GROUPS -
social identiy
and
intergroup
behaviour_
part one
INTERGROUP
BEHAVIOUR - any
perception, cognition or
behaviour that is influenced
by people's recognition that
they and others are members
of distinct social groups.
e.g. international conflicts,
interethnic relations,
competitive team sports.
INGROUPS AND OUTGROUPS
"us" vs. "them", relationships between
ingroups and outgroups are often
characterised by antagonism and
conflict. ethnocentrism, ingroup
favouritism, stereotyping.
INTERGROUP BEHAVIOUR -
ETHNOCENTRISM - the view that
one's own group is at the center of
everything and all others are scaled and
rated with reference to it - SUMNER -
1906
what is intergroup
behaviour?
intergroup behaviour
is regulated by
individuals
awareness of and
identification with
different social
groups.
ALLPORT - 1935 - the
presence of the group
can be real but it can
also be implied.
REALISTIC
CONFLICT
THEORY -
SHERIF -
1966
GROUPS WHO HAVE A
MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
GOAL AND MUST
COMPETE WITH
ANOTHER GROUP TO
ACHIEVE THEIR GOAL.
individuals who share goals
tend to form groups. if the
goal is exclusive, only one
group can achieve it. e.g. a
football game is a realistic
conflict.
SUMMER CAMP
STUDIES - SHERIF -
1966 - boys arrived at
the camp and engaged
in activities and formed
friendships. the camp
was then divided into 2
seperate groups and
split the pre-formed
friendships.
(INGROUP
FORMATION) then
the two groups were
told to compete
against eachother,
strong competition,
ethnocentrism.
OUTGROUP
STEREOTYPES WERE
ALL COMPETITIVE not
cooperative.
SOCIAL IDENTITY
research shows that inntergroup
competition can be triggered
very easily. SHERIF - 1966 --
showed just forming groups could
cause ethnocentrism even before
realistic conflict was introduced.
MINIMAL GROUP PARADIGM -
TAJFEL - 1970 - challenges the
idea that competition is needed for
group bias, simple distinction is
sufficient. participants randomly
allocated into which painting they
prefer, groups have no history and it
is a very trivial circumstance.
FOUND - a tendency to allocate more
money to their own group than outgroup
- ingroup favouritism. THE groups were
minimal, had no past history and no
future. robust finding from hundreds of
minimal group studies, just being
categorised as a group member seems to
be enough to produce competitive
intergroup behaviour and bias.
SOCIAL
IDENTITY
THEORY -
TAJFEL AND
TURNER -
1979
SOCIAL identity is part
of the self concept that
derives from group
membership, influences
an individuals attitudes
and behaviour, personal
identity = i and me, social
identity - we and us.
"the indivduals knowledge
that he / she belongs to
certain social groups
together with some
emotional and value
significance to him of this
group membership"
INTERPERSONAL
<---------->
INTERGROUP
CONTINUUM
varies due to
situational context.
SOCIAL IDENTITY IN
SOCIETY - SIT is very
society and context based.
looks at social hierarchies
in society and how people
deal with status
differentials. if people's
social comparison leads to
negative social identity
then people mobilse,
create and compete.
BROWN - 2000 - group
members tend to perceive
their group as superior.
high identifiers are more
likely to express bias than
low identifiers.
COUNTER-INTUITIVELY, if
groups are too similar, this
will threaten
distinctiveness.
EVIDENCE - JETTEN ET
AL - 1996 - looked at the
relations between two rival
universities, manipulated
the distinctiveness between
ingroup and outgroup,
participants defended their
group distinctiveness
especially under the
condition of intergroup
similarity. low distinctiveness
tended to increase bias.
VAN OUDENHOVEN -
2002 - looked at study
of nations and found
that small and
threatened nations
exhibit more bias
towards the
linguistically similar
large nation than vice
versa.
CATEGORISATION
AND HOMOGENEITY
- social categorisation
gives rise to some
clear stereotyping
effects/
ACCENTUATION
EFFECT - TAJFEL -
1959 - overestimation of
similarities among
people within a
category and
dissimilarities between
people of different
categories.
OUTGROUP
HOMOGENEITY EFFECT -
BRIGHAM AND BERKOWITZ
- 1978 - tendency to see
outgroup members as the
same and ingroup members
as more differentiated. more
difficult to recognise
outgroup faces.
manifests itself in perceptual
processes as well e.g. -
SHAPIRO ET AL - 1986 -
white people found it hard to
tell japanese faces apart.
japanese people found it
hard to tell white faces apart.
more familiar with
ingroup than outgroup
members, more
detailed knowledge
about ingroup so can
differentiate them.
there is evidence also
for an outgroup
homogeneity effect.
JANE ELLIOT - the eye
of the storm - allow
children to expeience
being a victim, based on
blue eyes / brown eyed
groups.
COLLECTIVE
BEHAVIOUR
AND THE
CROWD
collective behaviour is
the behaviour of people
en masse, such as a
crowd, protest or riot.
people in crowds usually
behave in a uniform
manner and can be
volative, highly emotional
and in violation of social
norms.
in crowds,
people are
not easily
identified so
people resort
to behaviours
such as
impulsive,
aggressive,
etc,
ZIMBARDO - 1970 -
DEINDIVIDUATION is an
important mediating factor.
HOWEVER, aggression and
antisocial behaviour may be
overridden by norms associated
with the group.