Social Practical

Aim - to test social identity theory by comparing attitudes of participants of their own year group with other year groups

Procedure -

• 20 participants aged 16-18
• Opportunity sampling
• From pilot study - made questions more understandable to participants
• Questionnaire - open and closed ended questions to produce qualitiative and quantitative data

Results - More positive attitude towards in group than out group - 100% preferred in group

Conclusion - Social idenitity theory is correct - participants showed more positive attitudes to in group than to out group

Strength - most ethical guidelines met except informed consent - make results less reliable

Weakness - sample not representative of total population - small - lacks generalisability

Improvements - Use straitified asmpling to have equla participanst from each catergory or complete study in other schools to improve generalisability

Ethics = consent, right to withdraw, competence and debrief

Alternative Hypothesis - there will be a difference between attitudes towards in group and out group

Null Hypothesis - there will be no difference between attitudes towards in group and out group. The only difference is due to chance

Alternative supported, null rejected

Independent variable - is question about in group or out group

Dependent variable - participants attittudes towards in group and out group