Identity,Culture and Contestation: Social Identity as Cross-Cultural Theory

In this paper we explore the logic and implications of the social identity approach to group processes. The theory argues that the consequences of social identification for behaviour are not simple givens. Rather than making generalisations about the behaviour that flows from social identification, the theory makes the point that behaviour depends upon the way in which identities are defined. This emphasis upon the contents of social identities draws our attention to their construction and we pay particular attention to how group identities are made and remade in and through argument and social practice. We argue that attention to the dynamics of identity construction means that this perspective is respectful of culture and cultural difference and that the social identity approach therefore has considerable value in exploring the politics and practice of identity wherever group behaviour may be found. Moreover, we argue that the ubiquity of identity-related argument across cultures and contexts reflects the fact that group identity is a basis for social power.     

From Social to Political Identity: A Critical Examination of Social Identity Theory

Interest in the concept of identity has grown exponentially within both the humanities and social sciences, but the discussion of identity has had less impact than might be expected on the quantitative study of political behavior in general and on political psychology more specifically. One of the approaches that holds the most promise for political psychologists is social identity theory, as reflected in the thinking of Henri Tajfel, John Turner, and colleagues. Although the theory addresses the kinds of problems of interest to political psychologists, it has had limited impact on political psychology because of social identity theorists' disinclination to examine the sources of social identity in a real world complicated by history and culture. In this review, four key issues are examined that hinder the successful application of social identity theory to political phenomena. These key issues are the existence of identity choice, the subjective meaning of identities, gradations in identity strength, and the considerable stability of many social and political identities.     

社会认同理论及其发展

社会认同理论是由Tajfel和Turner等人提出的，它对群体行为做出了新的解释，并成为群体关系研究中最有影响的理论。社会认同理论产生于对群体间行为解释，它认为个体对群体的认同是群体行为的基础。新近的研究也为社会认同理论提供了一定的证据。社会认同理论是欧洲心理学本土化的重要成果，对社会心理学具有重要的贡献，同时它也有待于进一步完善     

社会认同理论视野下的社会认同威胁

社会认同威胁是指,在社会比较的情况下,由于群体地位的差异,某一群体的个体在认知、情感上,对自我、所属群体身份的不承认,而产生的一种心理上的疏离感和剥夺感、自卑感。社会认同威胁的结果包括3类：脱离群体、改变群体的状态、接受消极的社会认同结果。外显“社会威胁”的测量方法以问卷调查为主。测量“社会威胁”的内隐方法则以心脏血压和平均动脉血压作为测量指标。社会认同威胁的实验研究将群体分化为内群体和外群体,操纵群体地位的差异,通过模拟社会游戏来了解群体的社会认同威胁及其生理反应。未来的研究将重点关注下述问题：对社会认同威胁概念的建构、跨文化研究及其内隐过程的分析     

Image Theory, Social Identity, and Social Dominance: Structural Characteristics and Individual Motives Underlying International Images

The present study provides an empirical test of international relations image theory and extends the theory by emphasizing that individuals' social identity and social dominance motives contribute to such images. One hundred forty-five Lebanese participants completed a survey that assessed their perceptions of U.S.-Lebanese relations, the images they have of the United States, their social identities, and their social dominance orientations. Participants were more likely to hold the barbarian image of the United States than the enemy, imperialist, or ally images. Participants also tended to perceive the United States as having relatively superior power, inferior cultural status, and goals that are incompatible with those of Lebanon. Consistent with image theory predictions, this constellation of structural perceptions was associated with stronger endorsement of the barbarian image. Furthermore, participants were more likely to endorse the barbarian image of the United States the more they identified with Arabs and Palestinians, the less they identified with Christians and the Western world, and the lower their social dominance orientation. Results highlight the importance of considering both structural characteristics and individual motives underlying international images and demonstrate the need for scholars to move beyond the enemy image of nations when describing international relations.     

Enactment controversies: a critical review of current debates

This critical review of the current disputes concerning countertransference enactment systematically outlines the various issues and the perspectives adopted by the relevant psychoanalytic authors. In the light of this the 'common ground ' hypothesis concerning the unifying influence of contemporary countertransference theory is challenged. While the existence of enactments, minimally defined as the analyst's inadvertent actualization of the patient's transference fantasies, is widely accepted, controversies regarding the specific scope, nature, prevalence, relationship to countertransference experience, impact on the analytic process, role played by the analyst's subjectivity, and the correct handling of enactments abound. Rather than taking a stand based on ideological allegiance to any particular psychoanalytic school or philosophical position, the author argues that the relative merits of contending perspectives is best evaluated with reference to close process scrutiny of the context, manifestation and impact of specific enactments on patients' intrapsychic functioning and the analytic relationship. A detailed account of an interpretative enactment provides a context for the author's position on these debates.     

