How Social Identity Shapes the Working Self-Concept

This research investigates the process by which salient ingroups alter the working self-concept. The antagonism account, exemplified by self-categorization theory, contends that when ingroups are salient, the collective self defines the self-concept whereas the individual self recedes. In contrast, an adaption account argues that the individual self operates as a stable source of self-definition. While the working self-concept may flexibly incorporate aspects of salient ingroups, attributes that define the individual self are always actively represented. We also considered the ingroup's psychological utility as a moderator of its influence on the self-concept. To directly test these hypotheses, we manipulated the salience of an ingroup previously rated as either low or high in psychological utility and asked participants to classify traits as self-descriptive or not. When ingroups were made salient, participants increasingly endorsed ingroup traits as self-descriptive. Critically, this effect mainly emerged for groups with high psychological utility. Contrary to the antagonism account, but consistent with the adaption account, the impact of individual self-traits on the self-concept did not diminish as a result of ingroup salience.