social identity theory

what is social identity theory

according to Taifel, social stereotyping is normal cognitive process during which we group things, people or events together to help us to make sense of the world around us. but whilst stereotyping, we tend to exaggerate difference between groups and similarities amounts the same group. These exaggerated differences lead to prejudiced views between cultures, which may result in discrimination and in its extreme form, discrimination can lead to genocide- the extermination of a whole group of people.

what are the three stages of social identity theory

social categorisation, social identification, social comparison

what is social categorisation?

-automatic process of placing ourselves and others into social groups.

-in group is those who are similar. out groups those who are dissimilar.

what is social identification ?

-identifying with the culture of the group and conforming to group norms.

-self esteem. send of belonging to your group

what is social comparison ?

-making the in-group appear superior to the out-group to boost your self esteem.

-in-group favouritism shown such as giving resources to our own group over the out-group.

what are the two groups we divide ourselves into

in-group favouritism: making your group look superior.

-out-group denigration: making the out group look inferior.

supporting evidence: Levine found that football fans are more likely to help an injured stranger who tripped in front of them when wearing the colours of the ten shirt they suspected as looped to neutral or those of a rival team shirt.

which suggests that groups show favouritism to their in-group opposed to the outgroup when helping

supporting: Jane Elliot found that categorising school children into groups based on eye colour was enough to cause conflict, as the dominant group attacked the submissive group and school performance dropped for the submissive group…

this shows that just categorising people into groups is enough to cause prejudice to occur.

critical evidence: sherif found that creating competition between the rattlers and eagles such as tug of war, was enough to cause prejudice such as name calling…

this suggests that competition is needed for prejudice to arise, rather tan just belonging to a group.

critical evidence: Adorno et al found that those with an authoritarian personality were more likely to be hostile to people not I their group who are of an inferior status…

this suggests that social identity theory is not a full explanation of prejudice, as it only focuses on group membership and not on individuals personality causing prejudice

balanced conclusion: overall, this theory is useful as ti suggest that separation of groups causes prejudice which means practical suggestions can be created to bring groups together to reduce prejudice in society such as.. setting superordinate goals which can be used to reduce prejudice and conflict between groups, as groups will share the same identity of achieving the desirable goal, improving the inter-group cooperation, harmony and reduce prejudice.

however, this theory is less useful as groups willl always naturally occur within society and so we cannot always remove prejudice as group will always exist.