Social Identity Theory Evaluation

Question 1

Levine et al.

Answer 1

Invited football fans to a secluded part of a university campus, where they witnessed a person fall and apparently injure themselves. In one condition the victim wore their team’s colours, and in the other they wore an opposing team’s colours. Fans were much more likely to help those wearing their team’s colours - supports SIT as it suggests the existence of discrimination due to “in-groups” and “out-groups” and social comparison

Question 2

Real-life phenomena

Answer 2

The theory explains a wide range of real-life phenomena, from football violence to racism - supports theory, as it suggests it to have practical application in understanding prejudice

Question 3

Dobbs and Crano

Answer 3

Dobbs and Crano show that under some circumstances, people show much less in-group favouritism than was suggested by Tajfel - refutes theory as it suggests it is reductionist, exaggerating the power of social comparison

Question 4

Individual differences

Answer 4

The theory ignores individual differences - refutes theory as it suggests Tajfel generalised his theory to all people and oversimplified human behaviour, making the theory reductionist