Social Identity Theory Flashcards
Who devised the Social Identity Theory?
Tafjel and Turner (1970s)
What plays a role in creating an individuals’ positive self image?
Intergroup relations.
What are the four interrelated concepts of SIT?
- Social categorization
- Social identity
- Social comparison
- Positive distinctiveness
What does SIT attempt to explain?
Why intergroup conflicts can exist even in circumstances with no direct conflict/competition between groups.
Thus… what is SIT?
A theory which states that an individual’s sense of self is developed on the basis of group membership, shared with other members of the group.
Who carried out a study of how SIT can be used to explain behaviour?
Abrams et al (1990).
Who did Abrams try to replicate?
Asch’s (1956) study.
What did Abrams try and investigate?
If people are more likely to conform to the behaviour of people in their in-group.
How many students were involved in Abrams’ study?
50 introductory psychology students (23 males and 27 females).
What was the role of the confederates in the experiment?
There were three confederates, either psychology or ancient history students - this created an in/out-group for the participants.
What were the participants shown in the experiment?
A stimulus line, as well as three other lines (one of which was the same as the stimulus)
What was the task of the experiment?
To identify which of the three lines matched the stimulus line.
What were the statistical results of the experiment?
In 9/18 of the trials, the participants answered correctly, and in the other 9 they answered wrong.
What were the average statistics of the conformation?
5.23 (in-group) and 0.75 (out-group).
What did the researchers find, that the participants conformed to?
The erroneous confederate judgements, when the participants believed the confederates were from their in-group.
