The name is absent

28

(ii) Size

Sorokin asserts that each group has an optimum size.

Having grown beyond the point of their optimum size, groups
are generally the forces of self-destruction rather than of

-h
continuity and self-preservation.

3,16 Summary of the components of group identity

Membership may be either inherited or assumed, but
mobility from one group to another is prevented if it is determined
by non-social factors which cannot be changed.

Autonomy is an essential characteristic of a group. A group,
as such, is differentiated from a spatial agglomeration or congerie
b

by causal-meaningful bonds and the exercise of autonomy.

The continuity of the group depends upon its ability to subsume

variations, selectively adopt new elements, and indoctrinate its

members with the ‘theorizing* of the group.

The inner adhesion of the group is objectified by external

symbols, possessions.

Group loyalty and size are factors cementing the group.

The ’theorizing’ of the group is Objectivated not only
within the group, but through interaction with other groups.

3.2 Typologies of individual identity - the subjective appropriation
of psychological reality (Erikson)

Berger (1971:97) sees identity, that is, location of the
self within a specific social world, producing ’attachments’ of
psychological reality that are the product of this particular
location in a world of meaning.

However, whether the individual is within a mainstream social
group, or a ’deviant’ group (such as an ethnic group or racial group)