BROWN_British_Journal_of_Social_Psychology_OCT_2019_author_copy.pdf (684.08 kB)
The social identity approach: appraising the Tajfellian legacy
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 19:31 authored by Rupert BrownSince its original formulation, Tajfel’s Social Identity Theory (SIT) has broadened considerably from its original focus on intergroup relations and is now applied to a wide range of phenomena. Indeed, the ‘social identity approach’ has become one of the most widely used perspectives in contemporary social psychology. In this article, I examine the popularity of Tajfel’s writings on social identity and intergroup relations, especially over the last thirty years when they started to become more generally used. I offer a critical appraisal of the original SIT, both as a theory of intergroup relations and as a theory of identity, concluding that its real value lies in its success in offering an over-arching perspective on the importance of groups in social life and its ability to stimulate new areas of research. I then widen the discussion to consider how the social identity perspective has been used in a number of other fields of enquiry.
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Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Journal
British Journal of Social PsychologyISSN
0144-6665Publisher
British Psychological SocietyExternal DOI
Page range
1-21Department affiliated with
- Psychology Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2019-11-01First Open Access (FOA) Date
2020-11-07First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2019-10-31Usage metrics
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