Social Identity Definition

As we have known about the stereotype terms, it is important to understand the term of identity. Oftentimes, stereotype of particular group are formed through group’s identity. Ting-Toomey and Chung (2005, p.86) define the term of identity as “the reflective self-conception or self-image that we each derive from family, gender, cultural, ethnic, and individual socialization processes.” The term of identity is referred as people’s reflective views of themselves and of other perceptions of their self-image. It is supported by Jenkins (2014) that “identity is the human capacity—rooted in language—to know who's who” (p. 6). Significantly, Gee (2008) defined ‘identity’ as being recognized as a certain “kind of person.” Also, he stated that everyone has multiple identities connected to their
The term is defined as a sense of individual that based on his or her group membership (McLeod, 2008). According to Rodriguez and Jaclyn (2015), social identity includes the group connections that are “recognized as being part of the self.” For example, person’s image of herself as a blue-collar worker, or a conservative. It appears that groups give people a sense of social identity and belonging to the social world (McLeod, 2008). Moreover, it could be argued that when people have a sense of belonging to one group, it divides to the different sections, that is, being ‘us’ and being ‘them.’ Therefore, it becomes the in-group and out-group. Furthermore, in-group can possible discriminate against the out-group to enhance their self-image. The in-group and out-group can be shown by, for instance, social class: middle class and working class, or occupation: police and housekeeper (McLeod, 2008). Therefore, social identity is the way people identify themselves which related to other people; for instance, they will identify themselves concerning to religion (Buddhist or Christian), relationship (son, father, brother), and professional (teacher,