The Functional and Identity Indispensability Scale ( FIIS )

This research further elaborated the concept of indispensability by developing and testing a new measure, the Functional and Identity Indispensability Scale (FIIS), to assess two dimensions on which groups can claim indispensability: functional indispensability and identity indispensability. In Study 1 we developed and validated the FIIS with a sample of 452 American college students. Results showed the expected two-factor structure and supported the prediction that identity and functional are two distinct, but related, forms of indispensability. FIIS showed a consistent structure across majority and minority members and the reliability of the two subscales was good. In Study 2, a sample of 154 White-American citizens evaluated the perceived indispensability (FIIS) of three minority groups: AfricanAmericans, Hispanic-Americans, and Asian-Americans. Results showed the scale’s sensitivity. Participants attributed greater identity (vs. functional) indispensability to African-Americans, whereas the pattern was reversed for Asian-Americans. No differences were found for Hispanic-Americans. Criterion validity was supported by a) positive associations with competence and warmth, b) negative associations with negative emotions and with social distance towards all minority group targets. The psychometric properties of the FIIS suggest its potential to be valuable addition to the existing literature on common identities and intergroup relations.


Introduction
Despite the strong evidence showing that minority groups actively contribute to societies in several domains (e.g., labor market flexibility, social contributions, innovation and economic growth), their full integration is often jeopardized by threat and low social acceptance in situations of close interpersonal relationships. However, social psychological research on intergroup attitudes did not traditionally focus on a functional perspective, where minority groups may be seen, and see themselves, to offer important and significant contributions to the society. Rather, most research focused either on the perspective of the majority groups, looking at how prejudice can be reduced, or on the perspective of the minority groups, looking at the promotion of collective awareness to challenge social inequalities (Dixon, Durrheim, Tredoux, Tropp, & Clack, 2010).
The current research takes a functional approach that looks at the relation between minority and majority groups. We elaborated on a novel approach through which immigrants may be seen (and see themselves) as offering important social and economic contributions, that in turn can impact both attitudinal and adaptation outcomes (Guerra, Gaertner, António, more likely for a category representation that is compositional and in which the different parts make up the overarching whole. Membership in compositional categories is not necessarily determined by prototypical similarity or resemblance but rather by indispensability of its diverse and dissimilar components" (p.2). The first studies conducted to contrast directly the effects of relative ingroup prototypicality and relative ingroup indispensability revealed that relative ingroup indispensability, like prototypicality, was associated with higher intergroup bias for both majority and minority groups (Ng Tseung-Wong & Verkuyten, 2010, Verkuyten & Khan, 2012Verkuyten & Martinovic, 2015).
Overall, research conducted with both majority and minority groups showed that relative ingroup indispensability and relative ingroup prototypicality are empirically distinct constructs that independently relate to negative outgroup attitudes. Nonetheless, perceived ingroup indispensability is also linked to positive intergroup outcomes. Recent research conducted with immigrant groups revealed that perceived ingroup indispensability to the national identity and to the functioning of the host society was associated with stronger endorsement of integrationist strategies (Guerra et al., 2013). Specifically, the more immigrants perceived themselves as indispensable to define the national identity of the host society, or as contributing to the economic and social functioning of the society, the more they endorsed common-identity representations, which related to a preference for social integration (Guerra et. al., 2013).
Considering the perceived indispensability of groups is a relatively novel approach to understanding the consequences of promoting the salience of common identities on intergroup relations. To date, only a few studies examined this idea and found either negative or positive effects. That is, perceptions of relative ingroup indispensability are reasons for claiming ingroup superiority and exceptionalism (Ng Tseung-Wong & Verkuyten, 2010;Verkuyten & Khan, 2012;Verkuyten & Martinovic, 2015) and perceptions of outgroup indispensability relate to more inclusive representations and positive outgroup attitudes (Guerra et al., 2013(Guerra et al., , 2015Verkuyten et al., 2014). The different effects of relative, ingroup and outgroup indispensability observed in several different national contexts (e.g., the Netherlands, Mauritius, Malaysia, Portugal, USA) stress the importance of further exploring this concept and its role for hindering or promoting more harmonious relations between ethnically diverse groups (e.g., immigrants and host societies).
In the current studies we extend previous research by proposing that different forms of indispensability are helpful to capture the complexity of multi-ethnic societies resulting from the increased flow of international and domestic migrants. We present two studies that address the development and validation of the Functional and Identity Indispensability Scale within groups (Weber & Hertel, 2007), we propose an additional form of indispensability, functional indispensability, that reflects the perceived instrumentality of a group's contribution to a desirable superordinate outcome. We relied on previous research on group motivational gains, specifically on the definition of social indispensability as the product of one's instrumentality and effort toward the group outcome (Hertel, Kerr, & Messé, 2000;Weber & Hertel, 2007). Social indispensability is proposed to trigger motivation gains within groups (Hertel, Niemeyer, & Clauss, 2008). The basic premise is that individuals, when working in a group, are sensitive to whether or not their effort is relevant for the group outcome. Thus, when group members feel their effort or performance is very important for the group outcome, i.e., indispensable, motivation increases. On the contrary, when group members perceived their efforts' as being dispensable this leads to motivation losses (Weber & Hertel, 2007). Several studies illustrated this social indispensability effect within groups (Weber & Hertel, 2007).
Based on this approach, we propose that groups can be regarded as indispensable in a functionally and socially advantageous way, such as contributing to the society's economy and prosperity, without necessarily being perceived as indispensable to the host society's national identity (e.g., in Guerra et al., 2015 Ukrainian immigrants were seen as contributing to society, but having lower levels of identity indispensability, which was expected given the lack of historical relations between the groups). On the other hand, groups can be highly relevant for the definition of national identity, for instance, ex-colonies for countries with a colonial past, and do not have any, current, significant economic or social contribution.
Additionally, perceptions of indispensability between groups should be related to positive outcomes, as found for within group relations. The idea that contribution to society is an important factor in immigrants' social integration is also mirrored in sociological research on migration, specifically on research on structural integration (i.e., acquisition of rights and access to labor market, education, housing or welfare systems; Heckmann & Schnapper, 2003). For example, research showed that structural integration is positively related to feelings of belonging and fitting in the host society, as well as to national identification (de Vroome & Verkuyten, 2015).

