social identity theory Flashcards
describe social identity theory
- suggests humans have a strong desire to ‘belong’ to a group and self-esteem is driven through group membership and the acceptance of others
- the groups we are in are a source of pride, self esteem and self concept (sense of who we are)
- It suggests that the mere presence of another group is enough to cause prejudice, no direct competition is necessary
define prejudice
having a predetermined, usually negative stereotype about an individual or group of people, based on limited information
what can prejudice lead to?
discrimination
define discrimination
where someone acts on their prejudiced attitudes
what are the 3 cognitive processes of SIT?
- social categorization
- social identification
- social comparisation
social categorization
- when we classify ourselves and others as members of particular groups, where some groups are more important than others
- we see people as ‘us’ and ‘them’, this is what causes the start of ingroups and outgroups
- It is seen as a basic characteristic of a human and we have little control over it
- e.g., your age, gender or ethnicity.
social identification
- where we adopt the identity of the group we have categorised ourselves into by conforming to their beliefs, values and attitudes
- this can be done by changing your appearance or behaviour to conform to the norms of the group
- e.g., how you dress and how you do your hair
- there is emotional significance to your identification with a group and your self esteem will become bound with group membership
social comparison
- where once we have categorised ourselves we compare our in group with other out groups
- in order for our self esteem to be maintained, we need to compare favourably and more superior against the out group
quest for positive distinctiveness
where any differences between the 2 groups are emphasised but any similarities are minimised. For example, comparing football teams
2 strengths of social identity theory
Supporting evidence from minimal group studies. Tajfel conducted lab based studies and found that when school boys were placed into arbitrary groups and asked to allocate points to boys on their teams or the other, they consistently awarded more points to the boys in their team. Therefore, showing the tendency for in-group favouritism as the boys were biased to their own teams, proving that social catergorisation is likely to occur to classify ourselves and others into groups where your own group is more favorable. See people as us and them.
Supporting evidence from Verkooijen. Teenagers were asked to take a survey about their subcultural affiliations and use of alcohol, tobacco and cannabis. Those who identified as part of the skater, hip hop and hippie groups were more likely to use drugs than those identifying with nerdy, sporty and religious groups. Therefore, suggesting that the individuals adopted the drug related norms of their subculture, this is an example of social categorisation and changing yourself to fit into a group.
2 weaknesses of SIT
SIT is a reductionist explanation of prejudice. Research shows the people have national stereotypes as when surveyed teenages favoured their own countries. Germany was seen as the least moral whereas the UK the most moral. Therefore, SIT narrows down prejudice to one factor, social categorisation. This is too simplistic.
An alternative explanation would be realistic conflict theory which suggests that intergroup hostility is caused by conflicting goals and competition overtime. Resentment is due to zero sums fate in which only one group is the winner and the other is the loser. For example, sherif et al created competition between 2 groups of boys and found that they tended to characterise in group with favourable terms and outgroup with words like “stinkers and sissies”. Therefore, further showing that SIT is a reductionist theory and is not the sole cause of prejudice.
application
This theory has practical applications. If we can understand the factors which lead to prejudice we can devise ways to reduce its formation. The ‘redrawing of group boundaries’, to create one large group rather than multiple smaller groups can reduce tensions e.g. School uniforms help to identify the pupils as one group. Therefore, we can prevent prejudice in schools and reudce bullying and exclusion.
weakness of tajfel
this study lacks mundane realism and ecological validity. The allocating of points for arbitrary tasks like preference for painting is artificial and the study takes place in a controlled lab. Therefore, the findings of in group favouritism do not represent real life prejudice.
