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- People understand and interpret social interactions using knowledge of their personal self (e.g., How do I as an individual usually respond in this or a similar situation?), their relational self, in which the focus of interaction is their role defined by attachment bonds with specific significant other people, and their collective self in which interactions are fully defined by their membership in a distinct social group or category.
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What is the identity work perspective?
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What is the difference between social identity and role identity?
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Mar 10, 2017 · Applications and conceptual developments made in social identity research since the mid-1990s are summarized under eight general headings: types of self and identity, prototype-based differentiation, influence through leadership, social identity motivations, intergroup emotions, intergroup conflict and social harmony, collective behavior and ...
- Identities in and around organizations: Towards an identity ...
This perspective is characterized loosely by five broad sets...
- Identities in and around organizations: Towards an identity ...
The social identity perspective focuses on the part of the self-concept that people derive from their important group memberships—their social identities—and how group memberships can become a compass for an individual’s interactions within specific groups and how self and social categorization processes set the normative boundaries for ...
We believe that three areas are central to linking the two theories. First are the differ- ent bases of identity in the two theories: cate- gories or groups for social identity theory, and roles for identity theory. A related issue is the place of person identities.
To give substance to this argument, Jenkins’ model of social identity is appropriated and augmented to take account of four interlinked, yet distinct, orders of experience, namely: the individual, interactional, institutional and societal orders.
- Overview
- History
- Cognitive processes
- Motivation
- Strategies for status improvement
social identity theory, in social psychology, the study of the interplay between personal and social identities. Social identity theory aims to specify and predict the circumstances under which individuals think of themselves as individuals or as group members. The theory also considers the consequences of personal and social identities for individ...
Social identity theory developed from a series of studies, frequently called minimal-group studies, conducted by the British social psychologist Henri Tajfel and his colleagues in the early 1970s. Participants were assigned to groups that were designed to be as arbitrary and meaningless as possible. Nevertheless, when people were asked to assign points to other research participants, they systematically awarded more points to in-group members than to out-group members.
The minimal-group studies were interpreted as showing that the mere act of categorizing individuals into groups can be sufficient to make them think of themselves and others in terms of group membership instead of as separate individuals. That finding deviated from a common view at the time, namely, that an objective conflict of interest is a central factor in the emergence of intergroup conflict.
Thus, social identity theory originated from the conviction that group membership can help people to instill meaning in social situations. Group membership helps people to define who they are and to determine how they relate to others. Social identity theory was developed as an integrative theory, as it aimed to connect cognitive processes and behavioral motivation. Initially, its main focus was on intergroup conflict and intergroup relations more broadly. For that reason, the theory was originally referred to as the social identity theory of intergroup relations.
Later elaborations by Tajfel’s student John Turner and his colleagues on the cognitive factors relevant to social identification further specified how people interpret their own position in different social contexts and how that affects their perceptions of others (e.g., stereotyping), as well as their own behaviour in groups (e.g., social influence). Those elaborations constitute self-categorization theory, or the social identity theory of the group. Together, self-categorization theory and social identity theory can be referred to as the social identity approach.
Social identity theory was developed to explain how individuals create and define their place in society. According to the theory, three psychological processes are central in that regard: social categorization, social comparison, and social identification.
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Social categorization refers to the tendency of people to perceive themselves and others in terms of particular social categories—that is, as relatively interchangeable group members instead of as separate and unique individuals. For example, one can think of a certain person, Jane, as a feminist, a lawyer, or a football fan.
Social comparison is the process by which people determine the relative value or social standing of a particular group and its members. For instance, schoolteachers may be seen as having higher social standing than garbage collectors. Compared with university professors, however, schoolteachers can be seen as having lower social standing.
Social identification reflects the notion that people generally do not perceive social situations as detached observers. Instead, their own sense of who they are and how they relate to others is typically implicated in the way they view other individuals and groups around them.
According to social identity theory, social behaviour is determined by the character and motivations of the person as an individual (interpersonal behaviour) as well as by the person’s group membership (i.e., intergroup behaviour).
People generally prefer to maintain a positive image of the groups to which they belong. As a result of social identity processes, people are inclined to seek out positively valued traits, attitudes, and behaviours that can be seen as characteristic of their in-groups.
The motivation to establish a positive social identity is thought to lie at the root of intergroup conflict, as members of disadvantaged groups strive for improvement of their group’s position and social standing and members of advantaged groups aim to protect and maintain their privileged position.
According to the individual-mobility belief system, individuals are free agents who are capable of moving from one group to another. The defining feature of the system is the notion that group boundaries are permeable, such that individuals are not bound or restricted by their group memberships in pursuing position improvement. Thus, individuals’ opportunities and outcomes are viewed as dependent on their talents, life choices, and achievements rather than on their ethnic origin or social groups.
A very different belief system, known as the social change belief system, holds that changes in social relations depend on groups modifying their positions relative to each other. Status security depends on the perceived stability and legitimacy of existing status differences between groups. Stability and legitimacy tend to mutually influence each other: when positions are subject to change, existing intergroup differences in status appear less legitimate. Conversely, when the legitimacy of existing status differences between groups is questioned, the perceived stability of such relations is likely to be undermined.
The two belief systems, in turn, determine what people are most likely to do when they pursue a more positive social identity. Social identity theory distinguishes between three types of strategies for status improvement: individual mobility, social competition, and social creativity.
Individual mobility allows people to pursue individual position improvement irrespective of the group. It can also be an individual-level solution for overcoming group devaluation.
Social competition is a group-level strategy that requires group members to draw together and combine forces to help each other improve their joint performance or outcomes.
- Naomi Ellemers
Jan 25, 2021 · This perspective is characterized loosely by five broad sets of assumptions: (i) selves are reflexive and identities actively worked on, both in soliloquy and social interaction; (ii) identities are multiple, fluid and rarely fully coherent; (iii) identities are constructed within relations of power; (iv) identities are not helpfully described a...
argues that social work must appreciate the interplay between the individual and the collective spheres, and its impact on identity formation, in order to enhance human well-being.