The Theory of Male Reference Group Identity Dependence: Roles of Social Desirability, Masculinity Ideology, and Collective Identity

Data from 118 college men from the southeastern United States (U.S.) were analyzed using zero-order and partial correlations to test male reference group identity dependence theory’s propositions regarding the relations of male reference group identity attitudes (i.e., no reference group, reference group dependent, reference group nondependent similarity, and reference group nondependent diversity) with traditional masculinity ideology and dimensions of men’s gender-based collective identity (i.e., affirmative evaluation of collective identity, importance of collective identity). Male reference group identity attitudes yielded theoretically-consistent relations with the affirmative evaluation and importance of collective identity. Specifically, the no reference group attitudes were correlated negatively whereas nondependent diversity attitudes were correlated positively with affirmative evaluation; the group dependent attitudes were correlated positively with importance of collective identity; and the nondependent similarity attitudes were correlated positively with both affirmative evaluation of collective identity and the importance of collective identity. This pattern reveals the differential salience of collective identity dimensions in male reference group identity attitudes, suggesting that group dependent attitudes reflect importance of collective identity without an evaluation valence, nondependent diversity attitudes reflect affirmative evaluation whereas the no reference group attitudes reflect nonaffirmative evaluation of collective identity, and nondependent similarity attitudes involve both affirmative evaluation and importance of collective identity. Additional findings added to prior data suggesting reevaluation of the posited role of traditional masculinity ideology in male reference group identity theory. The pattern of findings was not changed by controlling for self-deceptive enhancement and impression management dimensions of social desirability.     

Social Identity Theory and Self‐categorization Theory: A Historical Review

The social identity approach (comprising social identity theory and self‐categorization theory) is a highly influential theory of group processes and intergroup relations, having redefined how we think about numerous group‐mediated phenomena. Since its emergence in the early 1970s, the social identity approach has been elaborated, re‐interpreted, and occasionally misinterpreted. The goal of this paper is to provide a critical, historical review of how thinking and research within the social identity approach has evolved. The core principles of the theories are reviewed and discussed, and their effect on the field assessed. Strengths and limitations of the approach are discussed, with an eye to future developments.     

Social Psychological Benefits of Gay Games Participation: A Social Identity Theory Explanation

Abstract

Research examining sexual orientation in sport settings has been limited in scope and lacked theoretical frameworks. To extend this body of research, the current study was framed within social identity theory and examined the impact of Gay Games participation on: (a) social identity, self-esteem, and collective esteem; and (b) expected subsequent social change activities following the Games. One hundred and twenty-five lesbian and bisexual athletes competing in Gay Games V participated in this investigation. The athletes completed a demographic profile and an open-ended questionnaire that asked about their Gay Games experience as well as expected social change activities after the Games. A content analysis of the responses revealed themes consistent with social identity theory. Specifically, these individuals identified the role of the Gay Games on social categorization, personal and social identity, and self and collective esteem. Additionally, these women revealed that following the Gay Games they felt more likely to work towards social change by becoming more out, educating others, and working through political channels.     

The Loss of Aging Identity: Social Theory, Old Age, and the Power of Special Hospitals

Medical and health languages have emerged as master narratives used to police the identities that older offenders adopt in contemporary special hospitals such as Broadmoor, Rampton, and Ashworth, in the United Kingdom. Both contain continually changing technologies that function to mediate relations between older offenders and special hospitals. Medical and institutional discourses have been presented as reducing limitations associated with psychiatric disorders. This represents an increase in professional control that can be exerted on inmates' lifestyles in special hospitals which extends to the surveillance and governance of older persons in such secure settings. It is evident that the use of the indeterminate sentence, compulsory treatment prevents older offenders from rehabilitation. The process of treatment is to transform, discipline and normalize their behavior. In order to achieve normalization, coercive forms of treatment are invoked from informal social rules to the use and overuse of psychothropic drugs. Mentally disordered older offenders are placed under the gaze of perpetual surveillance but find ways of negotiating, resisting, and subverting that gaze. Furthermore, this article illuminates how the aging body and the use of time become other sources of punishment, which are pivotal to the structural organization of secure settings in the United Kingdom.     

Social Identity Theory and the Crisis of Confidence in Social Psychology: A Commentary, and Some Research on Uncertainty Reduction

The role played by social identity theory in responding to the crisis of confidence in social psychology is described. It is a theory that addresses group processes and intergroup relations by separating and articulating different levels of explanation. Social categorization depersonalizes perception, cognition, affect and conduct in terms of relevant ingroup or outgroup prototypes, and social categorization of self, in conjunction with beliefs about the nature of intergroup relations, is responsible for specific manifestations of group behavior. Social identity theory continues to develop. In this article we focus on the motivational role of subjective uncertainty reduction in social identification – a model is outlined (Hogg & Mullin, 1999), and data from a 2 × 2 minimal group experiment in which categorization and uncertainty were orthogonally manipulated ( N = 151) are presented. As predicted, categorization produced discrimination, elevated identification, and reduced uncertainty, but only, or more markedly, under conditions where subjective uncertainty was relatively high.     

