Self Categorization Theory

In many ways we stereotype people based on their characteristics and tend to judge them in a positive and negative manner depending on, the different types of the out-groups we place them in. Such as envied out-group, pitied out-group and despised out-group. When we restrict interactions with out-groups. Dominant groups limit social interaction with out-groups which maintains group boundaries and limit access to out-group members. These limitations are useful, when the law is put out or unbreakable by spatial boundaries and physical segregation.

As a group, mostly all of our thoughts and opinions were similar when discussing the topic of this paper; which was diversity and ethnocentrism. After reading the first section "In Group Bias", we all agreed that prejudice will arise when different communities are put together. This is simply because people tend to stick together based on their culture, religion, or lifestyle. Natalie mentioned that preferences for an alike group are based on everyone's upbringing; which happens to be the topic of the next section "Questions about Race in Biology and Upbringing". Concerning this section, we realized that multiracial children are often times placed into categories that they do not fully identify with, but they are obligated to identify as because it is how they make friends or meet new kids.

Situations like this are shown in the book “Flawed” where these ideas of labels are taken to the extreme. Labels can matter a lot in our modern lives, they can alter how people see others, they alter how people

Why does classification determine their worth as humans? How does that determine who you like and who you don’t? Chuck Collins has stated that “we get into trouble as a society when we don’t see that we’re in the same boat.” He shows that people generally have trouble reaching out to those who are different or outside of their comfort zone. In contrast, Collins also wants us to recognize that when we leave people out of society, we hurt ourselves in the process.

From this we can see how social classes impact people's views on others. Simon Glass

The Unfavorable Offspring of the Humanistic Tendency to Form Bonds In the article “It Takes a Tribe,” David Berreby utilizes the example of students’ immediate college loyalty to claim that humans identify with groups because they desire to have a sense of belonging. In the article “ ‘Blaxicans’ and Other Reinvented Americans,” Richard Rodriguez talks about categorization by race to claim that Americans, in particular, feel the need to be in separate, defined classes. Berreby and Rodriguez emphasize different effects of humans’ natural tendency to classify themselves. Berreby focuses on the formation of opposition between groups while Rodriguez focuses on the formation of false perceptions of groups.

This de-identification can also be seen in friend groups, and often we use this process to help form assumptions and judge a person before we know them fully. De-identification can also be used as a defense mechanism as well to distance oneself from other members of the family or other

Social categorization theory developed by Turner (1978) describes the categorization of people based on salient attributes like gender, ethnicity or age, resulting in stereotyping on the basis of these differences. Social categorization theory posits that similarities and dissimilarities of demographics can lead formation of different group with resulting effects on member of in-group favorably themselves to the detriment of members of out-groups social (Turner, Brown & Tajfel, 1979). Self-categorization theory explains when individuals categorize themselves by assigning to themselves the manners, actions and other characteristics they link with association within a specific group (Schmitt, Branscombe, Silvia, Garcia, & Spears. 2016). By means of self-categorization and membership of a group, people cultivate a social identity that functions as a social-cognitive scheme (customs, standards and attitudes) for their group associated action. The tendency is for the perceiver to consider these attributes as vital to his or her own personality and thus use these attributes to label others (Hoffman Harburg, & Maier, 2014).

People always suggest others to be themselves. To not care about what others have to say about you. People try to ignore society 's opinion about them, not realizing the importance it plays in identity. For a person to feel identified, they must have similarities or differences, and some type of involvement. Identity involves a combination of how you see yourself and how others see you.

They put people into social groups divided into in-group or out-group i.e. us versus them through a process of social categorization. Social identity theory states that group members of an in-group will discriminate and hold prejudiced views against others in the out-group in order to enhance their self-esteem. Social identification is relational and comparative because people define themselves relative to individuals considered to belong to other categories (Tajfel et al

One would think prejudice is a thing of the past. Unfortunately, that is not the case, prejudice is still a common factor in todays society. Vincent N. Parrillo’s essay “Causes of Prejudice,” helped me to understand how we are affected not just psychologically but in a sociological way as well, as John A. Camacho explains in his A Few Bad Apples opinion piece published in the Pacific Daily News. Both forms of prejudice are continued to be explained through Stud Turkel’s “C.P Ellis,” he gives us an understanding of psychological and sociological prejudice through C.P Ellis’own experiences. This furthers our understanding on how we can be affected by both psychological and sociological prejudices.

Imagine walking into a room and being instantly identified as a criminal. Imagine having to experience this in every room you enter. Imagine walking into a store and being watched, expected to be a thief or sometimes even expected to reveal a knife, gun or a bomb. When we meet new people, most of us look for differences rather than similarities. From young we are taught that everyone is different and that continually makes us associate others by these differences.

Introduction Social identification is a very important source of both one’s pride and self-esteem. Because groups give us a sense of social identity and belongingness to the social world, intergroup relations have a huge impact on the actions we engage ourselves in. “We are not born with senses of self. Rather, self arises from interaction with others” (Griffin, 2012). In this paper I will first give a summary of Tajfel and Turner’s Social Identity Theory.

The social identity theory compares, categorizes, and identifies with certain groups. Memberships to specific groups are important. Elliot placed people in groups based on eye color so all of the blue eyed people tended to stick together and so did the brown eyed people. In the adult groups, the blue eyed people became defensive at times because of the way they were being treated and others stood up to defend from the same group in some instances, The Social Identity Theory is also defined by a sense of superiority to others (Myers, 326). Lacking a positive personal identity, people often seal self-esteem by identifying with a group (Myers, 327).

Elevator social experiment; a few people (actors - that were in on the experiment - knew what was happening and was playing a part in allowing the experiment to be conducted smoothly) entered an elevator, all facing the back (instead of what is ‘normal’; facing the door/front) a stranger/subject enters the lift of people facing away from the elevator door it was observed if the subject ‘conformed’ to their environment; whether if they slowly turned to ‘fit’ or ‘blend’ into their surroundings the actors swapped in and out of the elevator, the ones entering also facing the back of the elevator to allow the surrounding to seem more ‘normal’ a large majority of the ‘test subjects’ that entered the elevator had originally stood facing the door,