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CHAPTER FIVE
THE CONCEPT OF IDENTITY 
INTRODUCTION
Identity is a keyword of contemporary society and a central focus of social psychological 
theorizing and research. At earlier historical moments, identity was not so much an issue; when 
societies were more stable, identity was to a great extent assigned, rather than selected or adopted. 
In current times, however, the concept of identity carries the full weight of the need for a sense of 
who one is, together with an often overwhelming pace of change in surrounding social contexts 
changes in the groups and networks in which people and their identities are embedded and in the 
societal structures and practices in which those networks are themselves embedded.
According to social identity theory, identity competition plays a central role in the 
inception and escalation of intergroup conflict, even when economic and political factors also are 
at play. Individual and group identity competition is considered a byproduct of individuals’ efforts 
to satisfy basic human needs, including various psychological needs. Groups often serve these 
psychological needs more comprehensively and potently than other repositories of cultural 
meaning that contribute to the construction and maintenance of individual and group identities. 
Groups frequently supply cosmologies, moral framework, institutions, rituals, traditions and other 
identity supporting content that answer to individuals’ needs for psychological stability in the form 
of a predictable world, a sense of belonging, self-esteem, and even self-actualization. The peculiar 
ability of group identity to serve the human identity impulse thus may partially explain why 
intergroup conflict so frequently occurs along ethnic, section and religious fault lines.