Social Identity Theory

Social Identity on a National Scale Optimal distinctive theory and self-categorization theory hold that association moderately distinctive social categories should be more central to self-conception. The University of Kent has down a few studies to prove that optimal distinctiveness and young people’s expression through musical preference. Children are often characterized by their tendency to associate with peers rather than their parents, to rely on networks of friends with musical, sporting and other subcultures. These theories and studies help us revolutionize the understanding of a child’s musical preference. Social identity is a piece of an individual’s self-concept derived from participating in a social group of similarity. It has
Psychological studies have proven that children hold clear expectations about following a certain genre of music and that genres are based on different lifestyle choices. These music preferences can for lifelong friendships. Brewer proposed that adolescents may maintain optimal distinctiveness by immersing themselves in a subculture to which they conform very strictly, but which makes them very unusual or distinctive to majority or outgroup members. Self-categorization theory and optimal distinctiveness theory would predict that the intermediate categories would provide both some uniqueness and a degree of understanding. Those who identify with the superordinate categories of pop/rock music will identify less with those categories than will young people who express a preference for intermediate categories. Youth identification has been classified many ways. First, a young person identifying strongly with a genre of music should spend all their time and money in to it. Second, when identifying strongly with a genre of music you should dedicate your time to the people that listen to the same genre and spend less time alone. There should always be a relationship between the social distinctiveness of respondent’s music style and their engagement in behaviors relevant to commitment and identification with that
They explored whether popularity was related to familiarity with the styles of music. Subjects were given a piece of paper listing the musical styles. They were then asked to rate each style according to familiarity and popularity. Familiarity was measured by asking ‘Have you ever heard or do you know about the type of music?’, this was answered numerically 1 being the lowest and 4 being the highest. Perceived popularity was measured by asking ‘How popular is each category of music among 18-20 years olds in the UK?’ This was also measured numerically. When calculating the results each participants rankings correlated to one another and with the rank ordered objective popularity ranks from study 1. These results show that objective popularity of musical styles in the large survey in Study 1 was quite accurately perceived, even with a two year lag, among young people in the age cohort. In conclusion the evidence offers a unique picture of the relationship between the distinctiveness of musical styles and their likely significance for young people’s identity and related behavior. The studies helped to prove the relationships between self-categorization theory and optimal distinctiveness. Adult society looks at the youth music as deviant or destructive, when really these musical forms serve as a positive role in children’s