Distinguishing Between Social Identity and Personal Identity

Social identity refers to how you label yourself depending on the groups to which you belong. For instance, your religion (Catholic, Jewish, atheist), political affiliation (Democrat, Republican, Independent) and vocation (writer, artist, neurosurgeon) can each frame how you approach life and even how others treat you.

You can have more than one social identity group (for example, nationality, gender and socioeconomic status), though some may be more important to you than other labels. Also, society is more accepting of some social identities than others; having AIDS or an addiction may elicit more stigma than pride.

Your own social identity affects how you relate to others. It can foster a sense of solidarity and support within groups but can also lead to in-group bias and out-group discrimination. For example, a hiring manager might display in-group favoritism if they hire someone the person with whom they share social identities instead of the one who is most fit for the role.

In experiments that Henri Tajfel and John Turner carried out, they found that people favored in-group members. They employed the minimal group paradigm (grouping people on flimsy commonalities) to learn more about how it affected in and out groups.

Tajfel and Turner developed social identity theory, which suggests that individuals' self-esteem derives from social identity groups.

Personal and social identities are key elements in your self-concept, but they are not the exact same thing. Social identity is how you define yourself according to your own group membership. Personal identity are the things that make you one of one, such as personal values and individual goals.

Here are a few examples of social identities.

While some social identities will remain the same, many others will evolve through a person's life. For example, a lawyer who formerly specialized in corporate law but who switches to divorce law may change their social identity from a corporate lawyer to a divorce lawyer.

During the years of adolescence, teens undergo the process of defining their own social identities. Experimenting with body piercing, new hairstyles, music preferences, tattoos and different forms of dress are ways in which teens try to fit in with various social groups or decide which group norms are right for them.

We created this article in conjunction with AI technology, then made sure it was fact-checked and edited by a HowStuffWorks editor.