PSY 453 Lecture Notes - Lecture 40: Categorical Perception, Psy, Social Comparison Theory

• School: Eastern Oregon University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 453
• Professor: Dr. Charles Lyons

Document Summary

Origin of the theory of social identity: henry tajfel began his work on categorical perception in the 1950s . Later, with some collaborators, he developed the minimal group experimental paradigm: this paradigm revealed the effect of mere categorization, that is, of how groups develop. Social identity and personal identity: the fundamental idea of the social identity theory is that an individual"s membership in certain social groups or categories contribute important aspects to the individual identity of the subject . In other words, our membership in groups and our relationship with them largely determines who we are individually, that is, they influence our personal identity. Selfconcept: tajfel argued that a person"s self-concept is largely shaped by their social identity . This is "the knowledge that an individual possesses that he belongs to certain social groups together with the emotional significance and value that belonging has for him / her. " (tajfel, 1981).