Formative ERQ Outline: Evaluating Animal Research Studies

Polina Goldberg

ERQ Evaluate Social Identity Theory making reference to specific studies

Command Term This command term means that my essay should “make an appraisal by weighing
The command term is the most up strengths and limitations”. This means that I should include the strengths and
important element of any
question. Ask yourself what the weaknesses of social identity theory.
question requires from you. What
is the best way to meet the
demands of the command term?
Introduction Social Identity Theory (SIT) was proposed by Tajfel and Turner in 1971. It is
Thinking about your introduction defined as the part of an individual’s sense of self which is derived from (1) the
and writing it in full in your
outline is a valuable investment of knowledge of their membership in a social group and (2) the emotions attached to
your time. that membership. This theory can be tested empirically through laboratory
Telling the examiner what the
essay will do and what it will
experiments such as Tajfel et al (1971) and Drury et al (2009). This essay will
argue is an effective way to show evaluate Social Identity Theory through its strengths and weaknesses, and argue
your essay writing and critical that while SIT is an overall useful concept in predicting behavior, it must be
thinking skills.
Aim to provide the context for considered with other factors to provide a more holistic understanding of ingroup
your response and identify the and outgroup behavior.
study or studies you will use to
support your argument. What is
the issue/question facing
psychologists? How have they
attempted to answer their
research questions? What
challenges have they faced?
Paragraph #2 Topic Sentence:

Social Identity theory, as mentioned previously, proposes that a person’s sense of

identity is based on their membership of specific social groups.

