Social Identity, Self-Categorization, and the Small Group

This chapter shows how social identity theory, particularly its extension and development as self-categorization theory, potentially has a great deal to say regarding the small group. Social identity theory is often viewed primarily as a theory of large-scale inter-category behavior that has only passing relevance for intragroup phenomena, particularly processes that occur in small interactive groups. Social identity theory is a social-psychological theory of intergroup relations and group processes. Although many social identity researchers consider the theory to be a general framework for the analysis of the social group, much of the research has actually focused on intergroup behavior rather than what goes on among individuals within a small group. During the early to mid-1980s an important theoretical development of social identity theory was initiated by John Turner. One of the chief applications of social identity/self-categorization theory to small-group phenomena has been in the area of conformity and group polarization.