Self as a Group Member

Question 1

Personal identities

Answer 1

self-aspects that make a person unique

Question 2

Social identities

Answer 2

self-aspects based on group membership

• The more a person values a group, the more strongly they identify with it

Question 3

Cognitive Processes in Social Identity Formation - Social categorization

Answer 3

People automatically categorize themselves and others into social groups
* E.g.race, ethnicity, gender

Question 4

Cognitive Processes in Social Identity Formation - Social identification

Answer 4

Once people categorize themselves as part of a group, they adopt the identity of that group

• Self-stereotyping: a person adopts the values and norms of the group
• Creates an emotional bond with other in-group members

Question 5

Cognitive Processes in Social Identity Formation - Social comparison

Answer 5

People make comparisons between groups and do so in a way that tends to be favourable to their in-group

• In-group favouritism and out group bias

Question 6

STUDY: Minimal Group Paradigm -

Participants are randomly and anonymously assigned to one of two groups on the basis of trivial criteria
* In a subsequent resource allocation task, participants tend to allocate….

Answer 6

allocate more resources to in-group members than out-group members

Question 7

what does this suggest?

Answer 7

• People readily identify with a social group
• Group categorization, even if based on meaningless criteria, tends to trigger in-group favouritism

Question 8

The extent to which personal vs. social identities are salient depends
on

Answer 8

social context

Question 9

Personal identity is more salient when interacting with

Answer 9

in-group members

Question 10

Social identity/in-group identity is more salient when interacting with

Answer 10

out-group members, especially in an inter-group context

Leads people to think and behave in ways that are consistent with the norms of their in-group

Question 11

Outgroup Homogeneity Effect

Answer 11

People tend to perceive out-group members as more similar to each other and in-group members as more diverse

Question 12

Explained by the context shifts in the

Answer 12

salience of people’s identities

Question 13

People tend to behave more similarly to their

Answer 13

in-group in intergroup contexts

Question 14

The other group perceives this similarity in behaviour and concludes that the rival group members are all

Answer 14

similar to each other

Question 15

Why Do We Identify with Groups?
1. Evolutionary perspective:

Answer 15

In our evolutionary past, humans were in competition for resources so it was useful to form groups to increase safety and secure resources

Question 16

Implies that in-group favourtism is a result of

Answer 16

competition between groups for resources

Question 17

Why Do We Identify with Groups?
2. Self-enhancement

Answer 17

Individuals gain personal self-esteem from associating with a successful/positive group

Question 18

Leads to: Elevating the in-group over the out-group by focusing on

Answer 18

on positive qualities and achievements of the in-group

Question 19

Devalue positive qualities and achievements of an

Answer 19

out-group

Question 20

STUDY: Basking in Reflected Glory - American university campuses RIVALS RESULTS

Answer 20

• Students were more likely to wear clothing associated with their university if their university team won the football match
• More likely to use first person pronouns (“we”) if the team won and more likely to use third person pronouns (“they”) if the team lost

Question 21

To maintain strong self-esteem, people tend to closely associate themselves with a group when it is

Answer 21

successful and establish distance from a group when it fails

Question 22

Self-enhancement will generally motivate people to

Answer 22

maintain/gain status for their group

Question 23

Higher-status group members are motivated to maintain

Answer 23

status quo

Question 24

Lower-status group members are motivated to improve

Answer 24

status

Question 25

How they accomplish this depends on the

Answer 25

permeability of group boundaries

Question 26

Permeability of group boundaries

Answer 26

to what extent is it possible to change groups

Question 27

If group boundaries are impermeable: Impermeability of group boundaries results in

Answer 27

strong identification with the group

Question 28

Social creativity - Lower-status group members will

Answer 28

Modify their perception of their in-group’s standing * Adopt dimensions of comparison that emphasize the positivity of the in-group * e.g. Placing value on kindness and humor rather than money and power * Downward comparison with a different out-group in order to make the current standing of the in-group appear more positive

Question 29

Social competition - Lower-status group members band together and

Answer 29

advocate for reducing the status difference between groups

Question 30

If group boundaries are permeable: Individual mobility - Lower-status group members seek to individually transfer into the

Answer 30

higher-status group

Question 31

individual will focus more on their personal identity and accomplishments and distance themselves from their

Answer 31

group membership

Question 32

Token

Answer 32

When a high-status group takes in an individual member from a lower-status group

Question 33

Being a token leads to

Answer 33

heightened awareness of how one is different from the group they’ve been accepted into

Question 34

Consistent with

Answer 34

distinctiveness theory

Question 35

Creates added performance pressure and can have

Answer 35

cognitive consequences

Question 36

STUDY: How does being a token influence cognitive processing? RESULTS

Answer 36

Tokens had poorer memory for the interaction than non-tokens * Remembered fewer of the opinions that they had expressed and fewer of the opinions that others had expressed

Question 37

Being a token may shift attention to

Answer 37

self-presentation concerns and away from the task at hand leading to disrupted cognitive processing

Question 38

Implications for organizations: * Increasing the number of minority members in an organization should...

Answer 38

reduce their self- consciousness, decrease pressure, and improve cognitive processing

Question 39

Why Do We Identify with Groups? - Uncertainty reduction

Answer 39

Individuals seek to gain certainty about themselves and the world

Question 40

Identifying with a group accomplishes this goal by prescribing

Answer 40

group norms and offering a framework for how one should be and how to understand others

Question 41

Prototype

Answer 41

in-group’s central characteristics, values, and norms for behaviour

Question 42

Prototypical members

Answer 42

people that are most representative of the in-group prototype

Question 43

Peripheral members

Answer 43

less typical of the in-group

Question 44

Being a peripheral member of an important group leads to experiencing

Answer 44

self-uncertainty

Question 45

Motivates greater conformity to in-group norms in order to become more

Answer 45

prototypical and gain greater self-certainty

Question 46

STUDY: Prototypicality and Self-Certainty (French VS American average)

Answer 46

Peripheral participants experienced more self-uncertainty than prototypical participants This should motivate them to identify more with their in-group and behave in a more prototypical way

Question 47

STUDY: Uncertain VS Certain + Protypical and Peripheral RESULTS

Answer 47

* For peripheral participants, high self-uncertainty led to more in-group bias, but self-certainty did not * For prototypical participants, self-uncertainty did not affect in-group bias

Question 48

Sometimes peripheral members may identify with an important in- group more strongly than

Answer 48

prototypical members

Question 49

This reasoning has been used to explain why extreme groups and behaviour are

Answer 49

attractive to some people

Question 50

Extremist groups provide a certain, very clear, and prescriptive

Answer 50

direction for the self