Overview

Social identity theory (SIT) is based social psychologist Henry Tajfel’s view that a person’s self-concept is based in part on group membership. The premise of SIT is that individual identities develop in the context of social groups of people with similar characteristics who typically share a sense of unity. A related concept is a social category, which is a group of people who may not interact but who share similar characteristics. The creation of group identities can result in “in-group” and “out-group” categorizations, with a tendency to view one’s own group positively. For this assignment, you will compare two sets of results from a social identity survey.

Instructions

For this assignment, think about the number of social groups and/or categories to which you belong. Consider some of these broad categories as part of your social identity:

• Race or ethnicity.
• Religion, spirituality, or personal belief system.
• Ability or disability.
• Sex or gender roles.
• Sexual orientation.
• Age.
• Social class.
• Physical attributes.
• Other.

Complete the My Social Identity Questionnaire (linked in Resources) and then ask someone with a different cultural background from yours to complete the questionnaire as well. As indicated by the above categories, for this assignment, culture can mean many things, such as race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, or sexual preference.

After considering the responses carefully, write a short analysis (2–3 pages of content) organized as follows:

• Title page.
• Abstract.
• Introduction.
• Comparison and contrast of My Social Identity Questionnaire responses.
• Possible explanations for the similarities and difference in the responses.
• Application of concepts from the course readings and/or other scholarly material to further analyze both of your responses.
• Reflections about what you need to learn, consider, and/or do differently to increase your cultural competence.
• Summary and Conclusion.
• References.

Additional Requirements

• Include a minimum of 2 scholarly resources to support your assertions.
• Follow APA style and formatting guidelines throughout. An APA-style template is linked in Resources for your convenience.
• Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.

Tajfel, H. (1978). The achievement of inter-group differentiation. In H. Tajfel (Ed.), Differentiation between social groups (pp. 77–100). London, England: Academic Press.