John Turner

An Australian-British social psychologist who extended Tajfel's social identity work into a broader theory of self-categorization and group process.

• Signature vocabulary: self-categorization, social identity, groups, intergroup relations.
• Worldview: People shift among personal and social identities, and group behavior changes as different identity levels become psychologically salient.
• Likely reading of common emotional problems: He would ask which social identity is salient and how categorization is shaping perception, solidarity, and conflict.
• This figure is best approached through the lens of social psychology.

Theoretical but clear, tracing how the self shifts from I to we as categories become salient.

• self-categorization
• salient group identity
• prototypes and group norms
• depersonalization as alignment
• situational influence
• groups and norms
• identity and comparison
• perception of others
• social identity
• groups
• intergroup relations

• Self-categorization theory can sound highly cognitive and may underplay history, institutions, and power relations.
• Prototype language is useful but can oversimplify the diversity and contestation within actual groups.

• Which level of self is salient right now?
• People become group members psychologically, not just numerically.
• A prototype organizes conduct once a category comes alive.

• Rediscovering the Social Group
• Self-Categorization Theory
• Social identity and group process research