Factors of tolerance toward immigrants: self-esteem & language diversity - Курсовая работа

Henry Tajfel and John Turner suggest that there is a strong association between self-concept and social categorization. Social categorization, and social comparison as a consequence, are the powerful cognitive tools to cope with a social environment, because they «…provide the system of orientation for self-reference: they create and define the individual’s place in society» (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). Hence, favorable comparisons between the out-group and the in-group play an important role in the process of creating a positive self-esteem, which is natural for individuals (meaning that all individuals try to achieve and maintain a positive self-esteem). In other words, individuals aspire to be members of a group, which is distinctly more positive from other relevant groups. If for some reason this condition stops working, they will either transfer to a even more positively distinct group or try to improve the conditions in their existing group. We can also assume that in order to achieve favorable comparisons and/or increase positive distinctiveness between in-group and out-group members, individuals can tend to belittle the merits of out-group members or even express discriminatory behavior towards them. Personality Theories The third approach, Personality Theories, can be characterized by attributing intolerant behavior toward members of out-groups to the personal characteristics of an individual. Among most salient representatives of this approach are members of Frankfurt School, who created and develop the theories on Authoritarian Personality (Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik & Levinson, 1950). In his well-known book, Escape from Freedom, Erich Fromm attributes the authoritarian personality to a low level of self-esteem (Fromm, 1941). Language Diversity As we define tolerance as the acceptance of other who may differ from oneself, we assume that the more different are people surrounding you the harder it is to keep being tolerant. From a group rather than individualistic point of view we may say that there are certain limits to which one group can absorb the people from other groups, while remaining tolerant to their differences. This idea can be found in literature as well. For instance, David Goodhart in the famous book «The British Dream: Successes and Failures of Post-war Immigration» claims that «high immigration can undermine national solidarity and be a threat to social democratic ideals of the welfare state» (Goodhart, 2013). Among other indicators of society diversity such as ethnic and religious diversity, which are frequently used in social research (Alesina et al, 2003; Fearon, 2003), we decided to choose the indicator of language diversity due to the following reasons. Firstly, people from different ethnic groups can share the same attitudes and worldview, which minimize the negative effect of diversity on tolerance. People speaking different languages can also share the same attitudes and worldview, but there are going to be more obstacles in the process of their communication. Additionally, different language is a very salient feature and the «other» can be more easily recognized and assessed as somebody who differs from the majority. As it was pointed by Richard Bourhis and Howard Giles (Bourhis & Giles, 1977) «speech can be among the most salient dimensions of their social identities».