In the month approaching the 2014 Scottish Independence referendum, we tested the Identity-Deprivation-Efficacy-Action-Subjective Well-Being model using an electorally representative survey of Scottish adults ( N = 1,156) to predict voting for independence and subjective well-being. Based on social identity theory, we hypothesized for voting intention that the effects of collective relative deprivation, group identification, and collective efficacy, but not personal relative deprivation (PRD), should be fully mediated by social change ideology. Well-being was predicted to be associated with PRD (negatively) and group identification (positively and, indirectly, negatively). Unaffected by demographic variables and differences in political interest, nested structural equation model tests supported the model, accounting for 82% of the variance in voting intention and 31% of the variance in subjective well-being. However, effects involving efficacy depended on its temporal framing. We consider different ways that social identification can simultaneously enhance and diminish well-being and we discuss ramifications of the model for collective mobilization and separatist nationalism. Findings also suggest new directions for research on social identity, collective efficacy, and collective action.
In the month approaching the 2014 Scottish Independence referendum, we tested the Identity‐Deprivation‐Efficacy‐Action‐Subjective Well‐Being model using an electorally representative survey of Scottish adults (N = 1,156) to predict voting for independence and subjective well‐being. Based on social identity theory, we hypothesized for voting intention that the effects of collective relative deprivation, group identification, and collective efficacy, but not personal relative deprivation (PRD), should be fully mediated by social change ideology. Well‐being was predicted to be associated with PRD (negatively) and group identification (positively and, indirectly, negatively). Unaffected by demographic variables and differences in political interest, nested structural equation model tests supported the model, accounting for 82% of the variance in voting intention and 31% of the variance in subjective well‐being. However, effects involving efficacy depended on its temporal framing. We consider different ways that social identification can simultaneously enhance and diminish well‐being and we discuss ramifications of the model for collective mobilization and separatist nationalism. Findings also suggest new directions for research on social identity, collective efficacy, and collective action.
Five hundred and seventy-three Scottish high school students were surveyed in the 2months following the 2014 referendum on Scotland's independence. We used the Social Identity, Relative Deprivation, collective Efficacy (SIRDE) model of social change to examine the social psychological factors that should have influenced the voting choices of these teenagers. Structural equationmodelling indicated that the SIRDE model fit the data and largely supported four sets of hypotheses derived from the model. Specifically, (1) those with a stronger Scottish identity, (2) those who felt frustrated and angry that Scottish people are discriminated against in British society, and (3) those who believed that Scottish people are not able to improve their relatively poor social conditions within the United Kingdom (a lack of collective efficacy) were more likely to hold separatist beliefs. Further, the relationships between identity, relative deprivation, and collective efficacy, on the one hand, and voting for Scotland's independence, on the other, were fully mediated by separatist social change beliefs. Consistent with the specificity of the model, neither political engagement nor personal relative deprivation were associated with voting choice, whereas the latter was associated with lower life satisfaction. The implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.
Five hundred and seventy-three Scottish high school students were surveyed in the 2 months following the 2014 referendum on Scotland's independence. We used the Social Identity, Relative Deprivation, collective Efficacy (SIRDE) model of social change to examine the social psychological factors that should have influenced the voting choices of these teenagers. Structural equation modelling indicated that the SIRDE model fit the data and largely supported four sets of hypotheses derived from the model. Specifically, (1) those with a stronger Scottish identity, (2) those who felt frustrated and angry that Scottish people are discriminated against in British society, and (3) those who believed that Scottish people are not able to improve their relatively poor social conditions within the United Kingdom (a lack of collective efficacy) were more likely to hold separatist beliefs. Further, the relationships between identity, relative deprivation, and collective efficacy, on the one hand, and voting for Scotland's independence, on the other, were fully mediated by separatist social change beliefs. Consistent with the specificity of the model, neither political engagement nor personal relative deprivation were associated with voting choice, whereas the latter was associated with lower life satisfaction. The implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.
Humans are a profoundly social species, aligning with groups, forming group identification, and navigating the social world. One of the complex tasks of childhood is to understand when exclusion is necessary to make groups work well, and when it is wrong, creating unnecessary harm or unfairness. In this volume the authors grapple with many new aspects of exclusion not previously documented by taking a developmental and social psychological approach. The studies reveal original findings regarding how children both perpetuate and are recipients of exclusion, and the processes that accompany these experiences. In reflecting on the diverse range of work represented in this special issue, various themes emerge, such as the roles of context and norms in children's exclusionary behavior and judgment, the particular forms that exclusionary behavior can take, and the consequences that result as part of the developmental process. Most importantly, given that social identities frame a host of phenomena associated with group‐based exclusionary phenomena, the field should reveal the central role that social identity plays in how exclusion and inclusion are understood.
