Aspects of Social Identity

Objectives of chapter 5

To comprehend the components of

one’s unique identity in society, i.e.
the self concept and the self esteem.

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Social Identity is a person’s definition of who
he or she is, including personal attributes and
attributes shared with others, such as gender
and race.

Rubayat Kabir (EWU)

 Four Dimension of Social Identity

Intergroup Context
(relationship between one’s in-group and other
comparison groups)

Attraction to the In-group

(affect elicited by one’s in-group)
Social
Interdependency Beliefs Identity
(norms and values that regulate the behavior of
group members as they pursue common goals and
share a common fate)

Depersonalization Jackson and

(perceiving oneself simply as an interchangeable Smith(1999)
example of a social category rather than as a
unique person)
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The Self: Components of One’s Unique
Identity

Self-concept is one’s self-identity, a basic schema

consisting of an organized collection of beliefs and attitudes
about oneself.

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Subjective self-awareness is the ability of an organism to
differentiate it self, however crudely, from its physical and
social environment.

Objective self-awareness is an organisms capacity to be

the object of its own attention, to be aware of its own state of
mind.

Symbolic self-awareness is an organism’s ability to from

an abstract concept of self through language.

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Self reference effect is the effect on attention and memory
that occurs because the cognitive processing of information
relevant to the self is more efficient than the processing of other
types of information.

Sexual self-schema is the Cognitive representations of the

sexual aspects of oneself.

Social self is a collective identity that includes interpersonal

relationships plus those aspects of identity that are derived from
membership in larger, less personal groups based on race,
ethnicity, and culture.

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 General
Self-Concept

. General Social
Self-Concept

School Social Family Social

Self-Concept Self-Concept

Classmates Siblings Parents

Teachers
School Social Family Social Family Social
School Social
Self-Concept Self-Concept Self-Concept Self-Concept

Social self concept of young people.

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 Statements Generated by an Statements Generated by a
American Japanese

•I am the youngest child in my

•I love my family.
family.
•I want to be a nurse.
•I want to go to Australia.
•I often work out at the gym.
•I have a part-time job.
•I bought a T-shirt today.
•I went to my grandfather’s
•I am sometimes grouchy in the
yesterday.
morning.
•I am against Japanese troops
•I am not a racist.
going to Cambodia.
•I am a good at math.
•I am not able to play any musical
•My name is Michelle.
instruments.
•I am hungry now.
•I am a human being.
•I am considered good at sports.
•I am in a psychology, class.
•People say that I am mercurial.

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Possible selves is the mental representations of what we
might become, or should become in the future.

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 Self Esteem: Attitudes about Oneself

It is the self evaluation made by individual; one’s attitude toward

oneself along a positive-negative dimension.

• Seikides (1993) suggests three possible motives for self-

evaluation-
1. Self-assessment (knowledge about themselves)
2. Self-enhancement (positive information about themselves)
3. Self-verification (Compare their knowledge about themselves)

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Downward social comparison means comparing
yourself to someone who is worse off than you with respect
to a particular attribute.

Upward social comparison means comparing

yourself to someone who is better off than you with respect
to a particular attribute.

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 Downward Social Comparison Upward Social Comparison

Positive effect on
self-esteem

With a No effect on
stranger self-esteem

Positive effect on
self-esteem
With a
member of Negative effect
one’s on self-esteem
in-group

With Positive effect on

someone self-esteem
who is very
close Negative effect
on self-esteem

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• Paradoxical self-esteem is unrealistically high or
unrealistically low self-esteem.

Experiment: Wright (2000)

Asked students - Can you rate yourself on your academic ability?

Students who were unrealistically positive about their abilities

received higher grades during the semester than did students
who were either realistic or unrealistically negative!

It can be beneficial to look at oneself in a rose-colored mirror-

positive illusion can be surprisingly helpful.

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Variable Self-esteem—fluctuations up and down in
response to changes in the situation.

Stable self-esteem acts as a buffer against the

effects of negative events.

Unstable self-esteem is associated with low self-

determination, a less clear self-concept, and tenseness
about reaching one’s goal.

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Self Focusing, Monitoring & Efficiency

Self-focusing is the act of directing one’s attention

toward oneself as opposed to toward one’s
surroundings.

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Positive Affective Interrelationships Positive external
event

Positive
self-information Positive mood

Self focusing
Optimistic
expectancies

Negative Affective Interrelationships

Negative external
event

Negative Negative
self-information mood

Self focusing
Pessimistic
expectancies

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Self-monitoring is a regulation of one’s behavior on
the basis of the external situation such as how other
people react or on the basis of internal factors such as
beliefs, attitudes and values.

Self-efficacy is a person’s belief in his or her ability

or competency to perform a given task, reach a goal
or overcome an obstacle.

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 Reference

Text
Baron, R. A. & Byrne, D. (2002). Social Psychology. 10th
ed, Boston Allyn and Bacon.

Rubayat Kabir (EWU)