Social Identity and Intergroup Conflict: An Israeli View

The analysis of group conflict requires a decision as to the level of discourse at which that analysis is most fittingly applied. On the face of it, groups are molar units, high level abstractions, and the kind of people best equipped to deal with such units are sociologists. That is why conflict theory has for the most part been their special preserve (Coser, 1967; Dahrenhof, 1961). Psychologists who, on the whole, feel more comfortable with relations at the intra/interpersonal level, have respected the boundaries. What they would prefer to show is that group conflict is “nothing but” an extrapolation from private events. More typically, they have ignored the problem, with some notable exceptions (e.g.) Sherif and Sherif, 1956).