prejudice: social identity theory

Question 1

who developed this theory? and what year?

Answer 1

• Tajfel & Turner
• 1979

Question 2

what did the theory propose?

Answer 2

• that the mere presence of another group can lead to prejudice that is, being aware of the existence of another group is sufficient for prejudice to occur
• prejudice can be explained by our tendency to identify ourselves as part of the group and to classify others as either within or outside that group.

Question 3

what is meant by an in group?

Answer 3

• a social group to which a person psychologically identifies as being a member

Question 4

what is meant by an out group?

Answer 4

• any group to which one does not belong or with which one does not identify

Question 5

what are the three stages of social identity theory?

Answer 5

social categorisation
social identification
social comparison

Question 6

what is it meant by social categorisation? give an example

Answer 6

• when we categorise ourselves as being in a particular group often based on stereotypes. the group we belong to is the in-group and any comparison group is the out-group.
• e.g. when someone classifies themselves as a football supporter of a certain team. all other football teams are then viewed as the out-group

Question 7

what is meant by social identification? give an example

Answer 7

• when we identify with a particular group and adopt the behaviours of that group. we may also take on the group’s norms and values. the way we view ourselves is affected by how well the group is doing relative to other groups.
• e.g football supporter may adopt the behaviours of their club such as certain football chants and wear clothes that identify them as being part of the group such as wearing the club’s shirt/scarf

Question 8

what is meant by social comparison? give an example

Answer 8

• when we compare our own group more favourably against other groups to boost our self-esteem.
• e.g football supporters viewing their team as the best

Question 9

what does social identity theory say about social comparison?

Answer 9

• that we deliberately put others down to try and raise our own self esteem. this is because we want to achieve a positive image.

Question 10

in what two ways do we try to achieve a positive image? define terms

Answer 10

1. personal identity: our own unique qualities, personality and self-esteem is formed from a self-image a person holds about themselves
2. social identity: the attributes of the group to which people belong to

Question 11

evidence to support social identity theory (T)

Answer 11

• Tajfel 1971: investigated whether simple act of grouping was enough to produce prejudice between groups of very similar people (Minimal Groups Study)
• sample of Bristol schoolboys were given fake art task (asked which painter they preferred, Klee or Kandinsky) and told they would be allocated into one of two groups on the basis of which artist they preferred. groupings were all in fact purely random. they were then given a rewards allocation task where they allowed to award point to two other boys (one from each group) at a time. only information given was which group the boys were in.
• found that boys awarded more points to members of their in-group showing strong in-group favouritism.
• Tajfel concluded that categorising boys into meaningless groups caused them to identify with their in-group and create a positive social identity by giving their group more points.

Question 12

strengths: supporting theories (T, L)

Answer 12

• Tajfel 1971: concluded categorising the boys into meaningless groups caused them to identify with their in-group and show in-group favouritism and that this is enough to lead to prejudice against people not within that group
• Levine 2005: carried out experiment on football supporters. fans were invited to a secluded part of the university campus where they witnessed a stranger fall and apparently injure themselves. in one condition the person having the accident wore their team colours whilst in another condition they wore colours of a rival football team. football fans were much more likely to help someone wearing their team colours.

Question 13

weaknesses: opposing theories/other things D & C

Answer 13

• social identity theory underestimates importance of individual differences in prejudice. some people have much greater tendency than others to favour in-group over our-group, depending on their personality.
• Dobbs + Crano 2001: argue in-group favouritism is more complex than Tajfel + Turner suggest and that mere categorisation of people into groups is not always sufficient to create in-group favouritism.

Question 14

weakness: different theory S

Answer 14

• Sherif realistic conflict theory: explains that prejudice being evident between groups as they are competing for resources, taking social identity theory further than just the formation of groups leading to prejudice. he suggested that intergroup conflict is caused, when groups compete for scarce resources.

Question 15

strength: application to real life

Answer 15

• theory can explain wide range of real-life phenomena ranging from support for football teams to racism and can be applied to a wide range of social situations e.g football hoolinganism as fans act as ‘in-group’ ‘out-group’