social identity theory

Social identity theory

indiv personal identities shaped by perceptions of ourselves and our social groups

Social categorisation

Indiv categorising themselves and others into different social groups (eg nationality, ethnicity, gender etc)

Effect of social categorisation

• Increases distinction between “in-group” and “out-group” but not enough for prejudice to occur

• Lead to category accentuation where perceived variability in “in-group” and “out-group” decreased but perceived variability BETWEEN groups increased

Social identification

Happens after deciding to belong to a group

Effect of social identification

Values, norms, and behaviours that align with “in-group” adopted - builds sense of belonging

Social categorisation

Indiv compare their “in-group” to others and attempt to present theirs as superior to maintain self-esteem <positive distinctiveness>

Hence

~SIT explains why conflict and discrimination arises as positives attributed to “in-group” while negatives blamed on “out-group”

Tajfel and Turner (1979) explored SIT

Aim

Investigate if inter-group discrimination would occur even if pets didn’t know each other beforehand

Procedure: type of exp, IV, DV, sample, methodoloy

True exp

IV: social group puts placed in

Dv: no of pts collected by group

Sample: 48 boys

Shown series of paintings by klee and kladinsky

Rated them according to preference

After, they were allocated to either group and told they either prefered klee or kladinsky

Engaged in point-allocation task with 2 point allocation systems

1st: 2 ppts’ pts totaled to 15, meaning if one puts gives 8, he would have 7

2nd: ppts pts change according to no of pts allocated, meaning if klee gives klee low no of pts, kladinsky gets low no of points

Results

Suggest inter-group discrimination occurred as both gave lower pts to own members so “out-group” receives low no of pts

Although labels “klee member” and “kladinsky member” don’t mean much to ppts with no previous shared relations, meaning no existing feelings of dislike, they displayed discrimination toward each other

Concludee

Categorising, identification, comparison social groups against each other is enough for inter-group discrimination to occur