Chapter 6 Quiz
Part A — Multiple Choice (1 point each)
1. Social identity theory was developed primarily by: - A) Erik Erikson and Jean Piaget - B) Henri Tajfel and John Turner - C) Henry Jenkins and Camille Bacon-Smith - D) Stuart Hall and Dick Hebdige
2. The "minimal group paradigm" experiments demonstrated that: - A) Meaningful discrimination requires meaningful resource conflict - B) Only long-established groups produce strong ingroup favoritism - C) Even trivial, arbitrary group assignment produces ingroup favoritism - D) Fan identities are fundamentally different from other social identities
3. "BIRGing" refers to: - A) Blocking ingroup-related grievances in online communities - B) Basking in reflected glory from one's group's successes - C) Building ingroup resilience against external criticism - D) The process by which fan identity becomes central to self-concept
4. Which of the following is NOT one of the five identity functions of fandom discussed in the chapter? - A) Self-expression - B) Social connection - C) Competitive achievement - D) Self-expansion
5. In Erikson's developmental framework, the life stage most associated with identity formation is: - A) Early childhood - B) Middle childhood - C) Adolescence - D) Early adulthood
6. "Fan identity salience" refers to: - A) How much a person knows about their fan object - B) How often fan identity is contextually activated vs. how central it is to self-concept - C) The degree to which a fan's preferences are publicly visible - D) The social prestige associated with a particular fan identity
7. The "decoupling strategy" — loving the text while disagreeing with its author — is best understood as: - A) An exit response to identity threat - B) A form of narrative rupture - C) An identity-protective cognitive strategy - D) An example of self-categorization failure
8. Self-categorization theory extends SIT by explaining: - A) Why fan communities are always divided into factions - B) How the mind moves between levels of self-categorization and how context activates different identities - C) Why adolescent fan identity formation is more intense than adult formation - D) The relationship between parasocial bonds and social identity
9. The participant-observer position in fan scholarship offers what primary epistemological advantage? - A) Complete objectivity from emotional investment - B) Access to community practices and emotional registers unavailable to external observers - C) Guaranteed acceptance by the fan community being studied - D) Elimination of confirmation bias
10. "Narrative rupture," as used to describe Sam Nakamura's experience with the Supernatural finale, refers to: - A) Poor plot writing that violates narrative logic - B) The failure of a story through which one has organized one's experience, producing grief-like responses - C) The breakdown of the fan community around a shared narrative - D) The moment when a creator explicitly rejects their fans' readings
Part B — Short Answer (5 points each)
11. Explain the core motivation that SIT proposes underlies social identity dynamics. How does this motivation produce both prosocial (community-building) and antisocial (discrimination, exclusion) outcomes in fan communities?
12. Mireille Fontaine's statement — "Being ARMY isn't just about liking BTS's music" — reflects a distinction the chapter makes about fan identity. Explain what that distinction is and why it matters for understanding fan behavior.
13. The chapter discusses three types of identity threat: evaluative, behavioral, and source. Give a specific example of each type from any fan community (the running examples, or others you know) and predict the most likely community response to each.
Part C — Essay (20 points)
14. Choose one of the following prompts:
Option A: Apply social identity theory's framework to the Kalosverse running example. Your essay should: (a) identify the relevant ingroup(s) and outgroup(s) in the MCU fan community; (b) analyze at least two specific instances of SIT dynamics (ingroup favoritism, boundary-drawing, social comparison, identity protection); (c) evaluate the limits of SIT as an explanatory framework for this case; and (d) suggest one alternative or complementary theoretical lens that SIT leaves out.
Option B: The chapter argues that fan identity formation in adolescence and in adulthood differ in important ways. Using at least two of the running examples (Sam Nakamura, Mireille Fontaine, Priya Anand, Vesper_of_Tuesday, or TheresaK), compare adolescent and adult fan identity formation. Your essay should address: the developmental context of formation; the identity functions served at each life stage; the degree of self-consciousness in the formation process; and the implications for how scholars should study and interpret fan behavior.
Answer Key — Part A
- B | 2. C | 3. B | 4. C | 5. C | 6. B | 7. C | 8. B | 9. B | 10. B