Social Identity Theory - Essay Example

Social Identity Theory Social Identity Theory Social identity is what people perceive themselves to be in terms of theirgroup membership. When students choose group members for coursework, presentation and group assignments, there is always a tendency of such groups being composed of people who feel that they belong to the same social group (Haslam, 2001). The composition of such groups, when the responsibility to form is left to students, is always not well balanced. One will find that students come together based on factors such as race, culture, social class or even religion to form a coursework group.

Such group formation is discriminative and full o0f prejudice, therefore, might not be the best for in learning institutions.Students, through social identity theory, want to believe that their groups are the best while other groups are not. They, therefore, increase their self-image by enhancing the status of the groups to which they belong (Knippenberg, 2002). They also do so by discriminating and holding prejudiced views about the groups they dont belong to. By so doing, they divide the class into "them" and "us where they are the best group in the class, and the rest are just there.

The in-group will, therefore, seek to talk ill or negatively about the out-group to ensure they enhance their self-image (McLeod, 2008).BibliographyHaslam, A. S., 2001. Chapter 2: The Social Identity Approach. In: Psychology in Organizations - The Social Identity Approach. London: Sage Publications Ltd., pp. 26-57.Knippenberg, v., 2002. Organizational Identification after a merger: A social identity perspective.. British Journal of Social Psychology, Volume 41, pp. 233-252.McLeod, S. A., 2008.

Social Identity Theory. [Online] Available at: http://www.simplypsychology.org/social-identity-theory.html[Accessed 27 December 2014].