Introduction. M.Bennett, F. Sani, Children and Social Identity. Basic Issues. D.N.Ruble, J.Alvarez, M.Bachman, J.Cameron, A.Fuligni, C.G.Coll, E.Rhee, The Development of a Sense of 'We': The Emergence and Implications of Children's Collective Identity. F.Sani, M.Bennett, Developmental Aspects of Social Identity. Identities. K.K.Powlishta, Gender as a Social Category: Intergroup Processes and Gender-Role Development. B.David, D.Grace, M.K.Ryan, The Gender Wars: A Self-categorization Perspective on the Development of Gender Identity. M.Barrett, E.Lyons, A.del Valle, The Development of National Identity and Social Identity Processes: Do Social Identity Theory and Self-categorization Theory Provide Useful Heuristic Frameworks for Developmental Research? M.Verkuyten, Ethnic Minority Identity and Social Context. Applications. D.Nesdale, Social Identity Processes and Children's Ethnic Prejudice. A.Rutland, The Development and Self-regulation of Intergroup Attitudes in Children. B.S.Banker, S.L.Gaertner, J.F.Dovidio, M.Houlette, K.M.Johnson, B.M.Riek, Reducing Stepfamily Conflict: The Importance of Inclusive Social Identity. Epilogue. D.Abrams, The Development of Social Identity: What Develops? K.Durkin, Towards a Developmental Social Psychology of the Social Self.
Rule violations are likely to serve as key contexts for learning to reason about public identity. In an initial study with 91 children aged 49 years, social emotions and self-presentational concerns were more likely to be cited when children were responding to hypothetical vignettes involving social-conventional rather than moral violations. In 2 further studies with 376 children aged 49 years, experimental manipulations of self-focused attention (either by leading children to believe they were being video-recorded or by varying audience reactions to transgressions) were found to elicit greater attention to social evaluation following moral violations, although self-presentational concerns were consistently salient in the context of social-conventional violations. The role of rule transgressions in childrens emerging self-awareness and social understanding is discussed.
This paper provides a brief overview of recent developmental research on themes related to children's social identities. Initially, consideration is given to the capacity for social categorization, following which attention is given to children's developing conceptions of social identities, their identification with social groups, and the consequences of identification upon various phenomena such as ingroup favouritism and well-being. Finally, some personal thoughts on the wider political implications of this research are offered. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
This paper provides an account of key findings from a decade-long programme of research on children’s internalisation of social group identities. Our starting point is to note a pervasive failure of previous work to differentiate between categorisation of the self in group terms and subjective identification with a social group. Thus, previous research had sought to cast light on identification with groups but, owing to methodological weaknesses, typically examined only categorisation of the self in group terms. Following a review of relevant literature, we report the findings of our own research which has adapted methods drawn from cognitive social psychology. We conclude that even by the age of 5 years children are capable of subjectively identifying with collectivities. Directions for future research are discussed.
Extending the self-reference effect to the level of group identities, previous research has shown that participants' encoding of trait adjectives with reference to ingroups, facilitates recall relative to a control condition ill which judgments are made about adjectives meanings. We contend that this experimental comparison may have exaggerated the extent of the group reference effect. Two studies are reported that examine this contention. In Study 1 participants encoded adjectives with reference to an ingroup. an outgroup or to its semantic properties. Study 2 was nearly identical but required that adjectives be encoded with reference to an ingroup, the personal self or a specific person other than the self, Notwithstanding the use of more stringent controls, both studies provided evidence for the group reference effect. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
We often have a feeling that we know ourselves much better than others know us, coupled with a feeling that our minds are not transparent to other people. In this article we begin to explore cultural variations in the development of this feeling. Children in Britain and Japan aged 7, 9 and 11 years judged how well they and how well their parent/teacher knew about aspects of the child’s mind (e.g., dreams, feeling sick, feeling hungry). Compared with British children, Japanese children credited adults with relatively large amounts of knowledge about themselves and this was most notable in the youngest group. Differences in patterns of judgements between the two nations could arise from differences in the cultural influences on the rate of development.
The accounts given by those who have violated a rule are likely to have important self-presentational consequences, potentially reducing the negative impact of the breach on social evaluations of transgressors. However, little is known about young children's self-presentational reasoning about such accounts. In the present study, a sample of 120 4- to 9-year-olds responded to rule violation stories where the transgressor uses either an apology, an excuse, or no account. Results showed that whereas children rated both account types similarly in terms of their impact on punishment consequences, even the youngest saw apologies as leading to significantly more positive social evaluation than excuses. Correspondingly, children were more likely to identify prosocial motives for apologies than for excuses, and more likely to identify self-protective motives for excuses than for apologies. Explicit references to self-presentational motives when explaining the accounts increased significantly with age, and were more likely following social-conventional rather than moral rule violations.
