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Content Summary
Social Psychology Article
Christopher Theriault
Department of Psychology, Liberty University
PSY 512: Social Psychology
Dr. Snyder
September 01, 2025
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Content Summary
Introduction
People want to know what type of community they belong in and helps them
understand who they. This ingroup and outgroup mentally helps them understand what
members they are part of and how to treat the outgroups depending on what the ingroup
culture is. This can lead to discrimination towards those people in the outgroup following what
the ingroup does towards the outgroup.
Social Categorization
Human beings are naturally wired to seek others and they tend to seek people who are
similar to them. People become members of multiple groups based on race, age, and other
common attributes that make up a process that’s called social categorization (Karin). They
naturally fall into these groups of people when they seek others and who they want to be
affiliated with. They do this by seeing who is similar, proximity, and common fate and this
process is usually fast and automatic (Chadee). By doing this, this helps them understand better
about who they are and how they fit in among society. For example, Someone who is Mexican
American might find themselves making friends with other Mexican Americans because they
share similarity, proximity, and have a common fate as this individual. Understanding these
social groups enhances the person and helps them maintain self-esteem (Shepherd). Once
people have found the community they are part of they become part of the ingroup and people
outside of that group are called outgroups.
Ingroups and Outgroups
An ingroup are a group of people a community in which they are members in. It could be
a country, religion, sports teams, and many other affilations that make up an ingroup as people
outside of the group without membership are called outgroups (Karin). People tend to use
terms as we and them to help differentiatethe groups they are in and people outside of the
group can have consequences of its own by this way of thinking. This intergroup bias of favoring
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their ingroup over people in outgroups is necessary for intergroup bias to occur (Chadee).
College football is a good example of this intergroup bias as people tend to favor the sports
team they affiliate with to deserve better treatment than the other teams viewing their team is
more deserving of better praise like being higher in college rankings. This is a strategy for social
competition to increase the positive distinctiveness of ones’s own group (Shepherd). This
ingroup favoritism unfourntaly can lead to discrimination to people they view as an outgroup
due to the advantage that an ingroup has over an outgroup.
Discrimination
European Americans as an ingroup hold a majority in the United States. When learning
about the census that minoritities will become the majority is seen as a threat and viewed
African Americans with more greater discrimination (Karin). They fear losing the long-held
privilege of status and power. The conflicting group goals and competition over resources or
power is the reason why discrimination can occur among society (Chadee). This is an social
dominance orientation to see their ingroup be dominant over the outgroups and oppress them.
(Karin). For example, a commercial from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi
Noem asking for illegal immigrants to leave the United States is a form of social dominance over
the illegal immigrants to win over resources and power in the United States. Individuals resist
social change because it threatens the positive aspects of the status quo that the majority has in
the United
States (Bashir). People might not realize the discrimination of their behavior and only acting on
what they think is best for themselves and their ingroup.
Conclusion
That is why we should on more Christain values during the approach towards people
because we are all God’s children. “Yet to all who receive him, to those who believed in his
name, he gave the right to become children of God-children born not of natural descent, nor of
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human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1: 12-13). We are all an ingroup
among God and we all share this similarity all over the world.
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References
Haney, C., Banks, C., & Zimbardo, P. (1973). A study of prisoners and guards in a simulated
prison. Naval Research Reviews, 9(1), 1-17.
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