social identity theory - tajifel and turner 1979 , 1986

Question 1

what is the first stage of SIT??

Answer 1

• social catagorisation?

Question 2

what is meant by social catagorisation?

Answer 2

• identifying yourself to be apart of a particular group for example being apart of a football team.

Question 3

what is the second stage of SIT?

Answer 3

• social identification

Question 4

what is meant by social identification?

Answer 4

• refers to identifying yourself to be apart of an “ingroup” and identifying with the group more overtly and sharing similar beliefs and values.
• for example wearing a uniform to assimilate more closely with the group and become one

Question 5

what is the final stage of social identity theory

Answer 5

• social comparrisson

Question 6

what is meant by social comparison?

Answer 6

• when an individual becomes so absorbed in their “in-group” that they perceive anyone who is not inside that group to be in an “out-group”
• they begin to consider themselves as superior.
• for example chanting derogatory slurs to football rivals at a game.

Question 7

what did Levine (2005) find?

Answer 7

• he found that football fans were more likely to help someone who had fallen over if they were a fan of the same football team at a game
• this supports SIT as it is an example of social comparison and identification being less inclined to help them as they are perceived as inferior due to the team the support.

Question 8

what did Verkooisen (2007) find?

Answer 8

• who conducted a survey on 16-20 year old’s.
• he found those apart of a hippie/skater group were more inclined to take drugs that those apart of a nerdy group
• this supports SIT as it suggests they have acquired their groups norms and values which is apart of social identification.

Question 9

what is an alternative explanation to this theory?

Answer 9

• RCT
• this suggests the prejudice happens only when two separate groups are competing with one and other in order to receive some type of materialistic gain.
• this therefore does not support SIT as their is no mention of the need for groups to “identify” with each other.

Question 10

what is a weakness of this theory?

Answer 10

• it may be too simplistic as it doesn’t explain how a different situation may affect prejudice or how to prevent prejudice suggesting it to be unfinished?