SIT essay plan

• Social identity theory AO1

  . suggests prejudice is result of the mere presence of another groups - competition is not necessary

  . we have many identities: 1) personal = our unique qualities, personality, and self esteem, - personal identity changes as we behave in ways to maintain positive self concept as a valued group member, 2) self concept = made up of many social identities, 3) social identity = image base on attributes of the groups we belong to

  . personal and social identities bind, when social identity is favorable the personal identities of groups members also is

  there are stages to identity formation:

  1) social categorisation - we categorise everyone into either ingroup (the group we belong to) or our group (group we don't belong to) to help us understand the social environment we are in

  2) social categorisation = adopting individual beliefs and attitudes of our ingroup, altering behaviour to fit in with group - our self concept changes and new social identity is formed

  3) social comparison = comparing the ingroup and outgroup to raise positive attributes of ingroup and reconcile negative social identity. do this by either in group favoritism and in group heterogeneity or negative outgroup bias and outgroup homogeneity bias
• SIT AO3 strength


  evidence - Tajfel

  found boys allocated more points to ingroup members (boys who chose same favorite painting) = proved social categorisation is enough to trigger ingroup favoritism

  CA: lacks mundane realism in allocating points = may not represent prejudice seen in real life

  So what: despite this, still provides evidence supporting theory in the best way it can ethically without prejudicing someone/a group very badly
• SIT AO3 weakness


  . elements are hard to measure and quantify eg self esteem and identifying with groups so could be considered hypothetical, measuring these relies on subjective reports which reduces reliability of theory

  CA: theory been tested well through experiments and studies which has provided evidence in qualitative and quantitative ways = some validity and reliability

  So What: however lack of objective measurements means scientificy is low so theory may not be as credible so s weak