prejudice: social identity theory

Question 1

what is social identity?

Answer 1

• our self concept is made up of many social identities. these identities are linked to the social groups to which we belong. much of our behaviour is driven by the motivation to maintain a positive sense of self as a valued member of ‘the group’

Question 2

Social Identity Theory proposes that group formation goes through three stages:

Answer 2

Social Categorisation:
this is seeing yourself as part of a group. As well as a personal identity (who you see yourself as) everyone has a social identity (the groups they see themselves as being a part of). Social identity may involve belonging to groups based on your gender, social class, religion, school or friends.

Social Identification:
once you have a social identity, you automatically perceive everyone else you meet as either part of your ingroup (the ones who share the same social identity as you) or the outgroup. You pay particular attention to ingroup members and adopt their values, attitudes, appearance and behaviour

social comparison:
this is viewing your social identity as superior to others; it comes from regarding the products of your ingroup (the things your ingroup does, their attitudes or utterances) as better than the products of an outgroup. This leads to prejudice and, if you have the power to influence the outgroup, it will lead to discrimination too.

Question 3

evidence

Answer 3

SIT is supported by Tajfel et al.’s 1970 study into minimal groups. The research showed how boys will discriminate against an outgroup (even an outgroup that contains their own friends) and show favouritism to an ingroup (even an ingroup made up of strangers) and that this will happen when the group identity is based on something as flimsy as “being an over-estimator” or “preferring the art of Paul Klee”.

SIT also provides an explanation for why discrimination occurs even when the outgroup is no threat to the ingroup and there is no competition over resources. If self-esteem is based on social identity, then some people need to put down outgroups in order to feel good about themselves

Question 4

application

Answer 4

+ can be used to reduce prejudice by increasing self esteem.
a study gave students a sense of high or low self esteem. students who had low self esteem later rated jewish applicants for a job less favourably.
this suggests that prejudice in society could be decreased by implementing policies to target low self esteem.

Question 5

S/W

Answer 5

• the theory ignores the role of individual differences. eg people with an authoritarian personality and score more highly on the F scale may well be more prejudiced and how culture could affect how likely someone is to be prejudice eg from a collectivist culture.
• the theory can be considered reductionist. for example it does not take into account prejudice in response to situational factors like competition whereas realistic conflict theory does.

Question 6

alternative

Answer 6

realistic conflict theory is better at explaining prejudice between groups in competition for limited resources.

social identity theory is better at explaining prejudice when there is no competition.

conclusion: both theories may be reductionist by ignoring important factors such as fear of people who are different to ourselves or we don’t understand.