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Worksheet 4
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It represents aboveaverage work
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[22 marks]

Social identity theory (SIT) attempts to understand how social categorization affects intergroup behaviours
(Tajfel and Turner, 1979)
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In
recent years, SIT has been explored with the use of additional types of study but I am going to discuss studies
using the minimal group paradigm
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SIT is based on a number of inter-related concepts: social categorization, social identity, social comparison and
positive distinctiveness
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Social identity is the part of our
self-concept based on knowledge of our membership of one or more social groups
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Whereas personal identity is associated
with interpersonal behaviours, social identity is related to intergroup behaviours
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Positive social identities may result from the process of social comparison as we
continuously compare our ingroups with relevant outgroups
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By thus establishing the superiority of our ingroup, we make sure that our social identities,
and therefore our self-esteem, are positive enough
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when explaining positive and negative behaviours in an outgroup)
• conformity to ingroup norms (much greater than conformity to outgroup norms)
• stereotypical thinking (ingroupers and outgroupers are all perceived according to relevant stereotypes)
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The other characteristics listed above highlight the diversity of phenomena that have been
constructively addressed by SIT
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g
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, 1971)
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Group members never meet or in any other way interact with one another
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Tajfel et al
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Tajfel et al
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Although the experimenters
allocated the participants randomly to the two groups, the participants were led to believe that the groups were
defined on the basis of a preference for paintings by either Klee or Kandinsky
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They were not allowed to give points to
themselves
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were interested to see how the participants distributed the points
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Their strategies also provided evidence for the SIT notion of positive
distinctiveness
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For example, when given the choice,
participants gave an ingroup member 7 points and an outgroup member 1 point, rather than giving both 13 points
as they could have done
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However, minimal group paradigm research has been criticized: perhaps the effects obtained
are the result of participants responding to demand characteristics
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Moreover, ingroup favouritism and outgroup discrimination have been repeatedly demonstrated in natural
settings with real-life groups
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He found that trade union representatives from one department sacrificed about £2 a
week in order to increase their relative advantage over a competing outgroup to £1
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Mummendey and Otten
(1998) found that it is more powerful when participants distribute positive resources (e
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points) and weaker, if
present at all, with negative resources (e
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punishment)
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pearsonbacc
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Some studies have shown that the increase in self-esteem associated with outgroup discrimination is too
short-lived to have long-lasting effects on how ingroup members view themselves (Rubin and Hewstone, 1998)
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Moreover, it has contributed very
significantly to the explanation of an impressive list of social psychological phenomena, including conformity
and stereotyping
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Starting with Tajfel’s pioneering minimal group studies, SIT has been supported by hundreds of
relevant empirical studies
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g
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© Pearson Education Ltd 2010
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pearsonbacc

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