social identity theory Flashcards
3 components
- social caterogisation
- social identification
- social comparison
social caterogisation
the separation of individuals into one of two groups
ingroup
the group which we see ourselves belonging to - ‘me’ and ‘us’
outgroup
anyone not apart of the ingroup - ‘not like me’ and ‘them’
existence of outgroup - social caterogisation
is enough to bring prejudice and discrimination between ‘them’ and ‘us’
caterogisation
a basic characteristic of human thought - we have very little control over this automatic sorting process
social identification
the individual adopting the beliefs, values, and attitudes of the group they belong to
what happens in social identification
- individuals will alter their behaviour to fit in with the norms of the group
in social identification stage, what will individuals change
- shift their thinking
- change to their self concept as a social identity is formed
- appearance change will often change too
social comparison
the individual boosts their self esteem through making comparisons between the ingroup and outgroups
self esteem - social comparison
- self esteem is attached to self concept
- higher self esteem = you feel good about themselves
comparisons between ingroup and outgroup
- perceive ingroup as superior
- exaggerates ingroups success to an innate ability
- outgroup seen as inferior
- outgroups achievements are attributed due to external factors
how does motivation arise in social comparisons
- ingroup is seen as better, then as an ingroup member we must also be better = motivation
- sees outgroup as unfavourable
Jane Elliots brown eyes blue eyes
- separated her 3rd grade class in Riceville into brown eyes/blue eyes = social caterogisation
brown eyes blue eyes day 1
- blue eyes group were given special privilleges and discriminated against brown eyes
- caused prejudice
- blue eyes felt superior by comparing themselves to brown eyes outgroup
- blue eyes group were motivated to be better in the card pack
Jane Elliots conclusion
- highlights influence of social conditioning and authority of individuals attitudes and behaviours
- distinctions lead to prejudice and discrimination can be easily manipulated by authority
social identity theory - evidence
brown eyes/blue eyes
social identity theory - applications
- explains how prejudice can be reduced through efforts to increase self esteem
- prejudice can be reduced by implementing policies/therapies that target low self esteem people
Fein and Spencer
- gave students high or low self esteem using false feedback on an intelligence test
- students who had low self esteem rated jewish applicants for a job less favourably than an Italian candidate
- those with high self esteem did not
- low self esteem leads to prejudice
weaknesses - social identity theory
- some people care more about being in a group than others, individual differences, some people prefer to live alone
- environmental factors
- ethnocentrism
environmental factors
- if there are limited resources / competition, prejudice is more likely
ethnocentrism
- only explains intergroup behaviour in western societies - Margeret Wetherell
- ethnocentrism fails to predict behaviour of people from collectivist cultures
Margret Wetherell
- replicated Tajifels experiment using 8 yr old school children in New Zealand
- found that indigenous polynesian children were significantly more generous in their point allocation to outgroup children than white classmates
stanford prison experiment
- participants were randomly assigned roles as guards or prisoners = led to ingroup and outgroup formation
stanford prison experiment results
guards identified with their roles strongly and treated prisoners in harsh ways
