SocialPsychological Theory and IPE

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Social-Psychological Theory and IPE

• Martin Hind Bournemouth University
• Claire Dickinson Newcastle University

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Contact Hypothesis

• Allport (1954) influential policy recommendations
• reduce hostility bring groups together but
  not enough
• Original (Allport,1954)
• Equal status
• Common goal/s
• Support of authorities
• Co-operation

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Impact and application

• Positive effects of contact demonstrated in
  diverse groups
• Catholics and protestants in Northern Ireland
• People with mental health problems
• Older people
• Arabs and Jews in Palestine
• Italians nationals and immigrants
• Pettigrew and Tropp (2000)
• Aggregated effects of 516 studies
• Highly significant inverse relationship between
  contact and prejudice

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Problems with the Contact Hypothesis

• Ever expandable list of conditions
• Causal sequence problem
• Cognitive processes that lead to attitude change
• Generalisation

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Ever Expandable List

• Additional (Hewstone and Brown, 1986)
• Positive expectations
• Successful joint work
• Concern for similarities and differences
• Perception of typicality

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Causal Sequence Problem

• Contact reduces prejudice
• BUT prejudiced people likely to avoid contact

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Cognitive Processes

• 3 cognitive processes proposed
• Social categorisation
• Stereotypes
• Self-fulfilling prophecies
• Cognitive dissonance
• Emotions (e.g. anxiety, attraction)

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Generalisation

• 3 modifications
• Decategorisation model
• Common ingroup identity model
• Salient category model
• Complementary not exclusive (Hewstone et al.,
  2002)

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Summary of CH

• Important lessons for IPE
• Think about conditions of the contact environment
• Create opportunities for friendships
• Stereotypes
• Beware of self-fulfilling prophecies
• Try to ensure typicality
• Identity

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Social Identity

• Social identity and self- categorisation theory
  developed by Tajfel (1974) and Turner (1979
  1999)
• These interrelated theories are characterised by
  their theoretical richness and complexity when
  compared to the contact hypothesis (Ellemers et
  al 1999)

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Social identity and self categorisation theory

• Focuses on group and intergroup processes
• Self is conceptualised as a collection of
  identities social identity theory focuses on the
  social aspects of identity
• These social identities shape intergroup
  perceptions, attitudes and behaviour

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Core components

• Categorization
• Identification
• Comparison

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Categorization

• Categorization involves assigning objects to
  groups to understand them
• for example, social categories such as student,
  teacher, nurse, doctor, black, white
• this process is responsible for stereotypical
  behaviour

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Identification

• People identify with the groups they belong to
• self-concept involves both the personal self
  identity (ie. I) and the collective identity (ie.
  we)
• social identification is concerned with the
  collective identity (ie. us teachers or those
  students)

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Comparison

• Through comparison we seek to maintain a positive
  self-concept this works in two ways
• We view groups we belong to in a positive light
• We view related out-groups in a more negative
  light
• these processes create inter-group
  differentiation

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Conclusion

• The Contact Hypothesis and Social Identity Theory
  offer a useful theoretical perspective from which
  to study interprofessional attitudes and
  behaviour in health and social care
• Application of these theories to the IPE research
  base will be considered in Seminar 2

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Group exercise

• In a group
• Share your experiences of IPE
• Pick one situation that makes a good case study
  for social psychological theory
• Deconstruct the theory and see how it works or
  doesnt work in practice
• Report back on
• the strengths and weaknesses of this approach to
  IPE
• what remains unclear?

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Components of the theories

• Contact Hypothesis Conditions

• Core Components of SIT

• Equal status
• Common goal/s
• Support of authorities
• Co-operation
• Positive expectations
• Successful joint work
• Concern for similarities and differences
• Perception of typicality

• Categorization
• Identification
• Comparison

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References

• Allport, G.W. (1954) The Nature of Prejudice.
  Reading, Mass Addison-Wesley. 
• Ellemers, N., Spears ,R. , Doosje ,B. (1999
  )Introduction. In Ellemers N Spears R Doosje B
  Social Identity P1-5) Blackwell Oxford 
• Hewstone, M. Brown, R. (1986). Contact is not
  enough An intergroup perspective on the contact
  hypothesis. In M. Hewstone R. Brown (Eds.),
  Contact and Conflict in Intergroup encounters.
  Oxford Blackwell. 
• Hewstone, M., Rubin, M. Willis, H. (2002).
  Intergroup bias. Annual Review of Psychology,
  53, 575-604. 
• Pettigrew, T.F. Tropp, L.R. (2000)Does
  intergroup contact reduce prejudice? Recent
  meta-analytic findings. In Oskamp, S. (Ed.)
  Reducing prejudice and discrimination.
  (pp93-114). NJ Lawrence Erlbaum.
• Tajfel H. (1974) Social Identity and Intergroup
  Behavior Social Science Information 13 65-93 
• Tajfel H. Turner J. (1979) An Integrative
  Theory of Intergroup Conflict in Austin W.
  Worchel S. (Eds.) The Social Psychology of
  Intergroup Relations (P33-47) Brooks-Cole
  Monterey 
• Turner, J .(1999) Some Current Issues in research
  on Social Identity and Self-categorization
  Theories. In Ellemers N Spears R Doosje B (Eds.)
  P6-34 Social Identity Blackwell Oxford