The Importance Of Social Identity Theory

Finally, they will be able to appreciate and understand each other more thus improving intergroup attitudes. Brewer and Miller (1985) decategorisation model proposed that intergroup diversity can be reduced by making the categories meaningless thus reducing biasness. The boundary between the in-group and out-group can be redefined so that an out-group becomes incorporated into a fresh and larger category to form new in-group (Tuner, 1981).
The author tries to pin-point various problems with Social Identity Theory. According to him, Social Identity Theory is on the premise that positive social identity is based on advantageous intergroup evaluations, that a positive dependence exists between forte of the group identification and the quantity of positive intergroup diversity. First, he describes the connection that exists in group identification and in-group bias. In this, he maintains that where group identification is founded on a positive in-group assessment and that if individuals are inspired to realize and/or uphold a constructive social identity, and if in-groups are assessed based on their relation to pertinent out-groups, then there should be a relation between an identification and prejudice. Citing various researches, the author asserts that there is a probability that groups can vary from each other widely in their social identity purposes and these identity functions are not properly captured by Social Identity Theory as prescribed.
Further, the author believes