Evaluate Social Identity Theory Essay

Social identity hypothesis is designed by Tajfel and Turner (1979) to explain how it is that good deal develop a sense of membership and belonging in particular groups, and how the mechanics of intergroup discrimination. near(prenominal) interconnected mechanisms are at work with well-disposed identity conjecture. The cell nucleus idea is that people tend to seek out-group membership as an asseveration of self-esteem, merely that membership in a group alone is non enough to build self-esteem. To feel more self esteem, people feed to believe that they are in the right group, which creates the need for a authoritative distinction from other groups. T here(predicate) are three cognitive processes that are Social Categorisation, Social Identification and Social Comparison. Tajfel and his colleagues divided some schoolboys in to 2 different groups, they allocated them randomly into the groups but the participants sight that the groups were defined by their preferences to pai ntings.They had to give out points to the in-group and the out-group but were not allowed to give points to themselves. The participants would favour people in their group rather than the participants of the other group. In many cases the participants would dedicate points for their group full to increase the difference between the groups. The participants would give 7 points to their own group and give the other group 1, although they could bring in condition 13 to each group. This shows that you can be easily be station in a group for a minor thing and you would arrest together and go against the other group and see them as the resistance without having any real reason.Caroline Howarth carried out the second seek. The participants all lived in the Brixton area, which was seen as a poor and violent place and also where a lot of black people were thought to have lived in that respect and were thought of being the main cause of violence. Within the first set of centre groups (total of 7), she asked teenagers to talk about Brixton, she asked them to tell me about Brixton what it is manage for you to live here and how people outside Brixton think about Brixton. Howarth used a exit guideline to ensure that central research questions were always covered (on community, inclusion, exclusion, identity, ethnicity, the media, prejudice, racism, the school).The system of rules of focus groups into friendship groups made it possible for participants to discuss these experiences with admirable confidence, matureness and understanding. It can, nonetheless, be difficult for the fond researcher to access such peeled material. When the moderator is an outsider and when research participants assume (often correctly) that the researcher has little experience of the build of discrimination and challenges to self-esteem that pervade their lives, mistrust and suspicion may terms the research relationship. The girls answered positively and were blessed to be from B rixton and did not want to hunt down away and did not see any problems. This would shock people, as they would have thought people would move away if they had the chance. They are creating a social identity, as they are happy to be a part of the Brixton identity. there are some problems with this write up as there are some ethical issues, they were deceived as they were lied to in the Tajfel study as they were just randomly plump downed and had nothing to do with their views on the paintings. Whereas the Howarth study they were not deceived which is a good way to carry out a study but they might have lied with their answers to please the examiner and have changed their demeanour to be positive and not how that even the people who live there think the same as everyone else.Both of these studies are valid as the research supports the theory and the results can be use to everyday life. The Tajfel study shows how people at school in the playground group and pick the group they have the most in common with and communicate with them and if they do not bet to have anything in common they would not anticipate there. The second study by Howarth can also be applied in everyday life as people create social identity all the time, if a place is thought of negatively by people who do not live their then the people who do can make a social identity and be happy and have positive thoughts about this area and not agree with the others.The theory seems to be a good and plausible theory as the research supports the theory that people automatically divide the social world into the in-group (people like me) and the out-group (people who are not like me). The people see the people in their group as similar to them but 2 different groups seem to be so different from each other when not in all cases they are that different from each other.