Self Concept and Social Identity Flashcards
What is ‘self’?
The person, including mental processes, body and personal characteristics
What are the two representations of ones identity?
Personal identity
Social identity
What is self concept?
The person’s concept of themselves; guides the way we think about and remember information relevant to ourselves.
What are the 3 components of self-concept?
Affective: how we feel; self esteem
Behavioral: how you act according to your abilities
Cognitive: how we reason about our self
What is social identity?
A person’s sense of who they are based on their group membership(s).
Henri Tajfel (1974) - what did he believe?
Groups which people belong to are an important source of pride and self-esteem.
We enhance our self-image by enhancing the status of our in-group and discrimination against the out-groups image
Social Identity Theory
Group members of an in-group will seek to find negative aspects of an out-group, thus enhancing our self image.
When we stereotype we tend to exaggerate:
-The differences between us and them
-The similarities in our ingroup
What are the 3 mental processes? (Tajfel and Turner, 1979)
- Social categorization
- Social identification
- Social comparison
Why do we categorize?
- To understand the social environment
- We also to this to ourselves to understand where we ‘fit’
What is social identification?
We adopt the identity of the group we categorized that we belong to
Social comparison - why do we do it?
To maintain self-esteem - we must be seen as favorable
