Self-Categorization and Social Identification: Making Sense of Us and Them

In this chapter, the authors provide an overview of social psychological theories on social identity, including social identity theory and self-categorization theory. Beyond Tajfel’s and Turner’s seminal writings, they focus on more recent efforts to define social identification, and discuss how multiple categorization offers insights into the dynamics underlying intergroup relations. The author defines self-categorization as social categorization applied to oneself and introduces self-categorization theory as a detailed account of when, how, and why they describe themselves in terms of social categories. They introduce self-categorization theory as a perspective on how, when, and why individuals categorize themselves into certain social groups. Social identification varies from individual to individual, and from situation to situation, reflecting the extent to which a group membership is incorporated into an individual’s self-concept. Social identification changes the nature of social categorization.