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In contrastto Hogg and his colleagues ories. The third area involves the core
(Hogg,Terry,and White1995),we see sub- processesthatarise once an identity is acti-
stantial similaritiesand overlap between vated. In thisregard we discussthe cognitive
socialidentitytheoryand identity theory.We processes of depersonalization (in social
thinkthat thisoverlap will
ultimately cause identity theory)andself-verification (in iden-
these theoriesto be linkedin fundamental titytheory) as well as the motivational
ways,thoughwe do not thinkthattimehas processes of self-esteem(in social identity
come.To showhowsucha mergeris possible, theory)andself-efficacy (in identitytheory).
we outline some important similarities For thoseless familiarwithsocialidenti-
betweenthe theories;at the same timewe tytheoryand identity theory,we beginwitha
notethedifferences in language,orientation, briefreviewoftheconceptofidentity as used
and coverageofthetwotheoriesas theycur- in boththeories. Thenwe reviewthetheories
rentlyexist.' on the pointsidentifiedabove,witha focus
We believethatthreeareasare centralto on identifying thewaysin whicheach might
linkingthetwotheories.Firstare the differ- reinforce and complement theother.To out-
entbases ofidentity in thetwotheories:cate- line identityin thetwotheories, we firstdis-
gories or groups for social identity theory, cusshoweach theoryconceptualizes theself.
and rolesforidentity theory. A relatedissue
is the place ofpersonidentities. The second THE CONCEPT OF IDENTITY
area is the activationof identitiesand the
conceptofsalienceas usedin each ofthethe- In socialidentitytheoryand identity the-
ory,the selfis reflexivein thatit can take
* An earlierversionof thispaper was presentedat itselfas an objectand can categorize, classify,
the 1998 meetings of the American Sociological or nameitselfinparticular waysinrelationto
Association,held in San Francisco.We wish to thank othersocial categoriesor classifications. This
membersof the Social PsychologyGraduateTraining processis called self-categorization in social
Seminar in the Department of Sociology at
WashingtonState Universityfor theirhelpfulcom-
identity theory (Turner, Hogg, Oakes,
mentson an earlier versionof thispaper. Direct all Reicher,andWetherell1987);in identity the-
correspondence to Jan E. Stets, Department of ory it is called identification(McCall and
Sociology,WashingtonState University, Pullman,WA Simmons1978).Throughtheprocessof self-
99164-4020;e-mailstets@wsu.edu.
1 We recognize that this goal is a moving target categorization an identity
or identification, is
because both theoriesare underactivedevelopment. formed.
224