ABSTRACT
Among many important contributions Marilynn Brewer has made to theory and research in social psychology and human behavioral research is the trichotomization of self identities—individual, relational, and collective selves (Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Brewer & Chen, 2007; Sedikides & Brewer, 2001). The important distinction between the relational self, defined in terms of connections and role relationships with significant others, and the collective self, defined in terms of prototypical properties that are shared among members of a common in-group, has fundamentally changed our understanding of gender difference in interdependence (Cross & Madson, 1997; Gabriel & Gardner, 1999) and clarified decades of confusion in the cross-cultural dimension of individualism and collectivism (Brewer & Chen, 2007). In this chapter, we argue and borrow findings from a recent study by Chen & Brewer (2010) to propose the usefulness and importance of the distinction between relational self and collective self in the procedural justice research. In doing so, we hope to not only celebrate Marilynn’s lifelong contributions, but to also stimulate thoughts on how the relational versus collective distinction might be of use to other domains in social psychological and organizational research.
