The scientific study of how thoughts, feelings and behaviour are influenced by perceived group membership and difference between groups.
Intergroup Relations
Why do intergroup relations occur?
- Us vs them mentality
- psychological identification with the in or out group
True or false: intergroup relations only occur in a group setting
false: it only requires psychological identification with a socially significant group
True or false: intergroup relations cannot occur between two people.
False: when two people view themselves as group members they are acting out intergroup relations
True or false: thoughts are typically what determine if we act as individuals or group members.
False: situation determines if we act as group members or individuals
True or false: the social context brings forth different social identities and hides others.
True: the social context determines which social identity is more useful for the social situation, thus which is used
True or false: intergroup relations can be positive
true: intergroup relations occur on a spectrum
Why do we commonly perceive intergroup relations to be negative and extreme?
- we forget that group members are individuals
- we focus on what negatively affects us
- we notice more negative then positive things
- when intergroup relations are negative they have larger consequences for the individual
- negative intergroup relations have consequences for society
True or false: mundane intergroup relations are more likely to guide behaviour than positive or negative ones and often go unnoticed.
True: mundane intergroup relations are often unnoticed in how they guide our behaviour
When does group membership become an intergroup relation?
When the individual decides their membership is socially significant
True or false: intergroup relations are stable and consistent.
False: intergroup relations change as people fight to change their position in society and for equality
True or false: conversations about intergroup relations operate under the same definitions for the same concepts.
False: people often fail to identify and define concepts in conversations about intergroup relations
Definition: when you don’t want to think of your group as bad when they do a bad action, so you rationalize that the other group deserved the bad action.
Meaning making process
True or false: people can be members of multiple groups.
True: the study of intersectionality shows that people have different experiences depending on their different group memberships
True or false: there is one cause for conflict in intergroup relations
false: there is multiple causes for intergroup conflict that vary in importance depending on the context
What are the two greatest predictors of negative prejudice?
societal norms and lack of positive cross-group contact
Definition: the how or why in which the independent variable influences the dependant variable
mediation
True or false: mediators can influence a relationship to be negative or positive
true
