 In the Social Identity Theory, a person has not one, “personal self”, but rather several selves that correspond to widening circles of group membership.

 An individual has multiple “social identities”

 For more details on Tajfel’s life visit

 This theory is all about becoming part of different groups, and how membership to these groups helps construct our identities.  They suggested that people have an inbuilt tendency to categorise themselves into one or more in-groups, building a part of their identity on the basis of membership of that group and enforcing boundaries with other groups.

 Tafjel and Turner decided that Social Identity can be considered in four ways; for our studies we will look at three :  Categorisation  Identification  Comparison

 This looks at the way in which people put others (and ourselves) into categories. We label one another based on interest, ethnicity, gender, occupation and other factors.  Calling someone a Muslim, footballer, student, emo, mother, for example, are ways in which we do this.  IMPORTANT – this is not always negative and is different to stereotyping.

 Once a social identity has been identified, people will choose to associate with certain groups.  Your collective identity becomes your in-group. This could be you family, a friendship group – even your class. This closeness functions to boost our self esteem and to create a sense of belonging.  A group or individual that poses as a threat to your in- group is called the out-group. Examples of this would be an outside family member, a new member to class, someone from a different ethnic background, or more close to home, somebody from the other side of the social area!

 People compare themselves and their groups with other groups, seeing a favourable bias towards the group in which they belong.  Nowadays we see younger people dividing themselves into social groups or subcultures based on clothing, the music they listen to or other interests. Examples of this are emos, goths and hoodies.

 nationality?

 football team?

 nationality?  football team?  eye colour?

 nationality?  football team?  eye colour?  whether or not they liked a painting?