2002 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
A social psychological study on the influence of academic identity upon feelings toward outgroup persons.
| Project/Area Number |
13610128
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
教育・社会系心理学
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| Research Institution | Aichi University of Education |
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Principal Investigator |
IKEGAMI Tomoko Aichi University of Education Department of School Education Professor, 教育学部, 教授 (90191866)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2001 – 2002
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| Keywords | social identitiy theory / outgroup derogation / ingroup derogation / person perception / academic discrimination / academic inferiority complex / academic credential society / stereotype |
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| Research Abstract |
The present research investigates how disaffected academic identity influences feelings toward academic out-group persons, using Japanese universities as target groups. It is hypothesized that students with a lack of faith in their own university are threatened by their unsatisfactory academic social identity ; therefore, they are motivated to leave their own university and move to other higher-status universities to elevate themselves. It simultaneously leads to both an unfavorable view of in-group members and a favorable view of superior out-group members. At the same time, they need to derogate other lower-status universities and justify the status quo for their self-salvage, because a desire to move to a higher-status university is difficult to achieve in reality.
Several empirical studies are carried out, and some supporting data for the hypothesis is provided.
First, students of a middle-level national university show a general tendency of in-group derogation. When ones' academic identity becomes salient, this tendency is moderated. However, they simultaneously exhibit a stronger tendency for out-group derogation toward an inferior university.
Second, students low in identification with their own university are particularly responsive to threats to in-group status ; they are more likely to derogate students of an inferior university and to support those of a superior university in the face of threat.
Third, students high in identification with their university tend to show a favorable view of other universities in general, and moreover they are more likely to evaluate positive behaviors of a person of a superior university in a favorable manner compared with those low in identification.
Finally, these phenomena are also closely related to beliefs concerning the legitimacy and persistence of academic credentialism in Japan.
The overall results suggest that disaffected social identity will make people behave in a discriminatory way toward out-group persons.
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Research Products
(4 results)
