Syftet med denna studie var att studera möjligheten att bedöma korrekthet i vittnens utsagor beroende av deltagarnas grupptillhörighet. I studien ingick 120 deltagare som antingen fick se en film med vittnesmål från fyra vittnen med enstaka centrala meningar eller läsa en text med samma meningar. De viktigaste mätningarna i denna studie gjordes efter signal detection theory (SDT). Resultaten visade att deltagarna inte skattade mycket över slumpnivå och ofta till och med under slumpnivå i sina bedömningar. I en hopslagning av betingelserna (text/film) visade analyserna att män generellt var signifikant sämre än kvinnorna på att bedöma vittnesmål, men att kvinnorna gör fler falska alarm än männen i bedömningen av textversionen.  De funna könsskillnaderna i hur vittnesmål bedöms diskuterades.

Individuals feel more empathy for those in their group (i.e., ingroup members) and less for those who are not (i.e., outgroup members). But evidence suggests that empathy is not merely selective to the other’s group, rather it fluctuates according to how the other’s group is perceived by the individual. This project was developed to investigate whether individuals truly differentiate between outgroups when it comes to empathy. Across several studies, I presented participants with images depicting others receiving physically painful stimulations. The other person in each case was a member of the ingroup or one of two outgroups, one of which was more of a competitive threat to the ingroup. In Study 3, I found that participants exhibited an ingroup bias, that is, greater levels of empathy to images of ingroup pain, compared to outgroup pain. In Study 4, I found that empathic responses also varied between the two outgroups: Empathy was significantly lower when targets were from the outgroup that was perceived as more of a competitive threat to the ingroup, than the other outgroup. This provided the first evidence that beliefs about outgroups, and not merely the ingroup-outgroup distinction, modulates empathic processing. I also investigated the extent to which threats that are incidental to the ingroup context affect empathy. Across two studies I showed reliable evidence that priming incidental feelings of fear was sufficient to elicit intergroup bias in self-reported empathy, specifically against the outgroup, i.e., reduced empathy for outgroup targets, rather than increased empathy for ingroup targets. Finally, I investigated the extent to which my findings could be accounted for by individual differences. In a series of ‘mini meta-analyses’, I provide evidence that in an intergroup context a shared group membership confers an empathic advantage when responding to a target’s pain, regardless of one’s sex or their scores on a measure of trait empathy.

People with dementia face considerable challenges to preserving identity. It has frequently been observed that group reminiscence work helps sufferers re-establish their past identities as well as position themselves as members of a group in the present. To date, little research has attempted to put these claims directly to empirical test. Drawing on social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) this study explores the impact of a group reminiscence intervention in a sample of 58 cognitively impaired older adults living in residential care. Measures of identity, well-being and cognition were taken before and after participants took part in six weekly sessions of either group reminiscence or a group control activity. A Pretest-Posttest Control design was employed to explore the difference in average change between treatment conditions. The main findings showed no difference in average change between the two groups on measures of identity and well-being. However, the reminiscence group showed a greater overall improvement in memory than the control group. The theoretical implications and future directions for working clinically with cognitively impaired populations are considered.

To date, procedural justice research has paid little attention to how people react to procedural discrimination (favoring self vs. favoring other), that is, how people react when they and the others are treated with different procedures. To fill this gap in the procedural justice literature and advance our understanding in this area, the current thesis presents an analysis of how reactions to procedural discrimination are qualified by the group membership and intragroup position (ingroup prototypicality and intragroup status) of the parties involved in intragroup and intergroup contexts. Studies 1 and 2 revealed that in an intergroup context, as group members perceive ingroup bias as legitimate, they react more positively when they are favored over an outgroup member than when an outgroup member is favored over them. In particular, because group members perceive the ingroup authority to be more related to them, their reactions to favoring self as opposed to favoring other procedures are stronger when the authority is an ingroup member than when the authority is an outgroup member. Studies 3 to 5 showed that in an intragroup context, peripheral members, who are highly concerned about group acceptance, perceive a high level of illegitimacy and react particularly negatively when a prototypical member is favored over them. On the other hand, prototypical members paired with a prototypical or peripheral member, and peripheral members paired with another peripheral member react similarly to procedural discrimination whether it favors them or the other group member. Studies 6 and 7 also focused on the intragroup context. These studies revealed that when high status group members are favored over a low status member, if they perceive the status difference as legitimate, they perceive relatively high levels of procedural legitimacy and procedural fairness, and report a relatively low level of negative affect. On the other hand, when low status group members are discriminated against in favor of a high status counterpart, they report a relatively high level of negative affect even if they perceive the status difference as legitimate and think that the favoring other procedure is relatively legitimate and fair. Taken together, the current program of studies reveals that depending on group membership or intragroup position, group members may react differently to favoring self as opposed to favoring other procedures. Furthermore, affective reactions to the procedures may not be consistent with cognitive judgments of the procedures. The research also reveals that the influence of group membership and intragroup position on reactions to procedural discrimination can be conceptualized in terms of sensitivity to procedural information (Proposition 1) and perceived procedural legitimacy (Proposition 2), suggesting that the group-value model (Lind & Tyler, 1988) and the social identity perspective (Tajfel & Turner, 1979; Turner, 1985; Turner et al., 1987; for a review, see Hogg, 2005, 2006) can help explain reactions to procedural discrimination. In conclusion, the current thesis makes significant contribution to the procedural justice literature.

