Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T13:20:20.588Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

20 - Experimentation within the Social Identity Approach: History, Highlights, and Hurdles

from Part III - Methodological Approaches

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2021

By
Lucas B. Mazur
Edited by
Michael Bamberg ,
Carolin Demuth  and
Meike Watzlawik
Michael Bamberg
Affiliation:
Clark University, Massachusetts
Carolin Demuth
Affiliation:
Aalborg University, Denmark
Meike Watzlawik
Affiliation:
Sigmund Freud University, Berlin
Get access

Summary

This chapter examines the role of experimentation within the social identity approach to the study of identity. The main question of interest concerns the ways in which experimental methods give particular shape to how identity is understood within this tradition. We will examine the historical, theoretical, and practical development of the social identity approach and of experimentation in psychology, and then show how the two have converged so as to create an insightful, and yet simultaneously limited and at times even problematic, understanding of identity. This particular constellation of theoretical assumptions and practical methods has produced an impressive body of important research. It has also led to the establishment and entrenchment of theoretical and methodological biases of which researchers often seem to be unaware, but which nevertheless considerably influence the study of identity within the social identity tradition. Thus, in light of the rich output of the social identity approach, the chapter examines some of the limitations of that tradition and attempts to draw researchers’ attention to the theoretical and methods-based biases of which they may not be aware. In this way, the chapter is an attempt to explore how experimental methods and theory have interacted within the social identity tradition to both the benefit and detriment of our understanding of identity.

