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CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
A. Identity
Identity defined as one’s personality or one’s behavior which makes a
person or group different from others (Tajfel and Turner, 1986). It means,
someone’s identity can be seen from the way someone thinks, as well as the
way someone behaves. The way a person behaves is different from the way
the others behave. A person’s point of view is also different from the others’
point of view. However, people who belong to the same community, or group
tend to act in a similar way and to have similar way of thinking.
Identity itself can be categorized as individual identity or personal
identity and social identity. Individual identity is one’s identity which cannot
be interfered by other people’s identity. For example, one’s identity is a
female. It has nothing to do with his friend’s individual identity or anybody’s
identity. Therefore, this personal or individual identity only focused on one’s
identity and not being influenced by others’ identity (Oyserman, Elmore &
Smith, 2012).
Meanwhile, social identity is one person’s identity which related to
his or her position in social community or group membership. Someone’s
social identity has something to do with other people around him or her, as
well as groups or social communities surround him or her. Social identity is
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related to a person’s role related to group membership (Stets and
Burke, 2000).
According to Tajfel and Turner (1986), a person’s social identity is
highly influenced by his or her surroundings, and might as well influence her
surroundings, including other people’s social identity and groups or social
communities he or she belong to. It is because their environment or the group
they belong to influence their behavior. A collage student, for example, has a
different schedule and duty from an office worker or a farmer. This facts
cause a person who has a status as a member of collage student community to
have a different behavior from those who belong to the office worker
community or the farmer community. The other example is a father who has
a different way of thinking from a bachelor. They have different
responsibility because a father has to consider his child, and probably his
wife, too. Meanwhile, a bachelor does not have to.
However, it is possible for a person to be the member of more than
one group or community (Tajfel and Turner, 1986). The example of people
who belong to more than one group are a father who has an occupation as an
office worker and a bachelor who is also an office worker. Both belong to the
office worker community, but they have different status. One is a father, and
the other one is a bachelor. Therefore, there is a possibility for the father and
the bachelor to act or think in a different way when they face a certain
situation. However, they might also share similar behavior or way of thinking
since they both are office workers. This kind of situation where a person
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belong to more than one group is pretty normal in our society because there
are plenty of groups or communities in our society.
1. The Process of Social Identity Formation
Tajfel and Turner (1986) developed social identity theory which
shows three processes of identity formation. They are self categorization,
social identification, and social comparison. The stages are related to each
other.
a. Self Categorization
Self categorization is the process of a person identifying or
categorizing himself/ herself as a member of a certain group or communities.
This is the very first stage where a person identify himself/ herself as a
person, and in relation to the group he or she belongs to. This person does not
bother to look at the other group where he or she does not belong to.
In self categorization stage, people are mostly focused on themself
and their own group or community. They are not aware of other groups and
the people outside their community (Tajfel and Turner, 1986).
b. Social Identification
In social identification process, people become more aware of their
group or community. They start to identify the norms and attitudes of the
members of their group, then tend to imitate their behavior. People who
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belong to the same community have high possibilities to influence each other
through their interaction. Therefore, people who belong to the same group or
community have similar behavior and way of thinking because their nature to
imitate each other. The similarities of the group’s members can be seen, not
only by the members of the group, but also by the people outside the group.
In this stage, people start to give attention to those who belong to
different groups, including the behavior of those groups’ members. The term
to call people who belong to the same group is in-group, and the term used to
call those who belong to different group is out-group. In short, they are aware
of the out-group (Social Categorization and Stereotyping, 2012). Not only
identifying their own group’s behavior, but people also identify the
out-group’s behavior in the social identification process. They know what
makes the in-group different from the out-group.
c. Social Comparison
Social comparison is a process where in-group is being compared to
the out-group. In the previous stage, the social identification process, a person
identify their own group and the other groups in a separated way. He or she
simply finds the differences between the in-group and the out-group.
Meanwhile, in this stage, a person tends to compare himself/ herself to the
member of the other group or community. In the bigger scale, it is possible
that the comparison happens between groups in general (Tajfel and Turner,
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1986). For example, group A compares the whole group to group B, in term of
the characteristic of the group.
In social comparison process, they might compete themselves or their
groups to the others. Therefore, they can decide which group is better. Not
only deciding which group is better, but each group will also try to achieve
the position as the better, or even the best. It is possible for a person to adapt
the other people’s behavior in order to make himself/ herself better. A whole
group also has a high possibility to do the same in order to improve their
group. Therefore, the out-group will be able to see more positive points from
their in-group.
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2. The Relation between Each Process of Social Identity Formation
Figure 1: Social Identity Theory. Reprinted from social Identity Theory Tajfel
and Turner 1979,
In Age of the Sage, n.d., Retrieved October 14, 2017, from
http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/psychology/social/social_identity_theory.htm
l
According to the figure of social identity theory above, a person will
have individual identity or personal identity before forming his or her social
identity. The personal identity comes as his or her own identity which focused
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only on himself/ herself as an individual human being. After he or she can
identify himself/ herself in a personal scale, he or she began to form the social
identity where he or she is placed as a group member.
The processes of social identity formation are self categorization,
social identification, and social comparison. Self categorization is the process
when a person categorize himself/ herself as a member of a certain group or
community. This process is continued by social identification process where
this person begins to imitate the norms, behavior, and the point of view
shared in the group he or she belongs to. According to the Figure 1, a person,
or even a group, go through social categorization where they categorize
in-group and out-group during this process.
