Sonia Roccas' and Marilynn Brewer's Concept of Social Identity Complexity

Khukhlaev O.E.
PhD in Psychology, Professor, Head of the Chair of Ethnopsychology and Psychological Problems in Multicultural Education, Moscow State University of Psychology & Education, Moscow, Russia
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4620-9534
e-mail: huhlaevoe@mgppu.ru

Khayt M.A.
Student at the Department of Social Psychology, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education

PDF (RUS)
Online translation in english

The paper addresses the concept of social identity complexity developed by Sonia Roccas and Marilynn Brewer. Social identity complexity is regarded as one's acknowledged membership in various groups providing that their values are differentiated and integrated. The paper describes four types of multiple identity of which only the last one implies true complexity: intersection, dominance, compartmentalization, and merger. It is also shown that the level of complexity can be affected by social experience, values (including cultural ones), individual differences in complex information preferences, situational factors.

Keywords: social identity, types of multiple identity, cognitive complexity, ingroup, social identity complexity, multiple identity

Column: Theoretical Research

For Reference

Khukhlaev O.E., Khayt M.A. Sonia Roccas' and Marilynn Brewer's Concept of Social Identity Complexity. Sotsial'naya psikhologiya i obshchestvo = Social Psychology and Society, 2012. Vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 16–26. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

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