answer 9

social categorisation
social identification
social comparison

Question 10

describe social categorisation

Answer 10

• We categorise humans in order to understand them and the social environment
• Seeing yourself as part of a group due to shared traits and interests
• We define appropriate behaviour by referencing the norms of groups we belong to

Question 11

describe social identification

Answer 11

• We adopt the identity of the group we belong to through their norms and values by changing behaviour and appearance
• Your self-esteem will become bound with the group membership

Question 12

describe social comparison

Answer 12

• Viewing your in-group and superior and using group identity to compare yourself with outgroups
• We find negative things about other groups to compare to maintain our self-esteem
• This can lead to prejudice and discrimination of out-groups

Question 13

strength PEE and CA
- supporting evidence

Answer 13

a strength of the study is supporting evidence from Tajfel’s minimal groups study. they Found that minimal groups of boys awarded their own group with points instead of sharing. therefore, this Demonstrates that we have in-group favouritism.
however, the study lacks generalisability. this is because the sample was only made up of 14-15 year old boys from Bristol. therefore this cannot be generalised to groups of people who aren’t at school or are ages such as 40+ from different cultures

Question 14

weakness PEE
- opposing evidence
- wetherall

Answer 14

a weakness of the study is rejecting evidence from Wetherall. she Found that Polynesian children were more generous to the out-group in comparison of attitudes with white children. This demonstrates there are cultural differences as some emphasise cooperation

Question 15

add application

Answer 15

add other eval