Social categorization itself is the process where we place individuals
as a member of a certain group, whether they are the member of our group, or
the member of the other groups. For example, the categorizations of group A
are talkative, fast runner, and like to drink isotonic water. Thus, when we see
a person who is talkative and a fast runner, as well as has a habit to drink
isotonic water, we place him as a member of group A (Social Categorization
and Stereotyping, 2012).
Through this action, social comparison happened. A person, or even
the group he or she belong to in general, compare the group or its members to
the other groups or the other groups’ members. In social comparison process,
a person might be, or might not be satisfied with his group. Therefore, they
often adapt the positive points of the other groups in order to develop their
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own group to be a better group. In other words, the groups compete against
each other to see which group is better, or even to decide which group is the
best.
When the dissatisfied social identity in the social comparison
happened, it causes the urge to change the social identity. The change mostly
focused on the positive points of the other groups. Therefore, the act of a
group or a member of a group who adapt the other groups’ positive point has
a high possibility to happen.
This satisfied and dissatisfied social identity as shown in Figure 1
show that someone’s identity consist of personal or individual identity and
social identity. He or she represent himself or herself as individual, but in the
same time, also represent the group he or she belongs to (Stets and Burke,
2000).
This shows that someone’s identity is highly influenced by their
environment, as well as their life experiences. By getting older and having
different point of view of the world they live in, someone’s identity might
change as well. Not only their environment and their life experiences, but the
books they read, the music they listen to, and the television program they
watch also take part in forming or changing someone’s identity (Spengemann,
1978).
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B. The Relation between Literature and Identity
Psychology and literature have mutual relationship where both tend
to influence each other. Human’s experiences in life with the other human
being, nature, and the environment influence human’s soul. They form
someone’s perspective of seeing things in life and their way of thinking while
facing events. Along with the past experiences which become references,
literature is produced by human’s soul. On the other hand, literature become
nourishment for human’s soul (Dastmard, Razmjoo, Salehi, 2012).
The form of identity itself comes in many different ways. It can be in
the form of a person, which can represent an ethnic or a group, but also can
be a representative of him/ herself as a single person. It also can come as the
behavior of a particular group which shows how they are different from the
other groups. Either it comes in a individual person or in a group, the identity
is highly influenced by the events happening surround us. (Wan and
Vanderwerf, 2009).
In social identity, a person’s identity is associated with the group
memberships. The member of the same group will be seen as similar. It is
because the member of a certain group tend to imitate the norm, behavior, as
well as the point of view shared by the members of the same group. Also, the
members tend to influence each other. Of course, the things shared by the
members of a certain group are different from the things shared by the
members of the different groups or communities. Next, the members will tend
to assume that the nature of the individuals, in terms of the characteristics of
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the people in the same groups, are the same. Thus, when a person
self-categorizes as members of a particular group, he or she will describe
himself or herself using the same phrase which is also used by those who
belong to the same group as him or her. It is because they share the same
characteristic as they belong to the same group (Riecher, Spears, and Haslam,
2010).
To do the analysis of psychology, people have to do it systematically.
It is seen as something scientific. Meanwhile, literature is seen as a field of
study which deals with a written art. However, the relation between identity,
as a part of psychology, and literature cannot be separated. Psychology helps
people to understand someone’s behavior and how to identify them. While in
literature, people get the understanding on life and values in the art of writing.
Both psychology and literature concern on human condition and life (Stets
and Burke, 2000).
C. Previous Study on the Other Hand
The Other Hand was published in 2008. The novel ranked 13th on the
2009 Sunday Times bestseller list and 1st on the New York Times. It was
nominated for the 2008 Costa Book award and a 2009 Commonwealth
Writers’ Prize.
The academic writings which take this novel as their main data are
still hard to find. However, it gets various critics from the Independent in an
article entitled “The Other Hand, by Chris Cleave: Strangers and sisters as
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Nigeria meets Surrey” by James Urquhart which talk about the plot and the
struggle faced by Little Bee and Sarah. “Africa on the Doorstep” by
Lawrence Norfolk in TheGuardian explains the way Chris Cleave delivers
the story to the readers.
As the other supporting researches, I managed to find several journals
which use social identity as the issue, which also become an issue to this
research. Judith. A. Howard in her “Social Psychology of Identities” includes
social bases of identity. Social bases of identity consists of the social
conditions which have the possibility to influence the way someone identify
themselves. This journal helps me to analyze and understand the conditions or
situations in the novel which influence Little Bee’s identity issues.
In his “Reputation, Social Identity and Social Conflict”, John Smith
encloses the social conflicts which may cause competition between social
group to surplus and change to reach the better condition for their group. I use
the explanation from his research to help me find the reason which makes
Little Bee wants to be better as a person, and as a member of certain social
group. Smith’s research focuses of economy issues, while mine focuses on
social issues in the environment and the ingroup interaction.
“Self, Self-Concept, and Identity” by Daphna Oyserman, Kristen
Elmore and George Smith explains someone’s process of identifying and
understanding themselves before they decide their position in a certain social
group. This helped me to understand the personal identity process in Tajfel
and Turner’s social identity theory. The researchers’ take students and school
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life as their main object. Meanwhile, I take Little Bee and the environment
surrounds her as mine.