robbers cave essay plan

• Sherif, Robbers cave experiment AO1

  AIMS: look at intergroup relations over a period of time to investigate group formation, effect of competition, and conditions where conflict can be resolved

  METHOD: 22ppts, all 11 yr old boys, middle class, protestant, none knew each other before, field experiment

  PROCEDURE: boys put into 2 groups of overall equal abilities

  1) group formation: groups do tasks to encourage teamwork within groups, groups kept separate- results: group leaders and norms established - rattles were tough and swore lots, eagles weaker and 2 went home homesick

  2) friction: subordinate goals introduced eg baseball, tug of war to encourage negative functional interdependence between groups - results: hostility and fighting created, questionnaires showed only 10% of friendships were with boys of opposite group

  3) reducing friction: superordinate goal introduced eg fixing communal water tank to encourage positive functional interdependence - results: hostility reduced, 30% friendships with boys from other group now

  CONCLUSION: competition results in hostility and prejudice, superordinate goals can reduce this
• Sherif, Robbers cave AO3 strength

  reliability

  .study had high levels of control and careful planning so study can be replicated by others to investigate the same thing and in groups of other individuals eg females to improve generalisability, control = standardised procedure so reliability high

  CA: measures used to observe hostility may be inconsistent between observers due to subjectivity - weakens reliability

  So What: although may be some inconsistencies in measures, it still has a standardised procedure that can be followed and replicated = good internal reliability
• Sherif, Robbers cave AO3 weakness

  generalisability

  sample all boys = homogeneous, all white, all 11yr olds etc - very limited variety in sample = not representative of wider population eg females who may exhibit prejudice differently

  CA: heterogeneous sample would have created natural subgroups due to genders which may have damaged study's validity

  So What: although had to use homogeneous sample and little variety in ppts it means generalisability is low as results can't represent the wider community and can't be applied to prejudice in general society so further research needed