sheriff et al (1954-61) Flashcards
what were the aims of the study?
to investigate relations n groups
to see if strangers that were brought together with common goals would form a close gourd
to see if bringing two groups together into contact and competition would create hostility
to see if hostility could be reduced
who were the participants?
22 11 year old boys from Oklahoma
protistan middle class
didn’t know echoer before
what were the boys matched on?
iq and sporting abaility
how much were parents paid and why?
$25 to not come and visit them
what happened at each stage?
boys were observed by and behaviour was recorded
also tape reordings
what were observers trained to do?
to no influence the boys in any way
how many stages were there?
3
what happened in stage 1
boys lived seperatly and first five days they were each given bonding tasks
status and roles were observed
after 1 week the boys were made aware of other group
how long till boys knew about the other groups?
one week
what happened at stage two?
a tournement was set up as soon as they were made aware of each other
swimmming baseball and tug of war
boys created their own basketball tournement
bean experiment
what was the bean experiment?
where boys collected beans and the other group had t try and estimate how many beans they had
won a prize
what games were in the tournament?
swimming baseball and tug of war
what happened in sateg 3?
groups were brought together to communicate
joint problem solving activities with superordinate goals
pooling money to watch a film
vandals who had blocked water pipe work togethr to unblock
what were examples of super ordinate goals?
pooling money together for a film
vandals
what was the results in stage one?
gave themselves names eagles and rattlers showed instant dislike when made aware eagles wanted a competition rattlers better not swim in out hole
what was found in stage 2?
competition increased hostility calling names such as sissies nearly physical violence 93% ingroup friends eagles refused to eat with them raided huts
what was found in stage 3?
bringing groups togetrh not enough to reduce hostility
movie ‘ladies first’
tasks did reduce hostility but not completely
rattlers spent $5 on drinks for both
in group friends 63.6 %
what was in-group friends in stage 2?
93%
what was in-group friends in stage 3?
63.6%
what were the overall conclusions?
competition is not needed for hostility
cooperatuve tasks can reduce hostility but canot eliminate it
in gorup over estimate ingorup and under estimate outgroup
