Social The Social Identity Theory

The world we are living in is becoming more diverse and a lot needs to be done so that people improve their identities. It is important to critically look at the things that diversity comes with so that we can be able to choose right from wrong. To understand this we need to know about Social the Social Identity Theory and also be able to apply it to the real world that we are living in. Social Identity Theory states that human beings like being around people that share similar characteristics and values with them. Being around these people the initiates one’s social identity. Social Identity theory therefore helps us to understand the world around us, it works in different fields, it can start from the bottom as schools, to universities and …show more content…
The individual’s experiences and the person is make up ones identity. Individuals tend to believe that their ingroups have best characteristics and they tend to conform and follow the certain things distinct about one’s group. For example in Sisanda’s case she seems to have a collective social identity. The religious groups that Sisanda joined helped her to be emotionally strong in her first two years in university. She believed so much in her Zulu culture as something that makes her who she is. However for some other individuals have their identity based on their personality traits. Extroverts, which are people who love trying new things tend to not stick to one way of shaping their lives and not scared to lose much in their lives because of trying to try something new. Individuals like Andrew have a more of personal identity which helped him a lot to learn different new things in university and did not allow his less privileged background determine his …show more content…
& Moghaddam, F. (1987). Collective action can be used in a positive manner when social groups come together to fight negativity, provide support and bring attention to issues. Individuals use the positive knowledge from intergroup to change the negative aspects of the in-group. For instance Andrew was from a violent township with a majority of youth not dreaming much. He used his university experience and knowledge to be a role model to the young ones in the township. He did this collectively and individually. It took him as an individual to decide to maintain the connection to his home community, but reaching people through the NGO was a collective approach. On the other hand Sisanda the individual strategy only to try and approach her community back home to help it realise that culture is something broader that tradition and