S - Social identity

.Recognizable questions

- Who am I apart from the groups I belong to?

- Why can criticism of my group sometimes feel like criticism of me personally?

- Can I have multiple social identities at the same time?

- Why can losing a group also feel like losing part of myself?

- Why do I feel proud when ‘my’ group achieves something, even though I didn’t personally do anything?

- Can a strong group identity affect how I view outsiders?

- What happens to my self-image when an important group identity changes?

What is social identity?

Social identity is the part of our self-image that is connected to the groups we see ourselves as belonging to.
These can be very different groups:

family
occupation
nationality
religion
friend group
sports club
political group
hobby
generation

The term is especially associated with the social identity theory of Henri Tajfel and John Turner.
The core idea is that people see themselves not only as separate individuals, but also as members of groups.

I AM...

an individual
      +
daughter or son
      +
friend
      +
employee
      +
believer
      +
Dutch person
      +
member of other groups

Which identity feels important at a given moment can vary by situation.

Personal identity and social identity

Your identity is not made up only of group membership.
You can describe yourself in terms of personal traits:
‘I’m curious.’
‘I’m calm.’
‘I like music.’
But also through groups:
‘I’m a nurse.’
‘I’m a mother.’
‘I’m one of Jehovah’s Witnesses.’

PERSONAL IDENTITY

What defines me
as an individual?


SOCIAL IDENTITY

Which groups do I
belong to, and what
does that mean to me?

In everyday life, the two often overlap.

Why are groups so important for our self-image?

Groups give people, among other things, belonging, meaning, recognition, and a place in the social world.
They help answer questions such as:
Where do I belong?
Who are ‘people like me’?
Which values do we share?
What is considered normal in my environment?

group
  ↓
belonging
  ↓
shared norms
and meaning
  ↓
part of
self-image

That is not an abnormal process. Social identity is a normal part of human functioning.

An example from everyday life

A football supporter says:
‘We won.’
He himself hasn’t spent a second on the pitch. Yet the club’s victory can still bring real pride.
Conversely, a defeat can bring disappointment or even shame.

group achievement
        ↓
‘this is my group’
        ↓
achievement feels
partly personal

That shows how events involving a group can become part of how someone experiences themselves.

Why can criticism of my group feel personal?

When a group is important to your identity, the message:
‘This group is no good’
is not always psychologically easy to separate from:
‘There is something wrong with people like you.’

MY GROUP
is part of
MY SELF-IMAGE

        ↓

criticism of the group
can therefore
feel more personal

The more strongly someone identifies with a group, the more likely it is that information about the group becomes emotionally relevant.
That does not mean someone will automatically reject criticism. It does help explain why conversations about important groups can become emotional more quickly than conversations about something someone is barely connected to.

‘We’ and ‘they’

As soon as people classify themselves as members of a group, a distinction easily emerges between:
we and they.

WE
people from my group

        ↕

THEY
people outside my group

Research by Tajfel showed that even fairly arbitrary group divisions can already be enough to create, on average, some preference for one’s own group.
That does not mean group identity automatically leads to hostility.
A strong identity can also have positive effects, such as solidarity, cooperation, mutual support, and care for one another.

Ingroup and outgroup are not the same as social identity

These terms are closely related, but they do not mean exactly the same thing.
Social identity refers to the part of your self-image that comes from group membership.
Ingroup is the group you see yourself as belonging to.
Outgroup refers to people you consider outside that group.

SOCIAL IDENTITY
‘This group is part
of who I am’

INGROUP
‘This is us’

OUTGROUP
‘That’s them’

That is why Social identity and Ingroup and outgroup thinking are related, but separate topics.

We usually have multiple social identities

People almost never belong to just one group.
Someone can be all of the following at the same time:

mother
friend
medical assistant
music lover
Dutch
sports fan
believer
neighborhood resident

Not all of these identities are equally important all the time.
At work, your professional identity may take priority. With family, your role as parent or child. Within a faith community, your religious identity.

Why can one identity sometimes become very dominant?

When a large part of social life takes place within the same environment, different parts of identity can start to overlap.
For example:

my faith
+
my friends
+
my family
+
my leisure time
+
my values
+
my outlook on the future

Then a change in one area may go much further than just:
‘I see a doctrine differently.’
It can also affect belonging, routine, status, relationships, and expectations for the future.

Social identity among Jehovah’s Witnesses

For many Jehovah’s Witnesses, their faith can be an important part of their social identity.
Someone may see themselves not only as someone who holds certain beliefs, but also as:
‘I am one of Jehovah’s Witnesses.’
That can be connected to all sorts of aspects:

faith
+
congregation
+
family
+
friends
+
activities
+
values
+
future expectation

For some members, this identity is very central. For others, faith is one of several important roles.
Both situations exist.

What happens when someone starts to doubt?

Doubting an important belief can therefore go beyond a substantive question.
The thought:
‘Is this teaching correct?’
can at the same time raise other questions:

Who am I if this
is no longer my faith?

Where do I belong then?

What happens to
my relationships?

Which values remain
mine?

What does my
future look like?

This can partly explain why changing faith is deeply upsetting for some people.
That does not mean every believer who doubts experiences an identity crisis.

What can happen after leaving a faith community?

Some former Jehovah’s Witnesses describe a period after leaving in which the question ‘Who am I now?’ becomes especially prominent.
That can be understandable when an important social identity changes.