Keywords

Identitysocial identity approachsocial identity theoryself-categorization theoryingroup projection modelmethodsexperimental methodsmethodological assumptionsmethodologyexperiment
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Identity , pp. 435 - 460
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abelson, R. P., Frey, K. P., & Gregg, A. P. (2012). Experiments with People. Revelations from Social Psychology, 2nd Ed. New York, NY: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Abrams, D. & Hogg, M. A. (2010). Social identity and self-categorization. In Dovidio, J. F., Hewstone, M., Glick, P., & Esses, V. M. (Eds.), The Sage Handbook of Prejudice, Stereotyping and Discrimination (pp. 179–193). London: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adorno, T. W., Frenkel-Brunswik, E., Levinson, D. J., & Sanford, R. N. (1950). The Authoritarian Personality. New York, NY: Harper & Brothers.Google Scholar
Allport, G. W. (1954). The Nature of Prejudice. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Aronson, E. (2012). The Social Animal, 11th Ed. New York, NY: Worth.Google Scholar
Aronson, E. & Carlsmith, J. M. (1968). Experimentation in social psychology. In Lindzey, G. & Aronson, E. (Eds.), Handbook of Social Psychology, 2nd Ed., Vol. 2 (pp. 1–79). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Asch, S. E. (1951). Effects of group pressure on the modification and distortion of judgments. In Guetzkow, H. (Ed.), Groups, Leadership and Men (pp. 177–190). Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Press.Google Scholar
Bancroft, J. (2014). Tolerance of Uncertainty. Bloomington, IN: Author House.Google Scholar
Bartlett, F. C. (1932). Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Baumeister, R. F. (1986). Identity: Cultural Change and the Struggle for Self. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bowker, G. C. & Star, S. L. (1999). Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Bronowski, J. (1964). The Identity of Man. Garden City, NY: American Museum Science Books.Google Scholar
Burkitt, I. (2011). Identity construction in sociohistorical context. In Schwartz, S. J., Luyckx, K., & Vignoles, V. L. (Eds.), Handbook of Identity Theory and Research (pp. 267–283). New York, NY: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cassirer, E. (1910/1923). Substanzbegriff und Funktionsbegriff: Untersuchungen über die Grundfragen der Erkenntniskritik. Berlin: Bruno Cassirer. Trans. by Swabey, W. C. & Swabey, M. C. as Substance and Function. Chicago, IL: Open Court.Google Scholar
Danziger, K. (1988). On theory and method in psychology. In Baker, W. J., Mos, L. P., Rappard, H. V., & Stam, H. J. (Eds.), Recent Trends in Theoretical Psychology (pp. 87–94). New York, NY: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Danziger, K. (1990). Constructing the Subject: Historical Origins of Psychological Research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Danziger, K. (1992). The project of an experimental social psychology: Historical perspectives. Science in Context, 5, 309–328.Google Scholar
Danziger, K. (1997). Naming the Mind: How Psychology Found Its Language. London: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Danziger, K. (2000). Making social psychology experimental: A conceptual history, 1920–1970. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 36(4), 329–347.3.0.CO;2-5>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dollard, J., Miller, N. E., Doob, L. W., Mowrer, O. H., & Sears, R. R. (1939). Frustration and Aggression. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Hammack, P. L. (2015). Theoretical foundations of identity. In McLean, K. C. & Syed, M. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Identity Development (pp. 11–32). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Haslam, S. A. (2004). Psychology in Organisations: The Social Identity Approach, 2nd Ed. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Hogg, M. A. (2006). Social identity theory. In Burke, P. J. (Ed.), Contemporary Social Psychological Theories (pp. 111–136). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Hogg, M. A. (2012). Social identity and the psychology of groups. In Leary, M. R. & Tangney, J. P. (Eds.), Handbook of Self and Identity, 2nd Ed. (pp. 502–520). New York, NY: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Hogg, M. A. & Williams, K. D. (2000). From I to we: Social identity and the collective self. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 4, 81–97.Google Scholar
Hornsey, M. J. (2008). Social identity theory and self-categorization theory: A historical review, Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2(1), 204–22.Google Scholar
Huddy, L. (2001). From social to political identity: A critical examination of social identity theory. Political Psychology, 22(1), 127–155.Google Scholar
Jackson, C. & Sherriff, N. (2013). A qualitative approach to intergroup relations: Exploring the applicability of the social identity approach to “messy” school contexts. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 10, 259–273.Google Scholar
Lana, R. E. (1969). Assumptions of Social Psychology. New York, NY: Appleton-Century-Crofts.Google Scholar
Landy, F. J. (1992). Hugo Münsterberg: Victim or visionary? Journal of Applied Psychology, 77(6), 787–802.Google Scholar
Lewin, K. (1943). Psychology and the process of group living. Journal of Social Psychology, 17(1), 113–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacMartin, C. & Winston, A. S. (2000). The rhetoric of experimental social psychology, 1930–1960: From caution to enthusiasm. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 36(4), 349–364.Google Scholar
Mazur, L. B. (2015). Defining power in social psychology. Orbis Idearum, 2(1), 101–114.Google Scholar
Mazur, L. B. & Sztuka, M. (2021). Hidden harmony. Converging interests in the development of prison reform. Theoretical Criminology, 25(1), 149–168.Google Scholar
Mazur, L. B. & Watzlawik, M. (2016). Debates about the scientific status of psychology: Looking at the bright side. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 50(4), 555–567.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Michell, J. (2004). Measurement in Psychology: Critical History of a Methodological Concept. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67(4), 371–378.Google Scholar
Mummendey, A. & Wenzel, M. (1999). Social discrimination and tolerance in intergroup relations: Reactions to intergroup difference. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 3, 158–174.Google Scholar
Murphy, G., & Murphy, L. B. (1931). Experimental Social Psychology. New York, NY: Harper.Google Scholar
Nagel, J. (1995). American Indian ethnic renewal: Politics and the resurgence of identity. American Sociological Review, 60, 947–965.Google Scholar
Oakes, P. (2002). Psychological groups and political psychology: A response to Huddy’s “Critical examination of social identity theory.” Political Psychology, 23(4), 809–824.Google Scholar
Oyserman, D., Elmore, K., & Smith, G. (2012). Self, self-concept, and identity. In Leary, M. R. & Tangney, J. P. (Eds.), Handbook of Self and Identity, 2nd Ed. (pp. 69–104). New York, NY: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Parkovnick, S. (2000). Contextualizing Floyd Allport’s Social Psychology. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 36(4), 429–441.Google Scholar
