Social identity is a sense of identification with a certain social group, that is the importance that the group to which we belong has for us, the more we identify with the group, the more our personality will define. be shared by their members; on the other hand, the more important they are considered, the more they will be respected.
But is social identity as simple as the importance of a group?No, social identity is not just the importance of the group and the assimilation of its norms and values. The social identity of any group is a mixture of different parts: it consists of two factors at the group level and five factors at the individual level.
- As already mentioned.
- At the group level.
- Social identity has two components: self-investment and self-definition; self-investment refers to the sense of belonging to the group; is the feeling that it is part of something bigger and the attribution of positive aspects.
- For some people the sense of inclusion that results from group membership is of vital importance.
- This feeling that brings well-being is associated with the attribution of positive characteristics.
- For example.
- My group is the best.
- The members are good people.
- We do important things.
Self-investment, in turn, consists of three individual elements: satisfaction, solidarity and centrality. Satisfaction translates into positive feelings towards and belonging to the group. A person who considers himself French, that his national group is France, will be happy to be French. This person may even deny the negative aspects that may appear when defined as French. In this way, your satisfaction will be maintained.
Solidarity is based on a psychological connection with and commitment to the other members of the group. People who identify most with a particular group will be more willing to collaborate with other members of the group. A person strongly identified with a particular religion. will deny almost nothing to people of the same religion. However, it can be more difficult to share with people of another religion. Solidarity creates a commitment to the group and its members.
Centrality makes group members sensitive to group problems, either within the group or in relation to other groups. When the group is threatened, the people for whom centrality is important fight against this threat. it is putting the group before other individual needs. The fan of a soccer team can put aside important aspects of his life just to cheer on his team.
On the other hand, self-definition is how the group is defined, an important part of this definition is the extent to which the people who compose it think they are similar to the prototype of the group, self-definition also manifests itself in the way that its components perceive that they share the identity points of this group.
In this way, its members tend to have different looks; the individual components of self-definition are stereotypes and homogeneity; stereotypes arise when group members perceive themselves as participants; as a result, they tend to adopt the stereotypes attributed to the group in one form or another.
Group members generally perceive themselves as similar to the group’s most prototypical participants, but they also realize that they share a common destiny with the group, making them share and feel that they are part of their successes and failures.
On the other hand, perceived homogeneity within the group is associated with a desire to maintain its positive distinction. Group members generally feel that their group shares many things and that all of its members are similar. Therefore, they tend to see greater homogeneity within the group. group of what there really is.
As a result, people who identify a lot with their group are likely to reject members of other groups because they think they are different. If a person belongs to an extremist group, such as neo-Nazis, he will try to differentiate himself as much. as possible from other groups, such as shaved heads, even if they share certain characteristics.
These different components of social identity lead people to identify themselves in different ways as groups. Some may emphasize their homogeneity and try to distinguish themselves from other groups. Others may focus on supporting members of their group or putting too much emphasis on centrality.
A concrete example of this can be found in the debate in Spain on the independence of Catalonia, there are people who identify as Spaniards and Catalans or simply as one of the two social groups, but this identification is not the same for everyone, some can identify with the centrality of Catalans and perceive Spain as a threat , while others try to imitate the most representative members of their group.
These differences in social identity make each person’s identity different and give more importance to one aspect or another of the group, so people belonging to several existing groups that identify with Spain or Catalonia may have different ways of identifying with each of them.