There is a general lack of in-depth research into what it means (and takes) to be a member of a small group. Firstly, research is often focused on leadership rather than on membership and, secondly, empirical research tends to focus on studying group outcomes rather than group process. The purpose of this research was to explore the forces involved in being a member of a small group and to develop a research method for doing so. A post foundational philosophical stance was adopted in terms of which the need both for discovering universal truths as well as gaining in-depth understanding within context, was pursued. A constructivist grounded theory design was adapted by developing a theoretical lens with which to facilitate the coding and analysis of the data. This theoretical lens was based on an integration of Kurt Lewin’s field theory; Wilfred Bion’s psychoanalytic group-as-a-whole approach; S.H. Foulkes’s group analytic approach and Yvonne Agazarian’s theory of living human systems. The data consisted of transcribed video material of ten 90-minute sessions conducted with a training group of 9 members; written reflections by the group members on their group experience as well as field notes taken by the researcher during the training group sessions. Through the application of the theoretical lens to the data, member behaviour was coded both deductively and inductively, thus allowing the data to speak for itself whilst maintaining a rigorous analytical structure. The result of this exploration was an emerging field theory of group membership which postulates the group member as existing within a field of forces (both pro- and anti-group) operating between the triangular ‘polarities’ of belonging, individuality and task. The theoretical and practical implications of this field theory are discussed in terms of their relevance to both grounded theory research methodology and group psychology. Finally, it is shown how this research can be used as a foundation from which to conduct a multitude of future studies into group processes from the perspective of the group member. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

With the rise of the commercial gaming industry the phenomenon of watching others play has become more and more common. One platform that has made this accessible is Twitch.tv. This paper investigates the interaction taking place on Twitch between streamers and viewers from the perspective of interaction ritual theory (IR theory). Previous research on Twitch has investigated this interaction but none has so far done this from the perspective of IR theory. IR theory has been criticized by previous research as it states that interaction has to take place face to face in order for the ritual to be successful. This paper adds to the discussion on the applicability of IR theory to none-face to face interaction. The research question was; how is emotional energy and the feeling of group membership created in interaction on Twitch? The results show that emotional energy and a sense of group membership is created through the combined efforts of the streamer and viewers. The key points of the results are how the streamer as ritual leader charges symbolic objects with emotional energy to get different reactions from the viewers. The viewers power to create inside jokes as symbolic objects which define group membership and how the occurrence of raids and hype trains act as spikes of emotional energy.

No description available.

The purpose of this thesis was to examine a potential cognitive mechanism for simultaneous processing of age, race, and gender schemas. Marcus and Fritzsche (2014) propose that the outcome of the tripartite relationship of age, race, and sex are associated with archetypes, and that these archetypes categorize different intersections uniquely. To facilitate this, age groups selected were “old” and “young”, race groups selected were “Black” and “White”, and sex/gender groups selected were “female” and “male”. Several photographs representing each intersection were selected from LinkedIn for use in the pilot study, which were rated via a survey measuring the target’s stereotype, and the items included were chosen with the intent of selecting archetypal pictures for the main study that were the relatively equivalent across several dimensions. The main study used the selected photographs to address perceptions of participants (n=84) regarding adjectives used to represent each of the eight archetype conditions. Results suggest partial support for the proposed archetype theory, but the study faced limitations with respects to the photographs used in the main study. Inconsistencies with the literature suggest that the archetypes may been measured improperly, were conceived incorrectly, or do not exist. However, this study serves as a step towards understanding the complex relationship between a person’s age, race, and sex.

No description available.

Denna studie understryker den sociala miljöns betydelse för enäggstvillingars identitetsskapande. Hur utvecklas identiteten hos två genetiskt identiska individer som växer upp i samma miljö? Undersökningen bygger på kvalitativa intervjuer med tio enäggstvillingar, som även vill ge en inblick i hur enäggstvillingar upplever sin relation till sin tvilling och hur de upplever att de uppfattas av den sociala omgivningen. I vår teoretiska referensram har vi använt oss av diverse identitetsteorier som betonar interpersonella- och grupprocesser, Cooleys teori om spegeljaget samt den sociala jämförelseteorin som presenteras av Festinger. I resultatet framgick det hur enäggstvillingars identitet uppfattas i förhållande till sin tvilling, där omgivningen hade en betydande roll i enäggstvillingarnas identitetsskapande men även hur jämförelser direkt påverkade den egna självkänslan. Vi vill även konstatera att samtliga enäggstvillingar delade upplevelsen av trygghet och gemenskap i relationen till sin tvilling. / This study emphasizes the social environment to identical twins identity. How does the identity of two genetically identical individuals who grow up in the same environment develop? The study is based on qualitative interviews with ten identical twins, who also want to give a glimpse of how identical twins experience their relationship with their twin and how they experience they are perceived by the social environment. We have been using various identity theories that emphasize interpersonal and group processes in our theoretical framework, also Cooley's theory of the looking glass self and the social comparison theory presented by Festinger. The result showed how identical twins identity was perceived in relation to its twin, where the social environment had a significant role for identical twins identity but also how comparisons directly affected their self-esteem. We would also note that all identical twins shared the experience of safety and fellowship in relation to its twin.