Social Identity & Grouo Belonging

Question 1

Personal esteem vs group esteem

Answer 1

Related but not identical
The groups we belong to (& relationships) are essential to feeling good about ourselves
Can feel good about yourself but not about your groups
Can feel good about your group but not yourself

Question 2

The need to belong

Answer 2

People join groups simply because they have a basic core, need to belong
Being excluded has strong negative effects on our psychological well-being & vice versa
We seek out others & form groups
Ostracism; anger, sadness, meaningless, loss of control
Lonely people especially likely to want to join groups

Question 3

Defining ourselves & self-esteem

Answer 3

Social identity theory; people determine who they are in part by the groups they belong to
Social identities play important role in defining ourselves; when groups attacked, self is attacked
Provide us with pride & self-esteem at collective & personal level
Without groups we wouldn’t be able to know who we really are

Question 4

Support

Answer 4

After critisising another group of writing positively about own group, self-esteem rises
People align more with groups doing well
People were more shirts in support of their fave teams if they have won than when they have lost

Question 5

Sociometer theory

Answer 5

Forming groups essential to survival
Humans safer in groups
Sociometer acts as gauge to determine if we are effectively immersed enough with others
The gauge is self-esteem; if low gauge, triggers us to find social relationships & groups
But only need to many, at certain point, gauge is full & don’t need to continue

Question 6

Terror management theory

Answer 6

People motivated to achieve sense of immortality
Groups provide sense of symbolic immorality (contribute something that outlines the self) & self-esteem
Mortality salience found to increase; the humanness people attribute own group, desire for close relationships, motivation to join groups, support for people who uphold values of group, desire to punish those who don’t
When norms/values associated with ones culture/group threatened, death thought assecibility increases

Question 7

Meaning maintenance model

Answer 7

Posits that all threats, mortality thoughts & self esteem being diminished, uncertainty etc boil down to disruption to expectations & sense-making
Meaning motivates people e.g. reliable & predictable schemas & expectations
Viewing absurd art or reading story with no ending elicits effects mentioned

Question 8

In groups & out groups

Answer 8

People tend to show strong preference for own groups
Includes allocation of resources, voting decisions, overall positive/negative views, who parents want children to marry & humanness people attribute to a person

Question 9

Infra-humanisation

Answer 9

Secondary emotions; perceived as unique to humans e.g. love, guilt
People rate members of own groups as higher on these emotions & humanness

Extends to large list of traits & not just emotions

Question 10

Blatant dehumanisation

Answer 10

More direct comparisons between out-groups & animals occur
Increase in times of conflict

Question 11

In-group heterogeneity effect

Answer 11

In-group perceived as being varied
Out-group perceived as being same
Out-group member represents entire group more than in-group represents group

Ingroup homogeneity effect is the same

Question 12

Examining group bias

Answer 12

Can just love in group & have no negative views of outgroup or v negative views of outgroup
In group favouritism doesn’t always mean outgroup hate but increase chance of hate
In normal conditions, in group love not that related to outgroup hate but perceived threat, belief in moral superiority & distrust increase it

Question 13

How quick are we to form groups

Answer 13

If all psychological needs satisfied by group memberships, makes sense that we would be motivated to form groups
In absence of existing group memberships, people quick to form groups & favour them

Question 14

Minimal group paradigm

Answer 14

Split pp up based on physical characteristics, shared interest, trait or something very vague
People will favour others who they haven’t even met if groups formed on these traits
Often these groups actually created randomly

Ecological validity; groups not formed this way irl

Question 15

Behaving in a group

Answer 15

Groups cant create deindividuation
When self-awareness lost, people can be more prone to antisocial behaviour
Swept up in moment
Less likely to get caught or held responsible
High levels of mimicry of others in a situation

Question 16

Thinking in a group

Answer 16

Risky shift; groups tend to make riskier decisions that individuals

Group polarisation effect; if discussing outgroup with ingroup, tends to create even stronger negative views of outgroup
Average leaning of individuals is maximised & intensifies when discussing things in group

Question 17

Ingroup & moral reasoning

Answer 17

Moral foundations theory; morality can be split into harm, fairness, purity, ingroup betrayal & authority

Question 18

Left/right wing & morality

Answer 18

Right wing people tend to rely more on ingroup betrayal than left wing people
Left wing people tend to rely more on fairness & harm than right wing people

Question 19

Emergent norm theory

Answer 19

Non-normative behaviour develops in crowds due to new norms that form, most salient oriole in crowd shape new norms

Question 20

Allport

Answer 20

Argued that groups simply intensive individuals behaviour
Behaviour that ensues in crowd is just an amplification of tendencies of the people in the crowd
The more like minded the crowd, the more dangerous actions this can create

Question 21

Contagion theory

Answer 21

Crowds change the individual
A person may act in a group/crowd in ways they wouldn’t act alone
The ‘hive mind’ develops in crowds & groups
Thinking as a group instead of an individual is dangerous
Behaviour/choices often decided by noisiest, most outspoken, disruptive member of crowd/group
Anonymity can reduce effects of anxiety of consequences

Question 22

Consensus/norms

Answer 22

Altering number of people others think holds a viewpoint alters someone’s own viewpoint
In new situation, may rely on existing norms you know & look around to see how others act
How others act gives you permission & guidelines on how to act/think
People tend to die okay how influenced they are by groups, people tend to die okay how much they are influenced by social forces

Question 23

System justification theory

Answer 23

People have very strong motivation to rationalise & justify existing social system
For low status groups, there is conflict between supporting existing social system & supporting own group
When people read stories of who was hired for job, tend to falsely remember ‘just’ reasons
Sometimes actually display outgroup favouritism

Question 24

The self within the group

Answer 24

Optimal distinctiveness; people tend to try & balance their uniqueness within a group with need to belong to the group
People rate ingroup as more similar to self

Question 25

Weak ties

Answer 25

Frequent social interaction good for mental health
Even if casual encounters & don’t know other person very well
Mundane, everyday interactions are good