Social Identity

11 Key excerpts on "Social Identity"

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  Social Identity and Conflict

  Structures, Dynamics, and Implications

  • K. Korostelina(Author)
  • 2007(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  The theory of Social Identity (Tajfel 1978, Tajfel and Turner 1986) stresses that together with personal identity, an individual has a Social Identity that is reflected in his or her membership in different groups. This identity is an important part of self-conception and influences the individual’s percep- tion of himself or herself and of society as a whole. Social Identity is devel- oped through the affiliation of individuals to different groups, along with a determination of their position in society. Individuals perceive themselves as 24 S o c i a l I d e n t i t y a n d C o n f l i c t members of a group and identify themselves with it in order to distinguish between their groups (ingroups) and outgroups. People with similar social positions and common histories have compa- rable social identities. Therefore, Social Identity is connected not only with the perception of similarities within an ingroup (common history, attitudes, values, etc) but also with the perception of differences between this group and the members of other groups or categories. The more salient social iden- tities are, the more people differentiate their groups from those of others. The theory of Social Identity stresses the importance of two aspects: cog- nitive and emotional. According to Tajfel and Turner (1986), Social Identity is “that part of an individual’s self-concept which derives from his knowledge of his membership in a social group (or groups) together with the value and emotional significance attached to that membership” (255). The cognitive basis of Social Identity is the process of social categorization and intergroup comparison. Therefore, the cognitive component is connected with the emotional one, which reflects such feelings of belonging to a group as love, hate, amity, and enmity. This cognitive-emotional involvement strengthens a person’s Social Identity.

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  Handbook of Self and Identity, Second Edition

  • Mark R. Leary, June Price Tangney, Mark R. Leary, June Price Tangney(Authors)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • The Guilford Press

    (Publisher)

  Social Identity has been defined by Tajfel as “the individual’s knowledge that he belongs to certain social groups together with some emotional and value significance to him of his group mem- bership” (Tajfel, 1972, p. 292). For Tajfel, Social Identity is not only knowledge of being a group member and thus of what attributes define membership in the group, but it is also an emotional attachment to the group and knowledge of the social standing of the group in relation to other groups (i.e., its status). Since this early definition, the concept of Social Identity has been the unifying princi- ple at the core of Social Identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979; Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Re- icher, & Wetherell, 1987; see also Hogg & Abrams, 1988), a theory that has become one of the most significant conceptual frame- works in social psychology for the analysis CHAPTER 23 Social Identity and the Psychology of Groups Michael A. Hogg 23. Social Identity and the Psychology of Groups 503 of the relationship between collective self, group membership, group processes, and in- tergroup relations. Social Identity theory has also played an important role in reenergizing social psychological interest over the past 20 years in studying group process (e.g., Abrams & Hogg, 1998; Moreland, Hogg, & Hains, 1994). A Google search in early 2009 of the term Social Identity theory produced 71,100 hits (Abrams & Hogg, 2010), and 36% of publications between 1997 and 2007 on intergroup relations in social psychology’s top eight journals invoked Social Identity as a key concept (Randsley de Moura, Leader, Pelletier, & Abrams, 2008). A discussion of Social Identity is therefore inevitably a dis- cussion of Social Identity theory. Social Identity theory has a number of different but compatible subtheories of the social cognitive, motivational, social inter- active and macrosocial facets of group life.

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  The SAGE Handbook of Prejudice, Stereotyping and Discrimination

  • John F Dovidio, Miles Hewstone, Peter Glick, Victoria M Esses, John F Dovidio, Miles Hewstone, Peter Glick, Victoria M Esses, SAGE Publications Ltd(Authors)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  These distinctions highlight that, even if a particular interaction is between two individuals (e.g., a dyadic discussion), they involve Social Identity if interactants view one another in terms of shared category or group characteristics. This may depend on the task at hand and the wider socio-cultural context. For example, Marques, Abrams and Seriodio (2001: Experiment 2) showed that participants more strongly derogated a person whose opinion (on an ethical issue) differed from those of the majority if they viewed the person and majority as part of their ingroup rather than purely as individuals. In a further elaboration, Roccas, Sagiv, Schwartz, et al. (2008) proposed that, for national identity, there are four distinct modes of group identification – the impor-tance of identity, commitment to benefit the group, superiority (desire for positive distinctiveness), and deference (embracing norms and leadership goals as one’s own). These modes may differ in terms of situational and dispositional variability. Identification in different modes might have contradictory implications for behavior (e.g., if commitment suggests one course of action but deference another). A related debate surrounds the connection between Social Identity and other aspects of the self. Individual, relational, and collective selves may be connected in complex ways (Brewer & Gardner, 1996). For example, Social Identity may develop through personal acceptance/adoption of group memberships, relational social identities that are specific to particular group contexts (Brewer, 2001), and through sustained interpersonal attraction and interdependence among group members (Henry, Arrow, & Carini, 1999). SIT holds that personal and Social Identity are at opposite ends of a single continuum, and SCT describes them as being different levels of a hierarchy of self-categorizations.

