RESPONDING TO NEGATIVE SOCIAL IDENTITY - A TAXONOMY OF IDENTITY MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES

Taken from literature on social identity theory and social comparison theory, 12 strategies of identity management were identified as possib le responses to negative social identity. A taxonomy with two orthogon al axes is proposed as theoretical organization of these diverse strat egies. While the first axis considers responses as being either indivi dual or collective, the second axis refers to the distinction between behaviours and cognitions. It is assumed that the German unification p rocess implied a lower status position of East Germans relative to Wes t Germans on relevant comparison dimensions, and that East Germans hav e to deal with this threat to their identity. Hence, data of ail East German sample are used to empirically systematize identity management strategies, and thus, to test the proposed taxonomy. Results support t he expected four-factor. solution only for those strategies taken from social identity theory, while the responses derived from social compa rison research build a fifth factor. In addition, the empirical assign ments of strategies to cells of the taxonomy are only partly in line w ith the expected pattern. The empirical findings suggest some clarific ation and modifications of the proposed response taxonomy. The most im portant refers to a re-interpretation of the taxonomy's first axis, wh ich now differentiates between responses according to the specific cha nges of the comparison parameters they imply. (C) 1998 John Wiley & So ns, Ltd.