Exam Flashcards Foundation of Social Psychology | Summary of all readings

FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIAL
PSYCHOLOGY

,SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY

ELLEMERS & HASLAM, 2012

, ORIGINS

• MINIMAL GROUP STUDIES (H. TAIFEL)
• A SERIES OF EXPERIMENTS TO EXPLORE SOCIAL COGNITIVE PROCESSES RELATED TO OBJECT
CATEGORISATION
• 2 GROUPS THAT WERE CREATED BASED ON IRRELEVANT CRITERION OR CHANCE HAVE TO ALLOCATE POI
TO ONE MEMBER OF THEIR GROUP AND ONE MEMBER OF THE OTHER GROUP
• THESE MINIMAL (GROUPING) CONDITIONS INDUCED IN-GROUP FAVOURITISM (MORE POINTS FOR MEM
OF OWN GROUP) → MERE CATEGORISATION EFFECT

• SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY = PART OF AN INDIVIDUAL’S SELF-CONCEPT IS DERIVED FROM
KNOWLEDGE OF GROUP MEMBERSHIP AND THE EMOTIONAL SIGNIFICANCE ATTACHED TO
MEMBERSHIP
• AIM: HOW CAN PEOPLE COME TO ADOPT AND BEHAVE IN TERMS OF SOCIAL IDENTITIES; THINKIN
OF ONESELF AS ‘WE’ INSTEAD OF ‘I’

, PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESS

= HOW WE DEFINE OUR SOCIAL REALITY (WE VS. I)
1. SOCIAL CATEGORISATION
• CLUSTERING PEOPLE INTO GROUPS ACCORDING TO SHARED CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES

2. SOCIAL COMPARISON
• INTERPRETING AND VALUING CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES THROUGH COMPARISON (GOOD/BAD)

3. SOCIAL IDENTIFICATION
• REALISATION OF ONE’S INCLUSION IN A GROUP AND EXCLUSION OF OTHER GROUPS
• INCLUDES COGNITIVE AWARENESS OF MEMBERSHIP AND EMOTIONAL SIGNIFICANCE