Social Exclusion and the Choice of Important Groups

dc.contributor.advisorKruglanski, Arie W.en_US
dc.contributor.authorFishman, Shiraen_US
dc.contributor.departmentPsychologyen_US
dc.contributor.publisherDigital Repository at the University of Marylanden_US
dc.contributor.publisherUniversity of Maryland (College Park, Md.)en_US
dc.date.accessioned2009-07-02T06:10:06Z
dc.date.available2009-07-02T06:10:06Z
dc.date.issued2009en_US
dc.description.abstractSocial connections are fundamental to our existence. As a result, social exclusion is a painful and distressing experience. When belonging is thwarted, people seek inclusion which can be achieved through group membership. Thus, excluded individuals and/or those whose need to belong is particularly strong will be particularly motivated to join groups. Moreover, to the extent that the need to belong is satisfied by closeness with other group members, and closeness is a feature of group cohesion, excluded individuals or ones with a strong need to belong are likely to be attracted to highly cohesive groups. Finally, the subjective importance of a group to its members should determine the degree of perceived cohesion. Importance of a group is defined as the group's centrality to individuals' social identity. The more central a given dimension is to one's identity, the greater the attraction to individuals sharing that dimension (Byrne, 1961). Hence, the more important the group, the greater the attraction of the members to each other, defining group cohesion. Ultimately then, the greater the individuals' prior experience of exclusion or the greater their need to belong, the greater their motivation should be to join important (vs. less important) groups. These notions are investigated in the present dissertation. A review of the literature on social exclusion and the similarity-attraction hypothesis is presented followed by two studies showing that, both in the lab and in the real world, individuals who have been socially excluded want to join and/or feel more connected to important groups.en_US
dc.format.extent261459 bytes
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/9277
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledPsychology, Experimentalen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledExclusionen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledGroupsen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledImportanceen_US
dc.titleSocial Exclusion and the Choice of Important Groupsen_US
dc.typeDissertationen_US

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