Self and Collective: Cognition and Social Context

TLDR

Self‑categorization theory distinguishes personal from social identity, explaining group processes as shifts in self‑perception and emphasizing that self‑categorization is fluid, context‑dependent, and socially comparative. Variability in self‑categorization gives perceivers behavioral and cognitive flexibility, ensuring cognition is always shaped by social context.

Abstract

The relationship between the self and the collective is discussed from the perspective of self-categorization theory. Self-categorization theory makes a basic distinction between personal and social identity as different levels of self-categorization. It shows how the emergent properties of group processes can be explained in terms of a shift in self perception from personal to social identity. It also elucidates how self-categorization varies with the social context. It argues that self-categorizing is inherently variable, fluid, and context dependent, as sedf-categories are social comparative and are always relative to a frame of reference. This notion has major implications for accepted ways of thinking about the self: The variability of self-categorizing provides the perceiver with behavioral and cognitive flexibility and ensures that cognition is always shaped by the social context in which it takes place.