Current studies
Taken together, recent social psychological research on ingroup relative indispensability and on the effect of social indispensability on group motivation suggests that other forms of indispensability might be relevant in analyzing the social integration and intergroup dynamics of ethnically diverse groups, such as immigrants, immigrant descendants and host society members. Therefore, the goal of the current studies was to further elaborate the concept of indispensability by which groups can perceive themselves and be perceived as indispensable to a superordinate outcome. To do so, we a) developed a scale of group indispensability that assesses two dimensions, identity and functional, and b) provided preliminary evidence for the validity of the scale to be applied for in-and outgroup targets.

Study 1
The goal of Study 1 was to develop and provide preliminary evidence for the validation of a set of items to assess identity and functional indispensability among majority and minority ethnic groups: the Functional and Identity Indispensability Scale (FIIS).
Specifically, we aimed at validating the factor structure of the FIIS, for ingroup and outgroup targets, and examine its sensitivity to detect differences between the two dimensions. We expect the scale to comprise items that assess ingroup and outgroup indispensability, regardless of participants' ethnic background. Therefore, we expect invariance in the scale's structure when comparing majority and minority groups.

Method
Participants. Our sample consisted of 452 college students (51.3% female) of different ethnic backgrounds, who self-identified as White-Americans (n = 375), African-IV).

Conclusions
In sum, replicating the findings of Study 1, groups were perceived as being differently indispensable regarding identity and functional, as assessed by the FIIS. These results provided further evidence of the scale sensitivity, by illustrating how different groups can be seen as being indispensable for different reasons. In part, this reflects the functional contributions or historical relations between minority groups and their host society (Guerra et al., 2015). Our results supported the applicability and validity of our measure to evaluate different outgroup targets, replicating and extending the findings from Study 1 with a nonstudent sample. Importantly, our findings provided further evidence of convergent and criterion validity, as both types of indispensability were significantly associated with related constructs such as common identity representations and citizenship conceptions, as well as to several established attitudinal (i.e., social distance, positive stereotypes), and emotional (i.e., negative emotions) measures, some of which have been previously associated with this theoretical construct in the literature (Verkuyten et al., 2014).