Key Points:
- The theory notes that our membership of certain social groups are an
important factor in determining self-esteem
- To explain, if the status of our groups is high, we experience a rise
in self-esteem and vice versa
- It also notes that humans have a tendency to think of their group (known
as the “ingroup) as better than others (the “outgroup”)
- Using this knowledge, the theory outlined three processes that result in
these behaviors. These are:
- Categorization: organizing objects and people into groups
(including ourselves), ultimately forming “ingroups” and
“outgroups”
- members of an ingroup will share attributes of others in
that group
- Social identification: adopting the identity of the group we have
categorized ourselves into
- after this step of identification, individuals will start to fit
the norms of this group and correlate their self-esteem
with the status of their group
- Social comparison: comparing one’s group with others
- this is done to maintain or improve one’s self-esteem
- this forms the prejudice mentioned earlier and sometimes
a competitive nature between groups
 Linking Sentence to question/argument:
- Ultimately, this theory suggests that when a part of our social identity
becomes salient, it will have an influence on our behavior; such influences
can be seen in psychological studies.
Paragraph #3 Topic Sentence
Tajfel et al (1971) is an excellent support for how social identity theory can
manifest itself.
Key Points:
- Description of Tajfel et al (1971)
- Aim:
- To investigate social categorization and intergroup
behavior by determining the minimum requirements for
participants to identify themselves as members of a group
- Method:
- 48 British school boys, aged 14-15, were asked to rate 12
paintings either by Klee or Kandinsky, but they were not
told who painted the painting.
- The boys were randomly allocated to two groups and
were told that they were with members who also preferred
one of the two artists (so there was no actual trait shared
between the group, they just believed there was).
- Each boy was then given the task to award small sums of
money to two other boys, one from his group and one
from the other (no names included). This involved filling
out 44 different matrices, with three different kinds of
matrix available. These three matrices were the IV.
- (1) maximum joint profit (giving the largest
reward to members of both groups)
- (2) maximum in-group profit (giving largest
reward to member of the ingroup)
- (3) maximum positive distinctiveness (giving
largest possible difference in reward between a
member of the ingroup and a member of the
outgroup)
- Results:
- Maximum joint profit had very little effect on the boys’
choices.
- Between maximizing profit for all and maximizing profit
for members of the ingroup, there was a significant
tendency to favor their own group.
- When they had the choice of maximizing difference in
rewards, the boys were willing to give less money to their
own team (just to maximize the difference between the
ingroup and outgroup).
- Conclusion:
- Outgroup discrimination is very easy to trigger and that
once its triggered, we start to discriminate against the
outgroup.
- There is a natural tendency to favor members of one's
ingroup.
 -Evaluation
- Strengths:
- (1) highly controlled to establish causal
relationship,
- (2) highly standardized, so it can be replicated to
ensure reliability
- Weaknesses:
- ​(1) the task was highly artificial and may not
reflect how they boys would act in a natural
setting,
- (2) there could have been demand characteristics
because they boys could have interpreted the task
to be competitive,
- (3) the study isn't very generalizable to other ages
and cultures as it was conducted on British school
boys.
Linking Sentence to question/argument:
Despite the limitations of this method, this study has an overall strong method and
was able to stimulate further research into SIT; therefore, we should still accept its
findings and support for the theory.
Paragraph #4 Topic Sentence
Drury et al (2009) is another example of a study investigating SIT.
Key Points:
- Description of Drury et al (2009)
- Aim:
- To investigate the impact of social categorization and
identity on a person’s decision to assist other in the case
of an emergency evacuation
- Method:
- The researchers used a virtual reality simulation of a fire
in the London metro.
- The participants, 60 undergraduate students from St
Andrew’s university, aged 19-25, had the choice of either
pushing people out of the way (this got them out quickly)
or staying to help others (this would slow their escape).
- The participants were split into two conditions. In the first
condition, participants were given a shared identity (e.g.
fans of the same football team); this therefore formed an
ingroup. In the second condition, they were not given a
shared identity, and were simply told statements like “you
are on your way back from the store”.
- Results:
- Participants in the first condition, or those who “shared” a
common identity, were more likely to help one another,
even if this made them take longer to evacuate and
ultimately risk their own safety.
- Conclusion:
- ​Having a shared identity makes people categorize and
identify themselves as part of that group. This ultimately
makes them more willing to help the ingroup. 
 - Evaluation
- Strengths:
- (1) can have applications to real life: suggests that making
shared identity salient via announcements is more
impactful than a siren,
- (2) establish causal relationship,
- (3) easily replicable to establish reliability
- Limitations:
- (1) low mundane realism: due to the virtual reality
replication of the situation, the task does not represent a
real emergency well,
- (2) low ecological validity: results aren’t necessarily
generalizable to settings outside of the laboratory
Linking Sentence to question/argument:
This study has a few limitations attributed to it being a laboratory experiment,
however, these limitations aren’t strong enough to overpower the method’s
strengths and conclusive results; therefore we should accept its findings and
support for the theory.
Paragraph #5 Topic Sentence
From the aforementioned studies, it can be seen that there is strong empirical
evidence to support SIT; however, the theory as a whole must be evaluated
critically.
Key Points:
- Strengths
- Apart from the theory being well supported, it is also very
applicable to our everyday life
- It can be used to decrease hostility between groups and
can possibly be used to limit prejudice
- It is easy to test via a range of experiment such as laboratory,
quasi, and field experiments
- It can be used to predict some human behavior in regards to
intergroup dynamics
- Limitations
- Using the theory in isolation os reductionist: it fails to address the
environment (cultural expectations, rewards, social constraints)
that interacts with an individual
- Assumes that ingroup favoritism is a facet of life and that social
groups always compete, when in reality there is a lot of social
group cooperation
- Assumes that ingroup members would always prefer their group
over any other, when this is not always the case (e.g. some
Americans don’t have a sense of patriotism)

Linking Sentence to question/argument:

Though the theory has quite a few strengths, it can be seen that by itself it ignores
a lot of important, everyday factors that contribute to group dynamics; thus, the
theory should not be used in isolation, but rather, in conjunction with others to
give a better understanding of the topic.
Conclusion: To conclude, Social Identity Theory attempts to explain how individuals'
The conclusion needs to sum up membership in social groups affects their behavior. Tajfel (1971) and Drury et al
the entire essay and not introduce
new content. You should include (2009) both support the theory by showing how membership of an “ingroup” or a
the main aspects of your shared common identity can affect interactions with other individuals. The theory
argument.
has some limitations regarding its reductionism and its assumptions made. But,
these limitations can be overcome by considering other factors relating to
intergroup behavior.
Final sentence:
So, overall, despite the theory’s drawbacks, it is ultimately advantageous due to its
applicability to everyday life and its ability to provide greater insight into human
behavior.