Self and Social Identity Issues - Research Paper Example

?Running Head: SELF AND SOCIAL IDENTITY Self and Social Identity Word Count 1576 Self and Social Identity Introduction The creationof the sense of self is a combination of interactions with others and the perceived feelings that come from those interactions. Under some conditions, the self is able to gain self-esteem and become defined by an identity in which positive outcomes can be expected. More often, however, the dynamics of a group impress upon the individual different elements of meaning which relate to how the self is seen in relationship to the in-groups, those groups in which the individual is a member, and the lowering of beliefs about the out-groups. In contrast, those groups that appear to have more advantages can also have an impact, although a negative impact, through the influence of relative deprivation. Because of the interactions of individual through groups and within groups, the individual identity and sense of self is defined by how those interactions create self-esteem. Social Psychology Social psychology is a discipline sub-group of psychology in which the ways in which people interact is examined. Schneider, Gruman and Coutts (2005) define social psychology as “the science that seeks to understand how people think about, feel about, relate to, and influence one another” (p. 2). In other words, the field of social psychology is about how people engage one another and the effects of those methods have on the psychological development of the individual As well, it looks at group dynamics and how interactions are created and their meaning. Stainton (2003) argues that it is possible that social psychologists should focus more on the qualitative than the quantitative elements that are more often associated with a strictly scientific approach. The nature of social psychology is that it best represented by discourses that are analyzed to understand the symbols and meanings that emerge. One of the problems that has emerged about the field is that it has been very ethnocentric and up until the 1970s women were not treated as people and not included in most of the discussion. An example of this is the Minnesota Multiphase Personality Inventory that was only ever tested for male responses to the test. What is more odd is that although there is a portion that uses a scale that runs from masculine to feminine, this was not tested by looking at male and female subjects, but through testing male heterosexual soldiers to represent the male end and male homosexuals to represent the feminine answers (Stainton, 2003, p. 298). Therefore, the field has only just begun to study the full depth of human experience by including women in the last 40 years. In addition, the field has always studied the human condition from the Western white male perspective. Stainton (2003) writes that “Another of its prejudices has been its dressing up of social deprivation and inequality as a mere ‘variable’, and its incredible patronizing and pejorative treatment of people who do not conform to its liberal middle class values” (p. 296). Social psychology prejudices started with the inability for the Western scientific community to establish the idea that there was not one norm, but a whole series of norms that were defined by the people who were engaging in the behaviors they studied. The phrasing and words used to describe different cultures such as ‘savages’ created discourse that was not evenly examined. Therefore, the interesting phenomenon that comes from discussing the idea of self and the identity in relationship to social psychology is that not only are the inequities in the development of the social self by different types of people, but the way in which they have been discussed in the past has created even further issues with defining the idea of the self in context with social psychological inquiry. The development of theory and concepts in relationship to the self has a close connection to prejudices that exist both in the profession and outside of it and in the social sphere. Relative Deprivation One of the theories that have evolved about the idea of self is that of relative deprivation. This theory suggests that the self is constructed through the idea that what others have is correlated to what the self cannot have. The basic idea is that other social groups, which means ethnic, racial or gender groups, have advantages that keep resources from the social group in which the individual belongs. The threat can be real or unreal and can develop a sense of place in the world through a negative self image. Sanderson (2003) writes that “In line with this view, people who experience relative deprivation have more negative attitudes toward out-group members, as do participants who believe they are more advantaged than others” (p. 338). Prejudice comes from intergroup competition for resources but also has the capacity to be used as a way of explaining the position of the self in one’s own social group. There are two perspectives from which relative deprivation and the sense of self can be viewed. The first perspective suggests that there is a sense of identity that impacts the level of relative deprivation that an individual experiences. The identity is central to the development of feelings that are expressed as relative deprivation in the sense that who someone is can be relevant to how others are viewed. In this sense, the identity is tied to the social group that one is in and that informs the self in relationship to relative deprivation. This was proposed by a “global measure of identity” which was affected by cognitive, affective, and evaluative components (Smith & Walker, 2002, p. 129). The identity that is created through socialization into a group was responsible for this aspect of the development of the sense of self. The opposing view suggests that relative deprivation was a formative part of creating an identity. The outcome of the feeling of relative deprivation is to create an identity that is founded on this as one of its elements. The development of these feelings results in negative feelings about other groups and corresponding negative feelings about the self. There are inconsistent findings as to whether the feeling relative deprivation comes from a group identity or if the identity is formulated by relative deprivation. In other words, which comes first is in dispute, but the outcome still affects the self and primarily will likely result in low self esteem. Social Identity Theory The social identity theory suggests that every person is seeking to increase their self-esteem. The self-esteem has two elements: the personal identity and the social identity. Group behaviors affect the feelings of the individual. This means that not only will individuals seek to be in better groups, looking for success and accomplishment that can be shared, but groups will look for individuals that support these aspects of membership (Smith & Walker, 2002, p. 84). Social identity theory also suggests that when there are threats to the self-esteem, the need for positive group membership increases. When self-esteem is low, in-group memberships will become more important to the individual, and the need to belittle out-groups will increase in order to elevate the status of the group, and thus the individual. The closer the ties to the in-group, the more it will be satisfactory to degrade or belittle the out-group. Sanderson (2009) writes that “social identity motives, including in-group favoritism as well as out-group derogation, are particularly likely to occur under specific conditions” (p. 339). This means that when the dynamics are right, the self become elevated when status within the group reaches a specific level and a correlating derogation of another group has been accomplished. Tajfel (2010) identify the sequence of social identity theory in the following way: because of cognitive processes that create categorizations of people into social groups, individuals will eventually become associated with specific social groups. There must be some sort of positive association of one group above other groups to attract admittance. To create a positive association with a group that affects the identity in a elevated manner, the group association must be differentiated and against the canvas of the environment in which the groups exist, the individual has the potential to create a sense of identity and self that is positive. An example of this can be seen in the genders where the men feel camaraderie together against the differences they see to women, where women achieve the same sense of status against the differences they perceive from men. Conclusion Social psychology has the capacity to identify how individuals create a sense of self in relationship to interrelationship that is built in groups. Social psychology began as a discipline that did not create an inclusive discussion about the various groups within the world, but identified behavior by a very narrow method of discussing normal interaction. The understanding of the wide variety of group differences, including that between the genders, has led to the discovery of the importance of group dynamics in creating the self and the identity. The concept of relative deprivation defined differences in groups by the perceived advantages that one group would have over another. Social identity theory suggests that the self and identity is developed through the relationship that the in-group has to the out-group and the sense of status within the in-group. The nature of the self and the creation of an identity is defined by the way in which the individual places themselves within social groups and how other groups create a backdrop for the way in which groups place themselves in comparison to those groups. Resources Sanderson, C. A. (2009). Social psychology. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley. Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2005). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE Publications. Smith, H. J., & Walker, I. (2002). Relative deprivation: Specification, development, and integration. Cambridge [u.a.: Cambridge Univ. Press. Stainton, R. W. (2003). Social psychology: Experimental and critical approaches. Philadelphia, Pa: Open University. Tajfel, H. (2010). Social identity and intergroup relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Read More