Radder, H. (2003a). Toward a more developed philosophy of scientific experimentation. In Radder, H. (Ed.), The Philosophy of Scientific Experimentation (pp. 1–18). Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Radder, H. (2003b). Technology and theory in experimental science. In Radder, H. (Ed.), The Philosophy of Scientific Experimentation (pp. 152–173). Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Reicher, S. & Hopkins, N. (2001). Psychology and the end of history: A critique and a proposal for the psychology of social categorisation. Political Psychology, 22, 383–407.Google Scholar
Reicher, S., Spears, R., & Haslam, S. H. (2010). The social identity approach in social psychology. In Wetherell, M. & Mohanty, C. T. (Eds.), Sage Handbook of Identities (pp. 45–62). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Rheinberger, H.-J. (2007). On Historicizing Epistemology: An Essay, translated by Fernbach, D.. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Rosa, M. & Waldzus, S. (2012). Efficiency and defense motivated ingroup projection: Sources of prototypicality in intergroup relations. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 669–681.Google Scholar
Sindic, D. & Condor, S. (2014). Social identity theory and self-categorization theory. Capelos, T., Kinvall, C., Nesbitt-Larkin, P & Dekker, H. (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Global Political Psychology (pp. 39–54). Basingstoke: Palgrave.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sindic, D. & Reicher, S. D. (2008). The instrumental use of group prototypicality judgments. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 1425–1435.Google Scholar
Samelson, F. (2000). Whig and anti-Whig histories – and other curiosities of social psychology. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 36(4), 499–506.Google Scholar
Simmel, G. (1950). The Sociology of Georg Simmel, translated and edited by Wolff, K. H.. New York, NY: Free Press.Google Scholar
Smedslund, J. (2016). Why psychology cannot be an empirical science. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 50(2), 185–195.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spears, R. (2011). Group identities: The social identity perspective. In Schwartz, S. J., Luyckx, K., & Vignoles, V. L. (Eds.), Handbook of Identity Theory and Research (pp. 201–224). New York, NY: Springer.Google Scholar
Spears, R., Jetten, J., Scheepers, D., & Cihangir, S. (2009). Creative distinctiveness. Explaining in-group bias in minimal groups. In Otten, S., Sassenberg, K., & Kessler, T. (Eds.), Intergroup Relations. The Role of Motivation and Emotion (pp. 23–40). New York, NY: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Stam, H. J., Radtke, H. L., & Lubek, I. (2000). Strains in experimental social psychology: A textual analysis of the development of experimentation in social psychology. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 36(4), 365–382.Google Scholar
Tajfel, H. (1972). Some developments in European social psychology. European Journal of Social Psychology, 2(3), 307–321.Google Scholar
Tajfel, H. (Ed.) (1978). Differentiation between Social Groups: Studies in the Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Tajfel, H. (Ed.). (1982). Social Identity and Intergroup Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tajfel, H., Billig, M. G., Bundy, R. P., & Flament, C. (1971). Social categorization and intergroup behavior. European Journal of Social Psychology, 1, 149–178.Google Scholar
Tajfel, H., Fraser, C., & Jaspars, J. M. F. (Eds.). (1984). The Social Dimension: Volume 1: European Developments in Social Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tajfel, H. & Turner, J. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In Austin, W. G. & Worchel, S. (Eds.), The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations (pp. 33–48). Monterey, CA: Brooks & Cole.Google Scholar
Tajfel, H. & Turner, J. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In Worchel, S. & Austin, W. G. (Eds.), Psychology of Intergroup Relations (pp. 7–24). Chicago, IL: Hall Publishers.Google Scholar
Taylor, C. (1989). Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Toomela, A. (2007). History of methodology in psychology: Starting point, not the goal. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 41, 75–82.Google Scholar
Toomela, A. (2010). Quantitative methods in psychology: Inevitable and useless. Frontiers in Quantitative Psychology and Measurement, 1(29), 1–14.Google Scholar
Turner, J. C. (1975). Social comparison and social identity: Some prospects for intergroup behaviour. European Journal of Social Psychology, 5(1), 1–34.Google Scholar
Turner, J. C. (1978). Social categorization and social discrimination in the minimal group paradigm. In Tajfel, H. (Ed.), Differentiation between Social Groups: Studies in the Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations (pp. 235–250). London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Turner, J. C. & Reynolds, K. J. (2010). The story of social identity. In Postmes, T. & Branscombe, N. (Eds.), Rediscovering Social Identity: Core Sources (pp. 13–32). New York, NY: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Ullrich, J. (2009). Reconsidering the “relative” in relative ingroup prototypicality. European Journal of Social Psychology, 39(2), 299–310.Google Scholar
Valsiner, J. (2012). A Guided Science: History of Psychology in the Mirror of Its Making. Piscataway, NJ: Transaction.Google Scholar
Valsiner, J. (2017). From Methodology to Methods in Human Psychology. Cham: Springer.Google Scholar
Verkuyten, M. (2005). The Social Psychology of Ethnic Identity. New York, NY: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Wagoner, B. (2017). The Constructive Mind: Bartlett’s Psychology in Reconstruction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Waldzus, S. & Mummendey, A. (2004). Inclusion in a superordinate category, ingroup prototypicality, and attitudes towards outgroups. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40, 466–477.Google Scholar
Wenzel, M., Mummendey, A., & Waldzus, S. (2008). Superordinate identities and intergroup conflict: The ingroup projection model. European Review of Social Psychology, 18(1), 331–372.Google Scholar
Wenzel, M., Mummendey, A., Weber, U., & Waldzus, S. (2003). The ingroup as pars pro toto: Projection from the ingroup onto the inclusive category as a precursor to social discrimination. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29(4), 461–473.Google Scholar
Wetherell, M. (2010). The field of identity studies. In Wetherell, M. & Mohanty, C. T. (Eds.), Sage Handbook of Identities (pp. 3–26). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Winston, A. S. (1990). Robert Sessions Woodworth and the “Columbia Bible”: How the psychological experiment was redefined. American Journal of Psychology, 103, 391–401.Google Scholar
Winston, A. S. & Blais, D. J. (1996). What counts as an experiment? A transdisciplinary analysis of textbooks, 1930-1970. American Journal of Psychology, 109, 599–616.Google Scholar
Wittenbaum, G. M. & Moreland, R. L. (2008). Small‐group research in social psychology: Topics and trends over time. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2(1), 187–203.Google Scholar
Yuki, M. (2003). Intergroup comparison versus intragroup relationships: A cross-cultural examination of social identity theory in North American and East Asian cultural contexts. Social Psychology Quarterly, 66, 166–183.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×