According to Henry Tejfel's social identity theory, social identity is a sense of identity in the individual based on the group to which s/he belongs. Tejfel in his theory of social identity proposed that people's sense of pride and self-esteem is associated with the groups to which they belong example family, clubs, ethinic group etc. Groups provide a sense of belongingness in the people to the social world.
These social identities are formed by enhancing the image of the group by discriminating and holding prejudice against the other groups. For example,we all have pride in our nationality, at the same we hold some type of negative prejudice against other countries and discriminate them. Social identities are formed by creating a dividing line between "us" and "them", that is by creating social categorization of social groups. The "us" group is "in-group" to which an individual belong and the "them" group is the "out-group" against which the individual discriminates.
Social identities are formed by emphasizing and promoting the likeness within the in-group and promoting the differences or weakeness of the other groups. Thus, enhancing the self image.
Get Answers For Free
Most questions answered within 1 hours.