Social Identity Theory Flashcards
Who proposed Social Identity Theory?
Taijfel and Turner (1979)
What does Social Identity theory propose about prejudice?
The mere existence of 2 groups can cause conflict.
What are the 3 processes in Social identity Theory?
Social categorisation
Social Identification
Social Comparison
What is Social Categorisation?
The process of separating individuals into one of two groups: in-group or out-group.
SIT says this is a basic characteristic of human thought.
Does not need competition.
What is Social Categorisation?
The process of separating individuals into one of two groups: in-group or out-group.
SIT says this is a basic characteristic of human thought.
Does not need competition.
What is Social Identification?
It is the process of showing your identification with the group.
They might take on the beliefs, norms and attitudes of the in-group along with the way they dress or talk.
What is Social Comparison?
The individual’s sense of self becomes wrapped up with the in-group. People start to see their in-group as better than the out-group.
What is In-group favouristism?
Showing preferential treatment to members of the in-group. Seeing in-group members as superior to out-group members.
Achievements are attributed to internal factors (eg because they are more intelligent)
Failures are attributed to external factors (eg situational factors)
What is out-group bias?
Discrimination towards members of the out-group. May react with fear, hostility, suspicion or contempt.
Achievements are attributed to external factors.
Failures are attributed to internal factors.
What are the 3 variables that contribute to in-group favouristism?
Permeability - the extent to which the individual identity with the in-group
Security - the extent to which there are grounds for making comparisons with the out-group
The relevance of the out-group to the in-group
Name 2 strengths of Social Identitiy Theory
Lalonde - found in-group favouritism with a poorly performing hockey team who would blame failure on other teams being dirtier than them even though there was no evidence for this.
Levine et al - found that football fans were more likely to help a stranger who tripped in front of them when wearing colours of their team as opposed to neutral colours or rival team colours.
Name 2 weaknesses of Social Identitiy Theory
Social identity theory can’t explain personality factors that make us prejudiced such as authoritarianism. Can’t explain why not everyone in an in-group is prejudiced or has different levels of prejudice.
Dobbs and Crano - split ppts into a large majority group and a minority group. they were asked to award points to people. At the start both groups favoured their in-group, but after being asked to justify their decisions the majority group started to more equally award points. However, the minority group continued to favour their in-group. This shows in-group favouristism is more complex.
