Assessment Task:
Social Psychology's Fundamental Issues and Controversies Essay Writing Assessment Answer

Rationale

This assessment task will assess the following learning outcome/s:

  •  be able to demonstrate an understanding of the major theories within Social Psychology, and an awareness of their applications in everyday life
  •  be able to demonstrate familiarity with some of Social Psychology's fundamental issues and controversies
  •  be able to demonstrate skills in critical evaluation of previous research and theoretical positions via assessments, including a written assignment related to Australian Indigenous Issues

Social Psychology

Background information

Social identity theory is an influential theory in relation to social identity. In 1974 Henri Tajfel proposed this theory based on intergroup interactions and the ‘us’ and ‘them’ categorisation associated with that behaviour. Simply put, social identity theory is the ‘individual’s knowledge that he/she belongs to certain social groups’ and these groups have value and significance to the person (Abrams & Hogg, 1990, p. 20). This theory is widely used and accepted when explaining group behaviour (Yuki, 2003, p. 166) however, it has been criticised as emanating from a westernised perspective and therefore it’s universality is questioned (Jetten, Postmes, & McAuliffe, 2002; Triandis, 1988; Yuki, 2003). Indeed in relation to its applicability to collectivist cultures, Yuki (2003, p. 168) states ‘no one has yet determined how far social identity theory can be applied’.

These criticisms emanate from past concerns that social psychology has been blinded and filtered by its cultural context and psychology, in general, has a mono-culturalistic perspective (Riggs, 2004, pp. 119, 121; Triandis, 1988, p. 122). Indeed psychology’s history is replete with examples of a dominant North American perspective (Misra & Gergen, 1993), a perspective suggesting that ‘claims to universality [within psychology] may be seen as imposing one culture’s beliefs upon another’ (Riggs, 2004, p. 121). Others, such as Kagitcibasi and Berry (1989, p. 500) state that Social Psychology has been in a ‘universality crisis’ for many years (see Kassin, Fein, Markus, McBain, & Williams, 2015 pp. 12-13, for a fuller discussion). Put simply, we cannot readily generalise any psychological theory, developed in one culture (i.e. North American) to all other cultures/peoples regardless of their cultural specific characteristics (Triandis, 1988).

Bond’s book, The Cross-Cultural Challenge to Social Psychology, was described as a ‘call to arms’ (Vaughan & Hogg, 2002, pp. 466, 467). Bond (1988) challenged researchers about untested universal assumptions in the development of their theories. While many have heeded this warning with an increase in cross-cultural research (see Feather, 2005), researchers conducting studies in one culture continue to generalise findings elsewhere (Neville, Oyama, Odunewu, & Huggins, 2014). While this is not essentially wrong in all instances (i.e., some findings/theories are generalizable), it is important to consider any limits to this generalisation.

Limitations pertaining to the universality of social psychological theories are often linked to the cultural dimensions, individualism and collectivism (see Kassin et al., 2015 pp. 52-53, 122-127). These dimensions are commonly used to capture the so-called east-west dichotomy (Kassin et al., 2015). Individualism and collectivism, refer to whether one's identity is determined more by personal choices or by the collective, respectively (Triandis, 1989). The main differentiation is that individualism is the concept of autonomy separate from groups whereas collectivism is the concept of individuals as aspects of groups. Based on these dimensions some have argued that depending on culture, an individual’s concept of group allegiance and group identity could differ (Yuki, 2003).

Hofstede (2001) first identified these dimensions and based on his original data, Australia was considered high in individualism. However, saying that Australia is an individualistic country is a dominant cultural perspective with little consideration of its cultural diversity and in particular our indigenous peoples. Indeed most indigenous peoples and traditional/agrarian societies are seen as collectivist with the very term tribe conveying the sense of the collective (Vaughan & Hogg, 2002, p. 459). There is strong evidence that differences in many psychological processes can be attributed to variances along these dimensions (Kagitcibasi & Berry, 1989).

Another area related to culture is the construct of identity. Indigenous people’s identity primarily involves spirituality, kinship ties and connection to land, country, and traditions. Indigenous social identity for many is bound to home, homeland and country (Anscombe, 2010). How then does the concept of social identity, as defined by Tajfel’s theory correspond with Indigenous social identity?

 

Task

This assessment is an essay on the following topic:

Critically analyse the universality of social identity theory by comparing/contrasting its real-world application for indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.

In doing so examine the applicability of this theory to Indigenous social identity in Australia. In your analysis argue for the universality or limitations of this theory, specific to Indigenous Australians. 

 

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  • Uploaded By : Mitchell Lee
  • Posted on : November 16th, 2018

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