When the World Understands Me... And My Alignment with the Group. From Self-verification to Verification of One's Group Identity
- Gómez Jiménez, Ángel
- Morales Domínguez, José Francisco
- Huici Casal, Carmen
- Gaviria, Elena
- Jiménez, Juan
ISSN: 1577-7057
Year of publication: 2007
Volume: 7
Issue: 2
Pages: 213-236
Type: Article
More publications in: International journal of psychology and psychological therapy
Abstract
How do we see ourselves? How do we think other people see us? And how would we like others to see us? The answers that humans have considered for these questions separately and the relation among them, have been the focus of attention of an important set of studies in social psychology since several decades. However, although this question has been studied deeply at the individual level by self-verification theory, the collective and the group levels need to be explored. Verification is an additional proof that something that was believed is correct. The main aim of the present paper is to argue that verification phenomena stem from a motive that manifests itself not only at the individual and the collective level but at the group level as well. We propose that feeling that one is understood when aligned with a group represents a fundamental line of research for intergroup relations and needs to be explored. In addition, we will try to establish a bridge between two important lines of research in social psychology: the self and social identity theory.