Social Identity Theory

The core idea of social identity theory is that people are motivated to maintain or achieve a positive social identity, but that positive social identity results from the standing of one's in-group vis-ä-vis other groups. Groups are engaged in a struggle for power, prestige, and status, and depending upon the nature of this struggle, groups live in relative cooperation or competition. Using this framework, social identity theory was initially concerned with explaining social cooperation and conflict and changes between the two, but it has since burgeoned into a general approach to group processes and intergroup relations. The generative power of the theory derives from its interactive metatheory—the idea that individual psychology resides in and interacts with social relations between groups.

Specifically, according to social identity theory, groups vary in status position, these status positions are perceived as more or less subjectively legitimate and stable, group boundaries can be more or less permeable, and people vary in their commitment to their in-groups. These five variables place constraints upon the motive for a positive social identity, which ultimately leaves people with three classes of identity-management strategy—social mobility, social competition, and social creativity.

Social mobility is a strategy used by individuals to produce positive social identity by either leaving one's group to move up the status hierarchy, in the case of subordinate group members, or endorsing limited assimilation of lower status group members, in the case of those in dominant groups. The critical prerequisite for social mobility is a belief in the permeability of group boundaries, and it is typically accompanied by a lack of commitment to one's in-group and the belief that the status order is stable and legitimate. Linguistically, social mobility is exemplified by subordinate group members abandoning their language in favor of dominant group languages and by dominant group members endorsing tokenistic assimilation and single-language policies such as English-only instruction for children.

Social competition (sometimes referred to as social change) is a collective strategy that is aimed at reversing the social order in the case of subordinate group members or undermining social change in the case of those in dominant groups. People who endorse social competition are typically highly committed to their group, see little possibility of moving to another group, and see the status order as unstable and/or illegitimate. Instability is the critical variable that encourages attempts at social change. Examples include subordinate groups engaging in linguistic revival movements (e.g., Welsh, Catalan, Hawaiian) and dominant groups that implement mass arrests, lynchings, and beatings of those in subordinate groups or in the most extreme case, genocide.

[Page 897]Social creativity is a collective strategy whereby subordinate group members aim to preserve positive identity in the face of a highly stable status order, and dominant group members distance themselves from lower status groups. The preconditions for social creativity are identical to those of social competition except for the belief that the social order is stable. Those in subordinate groups may endorse solidarity-based stereotypes (“We are the salt of the earth”), while eschewing status-based stereotypes (“We are poor”); they might reject the basis for stigmatization (“Black is beautiful!”) or find an even lower status group to compare themselves with. Those in dominant groups are most likely to pursue social creativity when they have status, but not power. European aristocrats have continually shifted their accents and phrases over time in an effort to maintain a suitable distance from subordinate group members who could otherwise mimic good breeding by cultivating their accent. This process may account for the relative stability of American English (which is replete with archaic English terms, such as fall, sick, trash, and molasses) compared to English in England (autumn, ill, rubbish, and treacle, respectively).

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