女性主义认同:理论、研究与实践

在过去的三十多年中,女性主义认同发展理论一直是西方心理学研究中一个活跃的研究主题。女性主义认同是一种基于女性主义立场并自我标签为女性主义者的社会认同。基于Downing和Roush的女性主义认同发展理论,心理学研究者开发了FIS、FIDS、FIC等旨在评估女性主义认同发展阶段与水平的测量工具。研究表明,由于女性主义赋权女性挑战其生活及社会文化中的性别主义偏见,因此,女性主义认同发展能够有效地提升女性的自尊、自我效能感、主观幸福感,从而促进女性的身心健康。未来的女性主义认同研究应该重点致力于女性主义认同理论的完善和深化及研究方法论的变革,包括运用交错性范式与多元方法探讨不同性别、种族/民族、年龄、阶层等多元群体经验,使用追踪研究探讨女性主义认同发展的历程,以及致力于女性主义认同研究工具的本土化,从而推动我国女性主义认同研究的发展。     

社会身份复杂性的研究：理论、方法与进展

近十年来, “社会身份复杂性”这个概念逐渐引起社会心理学研究者的关注。社会身份复杂性是指个体对多重内群体身份之间的关系进行主观表征的方式, 反映了个体对自己的多重内群体身份之间感知到的重叠程度。当个体感知到的重叠程度较高时, 他们的社会身份复杂性就较低; 反之, 当个体感知到的重叠程度较低时, 他们的社会身份复杂性就较高。本文首先简要介绍了多重内群体身份表征模型, 然后从社会身份复杂性的理论内容、测量方法、作用以及影响因素等方面对以往的相关研究进行了回顾。最后, 指出未来的研究应侧重对社会身份复杂性理论和研究设计的进一步完善、问卷量表的效度验证, 并加强研究结果的具体应用。     

理性行动-社会认同整合性集体行动模型

为探究理性行动理论和社会认同理论两大社会心理学宏论对于个体集体行动参与倾向的共同解释力,以“中日撞船事件”为考察蓝本向天津市431名大学生被试进行调查研究,结果发现：效能和社会规范作为态度和行动倾向的中介变量,在不同情境下对行动倾向的作用不同,符合理性行动原则;内部动机作为态度和效能、社会规范之间的中介变量,并受到学校认同和国家认同的直接或间接影响,支持了社会认同理论对遵从规范行为的解释;回归分析验证了不同水平认同对行动倾向作用程度的差异,整合模型则揭示了其具体的作用路径和影响机制.结论：理性行动理论与社会认同理论可彼此互补成为集体行动参与的整合性解释框架.     

Personal Autonomy,Social Identity,and Oppressive Social Contexts

Attempts to articulate the ways in which membership in socially subordinated social identities can impede one's autonomy have largely unfolded as part of the debate between different types of internalist theories in relation to the problem of internalized oppression. The different internalist positions, however, employ a damage model for understanding the role of social subordination in limiting autonomy. I argue that we need an externalist condition in order to capture the ways in which membership in a socially subordinated identity can constrain one's autonomy, even if one is undamaged in one's autonomy competencies and self‐reflexive attitudes. I argue that living among those practically empowered to harass, to engage in racial profiling, and to treat as expendable is incompatible with a freedom‐condition required for unconstrained global self‐determination.     

Diffuse-Avoidance,Normative, and Informational Identity Styles: Using Identity Theory to Predict Maladjustment

Expanding on the identity status paradigm, this investigation uses 3 forms of identity styles (diffuse-avoidance, normative, and informational) to assess the association among identity and maladjustment. A sample of 2,001 junior and senior high school students in Calgary and Edmonton, Canada completed a self-report that included, among other questions, items assessing the 3 identity styles and degree of adjustment or maladjustment in conduct, hyperactivity, and emotional states. Avariety of analyses indicate that adolescents who are escaping identity formation through a diffuse-avoidance identity style are more likely to manifest conduct and hyperactivity disorders. In contrast, adolescents who establish commitments from prior generations through a normative-identity style, or who engage in an active informational-identity style, are less likely to manifest conduct and hyperactivity problem behavior. Few gender or age differences were observed, suggesting that the technique applied here can be useful with both genders and all ages of adolescents. This study is an initial investigation of contemporary adolescents attempts to escape the self.     

Social Identity and Social Exchange: Identification, Support, and Withdrawal From the Job

Integrating insights from the social exchange perspective and the social identity perspective, we propose that evaluations of support received from the organization and its representatives and organizational identification interact to predict withdrawal from the job. The relationship of support with withdrawal is proposed to be weaker the more strongly employees identify with the organization. This prediction was confirmed in 2 samples focusing on different operationalizations of support and withdrawal. Study 1 explored the interaction between organizational support and organizational identification in predicting turnover intention; Study 2 investigated the link between supervisor support and organizational identification and absenteeism. The present study thus yields evidence that may lay the groundwork for further integration of social exchange and social identity analyses of organizational behavior.