The social psychology of self-segregation the case of university student friendship groups

Includes bibliographical references.Against the contrasting backdrop of the ideal and value of social inclusion captured by the image of a ‘Rainbow Nation’ in South Africa and the academic record of self-segregation, the main objective of this study is to identify social and psychological factors and processes that influence the formation of racially heterogeneous and racially homogeneous social relations. The study uses first year students naturally forming friendship groups as ‘case studies’. The study is both empirical and theoretical. The empirical component is furnished by qualitative interviews conducted over an academic year in 2011. The theoretical component is found in relating the data to a knowledge fund that extends beyond social psychology to include sociology, political science, historical and contemporary socio-political South African literature and issues. The study is important because while there is now a large body of research that shows the benefits of friendships for intergroup relations we still know relatively little about the factors that facilitate or hinder the formation of friendships outside of laboratory settings. The study specifically explores the relation between ‘race’ and class at the intergroup, institutional and societal levels and how these different levels of analysis come to bear on everyday intra- and intergroup relations. At the center of all this are collective projects of identity rearticulation and reproduction. Some of the study findings can me summarised as follows. Much of what goes on within the university context in the participants lives can be summarised as the reproduction of social and psychological worlds revolving around social identities. It was demonstrated that even where opportunities for intergroup interactions were available their actualisation was mediated by the meanings and interpretations that participants had learned to associate with intergroup contact. In this regard the study joins with work that draws attentions to the importance of emotions in intergroup contact. The study goes some way in trying to understand the place, role and uses of ‘race’ and class and their interdependence at the level of everyday relations. This is important because a great deal of social psychological work has left this labour in the hands of sociology, anthropology and economics