Social Identity Theory

Tajfel (1979)
SIT
• The original theory of Social
Identity proposed by Tajfel &
Turner identified four
psychological mechanisms:
• Social Categorization
• Social identification
• Social comparison
• Positive distinctiveness
• Social categorization is the process by which we identity which groups
we belong to and which groups we do not- leads to feelings of
In-group and Out-group.

• Social identification takes place after deciding to belong to the

group.  This is the process of adopting the norms of the group and
taking on the characteristics of the group.
•  Individuals then engage in "social comparison" which is a means of
justifying their group membership
• Finally, we seek to achieve positive self-esteem by positively
comparing our in-group to an out-group on some valued dimension
to achieve positive distinctiveness. We favour the traits of our
in-group, even if we did not necessarily choose to be a part of the
group ourselves.
Studies for SIT
• SIT in research: Chen et al (2005):
• www.student.thinkib.net/psychology/page/27270
• Abrams et al: www.student.thinkib.net/psychology/page/24238
• Tajfel study: Kandinsky and Klee:
www.student.thinkib.net/psychology/page/24245
 Application of SIT: To explain Behavior
Abrams et al (1990) did a replication of Asch (1956) to see if people are more likely to conform to the
behaviour of people in their in-group.
Fifty introductory psychology students (23 males and 27 females) thought that they were taking a test of
visual accuracy. At the start of the experiment, three confederates were introduced either as first-year
students from the psychology department (in-group) or as students of ancient history (out-group).
There were 18 trials. In nine of the trials, the confederates gave the correct response. In nine of the trials,
the confederates gave a unanimous, incorrect response.

It was found that the participants conformed to the erroneous confederate judgments more often when
they believed the confederates were from their in-group. The average number of conforming responses
was 5.23 in the in-group condition and only 0.75 in the out-group condition.

The participants also revealed in the post-experimental questionnaire that they had been less confident
about their own judgment in the in-group condition. The results seem to indicate that social
categorization can play a key role in one’s decision to conform.
Other Applications

Link for Football Hooliganism:

https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/hooliganism-euro-2016-social-psychology-english-disease
Evaluation Of SIT
 Task:
● Reflection on: https://youtu.be/yAkDHuimJRc
Try to explain the behaviours of people in the video based on your understanding of the theory

● Assess the video: https://youtu.be/Uletl1MAeQ8

Choose one of the people (expect the homeless man and the bartender) to discuss
why they behaved the way that they did - using the vocabulary of social identity
theory.

ATLs:
Self-management Skills (reflection)

Thinking Skills (critical thinking)