Tajfel and Turner (1979): Social Identity Theory

    Cards (13)

    • Define In-group Favouritism
      Tendency for people to evaluate favorably and privilege members of the in-group more than members of the outgroup
    • Define Outgroup Derogation
      Tendency see outgroups negatively and treat members of them less well than members of ingroups
    • What is someone's social identity?
      Their own sense of who they are based on the groups they feel they belong to
    • What does Social Identity theory propose?
      The groups which people belong are an important source of personal pride and self-esteem as belonging to those groups gives us a sense of belonging in the social world.
      The mere presence or perception of another group that can lead to prejudice.
    • What are examples of social groups?
      - Social class
      - Family
      - Football team
    • What is the first stage of social identity theory?
      Catergorisation
    • What does the catergorisation stage involve in social identity theory?
      We experience catergorisation where we decide which group we belong to, an this helps us understand the social environment.
      We divide the world into 'us' and 'them' which create ingroups that we belong to and outgroups for people we see as different to us.
    • What is the second stage in social identity theory?
      Social Identification
    • What does the social identification stage involve in social identity theory?

      We adopt the identity of the group we have catergorised ourselves as belonging to and conform to the norms of that group.
      This helps us to create our self-concept as adopting the norms of the group leads to us change our way of behaving and thinking.
    • What is the third stage of social identity theory?

      Social Comparison
    • What does the social comparison stage involve in social identity theory?
      We enhance the ingroup status by exaggerating their positive qualities so increasing our self-esteem while underestimating the qualities of the outgroup, leading to maximising the difference between the groups.
      We also show ingroup favouritism by giving resources to our own group over the outgroup.
    • What is a piece of supporting evidence for social identity theory?
      Levine (2005) found that football fans are more likely to help an injured stranger who tripped in front of them when wearing colours of the team shirt they supported (in-group) as opposed to neutral or those of a rival team shirt (out-group) which suggests that groups show favouritism to their ingroup opposed to the outgroup when helping.
    • What is a piece of critical evidence for social identity theory?
      Sherif (1954) found that creating competition between the rattler 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 than just belonging to a group.
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