The Social Self: On Being the Same and Different at the Same Time
Brewer's paper introduces optimal distinctiveness theory, and its starting point is a criticism of how psychology had treated the self. Most theories described an individual concept, separate from other people, when in practice a great deal of self-definition comes from groups. Her model explains which groups. Two opposing needs operate at once: a need to belong, to be like others and included, and a need to be distinct, to be someone in particular rather than one of a mass. A group that is too large and too inclusive satisfies the first and starves the second; a purely individual self-definition does the reverse. So people settle on identities that are distinctive category memberships, groups big enough to belong to and small enough to mean something. The prediction that follows is the interesting one: loyalty and identification should be strongest for the groups that deliver both at once, not for the largest or the smallest. An initial experiment supported it. This vault cites the theory whenever the question is why people choose the groups they choose.
Brewer's paper introduces optimal distinctiveness theory, and its starting point is a criticism of how psychology had treated the self. Most theories described an individual concept, separate from other people, when in practice a great deal of self-definition comes from groups. Her model explains which groups. Two opposing needs operate at once: a need to belong, to be like others and included, and a need to be distinct, to be someone in particular rather than one of a mass. A group that is too large and too inclusive satisfies the first and starves the second; a purely individual self-definition does the reverse. So people settle on identities that are distinctive category memberships, groups big enough to belong to and small enough to mean something. The prediction that follows is the interesting one: loyalty and identification should be strongest for the groups that deliver both at once, not for the largest or the smallest. An initial experiment supported it. This vault cites the theory whenever the question is why people choose the groups they choose.
Written from the abstract, OpenAlex.
What our sources record
Reproduced as it was written when this source was checked, figures and all.
Brewer, M. B. (1991). “The social self: On being the same and different at the same time.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17(5), 475-482.
Where we use it
- Cliques Are a Stress Response, Why We Belong
Reliability of this reference
The link below was matched against the publisher's record on title, first author and year, and all three agree.
The source
https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167291175001
DOI: 10.1177/0146167291175001