Who is this "We"? Levels of collective identity and self representations.

“More recently, Gardner and colleagues (Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Gardner, Gabriel, & Lee, 1999) primed IND and COL self-knowledge by having participants read a brief paragraph and circle either first person singular or plural pronouns.”

“In contrast, network theorists like Burt (1997) and such researchers as Belliveau et al.”

“More recently, the distinction between shared memberships and relationships has been highlighted (Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Brickson, 2000), as expanded on below in “Levels of Self.””

“…from other people's self-concepts, recent cross-cultural evidence suggests that individuals' mental representations of self may depend on social aspects of self, such as relationships with others and membership in social groups (Brewer and Gardner 1996; Markus and Kitayama 1991; Triandis 1989).”

“…results in a “depersonalized” sense of self, “a shift towards the perception of self as an interchangeable exemplar of some social category and away from the perception of self as a unique person” (Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987, p. 50, as quoted in Brewer & Gardner, 1996, p. 83).”

“We consider these definitions to apply to collective identity as used here, consistent with a number of recent writers who advocate a shift in terminology from social identity to collective identity (e.g., Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Sedikides & Brewer, 2001; Simon, 1997; Simon & Klandermans, 2001).”

“In this article, the authors first use Brewer’s optimal distinctiveness theory to develop a definition of employee inclusion in the work group as involving the satisfaction of the needs of both belongingness and uniqueness.”

“In contrast, to be inspired, one must engage one's personal identity, that is, one's sense of oneself as a unique individual striving to accomplish personal goals and ambitions ( Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Markus & Kitayama, 1991).”

“…has grown smaller, cross-cultural research collaborations have multiplied, and much is and will continue to be learned about cultural moderators of important psychological processes (e.g., Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Iyengar & Lepper, 1999; Rhee, Uleman, & Lee, 1996; Rhee, Uleman, Lee, & Roman, 1995).”

“Brewer and Gardner (1996) developed an initial version of this task that contrasted we with they.”

“Although focused on the interpersonal level, Brewer and Gardner’s (1996) notion of the relational self is also similar to the notion of solidarity. They conceptualized the relational self as based in individuals’ “role relationships with significant others” in dyads (e.g., mother, friend, sibling) or small coacting gr…”

“For example, participants may be presented with a paragraph describing the behaviors of a single individual who was referred to as ‘‘I’’ or a paragraph in which the same set of behaviors was attributed to a group described as ‘‘we’’ (Brewer & Gardner, 1996).”

“Instead, Brewer and Gardner (1996) postulated that there are three different levels of the " social self " —the individual, relational, and collective levels of self—as distinct self-representations with different identity properties, loci of agency, and motivational concerns (see also Sedikides &…”

“" surfaced both personal identities and social identities (see Brewer and Gardner 1996 for a discussion of personal and social identity).”

“Drawing on work in social psychology (e.g. Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Tajfel & Turner, 1979; Tedeshi, 1981) and sociology (Goffman, 1959), a few organizational researchers have given attention to the processes defining identity at the collective or organizational level.”

“What is paramount is that impersonal bonds can exist and be derived from a common identification with some symbolic group or social category (Brewer & Gardner, 1996).”

“Earlier research has demonstrated that selfconcept is somewhat malleable, and subject to state factors such as the priming of individualist vs. collectivist cultural paradigms (e.g., Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Gardner, Gabriel, & Hochschild, 2002; Gardner, Gabriel, & Lee, 1999).”

“For example, the most recent formulation of the arousal cost-reward model (Dovidio et al., 1991; J. Piliavin et al., 1981) includes the concept of we-ness, described as “a sense of connectedness or a categorization of another person as a member of one’s own group” (Dovidio et al., 1991, p. 102). The model suggests tha…”

“…of individualistic conceptions of self and group processes (e.g., Turner & Oakes, 1986), the conceptual focus is on the collective self—self defined in group terms and connected to fellow group members (cf. Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Oyserman, Coon, & Kemmelmeier, 2002).”

“Finally, collective identities define the self in terms of specific collectives such as groups or organizations, creating a desire to develop in oneself the qualities that are prototypical of these collectives (Brewer & Gardner, 1996).”

“…& Mackey, 2002), founders’ conceptions of their social selves, as manifested in their social motivations, bases of self-evaluation, and views of relevant reference groups, are arguably central to their decision making and their behavior and actions relative to others (Brewer & Gardner, 1996).”

“Unlike social cognition researchers who focus on effects of specific priming stimuli such as I versus we (Brewer & Gardner, 1996) or cultural icons such as Great Walls or Marilyn Monroe (Hong, Morris, Chiu, & Benet-Martinez, 2000), our emphasis is on the entire pool of icons, lay theories, and…”

“…of a hierarchically ordered set of CED organizational attributes, roughly paralleling the social, relational, and personal attribute-sets constituting an individual’s composite identity (Ashforth & Johnson, 2001; Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Brickson, 2000; Mischel & Morf, 2003; Stets & Burke, 2003).”

“…knowledge or in the prevalence of triggering contexts, or both, rather than differences in the availability of different forms per se (Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Brewer & Roccas, 2001; Higgins, 1989b; Higgins & May, 2001; Kitayama et al., 1997; Reid & Deaux, 1996; Trafimow et al., 1991).”

“An extended sense of self may also be more personalized, and be based on the individual’s roles in relationships with significant others such as their family and close friends (Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Sedikides & Brewer, 2001).”

“identity levels identified by Brewer and Gardner (1996) exist as stable properties of the self concept and not only as transient cognitive states.”