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  Social Identity

  International Perspectives

  • Stephen Worchel, J Francisco Morales, Darío Páez, Jean-Claude Deschamps, Stephen Worchel, J Francisco Morales, Darío Páez, Jean-Claude Deschamps(Authors)
  • 1998(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  Of course, everyone agrees that identity is both personal -in the sense that it is 'situated within' a person -and social, inasmuch as its processes of ind iv idual formation are social, but the ind ividual is indeed characterized by two poles -one is psychological and the other sociological -that have no connection to each other. At first, the individual/society dichotomy seemed outmoded, particularly with Mead's idea of conversation between the I and the me, according to which the ind iv idual is a continuous creation of society, and society an unremitting creation of individuals. But we will see that the two poles, the individual and the social, tend to be considered opposite. Let us first make clear the concepts of Social Identity and personal ident ity. These concepts are based on the idea that every individual is characterized by social features which show his or her membership of a group or a category, on the one hand, and by personal features or indi-vidual characterist ics which are more specif ic, more id iosyncrat ic, on the other. The former features define the Social Identity of a person. Belonging to a group or to a given social category is the most important. Social Identity is codified as the part of the self which refers to cognitions ensuing from social ecological positions (Sarbin & Allen, 1968). Those who have sim ilar positions and common backgrounds have similar social identi ties, therefore social ident ity does indeed refer to the similarity pole. However, the feeling of belonging to a group and the phenomena of identification are only possible in connection with groups or categories one does not belong to. Thus social ident ity refers to the fact that the individual perceives him-or herself as sim ilar to others of the same background (the we), but social Social Identity and personal identity 3 identity also refers to a difference, to a specificity of that we in connection with members of other groups or categories (the them).

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  The Social Psychology of Ethnic Identity

  • Maykel Verkuyten(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  but in what there is to be known about social categories . Social psychology has clearly shown that these are different things. An individual fits into many different categories, some of which are shared with some people and some shared with others, but never all of them shared with anyone else. A social category lumps together people who may be very different in all other respects. But what they share in characteristics through membership of the category, at least for the moment and for the purpose or circumstances of the designation, is supposed to outweigh all those differences.

  p.80 Three interrelated components

  Social Identity is about socially defined and recognized distinctions and designations. However, not all classifications into which a person fits become established and socially meaningful identities. We make lots of temporary and generalizing distinctions about ourselves and others all the time, such as in terms of mood, tastes and preferences. Social identities related to ethnicity, nationality, race and religion involve more enduring collective definitions and intersubjective understandings. For the membership of a collectivity of some sort to form a real Social Identity, a combination of three interrelated related components is needed:

  (1)  social classification, or the sociostructural component;

  (2)  specific behavioural and normative consequences and expectations bounded to the category, or the cultural component; and

  (3)  judgements of an ontological nature , or the ontological component.

  Together, these three are the necessary aspects of social identities. Obviously, the three are closely linked. It is the combination of the three that gives a social label the required ‘identity depth’. Hence the distinction is an analytic one that allows us to ask specific questions and examine interrelations.

  Gender identity is a ready example. There are no cultures in the world that do not make a clear distinction (1) between men and women in their classification of things, (2) in the way in which the two sexes are expected to behave and (3) in what they are supposed to be like as human beings. The identity potential of the sex difference is enormous. This does not mean that the characteristics imposed or expected to exist are in any way natural or inevitable. Even here, although the role differentiation is biologically given to a certain extent, there are extreme differences between cultures in prescribed behaviour for the sexes and in gender-related development. I will elaborate on these three components in the next sections.

