3.3.5—Social identity theory
- Syllabus
- First assessment 2027
- Objective
- 3.3.5
- Level
- SL
Social identity explains how group membership shapes ‘us’ and ‘them’
Social identity is part of the self-concept derived from group memberships. Categorisation simplifies a social field, identification makes a group part of the self, and comparison can motivate positive distinctiveness.
Even minimal categories can produce ingroup preference, but identity is multiple and context-sensitive. Status, threat, norms and personal agency influence whether comparison produces cooperation, prejudice or no meaningful difference.
In a minimal-groups task, participants may allocate rewards more generously to an unknown ingroup than an outgroup. The artificial setting isolates categorisation but cannot by itself explain every real conflict.
Categorisation is not identical to discrimination and ingroup preference is not inevitable. Identify the category, comparison and evidence that the identity mechanism caused the decision.