SIT: States as humans we form groups for protection & to help survive. We categorise people into certain groups to understand how to behave around them. We then compare them using prejudice to make out-groups seem inferior & identify more openly to our in-group self-esteem.
Showing situational factors as we could categorise everyone in the in-group prejudice would decrease or use superordinate goal to bring the two groups together.
RCT: When two countries or groups of people rival over a scarce resource which can only have a zero-sum fate e.g money, Land, jobs. Lead to an in-group and out-group formulation which will build up prejudice due to both groups wanting the same source and the rival being the one to threaten it.
Showing if it isn’t for situational factors wasn’t there e.g lack of jobs, land, oil, money than prejudice wouldn’t be created. In a recession there are less jobs meaning they will become scarce & people would compete for them.
Frustration & Aggression: frustration emerges when circumstances interfere with a goal leading to aggression. The cause may be a powerful figure (parent/employer) instead of we direct our aggression by displacing it on substitute target. E.g scapegoating cause not by being able to place the anger on the correct person & displacing it elsewhere.
e.g economic problems lead to lash out on outgroups marginalized in society.
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
| Sheriff – when boys were divided into groups they started to share hostility towards each other – prejudice arises to them being in a situation where groups emerged & needing to be superior to rival.
Sheriff – high eco V – it was done in a natural setting (field experiment) of a summer camp – higher mundane realism as behaviour would have been more natural to the setting. Filindia & Pearson Merkcuitz – during economic hardship When perceived increase in immigration in communities, immigration policies had more restrictions – meaning prejudice would arise to these ‘immigrants’ as they are competing for jobs & money Application – prejudice result of situation factors such as the nature of the environment making humans form groups, or competing for scarce resources. – implications for society to reduce prejudice by encouraging people to recognise groups as part of the same in-group to stop prejudice hostility. |
Sheriff – low generalisability – used 22, 12 year old white middle class children all from America – unable to generalise to whole population of females meaning results are not applicable to all.
Personality theories – such as authoritarian personality suggesting that some heavy seated traits make people favour totalitarianism and highly prejudice as a result – makes more emphasis on role of personality through childhood than situational factors. Reductionist – only looks at situational factors which may create prejudice – ignores the ideas of culture & personality in prejudice meaning looking narrowly at complex human behaviour. |