General Discussion
Considering the perceived indispensability of groups to a common identity is a novel approach to understanding the dynamics of promoting the salience of inclusive identities on intergroup relations. The current studies extended previous research by further developing the concept of indispensability and validating a new measure assessing different forms of indispensability: the Functional and Identity Indispensability Scale (FIIS). This is helpful to capture the complexity of multi-ethnic societies resulting from the increased flow of international migrants, and more broadly, relations between ethnic and non-ethnic majority and minority groups. Our findings build upon preliminary evidence with a pilot 23-item instrument (Guerra et al., 2015) and allowed us to obtain a scale comprising the core-items for the functional and for the identity indispensability constructs.
Taken together, the results of both studies supported the reliability and validity of the Functional and Identity Indispensability Scale. Consistent with our proposal, an EFA supported the predicted two-factor structure. Both subscales revealed good internal consistency. CFA multigroup analyses showed this structure to have a good fit and to be invariant between majority and minority groups and across evaluations of different outgroup targets. These findings indicated the applicability of our scale across ethnic majorities and minorities. Moreover, we presented preliminary evidence of convergent validity, by showing that our measure was positively associated with a 2-item measure previously used to assess category indispensability (Verkuyten & Khan, 2012). Study 2 further extended these results showing that the FIIS was moderately associated to other measures previously related to the construct of indispensability. Specifically, higher levels of perceived outgroup indispensability were, overall, positively related to more inclusive group representations (as Verkuyten et al., 2014), as well as, to civic representations of citizenship. Additionally, Study 2 offered some support for criterion validity, revealing that both identity and functional indispensability were associated with more positive stereotypes towards minorities (e.g., warmth, competence), less negative emotions and lower social distance. Altogether, these findings support the validity of the Functional and Identity Indispensability Scale.
The current studies involved perceptions of indispensability of ethnic minority groups with immigrant origin whose members were, mostly, already American citizens. Even if this is a limitation of the current studies, recent research using a similar measure of indispensability (with a larger number of items in our scale) found similar findings involving immigrants and their descendants who do not yet have citizenship in the host society, and also among recently arrived immigrant groups (Guerra et al., 2015).

Implications and applicability
This research extends the scope of the novel approach of indispensability of groups illustrating that groups can be perceived as being indispensable on different dimensions involving the functioning of the host society and the national identity. In line with previous research, our findings supported the applicability of the FIIS for both majorities and minorities. Importantly, we think the FIIS has the potential to be applied to other comparison contexts that go beyond the ethnic majority/minority relations, and previous research supports this reasoning showing higher relative ingroup indispensability also between minority group comparisons' (Verkuyten & Martinovic, 2015). Given the importance of power and status differences in intergroup relations, future research should further explore the consequences of perceived indispensability among majorities and minorities.
Future research could also seek to gather evidence of predictive validity by experimentally manipulating indispensability and examine its impact on perceptions towards different ethnic groups. Additionally, it would be important to examine further if perceived indispensability of groups improves intergroup relations in part because it changes the content of the stereotypes groups' hold about each other and the emotions they feel when interacting (Cuddy, Fiske, & Glick, 2007), as suggested by the correlations found in the current Study 2. We also think it is relevant to look for boundary conditions that might hinder or increase the positive effects of perceived outgroup indispensability. Previous research showed that the positive effects of both functional and identity indispensability are particularly stronger for majority groups who endorse a civic citizenship (Guerra et al., 2015). Research conducted with adolescents in Finland, however, showed that perceived ingroup realistic gains from immigration was negatively associated with implicit (but not explicit) attitudes towards Russian immigrants (Mähönen, Jasinskaja-Lahti, Liebkind, & Finell, 2011). Thus, it is also important to consider factors that can hinder the positive effects of functional indispensability. Specifically, future studies could explore if the positive effects of indispensability occur both in explicit and implicit attitudes, given that the latter can be more difficult to change and change more slowly (Rydell & McConnell, 2006). Additionally, it is important to explore other potential moderators such as age, given that the perception of realistic contributions can be affected by age biases (North & Fiske, 2016). Finally, future research could also test the validity of the FIIS with other national samples given that the current studies involved only US nationals. Previous research using a preliminary version of the FIIS involved other nationalities (i.e., Portuguese) and the two-factor structure was very much the same, but additional studies could include more diverse samples to strengthen the applicability of the scale.
The Functional and Identity Indispensability Scale can have strong practical implications as the two types of indispensability can be used as a tool to promote acceptance and harmony between groups, for example in campaigns and policies to reduce common stereotypes of immigrants as a threat to the society.