Social Identity Theory Social Sciences Essay Paper (Essay Sample)

Social Identity Theory
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Social Identity Theory
This theory established in the 1970s by Henri Tajfel and John Turner social psychologist explains cognitive processes pertaining to social identity and how intergroup activity influences social status. Three conceptual features form the basis of the theory of social identification: social categorization, social identity and social comparison. Citizens want a positive social image while retaining the desirable social status of their communities as opposed to the related out-groups (Hogg & Terry, 2014). This is called in in-group (us) and out-groups (them). The fundamental premise of the framework is to find adverse structures of out-group utilizing group members that enhance their self-image. Prejudiced attitudes among societies can contribute to discrimination; racism can lead, in its extreme forms, to genocide, as happened with the Judies in Germany, between the Hutus and the Tutsis in Rwanda and more recently between the Bosnians and Serbs in the former Yugoslavia. They identify entities in the same way. They assume that our group (the in-group) is distinct from the others (the out-group) and that we have more leaders of the same group than they are. In this paper, the focus is going to be on Germans and Nazi's, who considered themselves as the in-group and out-group, respectively.