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  The SAGE Handbook of Identities

  • Margaret Wetherell, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Margaret Wetherell, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, SAGE Publications Ltd(Authors)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  Tajfel reasoned that we can only understand why allocation to ostensibly meaningless groups should affect behaviour if we start by assuming that people come to define their selves in terms of group mem-bership. His critical starting point is to break with the traditional assumption that the self should only be understood as that which defines the individual in relation to other individuals, and to acknowledge that, in some circumstances, we can define our selves through the groups to which we belong. In this way group behaviour is underpinned by Social Identity (Tajfel, 1978). There are two further aspects of ‘Social Identity’ that need to be understood. The first is that it is simultaneously individual and social. First, a person’s social identities – ‘I am a woman’, ‘I am a Scot’ or whatever – speak in a fundamental way to who they are in the world. However, what any of these memberships mean cannot be reduced to a person’s own or indeed anybody else’s individuality. What a gender, or national iden-tity means is a historical, cultural and con-tested identity, enshrined as much in museums and monuments as in debates between people. Thus Social Identity provides a conduit through which society inhabits the subject. In the tradition of social interactionists, such as Kurt Lewin (1952) and Solomon Asch (1952; see also Turner and Giles, 1981), it provides substance to the notion of a socially structured field within the individual. It thereby explains how large numbers of people can act in coherent and meaningful ways, by reference to shared group norms, values and understandings rather than idiosyncratic beliefs. Second, while there are clearly psycho-logical dynamics associated with social iden-tification, the act of defining oneself as a group member should not be seen as arising out of some individual need. In other words, there is nothing more basic about individual identities and individual processes than about social identities and social processes.

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  Handbook of Theories of Social Psychology

  Volume Two

  • Paul A M Van Lange, Arie W Kruglanski, E Tory Higgins, Paul A M Van Lange, Arie W Kruglanski, E Tory Higgins, Author(Authors)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  In line with this point, the original definition quoted above HANDBOOK OF THEORIES OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 390 (Tajfel, 1974) makes it clear that the knowl-edge and emotional significance of group membership together comprise social iden-tity. Nevertheless, because this conceptuali-zation incorporates these different aspects, they can be considered either as separate components or as comprising a single over-arching construct. Accordingly, it has been convincingly argued, and shown, that – depending on the issue under concern – it can be useful to focus either on specific components of Social Identity or to address Social Identity as a broader multidimen-sional construct (Ellemers et al., 1999b; Hogg, 1992; Leach et al., 2008; Ouwerkerk et al., 1999). Treating identification as a multidimen-sional construct also made it possible to fur-ther specify different forms of identity threat that ensue when different identity components are not aligned (Branscombe and Doosje, 2004; Branscombe et al., 1999a; Doosje et al., 1989). For instance, people may experience Social Identity threat when they feel emotionally involved with a group in which they are not cognitively included, or vice versa. This is likely to happen, for instance, in the process of transitioning to another group during individual mobility, or when internal definitions of self do not cor-respond to the way in which one is treated by others. Additionally, this work has made it clear that both cognitive and emotional com-ponents of identification have to exceed a minimum threshold level before individuals can be expected to respond in terms of their group-based identity.

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  Social Psychology

  Fourth Edition

  • Eliot R. Smith, Diane M. Mackie, Heather M. Claypool(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Psychology Press

    (Publisher)

  The chapter concludes with a discussion of the effects of belonging to a group that others look down on. From playgrounds to boardrooms, being Muslim, speaking with an accent, using a wheelchair, being gay or lesbian, or being on welfare can provoke scorn, dislike, and avoidance. Such negative group identities can take their toll on individuals and groups. But this outcome is not inevitable, and the chapter concludes by describing how people resist the implications of a negative identity and even work to change society’s evaluation of their groups.

  CATEGORIZING ONESELF AS A GROUP MEMBER

  Some group memberships are so important that they become a basic part of our view of ourselves. Try asking a friend to take a piece of paper and write 10 different sentences beginning “I am …” When people perform this task they typically list some individual characteristics such as “I am outgoing” or “I am tall,” but they also list group memberships: “I am a woman,” “I am German.” In fact, most people list more group than individual characteristics (M. H. Kuhn & McPartland, 1954). The process of seeing oneself as a member of a group is known as

  self-categorization

  (J. C. Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987). Self-categorization is flexible and can readily shift (Mussweiler, Gabriel, & Bodenhausen, 2000). Depending on the social context, for example, sometimes you may see yourself as a Mexican-American, other times as a student, and still other times as a unique individual, with group memberships temporarily receding into the background. The term

  Social Identity

  refers to the way we feel about the group memberships that we share with others (M. Rosenberg, 1979; Tajfel, 1972). Social Identity turns “I” into “we”; it extends the self out beyond the skin to include other members of our groups—and, as we will see, it generally involves positive feelings about both ourselves, and those others.

  self-categorization

  the process of seeing oneself as a member of a social group

  Social Identity

  those aspects of the self-concept that derive from an individual’s knowledge and feelings about the group memberships he or she shares with others

  Although some group memberships are only fleetingly important—being part of the “white shirts” team in a lunch-hour basketball game, for example—most group memberships are stable and enduring. Membership in gender and ethnic groups lasts a lifetime. Being a member of the Kardashian or the Hilton family, or being Muslim, Roman Catholic, or Buddhist can be just as long-lasting. How do we learn what characteristics are associated with our groups?

