Theory of the social groups

 Tajfel (1979) proposed that the groups (e.g. social class, family, football team etc.) which people belonged to
were an important source of pride and self-esteem. Groups give us a sense of social identity: a sense of
belonging to the social world. In order to increase our self-image we enhance the status of the group to
which we belong. For example, England is the best country in the world! We can also increase our self-
image by discriminating and holding prejudice views against the out group (the group we don’t belong to).
For example, the Americans, French etc. are a bunch of losers! Therefore, we divided the world into “them”
and “us” based through a process of social categorization (i.e. we put people into social groups).This is
known as in-group (us) and out-group (them). Social identity theory states that the in-group will
discriminate against the out-group to enhance their self-image.
How?

 Henri Tajfel proposed that stereotyping (i.e. putting people into groups and categories) is based on a normal
cognitive process: the tendency to group things together. In doing so we tend to exaggerate:

 1. the differences between groups

 2. the similarities of things in the same group.

 We categorize people in the same way. We see the group to which we belong (the in-group) as being
different from the others (the out-group), and members of the same group as being more similar than they
are. Social categorization is one explanation for prejudice attitudes (i.e. “them” and “us” mentality) which
leads to in-groups and out-groups.
Examples

 o Northern Ireland: Catholics – Protestants  o Football: Liverpool and Man Utd

 o Rwanda: Hutus and Tutsis  o Gender: Males and Females

 o Yugoslavia: the Bosnians and Serbs  o Social Class: Middle and Working Classes

 o Germany: Jews and the Nazis

 o Politics: Labor and the Conservatives

 Similarly, we find out things about ourselves by knowing what categories we belong to.  We define
appropriate behavior by reference to the norms of groups we belong to, but you can only do this if you can
tell who belongs to your group. An individual can belong to many different groups.
Social comparison

  Once we have categorized ourselves as part of a group and have identified with that group we then tend to
compare that group with other groups. If our self-esteem is to be maintained our group needs to compare
favorably with other groups.
 This is critical to understanding prejudice, because once two groups identify themselves as rivals, they are
forced to compete in order for the members to maintain their self-esteem. 
Primary and secondary groups

A primary group has been described as a ‘face-to-face’ group since members in it have a direct and close
contact with each other.
Example: the family
A secondary group is much ‘larger in composition’, the relations between members of secondary groups tend to
remain impersonal, indirect and formal.
The in-group and the out-group

 The out-group would stand for a collection of individuals for whom a set of individuals have a feeling of
dislike, animosity or even hostility or hatred.
 Members of the in-group have very close relations with each other and their loyalty to the group and to each
other is very pronounced. The group-spirit makes the members of this group very conscious of the fact that
they belong together, as in the case of family members, friends
 1) Passive crowd: loosely organized and emerge spontaneously. The people forming the crowd have very
little interaction and usually are not familiar with each other.
 Dam of panic crowd: people look out for themselves after a disaster occurs and that they panic and engage in
“wild, selfish, individualistic, exploitative behavior.
 2)Acting crowd: crowd where the members are actively and enthusiastically involved in doing something
that is directly related to their goal, chanting loudly. Ex. Lower our taxes now!
a) orgiastic crowd: it takes the form of singing, dancing, although ritualistic behavior may also take place.
It if found in religious groups celebrating some occasion.
B) turbulent crowd: form around an event that has an emotional appeal. That may be why this crowd
has become engaged and is growing. Ex. A football game.
Simmel

 Intellectually treats massive crowds and stablishes differences between them and the smaller groups. He says
cultured and refined people don’t agree with the complicated ideas or impulses, but in the simplest ones and
of general and human character.
 He also says that the reality of the practice of the ideas of the masses are complex and are composed of very
similar groups in which simple ideas are the ones that are going to make this mass work.
 Now that we have the mass reunited stablishes this nervous feeling that makes the individual go and act the
way the person with the most passionate soul around him/her is acting. Every mass has its own psychology
wich makes evey member of it loose their natural essence.