Social Identity Theory | Paper

Running Head: SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY
SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY1
Introduction
Social Identity theory is the theory of psychology wherein the person judges his or her
self-esteem and pride on the basis of their social categorization, social identification and social
comparison meaning that the individuals may thrive to maintain their social identity through the
group’s favorable social standing over that of relevant out groups. The main example of the
social identity theory is that the individual acts in a certain way in order to establish and increase
their self-worthiness on the basis of the person’s sense of belongingness in the group which gives
him the characterization as being the part of the group. The theory was developed by Tajfel &
Turner explaining that the groups and their existence depends upon the need of self-esteem and
such self-esteem is dependent upon the fact whether there in any existing or potential conflict
between the groups regarding the resources (Hogg 2018). Thus, Social categorization is the
phenomena, which establishes the feeling of the person towards the belongingness in the group,
and hence, it is the idea of self-categorization which establishes the foundation of self-esteem
and worthiness in a group. Self-identification plays the role of identifying the person’s image and
reputation in the group which establishes the ground for the assessment of identity of a person in
the group and among his or her peers. The factors for self-identification depends on the factors
such as age, gender, ethnicity, race, employment status and so on. Thus, the concept of self-
comparison establishes the ground for the assessment of intergroup behavior based on which the
person reacts to a certain situation and among his or her peers and group association. The growth
of groups being engaged in extreme violent acts have been largely blamed on the person’s idea
of social identity which is a retaliatory behavior from the behavior expressed by other members
of the group (Turner and Reynolds 2001).

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This paper discusses the concept of Social Identity Theory and provides an explanation as
to why the individuals join and carry out the extreme acts of violence, which takes place in
different gangs. It also discusses the gang memberships and tries to explain the dynamics, which
are considered to lead to the commission of various violent crimes, which are serious and grave.
Therefore, in conclusion it would be summarizing the points that have been discussed in the
paper.
Discussion
Social Identity Theory is considered to propose the ideology that by attaching some kind
of importance or significance to the groups in which they are considered to be a member would
make the individuals feel more positive about themselves and if there has been any kind of
discrimination against those groups then they would raise their voice against such discrimination
and such would help them view it and perceive it as a positive approach.
The concept of social identity can be seen as providing that an individual’s unfulfilled
need towards affection and towards connecting with other people can be seen as stemming from
their loneliness (Hogg 2018). One of the major reasons for the individuals towards forming
groups among the society is their loneliness and their constant need for connection with others.
Every group is seen to be formed with some personal purpose that helps in the justification of the
existence of such group. For example, the existence of a group can be seen as serving the
purpose of providing its members with a sense of protection and a sense of belonging like they
would normally get from a family (Herriot 2014). All members in a gang can be observed as
having their specific roles to follow. The process of decision making in a gang can be observed
as being influenced by way of different ways. The processes that can be seen as to be most
prevalent in the gangs are the group think, group polarisation and the social cognition (Hogg,

SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY3
2016). The process of group thinking can be observed to occur when every member in a group is
in agreement with the decisions that have been taken by the leader for the sake of maintenance of
cohesion and peace in the gang (Mackie, Maitner and Smith 2017). Polarisation in the groups
can be seen as occuring when the initial of any individual is seen as becoming extreme after they
take part in the meetings that are held in the groups (Brown and Capozza 2016). The social
cognition concept can be seen as referring to the ability of an individual to process the
information received and how the blind following of ideas and ideologies without any question
can be considered to be a common issue(Jenkins 2014). The concepts of social influence can
further be seen as referring to the alterations of the ideologies that an individual has for making it
suitable in the social context. For being accepted in the gangs the members of such gangs are
seen as being highly of the risk of adhering to particular types of social influences.
The intergroup behaviour concept can be seen as referring to the influence that the
behaviour of individuals are on the behaviour of individuals in some other groups. There are
three levels in which the influences can be seen as occurring (Alleyne, Fernandes and Pritchard
2014). The first level includes the unconscious processes; the second level includes the
situational process which consists of an individual's interactions with others; the third process
includes the widespread ideologies of an individual which are the determinants of their
behaviours. As per the positional level concept the actions of the individuals are explained as the
intergroup behaviour of them which makes them act as per the rules provided by the groups(Woo
et al., 2015). The theories that can be seen as supporting this theory includes the realistic conflict
theories, relative deprivation theories and the theory of social identity.