Sunday, 9 August 2015

Contemporary Social Psychological Theories,
Ed. Peter J Burke, Stanford University Press, 2006,
Chapter 6 "Social Identity Theory" (pp. 111-136), page 111

People have asked me what social identity theory is and why it is important to my research. Michael A. Hogg, at the time this book was written, was professor of social psychology at the University of Queensland, and writes a definitive description.

Social identity theory is a social psychologcical analysis of the role of self-conception in group membership, group processes and intergroup relations. It embraces a number of interrelated conceptsand subtheories that focus on social-cignitive, motivational, social-interactive and macrosocial facets of group life. The approach is explicitly framed by a conviction that collective phenomena cannot be adequately explained in terms of isolated individual processes or interpersonal interaction alone and that social psychology should place large-scale social phenomena near the top of its scientific agenda.

That is to say, social identity theory is about the way that groups of people frame and define their collective identity, rather than how individuals frame and identify their own personal identity. Neverthless, each individual has a social identity that is salient - that is, active - when in the context of each of the groups to which they do, need or want to belong and the drive for acceptance within the group implies compliance with the group prototype. It is the relative strength of the conflicting church and Jewish group identities that compete within the individual and produce the result that my research is reporting.

Sunday, 9 August 2015
Comment -

Interesting! I understand the conflict well as a first generation American, born of German immigrants. I can speak and think in two languages. I understand both cultural norms. Am I American in culture or am I German? What about a white man who identifies with black culture? Am I a Christian or MESSIANIC? But am I a Jew? I wasn't born a Jew to Jewish parents. I didn't HAVE to become a Jew before I became a Christian. But I do believe in the Messiah (Jesus Christ) and love to learn about God's relationship with man before Messiah. So does that make me Jewish? Messiah didn't seem to care much about peoples culture. He complied with the Jewish one he was born into and taught that God, He Himself (Christ, Messiah) and the Spirit is free and open to all. Should be interesting to read your conclusions to your research.

Posted By Harry Steck 04:59am