Social Identity Theory Essay

Most people, unless they choose to be an outsider, want to be considered “cool.” Whether it’s to fit in with a peer group, or clique, or to impress someone in particular, like a member of the opposite sex, or a potential mate. Or possibly to gain something from an individual for financial or social gain (see “Scamming”).

Mexico’s drugs wars as well as bloody drug cartels are echoed in a controversial folk music genre commonly known as narco corridos or simply as drug ballads. They tell the stories allied to shootouts, drug lords, betrayals including daring criminal operations. Narco corridos are not a new style in Mexican music, in fact, they have been around for years, and they are popular among the old and the young. This genre has evolved to be modern fugitive music that fuses the emotional responses of antique ballads with the tense gravel of mobster rap. From global idols to rural artists documenting their neighborhood current events in the regions subjugated by guerilla war, narco corridos provides the songwriters in their homes with unique but

Identity is what defines us as a person. Everyone one on earth has their own unique identity. To showcase my identity, I created a collage of images and descriptive words, called an identi-kit. This identi-kit shows what I feel like is my identity to myself and the others. My identi-kit identifies me as a mixed martial artist. The identi-kit has images of a deadly shark with mixed martial arts gloves on that say mixed martial arts on the front and fight shorts with the words competitor and warrior on them. It also has descriptive words like “killer instinct” and “fight” which describe my spirit. There are three assumptions that come to question when asking about one’s identity. The first is if you were born with this

The Spanish romance is a story song (ballad) in otosyllabic quatrain. An example of a Spanish romance is “Romance de Delgadina” which can also be heard in a corrido version (“Delgadina” by Lydia Mendoza). Like the Spanish romance, corridos are used to tell stories about historical people, places, and events in Mexico. In The Bracero Experience: Elitelore Versus Folklore, Maria Herrera-Sobek states “Mexican corridos or Mexican folksongs yields valuable information as to the ideology, world view, political, economic, and social situation of the Mexican people.” Some of the Mexican communities saw corridos as oral history, which communicated moral lessons and gave them a reason to be proud of their national identity. The history traveled to communities that did not have the opportunities to receive an education, and allowed them to understand what was going in their

As history evolved, so did the style of the corrido. The corrido was incorporated into different genres of regional music, particularly of the Northern part of Mexico, known as musica nortena. These songs ranged from love ballads to songs that make political statements and even stories about what Wald calls “smuggle stories” (Wald 3). Many were written about legendary figures like Pancho Villa (Quinones 27). The norteno group Los Tigres Del Norte is given the credit for officially taking corridos to the next level- that of narcocorridos and giving the grounds for which the narcocorrido takes off. They sing about the rise of drug traffic in the US-Mexico borderlands as well as about the injustices that Mexicans and Mexican-Americans have faced and continue to face in El Norte, a very popular nickname for the United States. Los Tigres del Norte (who originate from the United States) never fail to make a political statement, shedding light on controversial issues such as the rising power of the drug cartels in Mexico, which results because they present an alternative to poverty that Mexicans face every day. The following are two stanzas from a corrido by Los Tigres del Norte:

Social identity theory proposed by Tajfel & Turner (2004) is a theory of group membership and behaviour which has made significant contributions in explaining in-group favouritism, out-group denigration, competition and other interactions of an individual among social groups (Korte, 2007; Brown, 2000; Tajfel & Turner, 2004). Social identity theory can be defined as an individual’s sense of who they are based on the group that they belong to through a process of self-categorisation and depersonalisation (Tajfel & Turner, 2004). In this essay, I will define social identity theory through its three mental processes involved in group evaluation which are: social identification which is a process whereby we are placed into certain

From the beginning of time, history has never been proven wrong that governmental and politician involvement has affected many communities in a negative demeanor. A prime example of history is The Mexican Revolution during the 1910’s which sought the eradication of injustice and exploitation of disenfranchised communities. For that reason, we see the creation of the most single popular Mexican Corrido a narrative song and poetry form, a ballad. The prominent components of the corrido include an introduction (usually indicates a date/ place), conflict (message of the song) and farewell. In addition, through magnification we can see the majority of these ballads emphasized the oppression of peasants and socially relevant ideologies. Surely, corridos

