Identity Process Theory: Identity, Social Action and Social Change

We live in an ever-changing social world, which constantly demands adjustment to our identities and actions. Advances in science, technology and medicine, political upheaval, and economic development are just some examples of social change that can impact upon how we live our lives, how we view ourselves and each other, and how we communicate. Three decades after its first appearance, identity process theory remains a vibrant and useful integrative framework in which identity, social action and social change can be collectively examined. This book presents some of the key developments in this area. In eighteen chapters by world-renowned social psychologists, the reader is introduced to the major social psychological debates about the construction and protection of identity in face of social change. Contributors address a wide range of contemporary topics - national identity, risk, prejudice, intractable conflict and ageing - which are examined from the perspective of identity process theory.

Dr Rusi Jaspal is Lecturer in Psychology and convenor of the Self and Identity Research Group at De Montfort University, Leicester. He has published widely on identity process theory, intergroup relations, and the media. His research spans across multiple cultural and geographical contexts, including the UK, India and Israel. Dr Jaspal is the author of Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism: Representation, Cognition and Everyday Talk (2013).

Professor Dame Glynis M. Breakwell has been Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bath since 2001. In the 2012 New Year Honours List she was appointed Dame Commander of the British Empire for her work in higher education. She is a member of the Council of the Economic and Social Research Council and chairs its Research Committee. Her research has focused on leadership, identity processes and risk management and she has published more than twenty books, including The Psychology of Risk (2007). She is the originator of identity process theory.