"Group Identities"

(Updated April 25, 2015)

One of the things that makes social psychology "social" is the fact that individuals are members of numerous groups, whether by default (e.g., a member of one's family) or by actively joining (e.g., a trade union or university alumni association). For nearly 40 years (1969-2008), Dick McGlynn was the resident groups researcher on the Texas Tech faculty, before his retirement. Today, Zach Hohman, carries that banner. The followimg song alludes to several aspects of group- and social-identity research and is dedicated to Dick and Zach.

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Group Identities
Lyrics by Alan Reifman
(May be sung to the tune of “Bare Necessities,” Terry Gilkyson, popularized in the movie, The Jungle Book)

We have our group identities,
Fairly stable entities,
They tell us whom we like, and whom we don’t,
Some groups, we join electively,
And get esteem collectively,
They say whom we’ll befriend, and whom we won’t,

The ways to harsh conflict, are easy to pave,
That’s what Sherif did, with Robbers Cave,
But, groups need not, even be real,
To give opponents, a raw deal,

When you think of, all the groups you're in,
And how you feel, when they lose and win,

And, think of a few,

[Brief interlude]

Your group identities, are important, to you,
They're part of you,

We have our group identities,
Fairly stable entities,
They tell us whom we like, and whom we don’t,
Some groups, we join electively,
And get esteem collectively,
They say whom we’ll befriend, and whom we won’t,

For kids unsure, of their identities,
"Cool" groups will attract them, the "cliques" that be,
But, cool groups, may be unhealthy,
Their behaviors, so risky,

When you think of, all the groups you're in,
And how you feel, when they lose and win,

And, think of a few,

[Brief interlude]

Your group identities, are important, to you,
They're part of you,

We have our group identities,
Fairly stable entities,
They tell us whom we like, and whom we don’t,
Some groups, we join electively,
And get esteem collectively,
They say whom we’ll befriend, and whom we won’t,

[Improvisations...]

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Background/Explanation

The song alludes to five lines of research (intentionally, at least)...

1. The word "entities" in the first part is a subtle reference to the concept of entitativity, a nearly 50-year-old idea that has been getting a lot of attention from social psychologists in recent years. This vigorous activity can be seen in the list of abstracts for a British conference on “Groups, Politics, and Organizations.” Quoting from the symposium abstract by Lowell Gaertner:

…Donald Campbell (1958) coined the concept of entitativity to convey that social groups vary in the extent to which they are perceived as being an entity or a cohesive whole.

2. The second part refers, a little more explicitly, to research on collective self-esteem. As studied by Luhtanen, Crocker, and colleagues (see References below), individuals can experience high or low esteem as a result of the groups they're in and their evaluations of these groups.

3. The next section cites two classic lines of research. First is the "Robbers Cave" study by Sherif and colleagues, in which the situation was manipulated so that two groups of boy campers formed a rivalry with each other, but then overcame their animosity to cooperate on a task.

4. The other line of research mentioned in that section is Tajfel's "minimal groups paradigm," in which groups are created on arbitrary bases and tested for ingroup favoritism in allocations of rewards. Quoting from Tajfel and colleagues (1971):

…in a situation devoid of the usual trappings of ingroup membership and of all the vagaries of interacting with an outgroup, the [subjects] still act in terms of their ingroup membership and of an intergroup categorization. Their actions are unambiguously directed at favouring the members of their ingroup as against the members of the outgroup (p. 172).

5. Hogg, Siegel, and Hohman (2011) develop a theoretical account of why adolescents engage in so much risky behavior (e.g., substance use). Adolescents uncertain of their identity may be attracted to "cool" cliques (also see Brown, Eicher, & Petrie, 1986), the problem being that such cliques tend to engage in unhealthy behaviors.

Further Reading

Brown, B. B., Eicher, S. A., & Petrie, S. (1986). The importance of peer group (‘‘crowd’’) affiliation in adolescence. Journal of Adolescence, 9, 73–96.

Foer, F. (2004). How soccer explains the world. New York: HarperCollins.

Hogg, M.A. (2006). Social Identity Theory. In P.J. Burke (Ed.), Contemporary social psychological theories (pp. 111-136). Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.

Hogg, M. A., Siegel, J. T., & Hohman, Z. P. (2011). Groups can jeopardize your health: Identifying with un-healthy groups to reduce self-uncertainty. Self and Identity, 10, 326-335.

Luhtanen, R., & Crocker, J. (1992). A collective self-esteem scale: Self-evaluation of one's social identity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18, 302-318. (LINK to the Collective Self-Esteem Scale and other measures.)

Sherif, M., Harvey, O. J., White, B. J., Hood, W. R., & Sherif, C. W. (1961). Intergroup conflict and co-operation: The Robbers Cave experiment. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Book Exchange. (Available online at Psychology Classics website.)

Social Identity Theory (Online Summary)

Tajfel, H., Billig, M.G., Bundy, R.P., & Flament, C. (1971). Social categorization and intergroup behaviour. European Journal of Social Psychology, 1, 149-178.