Social Identity Theory

Social identity theory (SIT) 

SIT was developed by Tajfel and his colleagues (Tajfel and Turner 1979) and it it based on four concepts. Social categorization, social identity, social comparison and positive distinctiveness. Social categorization is that we divide the social environment into in-groups and out-groups and belonging to a group creates a feeling of "us vs. them". An example of this would be the minimal group papadigm (Tajfel 1971). In this study a group of British schoolboys were divided into two groups thinking that it was based on if they liked paintings from Klee or Kandinsky. Then they were asked to give out points to both "teams" and the boys showed a strong tendency for choosing to give their in-group way more than the out-group, even if that meant less points for them in total. What this showed is that the participants would rather create a huge gap between them and the out-group than giving both groups more points but having less of a difference between the teams. This supports the idea that we want to increase perceived variability between the in-group and the out-group. Social identity is not the same as personal identity. It is related to how we behave in our in-group or because of our social identity in a specific group. In a competition for example, two individuals can compete as individuals or as members of rival teams. And depending on if they are alone or a part of a team, they will act differently and take different decisions (Fiske and Taylor, 2008). The last two points are social comparison and positive distinctiveness. According to SIT we strive for a positive self-concept. This means that we seek positive social identities to build, maintain and enhance our self-esteem. This may be a result from the process of social comparison which means that we compare our in-group with out-groups. Positive distinctiveness is the motivation to show that our in-group is better than the out-groups. 

Strengths:
SIT has been supported by hundreds of studies which increases its credibility. It also drew the distinction between personal and social identity and explored the ways our basic need to belong affects social interaction. SIT also contributes to explain areas of psychology like stereotypes and intergroup conflict in settings where there was no realistic basis for conflict. 

Limitations: 
Some studies have showed that the increase in self-esteem associated with out-group discrimination is too short-lived to have long lasting effects on how in-group members view themselves (Rubin and Hewstone, 1998). SIT has more to do with situational explanations over dispositional ones. But there are evidence suggestion that individual differences do affect SIT processes.  

Situational and dispositional factors

Describe the role of situational and dispositional factors in explaining behavior.

Attribution is defined as how people interpret and explain casual relationships in the social world. We want to know how and why things happen the way they do. Dispositional attributions refers to our attitudes, beliefs and personality (internal), while situational attributions refers to rewards and punishments, social setting and pressures (external). Personality is individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving and it's composed of a variety of traits. The trait theory states that we don't behave the same in every similar situation, but we have the tendency to behave a certain way (Epstein, 1983). These are the things that comes from within. Often people unconsciously makes judgments about behaviors depending on who is performing it. We are more likely to explain others behavior by dispositional factors rather than by the situation they are in when it happens. 

Discuss two errors of attribution.

Self-serving bias
People always want to feel good about them selves and they take credit for everything they can. When a person is successful in an area they feel like they themselves are responsible for their success. For example when we pass a test it was because of hard work, concentration, and intelligence.  But, when we fail, it's because the teacher gave us a test with things he never taught us, he didn't give us enough time, or he just doesn't like us and that's why he gave us a bad grade. That's because we want to protect our ego. So when something goes wrong we try to blame it on someone or something that's not us. We simply think that internal factors are responsible for our success and external factors are responsible for failure. 

Spotlight effect error
People have a tendency to overestimate the extend to which others are paying attention to them. We think that we are the center of the universe and that everybody will notice our every move. We think that people will notice everything we do, both good and bad, but in fact they are way to busy focusing on themselves. A perfect example is the Barry Manilow T-Shirt experiment. The participants, who were university students, had to wear a T-Shirt with a picture of Barry Manilow for a full day. The students thought that 50% of the other students on campus would notice and judge them, but in fact less than 20% noticed it at all.