Sociocultural Approach – General Knowledge

Personal Identity

Our self on an individual, private and interpersonal level; self-knowledge that derives from an individual’s unique attributes.

Social Identity

Our self in terms of our group membership, like gender or ethnicity; an individual-based perception of what defines the “us” associated with any internalized group membership.

Social Identity Theory (the four mechanisms)

Proposed by Tajfel & Turner

1. Social Categorization

2. Social Identification

3. Social Comparison

4. Positive Distinctiveness

Social categorization

The process by which we identify which groups we belong to and which groups we do not. The groups we belong to are reffered to as our “in-groups”. When reffering to our in-group, we often use the words “we” and “us”.

The groups we do not belong to, are referred to as “out-groups”. When reffering to our out-groups, we often use the words “they” and “them”.

Social Identification

Occurs after we decide to belong to a group. This is the process of adopting the norms of the group and taking the characteristics of the group.

Social Comparison

A means of justifying one’s in-group membership. Occurs after social identification.

Positive Distinctiveness

Positively comparing our in-group to an out-group on some valued dimension.

We favor the traits of our in-group, even if we did not necessarily choose to be a part of the group ourselves.

Social Identity Theory Assumptions

1. Individuals strive to maintain or enhance their self-esteem. This will support having a positive self-concept (Collection of attributes + beliefs → who am I?)

2. Membership to a social group can have positive + negative associations. An individuals identity will be viewed in light of the collective value or salience (important, prominent) of the groups to which the person belongs.

3. An individual will asses the value of his or her own ingroup (us) membership via a process of social comparison with an out-group (them). When an individual perceived his or her ingroup more favorably than the out-group this will result in more value being placed upon membership to the in-group and a more positive social identity.

Social groups

A social group is two or more humans who interact with one another, share similar characteristics, and collectively have a sense of unity.

• Social relationships involve some degree of reciprocity + mutual awareness

• Members have reciprocal relations.

• The group is bounded by a sense of unity. Their interest is common, behavior is similar.

• e.g.’s include: a religious group, ethnic group, workplace colleague group.

Prosocial behavior (SIT)

Social identity theory has been used to explain prosocial behavior. Prosocial behavior is the willingness to help someone in need of help. Social context refers to environment in which one behaves. This encompasses people near oneself, as well as other members of the same society. This can have influences on one’s social identity.

Studies are often highly artificial and use deception which may have a negative effect on participants.

Evaluating social identity theory

Testable: The theory is testable under lab conditions, but it is not really highly testable under naturalistic conditions. This leads to the problem of low ecological validity.

Applications: The theory has high heuristic validity – It can be used to explain a variety of human behaviors, ranging from how we evacuate in an emergency situations to origins of stereotypes.

Constructs: There are several constructs that are difficult to measure – for example, the salience of one’s social identity.

Predictive Power: We all have a lot of different social identities. The theory does not predict well which identity will determine our behavior. The theory has higher explanatory power than predictive power.

Social cognitive Theory

Social cognitive theory is a learning theory developed b