Social Identity Theory- Prejudice Flashcards
What does social identity theory state?
Social identity theory states that simply being in a group, or perceiving that you are in a group, is enough to create in-group loyalty & out-group hostility.
What can group membership alone cause?
Prejudice
Social identity theory & the process of generating in-group loyalty and out-group hostility is made of 3 features. What are they?
Social categorisation
Social identification
Social comparison
Steele and Aronson 1995
Found that when African-American students were asked to identify their ethnicity on a pre-test questionnaire, their performance on the test was significantly reduced compared to when they were not asked this beforehand.
One explanation of this is that the negative stereotypes associated with African-Americans & academic ability affected students’ personal identity, self esteem & cognitive performance (stereotype threat).
Humans continually strive to achieve a positive self-image, so that they look good in the eyes of others & achieve high personal self-esteem. How does this lead to personal identity?
This self-image FORMS our personal identity. However, our personal identity is often inextricably linked to our social identity, as we are almost inevitably members of certain social groups and this group membership is often an important part of our SELF ESTEEM.
When social identity is ………, the group we identify ourselves with is seen as ……., our personal identity is also positive, as we are members of this positive group, increasing our ……-……..
However, if it becomes negative, this may have a …………. impact on our personal identity a potentially lowers our self-esteem. If we strongly identify with the group, a shared ……….. is formed: our personal identity is inextricably linked the groups perceived ……….
1- favourable
2- positive
3- self-esteem
4- detrimental
5- identity
6- identity
Describe Cialdini et Al. 1976 study- strength of SIT.
-Non-minimal group paradigm study.
-Analysed the results of US university football scores & observed the clothing supporters’ wore after a big game.
- They observed that supporters were more likely to wear clothing related to the football team after their team had won a game rather than when they lost a game.
-Supporters referred to the team as ‘us’ when the team had won. Referred to as ‘they’ when they lost.
-This study demonstrates that an individuals personal identity is affected by their association with a football team (social identity), supporting Social Identity Theory.
Describe Aronson & Osherow 1980 (Jane Elliott) study- strength of SIT.
-Jane Elliott was a lower school teacher who used a school lesson to teach her third grade class about discrimination.
-A+O recorded the lessons as the “brown eyes/ blue eyes” study.
-Elliott told her pupils that eye colour determined academic ability & personal traits like honesty/ laziness.
-This was reinforced in Elliott’s lessons.
-On measures of performance, the dominant group performed better academically, were more attentive and demonstrated discrimination towards the perceived “inferior” group.
-This supports social identity theory as it shows social categorisation leading to active prejudice.
Describe Lalonde 1992 study- strength of SIT.
-Studied a poorly performing hockey team, they had to admit the other teams were more skilled than them but claimed they were “dirtier”.
-Shows claiming moral superiority even if not technically- so there was still in-group favouritism.
-Lalonde studied all the teams and concluded the poorly performing team were actually themselves the least sportsmanlike (they were not telling the truth and there was bias in their out-group prejudice).
-They claimed the other teams were dirtier players to maintain their own self-esteem.
Describe Weatherell 1982 (confounding) study- weakness of SIT.
-Suggests that we should not conclude from the research that intercrop conflict is the inevitable consequence of group membership and identification.
-In her observations of New Zealand Polynesians, she found them much more likely to favour the out-group than show bias towards their own in-group.
-Cultures that emphasis collectivism & cooperation are less likely to demonstrate group prejudice.
Describe Dobbs & Crano 2001 study- weakness of SIT.
-Showed that where individuals perceived that their in-group was in the majority there was much less in-group favouritism & out-group hostility than when they perceived their in-group was in the majority.
-IE more likely to be anti-English if you are Welsh or Scottish then the other way around because Welsh and Scottish are more of a minority in the UK.