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  The New Psychology of Health

  Unlocking the Social Cure

  • Catherine Haslam, Jolanda Jetten, Tegan Cruwys, Genevieve Dingle, S. Alexander Haslam(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  As a result, we recognise that the pro- cess of engaging with the various ideas we have laid out is likely to have proved quite demanding – especially for those who are new to the Social Identity approach. We recognise too that much of the challenge here arises from the fact that these ideas are at odds with the prevailing orthodoxies that we outlined in Chapter 1. In particular, this is because they challenge the dominant model of the self that prevails in psychology (and in Western society as a whole) which sees the true nature of the person as residing in their immutable individuality, and hence which sees pathways to health as largely requiring engagement with, and mobilisation of, this individuality and an associated sense of personal identity. The alternative view that we have set out does not question the importance of individuality or per- sonal identity for our sense of personhood or for our behaviour. However, it suggests that this is most likely to have an impact on health and well-being where it emerges out of, rather than independently of, meaningful group memberships (Greenaway et al., 2015; Jetten et al., 2015). Indeed, more generally, we suggest that people’s internalised group memberships – that is, their social identities – can be an essential source of psychological robustness and resilience. In large part this is because, as we have seen, social identities constitute key psychological resources of the form summarised in Figure 2.8. Moreover, as well as being psychological, these resources have important material consequences for the groups they are members of and for the social world that those groups are part of. This can be seen clearly in each of the three examples with which we started this chapter.

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  Identity in Modern Society

  A Social Psychological Perspective

  • Bernd Simon(Author)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • Wiley-Blackwell

    (Publisher)

  Fifth, identities have social consequences . They are a source of motivation, shape social interaction, direct individual and collective behaviour and can thus also impact on social structure. Taken together, the concept of identity serves to bridge social structure (society) and social person (self ). It is necessary for an adequate understanding of the social person, whose experiences and behaviours are shaped and constrained both by the structure of the immediate social interaction and by the structure of the wider societal context, but who, at the same time, is not merely a passive recipient of these influences. Identity mediates between structural forces and the social person’s responses. Therefore, the social person is able to interfere by way of active participation in the construction and selection of identities as well as through creative resolution of conflicts between multiple identities. I can now turn to the psychological contributions to the social psychological study of identity and associated processes. The Social Psychology of Identity 25 Psychological Contributions In keeping with philosophers and early psychologists, including Dewey (1890), Royce (1895) and James (1890 / 1950), Gordon W. Allport (1955, 1968) con-vincingly argued for the inclusion of the concept of self (or ‘proprium’) in a modern science of psychology. However, he demarcated the self as ‘the known’ ( James’s ‘empirical self’ or ‘Me’) from ‘the knower’ ( James’s ‘I’ or a ‘pure ego’) and consigned the latter to philosophy (see chapter 1). In order to support his plea for the self as a vital and central concept of psychology, G. Allport listed seven key phenomena or themes that should be analysed in terms of a psychology of the self.

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  Identity Process Theory

  Identity, Social Action and Social Change

  • Rusi Jaspal, Glynis M. Breakwell(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  This appears to mark a crucial point of difference between the two approaches that merits closer inspection. In addressing these contrasting perspectives on the distinction between personal and Social Identity, let us consider some background to Tajfel’s notion of Social Identity in early accounts of SIT. Many readers will be familiar with the following routinely quoted definition of Social Identity given by Tajfel (1978): “For the purpose of this discussion, social iden- tity will be understood as that part of an individual’s self-concept which derives from his [sic] knowledge of his membership of a social group (or groups) together with the value and emotional significance attached to that membership” (p. 63). Less often quoted, however, are the sentences that immediately follow: “It will be clear that this is a limited definition of ‘identity’ or ‘Social Identity.’ This limitation is deliberate and it has two aims. The first is not to enter into endless and often sterile discussions as to what ‘is’ identity. The second is to enable us to use this limited concept in the discussions of theory and research which follow” (p. 63). Thus, it is clear that Tajfel had no interest here in developing a com- prehensive theory of “identity” per se. Rather, as he went on to explain, his concern was specifically with understanding intergroup behavior and social change. He was interested in identity insofar as it was instrumental to that goal. Tajfel’s most fundamental contention in this work was that, in order to understand intergroup phenomena such as conflict, stereo- typing and prejudice, one needs a theoretical perspective that not does assume people to be “randomly interacting individual particles” (Tajfel, 1972, p. 16) and that instead recognizes that they can act on the basis of A Social Identity perspective on IPT 99 understanding themselves as group members.

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