Sherif 1954/61 social Flashcards
Aim
to investigate group formation and the effect of competition on prejudice and the conditions under which conflict could be resolved
Results
Stage 1: the boys bonded work together and created in Group norms they chose names for their groups and elected that leader. When they found out by the other group there was an US versus them attitude.
stage 2: competition letter hostility and there was strong sense of ingroup versus outgroup bias easy they refused to eat together and shouted insults with rates and flag burning. There’s a strong ingroup favoritism and outgroup biases for example in a self-report 93% exclusively chose friends from their own group.
stage 3: in the integration phase they found simply getting the groups together Dylan reduce hostility. in order to reduce hostility and prejudice they had these super ordinate goals for example fixing the water tank helping to push a stuck truck.
Conclusions
strong In Group identities formed initially and with the introduction of competition negative outgroup bias quickly emerged.
hostility observed between groups as soon as they became aware of each other the suggested prejudice and discrimination arises without competition
competition caused higher prejudice and discrimination
Contacts alone between two groups and it wasn’t enough to reduce facility they need superordinate goals to reduce hostility.
Ethics:
deception: they were not aware they were being studied, didn’t give consent, weren’t aware of aims of study
protection: parents couldn’t visit the boys for two weeks which could have been upsetting and stressful
Withdraw: not formally given the right to withdraw and place in dangerous situations EG climbing the water tank.
practical issues:
- if the ppts new aims of study their behaviour would be unnatural
- deception used to lower demand characteristics
- samples not generalizable E.G. white, male, 11-12 years old
- low liability and internal validity as many variables couldn’t be controlled as a field study
Reductionism:
-Sheriff only focused on the situational aspects of prejudice easy conversion between boys therefore discussing individual differences such as personality which could contribute to prejudice
+ used quantitative and qualitative data which is more holistic approach in studying intergroup conflict for example recordings are qualitative and sociometric measures are quantitative
psychology as a science:
+ ecologically valid equals field experiment
+ empirical as researchers can see how prejudice developed and quantitative data and qualitative data is used
+ replicable due to standardized participant variables
+ production is designed knows it influences of group identity and biological factors
+ high invalidity as different collection methods were used to collect similar data IE observational data sociometric analysis tape recordings of interactions used to describe the in-groups and the out-groups were examined.
- deterministic= assumes prejudice only lowers due to introduction of superordinate goals
- ethically unsound do the deception participant harm add no right to withdraw formally given.
- field experiment= lower reliability because of low standardization and other extraneous variables
- falsification hypothesis didn’t include testable variables only observations
culture and gender:
- Androcentric
- all Protestant
- all white
- all middle classed
- ethnocentric= America
nature nurture:
+ Luckily ppts had similar upbringings as they were male, white, Catholic and all had the same socioeconomic backgrounds.
- but upbringing may be different as parents belief systems may influence behaviors in society
genetics could play a part as they are genetically predisposed to aggression
boys behavioral characteristics could influence others to act in certain ways or they developed their own cultures and leadership systems ppts with authoritarian personalities are likely to follow leadership systems and those with strong leadership take control.
Sheriff says conflict is due to nurture and prejudiced starts from the competition for limited resources
psychological knowledge developing over time:
COHRS 2012 explained how authoritarian personalities types relate to prejudice
social control:
explains how negative prejudices are created
use of psychological knowledge in society:
+ sheriff said the only way prejudice can be corrected his three supported goals which can be used in schools and presence he. G. By designing classrooms and workplace environments that maximize the use of jigsaw technique [a technique where they our reliance on each other for success]
socially sensitive research:
could show how to create conflict.
