Social identity theory and the authoritarian personality theory in South Africa
Journal Article
2003
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Authors
Journal Title
South African Journal of Psychology
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
SAGE
Publisher
University of Cape Town
Department
Faculty
License
Series
Abstract
Social identity theory assumes that individuals and collectives apply identity management strategies in order to
cope with threatened social identities. It is argued here that an integration of social identity theory and the
authoritarian personality theory may help to investigate identity management strategies for minority and majority
groups. It was intended to investigate predictors of identity management strategies applied by students at the
University of Cape Town. Analyses are based on a questionnaire survey of 457 university students. Results only
partially confirmed assumptions derived from social identity theory. Group identification and perceptions of
legitimacy were related to the individual identity management strategy, “individualisation”, while the collective
strategy “social competition” was associated with collective efficacy and authoritarianism. Perceptions of
instability and authoritarianism predicted preferences for “temporal comparisons”. ‘Superordinate
recategorisation’ was only very weakly predicted by group identification. The study indicated that social identity
theory and the authoritarian personality theory might play different roles in preferences for identity management
strategies. While social identity theory appears better in explaining individual identity management strategies, the
authoritarian personality theory might be better in explaining collective strategies.
Description
Reference:
Niens, U., Cairns, E., Finchilescu, G., Foster, D., & Tredoux, C. (2003). Social identity theory and the authoritarian personality theory in south africa. South African Journal of Psychology, 33(2), p. 109-117.