social identitiy theory Flashcards
point 1
strength: tajfel study supports the social identity theory, he found that when boys were placed in arbitrary groups( lab study ), completing competitive tasks and one boy had to allocate points, consistently more points were allocated to the team the boy was a part of. demonstarting the idea of in group favouritism, to enhance out self image we enhance the status of the group we are apart of.
intro
social identity suggests that a persons sense of wh they are is based on their group membership.
the group in which the individual belongs to is a important part of a persons self esteem and pride
groups could be: family, football team, social class
Proposed that stereotyping ( putting people into categories ) is based on a normal cognitive process- the tendency to group things together but we tend to exaggerate
- the differences between groups
- the similarities of things in the same group
this causes us to see the group we belong to – the ingroup- as different from the others -the outgroup-
point 2
weakness: although lab study lacked ecological validity artificial setting and tasks, not representative of real life scianerios of outgrip prejudice and in-group favouritism .
point 3
although a study by Jane Elliot, field study, brown eyes blue eyes, which demonstrates the 3 cognitive processes which states that prejudice can be explained by or tendency to classify ourselves a part of a group and the mere presence of another group can cause prejudice
social caegorisation, this is when we categorise people and ourselves, Jane divided blue eyed and brown eyed and stated that one group was better than the other. this began the categorisation either ‘ brown eyes’ or ‘blue eyed’
appropriate behaviours are defined, being nasty to the inferior group
social identification-
identify with out ground adopt identity act in the way to conform the norms of the group e.gmaking comments to the inferior group, blaming them, leaving them out, making names and saying there much more intelleganent and get the best, blaming them for problems
self esteem bound upon group membership, enhance status of in-group
- change appearance e.g. the inferior wore collars around neck
changing behaviour ( stated above)
social comparison
to maintain self esteem compare favourable in group favourtism- more intelligent
out group negative bias- stupid, e.g. ‘ brown eyed’
point 4
although Plato et al found that personality has an impact on how affected we are bt the in group/ outgrip phenomeonon - competitiveness and cooperation
highly competitive- show more in-group favouritism
doesn’t take individual differences into account
not complete explanation of prejudice
application
if we can understand how prejudice occurs can try to prevent it
increasing contact and redrawng group boundaries
school uniform one large group avoid identifying groups based on way dress and identify in and out groups- bullying
