Tajfel And Turner's Social Identity Theory

Social Identity Theory, known otherwise as SIT, is a principle proposed by Tajfel and Turner in the 1970s. The study aimed to explain intergroup behaviour and the situational factors within a model of behaviour. At its core, the theory consists of four interrelated concepts: social categorization, the tendency to categorize individuals into in-groups (we/us) and out-groups (they/them); category accentuation (social comparison), the exaggeration of intergroup differences and intragroup similarities; social identification, the adoption of the norms, values, and behaviour of one’s in-group (to enhance self-esteem); and social comparison (positive distinctiveness), a contrast between one’s in-group and out-groups of a similar status to establish superiority in an attempt to, through seeking positive social identities, enhancing self-esteem.
Tajfel and Turner’s study …show more content…
For example, the boys were to give away money regardless of which group the individual belonged to, however since they socially identified with their in-group, they didn’t mind rewarding members of their own group. Furthermore, within the second experiment, the attempt to employ a maximum difference between the groups conveyed positive distinctiveness – allocating fewer points to the other groups so that when comparing their in-group and out-group, they felt as if they belonged to the ‘best’ group, which furthered their self-esteem. Despite being placed in different groups, the boys were all still very similar – they were of the same house in the same school and were of nearly the same age. Yet, they differentiated and divided themselves, which exhibited the category accentuation