Social identity theory - Taijfel and Turner

Social identity theory - Taijfel and Turner

States that the simple act of being placed into a group will inevitably lead to prejudice against other groups.

This happens in 3 stages:

• Social categorisation - Putting yourself and others into social groups
• Social identification - becoming attached to the group that they are a member of
• Social comparison - comparing our groups with others to boost self-esteem

Evaluation:

Real world behaviour - Can apply theory to football fan behaviour, Aline yourself with a team feel happy when they win and sad when they lose. Compare with other teams to feel better.

Evidence - Taijfel and Turner: Minimal group study shows that the act of putting people into groups will lead to discriminating in favour of the group they are in , at the expense of a very similar out group.

Sherif - Boys at a summer camp became hostile towards the out-group

Useful applications - If we accept that prejudice stems from grouping, we could tackle prejudice between groups by changing group boundaries and creating one big group with a common goal (suggested by Gaertner)

Weakness - simplify complex human relationships eg: history, people are in multiple social groups