Mexican-American corridos are songs that emerged due to the border changes and conflicts that arose in the middle of the nineteenth century. These songs were related to real people and events that encountered the oppression that was given to them. Overall, border corridos changed from being about “love and loss” to being about current border issues, entry of Anglo-Americans into Mexican territories, and other causes of tension between these two ethnic groups on opposite ends of the spectrum. (slides) The subject for the songs were known to have defied greater authority, have received help from the common

A group identity gives a population a sense of belonging; it helps them to connect and interact with like-minded individuals, which leads to people feeling like they belong. One of the strongest examples of this is through sports and its fans. People from all different walks of life come together and identify with a sports organization and what it stands for. For sports organizations, each individual team has its own different identity behind which fans are distinguished, new teams are able to create their own cultures whether it's through an expansion team or a relocation, and personally, as a sports fan, losing your team can lead to you challenging and even changing what you identify with.

My identity is something that that no one can take away from me. As I am still growing and learning, I can say that I have found many things that appeal to me. My interests will help define my personality and express myself in ways that I can’t express through words. I enjoy finding new things to do and doing my best in aiming towards my goals. I have many goals, but I know that I can only accomplish them through patience and perseverance.

In the article “Welcome to Tijuana”: Popular Music on the US–Mexico Border. Sociology and Social Researcher Elena Dell’Agnese studies popular music on the US-Mexico border. This study shows that classic corrido is the most popular along with other hydbrid types of music. These different types of music show that the US-Mexico border is very mixed. Elena starts off the article stating that since the sixties there have been many different branches of research over popular music focusing on a certain location and tradition. She then goes in to describe the first most popular music type discovered on her study case. Corrido was recorded as the most popular and most ancient of all the music genres in the area of the border. A corrido is a Mexican

Our perception of our identity is constantly changing, the groups we belong to, the people we talk to and the way we connect with others help to form our identity. There is one thing we all have in common despite our individual identities, is the need to belong. There’s no obligation to belong to only one group, you can belong to many. An individual can belong to many groups, which will then create multiple identities; hence our understanding of identity is never constant. Belonging to a loving family, group of caring friends that help us to develop our own sense of self. However, belonging can have a negative side. For example our families might have an expectation of us to do something that might alter our ambitions and interfere with

To be an American is to have traits of freedom the thing that the founding fathers counted on is to have the will to speak freely and to have the will of religion in the constitution it say that every citizen should have life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This impacts and brings everyone from different places to help create a society that is free. The founding fathers also counted for the people to speak for what is right. The reason is because this helps out on what the people want instead of the government wants this goes to show that the people matter and that is what makes a person happy and also makes a person feel like they have the pursuit to be happy.

My family shaped my personal and social identity at a micro level by being the first set of influencers the moment I was born. My personal identity is significantly influenced by my family through the approach that my parents have taken to raise and nurture me. The results of my parents raising me is shown through the behaviour and beliefs that I embody. For example, because of my family I have always been aware that there is a God. In consequence, my compliant behaviour towards religion has already been constructed at a young age. Moreover, my social identity’s structure was shaped by my family through they way they have socially interacted with me. My micro level interactions with my family throughout time has created a deeply rooted influence within me. The influence that my family has had on my social identity is demonstrated in the way that I respond in certain social situations. For example, through behavioural observation as a child I have learned not to speak back to my parents when they are lecturing me.

Who are you? Who am I? These are questions that we all ponder at some point or another in our lives. As human beings we are seemingly inundated with the desire to classify and categorise. We are constantly defining and analysing the differences that we observe in the world, it seems only natural that we would apply this method of classification to our position within our society. More specifically, we want to understand our social identities and this can be achieved by acknowledging which groups we identify most with.