Robber's Cave study
- Created by: 11pyoung
- Created on: 13-04-17 12:24
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- Robber's Cave Study
- Aim
- To see whether will develop between 2 groups of similar people by outing them in competition with each other
- Procedure
- Field study was conducted at a summer camp using 22 white, middle class boys
- PPts allocated to one of two groups
- Neither group knew of the other's existence
- PPts allocated to one of two groups
- Each group quickly developed their own set of rules and ideas about how to behave
- Neither group knew of the other's existence
- After 1 week each group was made aware of the other.
- Led to members of each group using in-group and out-group terms
- Competition between the groups was then introduced by setting up a tournament between them where prizes were given to the winners
- Researchers manipulated the points so that they could control the competition
- Field study was conducted at a summer camp using 22 white, middle class boys
- Results
- Boys in each group showed a strong in-group preference
- As soon as one group heard of the other group's existence feelings of competitive ness were expressed and a wish to challenged them
- When prizes were awarded they were stolen by the losing team
- Boys in each group showed a strong in-group preference
- Conclusion
- Prejudice and discrimination are a consequence of competetion
- Application
- Reducing competition between groups will reduce prejuidce
- A fairer society with a fairer distribution of wealth would be best
- Reducing competition between groups will reduce prejuidce
- Evaluation
- Experimental validity
- Ppts were unaware that they were being observed as part of a study
- More likely to behave normally
- Increases experimental validity
- More likely to behave normally
- Ppts were unaware that they were being observed as part of a study
- Ecological validiy
- Ppts were in a natural rather than artificial environment
- Population validity
- Ppts were all white, middle class American boys
- Can't generalise findings to females, other classes or cultures
- Small group of Ppts
- Difficult to generalise to all American boys
- Ppts were all white, middle class American boys
- Internal validity
- Competition between groups was seen as the cause of prejudice
- Cannot tell whether competition alone is the cause of prejudice as prejudice developed as soon as they knew of the existence of the other group
- Competition between groups was seen as the cause of prejudice
- Reliability
- As a field study it was not well controlled and did not have a standardised procedure
- Not easy to replicate so the reliability of the findings cannot be fully tested
- As a field study it was not well controlled and did not have a standardised procedure
- Experimental validity
- Aim
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