Group Identity

Individual and Group Identity

Although people have individual identities, those identities are produced through their participation in dyads (e.g., single parent–single child families), groups (e.g., families with three or more members), and larger collectives (e.g., organizations and societies). Dyads, groups, and collectives provide, among many other things, language and other salient symbols that shape people's perceptions, beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors, including their view of themselves. Such influence explains, for instance, why people in strongly individualistic cultures privilege individual rights, whereas those in primarily collectivist cultures prioritize the needs of groups over those of individuals. In both cases, people hold their view because of what they learned as members of dyads, groups, and collectives.

The term group is often used to reference people who share social characteristics (e.g., gender, nationality, or race), such as in the study of social/collective identity, or to describe large collections of people gathered together (e.g., church congregations, political rallies, and sporting events). For the purposes of this entry, the term refers to small groups, defined as three or more people (thereby excluding dyads, with the upper limit based on members’ ability to be aware of the individuality of every other group member) who (a) think of themselves as a group, (b) are interdependent (e.g., with regard to shared goals or behaviors that affect one another), and (c) communicate (interact) with one another (via face-to-face or technological means). Examples of groups that often meet these criteria (but vary in the degree to which they apply) include families, social groups (e.g., friendship groups), activity groups (e.g., mountain-climbing groups), learning groups, growth/self-help/support/therapy groups, decision-making/problem-solving groups (e.g., committees and juries), and teams (e.g., work or sports).

...