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Sherif et Al (1956-1961) - Coggle Diagram
Sherif et Al (1956-1961)
Aim
To explore how competition of groups with the combined of limited resources can cause stereotyping and prejudice towards outgroup and how this can be fixed through superordinate goals.
Procedures
Field experiment in a summer camp. 22 middle class white boys who were from Oklahoma USA, 11 years old, protestant. None of the boys knew each other before camp.
Similar sporting abilities (matched pairs). 2 different bunkers.
Parents and children's doctors gave consent and mentioned they were all emotionally and socially okay.
Collected qualitative and quantitative data.
Covert observation, recordings, questionnaires.
Stages of Experiment:
Stage 1: Group formation - took part in non-competitive activities within their group such as building camp fires.
Stage 2: Friction - Each group learnt of the other groups existence. Researchers created a tournament of tug of war and baseball with prizes of medals and trophy for the winners.
Stage 3: Reduction phase - Created social contact such as eating together. Later superordinate goals were introduced where it required intergroup cooperation - finding a broken water supply.
Evaluation
Strengths
Application- Aim and Hypothesis were met, subordinate goals reduce conflict. This can be applied to work places to create more productive environment
Validity- High ecological validity, Boys were placed in a natural setting, a summer camp. This means that demand characteristics may have been less likely to be shown
Ethics- Gained informed consent from parents. There was right to withdraw as two boys left during the experiment because they felt homeisck.
Weaknesses
Generalisability- Sherif used a sample of white Caucasian male children from the same area. This means that his research can not be applied to different cultures, ages or genders
Reliability- Sherif's research is not reliable, it cannot be replicated because it was a field experiment. Different groups and individuals would behave differently even if they follow the same procedure.
Findings
Stage 1: Established group names and social norms became apparent. Rattlers were more tough while eagles were more sensitive; crying more and 2 of them leaving.
Stage 2: Both groups during tug of war started to name call, stealing obsessions and burning each others flags. Scales showed that in-group members of each team were considered brave while the outgroup were seen as sneaky. Only 6.4% friendship between rattlers and eagles.
Stage 3: Initial taks did little to reduce friction. After superordinate goal of fixing water tank, hostility was greatly increases. 36.4% of rattlers were friends with eagles. 30% increase.
Conclusions
Intergroup competition lead to in-group favouritism due to superiority complex and also outgroup hostility.
Increased social contact isn't enough to reduce prejudice while superordinate goals can reduce prejudice effectively.