Social Identity Theory Flashcards
What is an ingroup
A group who we belong to
What is an out group
The other groups
What are the 3 stages of social identity theory for the formation of prejudice?
- social categorisation
- social identification
- social comparison
Explain the first stage, social categorisation
When we categorise ourselves and others as members of particular social groups to aid our understanding. Assigning groups tells us things about other people, and we find out things about ourselves by knowing what categories we belong to.
Examples include gender, religion, football team
Explain the second stage, social identification
We adopt the identity of the group we have categorised ourselves as belonging to. We then behave in ways we believe are appropriate to the identity. We may adopt the identity by dressing in certain clothes, colours or acting in certain ways
What is the third stage, social comparison
We compare ourselves with other groups, we show ingroup favouritism and our group negative bias. Our group needs to compare well against others in order to maintain self esteem. This explains prejudice as the two groups are forced to compare in order to maintain their self esteem
Give a strength of this theory
Evidence to support is Jane Elliot’s Blue eyes/ brown eye experiment. This study showed that when placed into two groups based on eye colour, the children quickly developed prejudice attitudes and discriminatory behaviour such as punching. When they had seen themselves as one group this was not observed. This shows that the perception of another group can create prejudice alike
Give a weakness of this theory
This is a reductionist explanation of prejudice, reducing the cause down to just one factor, social categorisation. This is too simplistic and ignores other factors such as competition. Poppe and Linsenn (1999) found that in a survey on east and west stereotypes, responses did not favour their own country, and upheld national stereotypes
