The concept of ''Social Identity Complexity'' (Roccas and Brewer, 2002) is a theoretical construct that refers to an individual's subjective representation of the interrelationships among his or her multiple group identities.
Social identity complexity reflects the degree of overlap perceived to exist between groups of which a person is simultaneously a member.
Roccas and Brewer report that membership in many different groups (multiple social identities) can lead to greater social identity complexity, which can foster the development of superordinate social identities and global identity, making international identity more likely in individualist cultures (see Tajfel & Turner
986
Year 986 ( CMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* August 17 – Battle of the Gates of Trajan: Emperor Basil II leads a Byzantine expeditionary force (30,000 me ...
for a review of
social identity theory
Social identity is the portion of an individual's self-concept derived from perceived membership in a relevant social group.
As originally formulated by social psychologists Henri Tajfel and John Turner in the 1970s and the 1980s, social id ...
).
Social identity complexity may be a crucial factor to consider in applying social psychological models of bias reduction.
Poetics
Poetics is the study or theory of poetry, specifically the study or theory of device, structure, form, type, and effect with regards to poetry, though usage of the term can also refer to literature broadly. Poetics is distinguished from hermeneu ...
– like
coolitude
Khal Torabully is a Mauritian poet. Born in Mauritius in 1956, in the capital city Port Louis, his father was a Trinidadian sailor and his mother was a descendant of migrants from India and Malaya.
Work
Khal Torabully left for Lyon in 1976, ...
or
creolization
Creolization is the process through which creole languages and cultures emerge. Creolization was first used by linguists to explain how contact languages become creole languages, but now scholars in other social sciences use the term to describe ...
– have used the
rhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome ( ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and Shoot (botany), shoots from its Node (botany), nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from ...
to refer to multiple identities.
Social identity complexity has also been applied heuristically in other fields, like in Theology (e.g. by J. Kok and others), specifically in New Testament studies to study the complexity of identity and boundaries in the New Testament and Early Christianity. This kind of approach can then be used to reflect critically on ways that Christianity forms identity and how to deal with conflict and mediation.
References
* Roccas, S. & Brewer M. B. (2002). Social identity complexity. ''Personality and Social Psychology Review'', 6, 88 - 106
doi:10.1207/S15327957PSPR0602_01* Tajfel, H. & Turner, J. C. (1986). The social identity theory of inter-group behavior. In S. Worchel & W. G. Austin (Eds.) ''Psychology of intergroup relations'' (2nd ed., 7 - 24). Chicago, IL: Nelson Hall.
* Miller, K. & Brewer, M. B. & Arbuckle, N. L. (2009) Social Identity Complexity: Its Correlates and Antecedents. ''Group Processes & Intergroup Relations'', (2009 Vol 12, 79–94). Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC: SAGE Publications.
* Kok, J. (2014).‘Social Identity Complexity Theory as heuristic tool in New Testament Studies’, HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 70(1), Art. #2708, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/hts.v70i1.2708
Collective identity