Social Identity Theory

Tajfel and Turner (1979) proposed that there are three mental processes involved in evaluating others as 'us' and 'them'. These take place in a particular order. They said that the groups (such as social class, family, etc) were important to pride. They said that belonging to groups is important to giving a sense of belonging to the world.

As a result of this the world is divided into 'us' and 'them' due to the process of social categorisation and the order of importance. We categorise objects/people in order to understand them and identify them in the social environment.

When we have categorised ourselves into a group, we adopt the identity of those in that group. There is emotional significance with the group that you belong to. The next stage in the social identity theory is called social comparison. This is when we have categorised ourselves into a particular group and then begin to compare you and your group to a different social group. This is very common when it comes to music tastes as music tastes vary and differ so hugely, so skinheads and hippies are complete opposites and don't get in because they are both of different social groups.