Psychology: Identification With a Group When a

Psychology: Identification with a Group When a person finds himself or herself identifying with a group, there are usually several factors that influence those patterns of identification. Most notably, these are common factors such as race, ethnicity, income levels, a shared problem or issue, education, or other deciding factors that cause individuals to form opinions about one another (Tajfel & Turner, 1986).

Some people identify with others more strongly and some have more tenuous bonds, but the majority of people who identify with a group do so because of the similarities but also because they feel the bond with the group. There are things in that group to which the person can relate, and when a group is relatable that group is much more likely to be identified with by others (Tajfel & Turner, 1986).

Overall, some individuals who are focused on a particular group find more to "like" about that group than others would find, but the bond between the person and the group must be there for the identification to take place strongly enough for the person to side with or relate to the group. With any group identification process, there are factors that influence the strength of identification.

In other words, a person may "belong" to several different groups but only identify with one group because the other groups do not have strong enough factors or bonds (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). For a person who is an academic, for example, other academic groups may be very important while groups that relate to things such as race or gender may not be as significant.

The way a person sees himself or herself will affect the strength of the identification that person has with any group, and that is something to consider from the standpoint of the person and the standpoint of the group. Someone who identifies with a particular group will often have ties to more than one group, but he or she will identify with a particular group on the strongest level and other groups will go by the wayside (Tajfel & Turner, 1986).

Personal space and territoriality are not the same (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). What a person needs for his or her actual space and how a person builds a territory to which he or she belongs are very different. Personal space is generally what is needed for a person to feel as though he or she is not being "crowded" and that he or she has some room to move and breathe and be comfortable.

When people are too close to one another - either physically or emotionally - they lack personal space and this makes them distinctly uncomfortable because people are "wired" to have space that belongs only to them (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). However, if one allows those people to expand their personal space beyond what the majority of people need to survive and be comfortable, those people then begin to develop a territory.

If that territory is later challenged - through physical or mental ways - the person may fight back and attempt to hold that territory, even though it is much more than the person actually needs (Tajfel & Turner, 1986). People understand the need to develop a territory in some instances (like sales, for example) and they also understand when to allow others to be in their territory because many things have to be shared.

This is somewhat different from the way the animal kingdom handles territory, because the majority of animals develop a territory and then insist it is theirs. They will vigorously defend it to the point of death if necessary, and that is especially true for males of most species (Tajfel & Turner, 1986). While human.