OLD IDENTITY

‘I am a Jehovah’s Witness’
        ↓
change
        ↓
‘What still belongs to me?’
        ↓
NEW OR BROADER
IDENTITY

But here too there are major differences.
Someone who already had strong roles outside the faith — for example work, study, friends, sports, or other communities — may experience a less abrupt identity break than someone whose almost entire social life took place within the same religious environment.

A changed identity does not mean everything is gone

When someone leaves a group, not all values, traits, and experiences formed during membership automatically disappear.
Someone may think, for example:
‘My faith has changed, but my care for others has not.’
‘I now celebrate different things, but family remains important.’
‘I no longer believe certain doctrines, but some values still fit me.’

WHAT COMES FROM
MY PAST?

        ↓

WHAT DO I WANT
TO KEEP?

        ↓

WHAT DO I WANT
TO REVISE?

        ↓

WHAT FITS ME
NOW?

So identity development does not have to mean a complete break with the past.

Group identity is not the same as indoctrination

It is important not to confuse these concepts.
Strong identification with a group is a general human phenomenon.
A football fan, soldier, doctor, activist, believer, or member of a political movement can strongly identify with a group.

STRONG
GROUP IDENTITY

        ≠

automatically
indoctrination

To assess how a group exerts influence, other factors need to be examined, such as freedom of information, room for differences, authority, social consequences, and the ability to step away voluntarily.

Can a broader identity provide protection?

When a person's entire self-image rests almost entirely on one role, losing that role can be especially hard.
That is why it can be useful to consciously develop multiple parts of your identity.

I AM NOT ALONE...

believer
ex-believer
parent
employee


I AM ALSO...

friend
creator
sports enthusiast
traveler
neighbor
student
music lover
...

A broad identity does not mean that no group is allowed to matter anymore.
It means that one change does not automatically have to take away your whole answer to the question ‘who am I?’.

New groups can also gain influence

After leaving a group, someone may find a strong sense of belonging in a new community.
That can provide support and recognition.
But the same principles of social identity still apply.
A former Jehovah’s Witness, for example, can become deeply involved in an ex-JW community.

OLD GROUP
      ↓
left
      ↓
NEW GROUP
      ↓
there too, norms, language
and a ‘we’ feeling emerge

There is nothing inherently wrong with that.
It is simply useful to leave room within a new group for your own judgment as well.

Criticism of a group is not the same as criticism of you

When a group is important to you, it can help to consciously make a distinction:

‘This person has
criticism of a rule,
teaching or practice’

        ≠

‘This person says
that I, as a person,
am worthless’

The reverse is also true. Criticism of an organization does not have to be a rejection of individual members.
And criticism of former members does not automatically mean that every individual experience is untrue.
That distinction can make conversations less personal.

What can you do with this?

A simple exercise is to give multiple answers to the question:
Who am I?
Not just:
‘I am one of Jehovah’s Witnesses.’
or:
‘I am a former Jehovah’s Witness.’
but more broadly:

I am...

__________

__________

__________

__________

__________

Then look at which identities are mainly shaped by a group and which personal values, interests and relationships also belong to you.
The goal is not to lose your group identity. People need groups.
The goal is to see that you are usually more than one membership.

Questions to think about

• Which groups are important to how I see myself?

• Which group identity feels most personal to me?

• Why does criticism of some groups affect me more strongly than criticism of others?

• Which parts of my identity remain when one group falls away?

• Which roles or interests would I like to develop further?

• Can I belong to a group without experiencing every opinion of that group as part of myself?

• Which groups give me room to be both connected and different?

Summary

Social identity is the part of our self-image that comes from the groups we belong to.
Groups can provide belonging, meaning, pride and support. At the same time, an important group identity can make criticism of the group feel personal, or make the loss of the group feel like the loss of a part of yourself.

ME
  =
personal traits

        +

social identities

For Jehovah’s Witnesses, religious identity can be an important part of self-image. When that identity changes, for some people the question may arise:
‘Who am I now?’
That does not have to mean that someone no longer has an identity.
Often it is about rediscovering and broadening what was already there.
We are rarely just one thing.

Sources and further reading

Henri Tajfel & John C. Turner – An Integrative Theory of Intergroup Conflict, 1979. Foundational elaboration of social identity theory and the distinction between one’s own group and other groups.
Henri Tajfel – Human Groups and Social Categories, 1981. On the way group categories can become part of self-image and intergroup behavior.
John C. Turner et al. – Rediscovering the Social Group: A Self-Categorization Theory, 1987. Further elaboration of how people can see themselves, depending on the situation, as an individual or as a group member.
Michael A. Hogg – Social Identity Theory, 2006. Overview of social-identity processes, group membership, norms and self-image.
Nyla R. Branscombe et al. – The Context and Content of Social Identity Threat, 1999. On situations in which information or events can threaten an important social identity.

Also read

Group identity – How the sense of “us” arises and can influence behavior.
In-group and out-group thinking – How the distinction between “us” and “them” can affect our judgment.
Group loyalty – Why loyalty to a group can become so important.
Social influence – How other people and groups help shape our thoughts and choices.
Need for meaning – Why groups often provide direction, coherence, and meaning.
Internalization – How a group’s norms can become part of your own beliefs.
Being true to yourself – How you can stay connected to others without losing your own values.