Abstract
Social identity theory proposes that a person’s sense of who they are is determined by the group they belong to. With the focus on the various social identity categories, this paper analyzes the social identity responses to the questionnaires.
Social Identity Questionnaire Analysis Overview
Questions
What did you notice about your profile?
In my social identity profile, I belong to Christianity as a religion, native American, heterosexual is my sexual orientation and a middle-class American.
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Which social identities do you think about often?
The social identities I often think of are myself as a white, as a middle-class American, as heterosexual, and as a Democrat rather than a Republican.
Which social identities do you rarely contemplate?
I rarely contemplate about religion, gender and gender roles, ability, and physical attributes.
4. Consider the multiple categories that could fall under each group. With which groups do
You think you would be most comfortable interacting? Why?
I would be most comfortable interacting with Christians, young people, whites and people who are heterosexual rather than the homosexual. The reason is that these are the same social identity attributes I share.
With which groups do you think you would be least comfortable interacting? Why?
I would be least comfortable with people who are homosexual and elderly persons because I do not belong to those groups.
6. Given all of the above, what do you need to learn, think about, and do differently in
order to become more culturally sensitive or competent?
I need to learn to interact with people of all groups. I need to learn to be nonjudgmental based on sexual orientation, religion, and age.
Analysis of Responses
The comparison of my social identity questionnaire responses shows that I focus more on my race, sexual affiliation and age group, but with little focus on my religion, gender and physical roles. I tend to be freer with people who have the same sex orientation and age group as myself but feel uncomfortable with people belonging to other sexual orientation or different age group. I, however, do not mind or think much of people with a disability or those practicing a different religion from mine. The comparison of the responses from the other person shows he is much concerned with gender roles race, political affiliation, and religion and less concerned with sexual orientation and age.
The possible similarities and differences between the responses are due to the differences and similarities in some of the cultures. Due to the different cultural background, the view of race, religion and social class will be different; thus the reason for the differences. The similarities are due to the same social identities shared by both cultures irrespective of background.
Social identity theory is used to explain the part of the person’s concept of self that results from the group which a person belongs. People tend to use self-categorization to the group and understand people. The categories can either be as a white, black, republican or democrat. Self-identification, on the other hand, is used to identify the group to which a person belongs ( Tajfel, 1978 ). People identifying with a certain group tend to have the attributes and behaviors of that group ( Hogg , 2016). Social categorization, on the other hand, is used to categorize ourselves as members of a given group in which we compare with the other group.
I, however, need to learn to accept people from different races, people belonging to a different sexual orientation and those in a different age group from mine. By avoiding being judgmental based on these social identity aspects and learning to interact comfortably with them, I can become more culturally competent and someone who accepts all types of cultures irrespective of the differences.
References
Tajfel, H. (1978). Social categorization, social identity and social comparison. Differentiation between social groups , 61-76.
Hogg, M. A. (2016). Social identity theory. In Understanding peace and conflict through social identity theory (pp. 3-17). Springer, Cham.
