Groups are two or more individuals which interact with each other and identify with one another.
Intergroup relations is the perfect key to describe the difference of how social groups are seen by other social groups.Intergroup conflicts started from the false prejudice of the Inequality of people and social categorization, also intergroup conflicts could start by competition, perceived injustice, misperception and racial attitudes. The fundamental problems start when the need and goals of each group starts entering a conflict because of the difference between them.
The three topics to improve intergroup relations are the contact, cooperation and communication strategies. Social Psychology is the study of the individual behavior.
One of the the Social Psychologists to study intergroup relations was Gordon Allport(1897-1967) which was considered one of the first to do such an extensive research about a contact theory.The premise of Allport theory is that under certain interpersonal circumstances contact is one of the best way to make each other understood and create new points of view that should diminish prejudice and categorization.
Cooperation for different groups to achieve the same goals is one of the cooperative strategies to unite groups.To unite groups the base theory to solve this problem is by creating an equal-status between the group members and the false prejudice of inequality to be lowered.
Communication is based on conflicting groups which could use words as understanding and resolving each other problems, when this is not possible a third person facilitates this by making suggestions about the key to solve the problem.As words are used to identify who is a stranger versus who is a trusted member of the group, communication then should be like a key for the group.
Contact theories are one of the best ways to improve relations within groups that are in conflict.
Gordon Allport was one of the first Psychologists to do such a full research about this, his theory being known as the Intergroup Contact Theory.The premise of Gordon Allport theory is that by having people who come from the same background, contact is the easiest way to reduce the prejudice, categorization, discrimination between the majority and the minority of the group. By letting people discover new points of view about others life they could improve theirs.
Contact could also be a way of creating conflict instead of solving one. If contact is used by the people from the groups to argue with each other or use psychical violence, the problems will become harder to solve creating a fear, anxiety of contact between each group.
To obtain maximum effects of the theory some principles must be respected.Equality must be respected by individuals of both groups by having similar backgrounds as qualities and characteristics.Difference of wealth, academics and skills should not be seen around the individuals of the group so people would not have the chance to be influenced in creating perceptions of prestige and rank in the group.The tasks should be shared so individuals could achieve a common goal to be inspired with.Having a common goal means that the groups should work in a team where competition doesn’t exist.The members of the group should interact to know more information about the members of the other conflict group, so they can start to create a healthy interaction between them.One study to show the effects of the Intergroup Contact Theory is the "United Soccer for Peace” which is a program where Jewish and Arab adults soccer coaches train in mixed groups to improve peace values in young kids so they can spread to the majority of the community .This theory as well as all the rules and all the criteria is performed, the theory can have a great result, because people who came from same backgrounds they usually have the same problems along their life. So by contact and by offering each one a different point of view, individual members of group they will find themselves in each others situations and will find a social-equality between them. Also by knowing each one points of view we could develop a better and optimized way to solve dilemmas along our life. Mistakes done by people with same background could become our future mistakes, so by listening other point of views we could learn from their mistakes, and avoid or solve them easily knowing already the answer to that problem.In real-life the theory even if the person don’t really come from the same background, members should find something in common between them to start having a health contact.Words are the only thing that describe our behavior and our feelings and its the raw material for contact, if they are chose wisely the contact as well will be a great one.
Cooperation is achieved when too different social groups, start solving their conflict by having a shared superordinate goal. Superordinate goals are goals shared that necessitate cooperative effort, these are goals that overrides peoples differences from one another. For maximum results of Cooperation equal-status should be increased.The use of cooperative learning in groups is based on the principle of upgrading our personal ideas and points of view with the help of others. By upgrading we understand developing and connecting new ideas to existing knowledge to create a new improved way of understanding things. The Bransford (1999) Social Psychologist idea is one of the theory that improved Cooperative intergroup relations. Making two different conflict groups to start developing their own ideas is the process based in social interdependence theory which grew out of Kurt Koffkas and Kurt Lewis. Morton Deutsch sustained that between the group members goal achievements and promoting cooperation is a positive correlation.The Ley Vygotsky sociocultural theory of development suggests that solving problems are first being solved by our current knowledges and misunderstood problems are improved by other individuals knowledges such as professors or colleagues. Finishing tasks by two different conflict groups become easier when cooperation is used, because of the big amount of diversity of knowledge that could make easier finishing it by using each individual for a purpose well known. Cooperative learning is improved when the person less-learned start achieve a different point of view by understanding new information. In classes cooperative learning follows the same idea that each individual should understand all aspects and communicate among the group so the idea could improve our knowledge.Roberta L. Dees( University of Illinois of Chicago) made a study about the achieved tasks in a cooperative and independent way. The study was to determine if the interaction of the teacher would induce the cooperation amongst the students or cooperative learning would increase problem-solving skills in mathematics.The studied used also algebra and geometry. The study was made by comparing students in four section of a laboratory.The students which participated in the cooperative learning had significantly better improvements in their ability to solve algebra word problems and write geometry.
Cooperation is the only ability which takes from each other individual information we don’t know to solve a problem. If the shared goal is strong enough and motivate the individuals of the group, problems such as racial issues, social categorization, equals-status, would disappear and they will be replaced with the issue of solving and achieving the goal. Cooperation to be achieved in a healthy way the first rule that must be respected is that the individuals mustn’t let the shared goal create competition between the members of the group. As example if the shared goal of each member of the planet would be the peace, then by cooperation, that goal could be achieved in the entire world. Godytkunst (1985) extends Berger and Calabrese’s
Words are instruments that influence, create, improve our behavior, our way of thinking and our points of view. Communication is one of the ways to achieve knowledge. Intergroup communication is the process when individuals interact with each other. Also intergroup relations examines how our communication provides information about our member-group to other different group. Each speaker behavior could be analyzed by the intensity of emotions and motivations used in communication. Along time Social Psychologists tried to understand how social interaction is changed when the interlocutors belong to other groups. Our attitudes and prejudices influence our communication and