History and Development
Optimal distinctiveness theory was built upon and further extended the assumptions of social identity theory and other models that examine ingroup bias and favoritism (Brewer, 1991, 1996, 2003). Social identity theory, proposed by Tajfel and Turner in 1979, describes the psychological basis of such bias and discrimination (Brewer, 1991; Twente, 2007). The theory asserts that individuals have multiple selves, or multiple social identities, that interact with other people on different, yet necessary levels (Twente, 2007). Social identity is thus created through membership in groups. Tajfel and Turner (1986) suggested that this group membership alone is enough to induce favoritism (or positive bias) towards the ingroup at the expense of the outgroup. This sense of ingroup favoritism was coined “positive distinctiveness” (Tajfel & Turner, 1986) and argued to lead to increased self-esteem based on the new capability for individuals to express themselves as “we” in addition to “I” (a social and personal identity, respectively: Twente, 2007). Brewer suggested that the increased self-esteem could flow from social identity rather than ingroup favoritism. Therefore, she asserted, self-esteem was not an adequate predictor of why individuals sought ingroup memberships (Brewer, 2003).
Other theories have attempted to account for the development of social identity as separate from the personal self, as well as to determine why individuals have a need to assimilate to their desired ingroups. One of these theories in particular, subjective uncertainty reduction theory, was considered by Brewer (1991, 2003) when developing her theory of optimal distinctiveness. In this model, group identity serves as self-categorization for individuals with memberships to those specific groups (Grieve & Hogg, 1999; Reid & Hogg, 2005). The motive underlying such self-categorization is in order to reduce ambiguity, or, alternatively, “achieve meaning and clarity” for oneself in social settings (Brewer, 2003; Grieve & Hogg, 1999; Reid & Hogg, 2005). However, Brewer (1991, 2003) suggests, uncertainty reduction alone does not account for why people continually seek group identification as a necessary part of their lives. Furthermore, Baumeister and Leary (1995) explained this pervasive quest for group membership as a need for belongingness. According to Brewer (1991, 2003), belongingness is an automatic concomitant of group membership and therefore cannot explain or function as a motive for regulating membership and identity.
Read more about this topic: Optimal Distinctiveness Theory
Famous quotes containing the words history and, history and/or development:
“The principle that human nature, in its psychological aspects, is nothing more than a product of history and given social relations removes all barriers to coercion and manipulation by the powerful.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)
“What you dont understand is that it is possible to be an atheist, it is possible not to know if God exists or why He should, and yet to believe that man does not live in a state of nature but in history, and that history as we know it now began with Christ, it was founded by Him on the Gospels.”
—Boris Pasternak (18901960)
“This was the Eastham famous of late years for its camp- meetings, held in a grove near by, to which thousands flock from all parts of the Bay. We conjectured that the reason for the perhaps unusual, if not unhealthful development of the religious sentiment here, was the fact that a large portion of the population are women whose husbands and sons are either abroad on the sea, or else drowned, and there is nobody but they and the ministers left behind.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)