Sociocultural Approach - The Individual and the Group - Social Identity Theory

Question 1

Social Identity Theory Developed By…

Answer 1

Henry Tajfel and John Turner

Question 2

Social Identity Theory

Answer 2

• Developed by Henry Tajfel and John Turner
• People strive to enhance self-esteem, which has two components
  
  • Personal identity
  • Social Identity
• To boost their self-esteem people carry out
  
  • social categorisation
  • socially comparison
  • in-group favouritism/outgorup discrimination
  • outgroup homogenity effect
  • in-group serving bias

Question 3

Personal Identity

Answer 3

Based on our personal relationships and characteristics, and include ways in which we differ from other people

Question 4

Social Identity

Answer 4

Based on our membership of various groups

Question 5

Social Categorisation

Answer 5

People have a tendency to categorise themselves and others as us (in-group) and them (out-group)

Question 6

Social Comparison

Answer 6

Comparing the group with other groups - self-esteem maintenance by benefits of belonging to the in-group vs the out-group.
- leading to positive distinctivenes - in-group is better than out.group

Question 7

In-Group Favouritism/Out-Group Discrimination

Answer 7

The tendency to discriminate in favour of in-groups over out-groups

Question 8

Out-Group Homogenity Effect

Answer 8

“They are all the same”

Question 9

In-Group Serving Bias

Answer 9

• Cognitive bias
• Explain own behaviour
  
  • When being successful dispositional - characteristics
    influenced success
  • When failing situational - situation or event outside of
    control

Question 10

Social Identity Theory Predictions

Answer 10

• Threats to one’s self-esteem heighten the need for in-group favouritism
• Expressions of in-group favouritism enhance one’s self-esteem

Question 11

Perdue et al. (1990)

Answer 11

Hypothesis:
- Nonsense syllables associated with in-group pronouns will be positively evaluated and nonsense syllabes associated with out-group pronouns will be negatively evaluated

Pps:
- 23 undergraduate psychology students

Procedure:
- Pps presented with 108 trials of apparently randomly
paired letter strings
- In-group group: nonsense syllables
presented with either one of in-group pronouns (us,
we, ours)
- Out-group group: nonsense syllables
presented with either one of out-group pronouns
(them, they, theirs)
- Control group: nonsense syllables
presented with either one of other pronouns (he, she,
his, her, me, you, mine, yours)
- Pps had to indicate as quickly as possible which words
of the presented pair was a real word
- 1/2 of the pps were presented with xhe and in-group
pronouns; and yof and out-group pronouns
- 1/2 presented with the opposite
- Pps were asked to rate the pleasantness of the six
nonsense syllables
- The ratings were then standardised

Results:

• Syllables that had been associated with in-group pronouns were rated clearly above average
• Syllables that had been associated with out-group pronouns were rated clearly below average
• The positive effects of in-group pronouns are stronger than the negative effects of out-group pronouns

Question 12

Perdue et al. (1990) Supported Claims

Answer 12

• Social categorisation
• In-group favouritism
• Out-group discrimination