The accounts given by those who have violated a rule are likely to have important self-presentational consequences, potentially reducing the negative impact of the breach on social evaluations of transgressors. However, little is known about young children's self-presentational reasoning about such accounts. In the present study, a sample of 120 4- to 9-year-olds responded to rule violation stories where the transgressor uses either an apology, an excuse, or no account. Results showed that whereas children rated both account types similarly in terms of their impact on punishment consequences, even the youngest saw apologies as leading to significantly more positive social evaluation than excuses. Correspondingly, children were more likely to identify prosocial motives for apologies than for excuses, and more likely to identify self-protective motives for excuses than for apologies. Explicit references to self-presentational motives when explaining the accounts increased significantly with age, and were more likely following social-conventional rather than moral rule violations.
The present study sought to determine whether children discriminate between different group types with respect to perceived entitativity, and if so, whether the group properties that determine their perceptions of entitativity differ from those of adults. Ten-year-old children and adults were required to rate 12 social groups on a number of properties, including entitativity. In a further task, participants also sorted 30 social groups into discrete group types. Two major findings emerged. First, over the two tasks both children and adults were found to classify groups in terms of at least four main group types: Intimacy groups, task groups, social categories and loose associations. Second, children and adults appeared to have different perceptions concerning which group properties determine the degree of entitativity of the different group types. In particular children put much more emphasis on the level of interaction among group members whereas adults emphasized the importance of the group among its members. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
This study examined children's understanding of the distinctive 'self-presentational' impacts of moral and social-conventional rule violations. A sample of 80 children aged 7-8 and 9-10 years generated examples of interpersonal events that would upset others and events that would elicit social attention to the self. As expected, both age groups consistently identified moral violations as leading to the former, and deviations from social norms as leading to the latter. Crucially, when children were asked to identify the social-evaluative consequences of those breaches, they exhibited a significant increase with age in recognizing the self-presentational risks of social-conventional deviations.
This study examined children's understanding of the distinctive ‘self-presentational’ impacts of moral and social-conventional rule violations. A sample of 80 children aged 7–8 and 9–10 years generated examples of interpersonal events that would upset others and events that would elicit social attention to the self. As expected, both age groups consistently identified moral violations as leading to the former, and deviations from social norms as leading to the latter. Crucially, when children were asked to identify the social-evaluative consequences of those breaches, they exhibited a significant increase with age in recognizing the self-presentational risks of social-conventional deviations.
Three studies are reported that assess 5-, 7- and 10-year-old children's cognitive inclusion of the ingroup in the self. Each study investigated a different ingroup: gender, family, and age group. Children were shown sets of cards identifying particular trait adjectives and were asked to rate the extent to which the traits applied to the self, the ingroup, and the outgroup. After a distraction task, they were asked to remember for whom (self, ingroup, or outgroup) each trait had been rated. In all studies and for all age groups, the authors found that traits rated for the self were confused more frequently with traits rated for the ingroup than with traits rated for the outgroup. It is concluded that, at least from the age of 5 years, psychologically relevant ingroups have become integral parts of the self-system.
Various researchers have suggested that below 7 years of age children do not recognize that they are the authority on knowledge about themselves, a suggestion that seems counter-intuitive because it raises the possibility that children do not appreciate their privileged first-person access to their own minds. Unlike previous research, children in the current investigation quantified knowledge and even 5-year-olds tended to assign relatively more to themselves than to an adult (Studies 1 and 2). Indeed, children's estimations were different from ratings made by their mothers: Their mothers sometimes rated themselves as knowing more about their child than they rated their child as knowing (Study 2). While previous research seemed to suggest that children shift from viewing their mother to viewing themselves as the authority on knowledge about them (the children), these new findings surprisingly suggest the opposite.
In this article we review research into children's developing understanding that they are the principal authority on knowing about themselves. Past research has suggested that when asked how much they know about their own mind and how much their mother knows, typically developing children below about 7 years respond as if they believe they are not best qualified to answer. Older children, in contrast, come to recognize the value of their privileged subjective access to their inner states and hence identify themselves as the authority on knowing themselves. Recent research that involves interviews with parents identifies a surprising degree of congruence in typically developing 10-year-olds' ratings of how well they know themselves and parents' ratings of how well they think their children know themselves. Younger, children, paradoxically, seemed to exaggerate how well they knew themselves.
Previous research has suggested that children of 5/6 years fail to understand that they are the authority on their own self-knowledge. That is, when asked questions like, 'Who knows best when you are feeling tired?', they tend to cite their mother rather than themselves. Here we report a study that, rather than asking about generalities ('Who knows best what you are thinking?'), presented 5-, 7- 9- and 11-year-children with hypothetical vignettes about specific circumstances in which they were described as either disclosing or not disclosing a specified state to their mother. Children were subsequently asked to judge who would best know the state. Over all age groups children were significantly more likely to identify themselves as authorities on their own self-knowledge when states had not been disclosed to mother than when they had. However, in the case of disclosed states, young children (though not older ones) asserted that, 'mum knows best'. These findings are interpreted as suggesting not that young children entirely fail to understand first person authority, but instead that they make the relatively sophisticated assumption that mothers' interpretive competence is greater than their own.