social identity theory essay

• Tajfel and Turner


  • Prejudice can be explained by our tendency to identify ourselves as part of a group and to classify other people as either within or outside that group
  • Conflict may be necessary for prejudice to occur
• Self concepts


  • A person has several personal ‘selves’ which link in with group membership
  • Different social situations might trigger an individual to act in different ways
• Self esteem links to the ingroup and outgroup as


  The individual's self concept becomes wrapped up in the ingroup and so people begin to see their ingroup as better than the outgroup, enhancing self esteem
• A strength of the theory is that there is both experimental and real-life evidence to support it, for example Lalonde’s hockey study
• Lalonde’s hockey study showed ingroup favouritism where a poorly performing hockey team claimed the other team was dirtier to them
• Other theories suggest that the mere presence of another group is not enough to generate prejudice and discrimination

  Realistic conflict theory suggests that there needs to be scarce resources and competition to create prejudice
• Social Identity Theory


  1. First stage: Social categorization

  2. Second stage: Social identification

  3. Third stage: Social comparison with the outgroup
• Tajfel conducted lab-based studies showing in-group favouritism, where school boys consistently awarded more points to their own team
• Minimal group studies lack ecological validity due to the setting they take place in, which may not be representative of the real world
• Social Identity Theory explains phenomena such as racism, class, and religion
• Wetherall found cultural differences in minimal group studies conducted with white and Polynesian children in New Zealand, where the latter were more generous towards the outgroup
• Social Identity Theory has practical applications, such as in decreasing or preventing conflict in groups like football hooligans by integrating them together to prevent ingroup and outgroup formation