Coping with negative social identity: the case of Mexican immigrants.
Social identity theory suggests that an individual's self-concept is shaped through group identification and positive social identities are established by favorably comparing the individual's in-group against an out-group. When unfavorable intergroup comparisons occur, individuals perceive a negative social identity. Because of the motivation to maintain a positive self-concept, this perception creates a need to cope. On the basis of face-to-face interviews with Mexican immigrants, the author examined the ways in which negative social-identity perceptions triggered different coping mechanisms. The findings offer support for two coping mechanisms--individual mobility and social creativity, with social creativity used more often than individual mobility.
Shinnar
Rachel S
RS
Department of Management, Walker College of Business, Appalachian State University, ASU Box 32089, Boone, NC 28608-2089, USA. shinnarrs@appstate.edu
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017058:Mexican Americans / Q000523:psychology*; D008800:Mexico / Q000208:ethnology; D009505:Nevada; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012649:Self Concept; D012933:Social Identification; D013240:Stereotyping