ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes the social identity approach to group processes. The social identity approach was developed to provide a metatheoretical framework that, uniquely in social psychology, insisted that researchers should articulate theoretical constructs at the social cognitive, social interactive, intergroup, and societal levels (see Abrams & Hogg, 2004). This metatheory was couched as an alternative, antidote, and rival to extant theories of intragroup and intergroup behavior that were based on interpersonal relationships, costs and rewards, personality, or cognitive biases. Fundamentally, according to the social identity approach, intragroup and intergroup behavior both have to be conceived of as deriving from the value and meaning that a group has for its members within its social context. Because another chapter in this volume (Dovidio, Gaertner, & Thomas) concentrates on intergroup relations, the focus here will be primarily on the nature and structure of social identity and its implications for processes within groups, including cohesiveness and commitment, leadership, influence, and deviance.
