Social Identity Theory Debate
This debate arose from social identity theorists countering a critique to the theory by system justification theorists. The critique by system justification theorists refers to the evidence for the theoretical conception of system justification theory that derived from limitations to social identity theory. System justification theorists have stated that Social Identity Theory does not account for outgroup favoritism, and that the limitations of the theory only lend it to measure ingroup favoritism. Advocates for social identity theory claim that this critique is more a result of lack of research done that has focused on outgroup favoritism rather than a limitation of the theoretical framework. Moreover, social identity theorists also claim this is not sufficient evidence for the need of system justification and social dominance theories to help account for justification motives. As such, they have claimed that research that measures outgroup favoritism from a social identity perspective is simply needed to bolster the theory. While both theories continue to produce findings, the debate continues to be discussed.
Read more about this topic: System Justification, Critiques
Famous quotes containing the words social, identity, theory and/or debate:
“... to most mortals there is a stupidity which is unendurable and a stupidity which is altogether acceptable—else, indeed, what would become of social bonds?”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“Though your views are in straight antagonism to theirs, assume an identity of sentiment, assume that you are saying precisely that which all think, and in the flow of wit and love roll out your paradoxes in solid column, with not the infirmity of a doubt.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“... liberal intellectuals ... tend to have a classical theory of politics, in which the state has a monopoly of power; hoping that those in positions of authority may prove to be enlightened men, wielding power justly, they are natural, if cautious, allies of the “establishment.””
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“Abject flattery and indiscriminate assentation degrade, as much as indiscriminate contradiction and noisy debate disgust. But a modest assertion of one’s own opinion, and a complaisant acquiescence in other people’s, preserve dignity.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)