“Consistent with the dominant view among identity scholars that group identification is the nexus of individual social identity formation, Brewer and Gardner (1996) noted that the social self emerges from common bonds associated with memberships in interacting groups and from common identities…”

“They focus on the part of the self-concept that captures the way the self relates to groups in general (i.e., they focus on collective identity; Brewer & Gardner, 1996).”

“…interdependence have heretofore been cross-cultural, members of Eastern and Western cultures are capable of displaying both kinds of self-construal (Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Trafimow, Triandis, & Goto, 1991; Triandis, McCusker, & Hui, 1990), as might be expected given the universality of both the…”

“The first series of studies by Brewer and Gardner (1996) focused on aspects of the interdependent (we) self and compared the effects of the we circling task to the control tasks.”

“Moreover, although all theorists acknowledge that allegiance to the collective provides the basis for identification, some have contended that the personal relationships of group members may also promote identification (e.g., Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Postmes et al., 2005; Prentice et al., 1994).”

“The absence of a difference in first-person plural may indicate that the word “we” is not a simple marker of a communal, interdependent mindset (cf. Brewer & Gardner, 1996), rather than indicating doubts about whether women really are rapport oriented.”

“Social bonds can take a relational form by linking people to particular others in close relationships or a collective form by linking people to groups and organizations (Brewer & Gardner, 1996).”

“In addition, individuals also derive a “relational self” from their connections to particular others (Brewer & Gardner, 1996).”

“Group Robustness A person’s feelings of common identity, and the role of the group in his or her life, changes with the situation (Ashforth and Johnson 2001; Brewer 2001; Brewer and Gardner 1996).”

“…of inherent psychological needs, but they fall midway between the physical and the self-transcendent, as they primarily concern the personal, psychological realm of the ego (Freud, 1960); the material–social self (James, 1892/1985); or the individual or relational selves (Brewer & Gardner, 1996).”

“Future work selves can also potentially be considered at other levels of the self-concept (Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Lord et al., 1999).”

“This assumption is consistent with the notion of the self as comprising multiple identities (Brewer & Gardner, 1996) that are hierarchically ordered (Stryker, 1980).”

“According to experimental studies, when individuals identify with a group they are more willing to forego individual gain in order to enhance the collective good ~Brewer & Gardner, 1996!.”

“…identity), although most participants discussed the importance of clear separation vs. a large or small separation of identities.2 Second, this definition suggests that disidentification is a form of “relational” categorization (Brewer and Gardner 1996) defining the organization and the individual.”

“Triandis (1989) spoke of high-contrast dichotomies between cultures when he referred to individualism and collectivism (for a review and theoretical extensions, see Brewer & Chen, 2007; Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Oyserman, 1993; Oyserman et al., 2002).”

“For example, work on stereo-typing (e.g., Oakes, Haslam, & Turner, 1994; Leyens, Yzerbyt, & Schadron, 1994), self-conception (e.g., Abrams, 1996; Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Hogg, 2001b; Reid & Deaux, 1996), motivation (e.g., Abrams & Hogg, 1988; Hogg, 2000b; Rubin & Hewstone, 1998), collective…”

“Aquino and Reed’s traitbased definition of moral identity builds on the work of other writers (e.g., Brewer and Gardner 1996); they argue that traits are the loci of self-definition around which personal identities are structured.”

“Different social groups are often assumed to have different inherent essences (Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Hamilton & Sherman, 1996; Medin, 1989; Rothbart & Taylor, 1992), and these may be used to explain differences of opinion between members of different groups (Miller & Prentice, 1999).”

“Consequently, group identification involves categorical rather than relational ties with others (Brewer and Gardner 1996); when one is identified with a group, one is not relating to other members as unique individual persons, but simply as anonymous members of the same social category who share the…”

“Brewer and Gardner 1996 distinguish three types of identity: personal, collective, and relational.”

“Based on the notion of multiple identities, a person has a network of identities that can be categorized at personal, interpersonal and social/collective levels (Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Brickson, 2000b), or at personal, social and material levels (Ashforth et al., 2008; Skitka, 2003).”

“Drawing on identity theory (Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Lord & Brown, 2004) and regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997, 1998), Johnson et al. (2010) argued that employees can form individual, relational, or collective identities and that these identities can have implications for commitment targets.”

“The importance of role models to disadvantaged individuals makes sense if we consider that stereotype threat activates a collective mindset (thinking “we”) rather than an individual mindset (thinking “me”; see Brewer & Gardner, 1996).”

“Each of these three identity orientations has powerful implications for individuals’ social motivations by cognitively focusing individuals on themselves, their relationship partners, and their social groups, respectively (Brewer and Gardner, 1996; Brickson, 2000a).”

“…and interpersonal relationships (e.g., Andersen & Chen, 2002; Aron, Aron, Tudor, & Nelson, 1991; Baldwin, 1992; Berscheid & Ammazzalorso, 2001; Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Chen, Boucher, & Tapias, 2006; Cross, Bacon, & Morris, 2000; Gardner, Gabriel, & Hochschild, 2002; Leary, Tambor, Terdal, &…”

“In summary, group membership is typically defined in terms of positive evaluation of and preference for those who are similar and automatic devaluation of and negative action against outsiders—a process that has no counterpart within other domains (Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Premack & Premack, 1994).”

“Whereas members of relational groups tend to perceive fellow members of the group as unique and hence irreplaceable members of a larger “family” (Brewer & Gardner, 1996), members of collective groups perceive fellow members as categorically undifferentiated and interchangeable (see e.g., Tajfel &…”

“…interest of psychologists in collec- tive identity and collective guilt is also relevant, as well as the earlier work by Sherif (1936) on social norms (e.g., Abrams & Hogg, 1990; Bran- scombe & Doosje, 2004; Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Deaux, 1996; Sherif, 1936; Simon & Klandemans, 2001; Tajfel, 1974).”