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Self‐aspects as social categories: the role of personal importance and valence
Author(s) -
Simon Bernd,
Hastedt Claudia
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
european journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1099-0992
pISSN - 0046-2772
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-0992(199906)29:4<479::aid-ejsp939>3.0.co;2-m
Subject(s) - psychology , social psychology , ingroups and outgroups , categorization , outgroup , valence (chemistry) , social identity theory , construal level theory , self enhancement , social comparison theory , self concept , self , social group , philosophy , physics , epistemology , quantum mechanics
Building on a self‐aspect model (SAM) of the individual self and the collective self, the authors hypothesized that personally important and positive aspects of the self would facilitate the construal of a collective self. Following a self‐description task, research participants selected either two positive or two negative self‐aspects. One aspect in each pair had to be of high personal importance and one of low personal importance. Then, measures of self‐categorization, perceived ingroup and outgroup homogeneity and intergroup differentiation were administered. Our hypothesis received convergent support from all measures. It is concluded that personally important and positive self‐aspects are very likely to function as meaningful social categories. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.