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Updated: Jul 28, 2026

The Social Dimension of Stress: Experimental Manipulations of Social Support and Social Identity in the Trier Social Stress Test
Published on: November 19, 2015
Social identity in adolescence
M Tarrant1, A C North, M D Edridge
1School of Psychology, University of Leicester, UK. mt37@leicester.ac.uk
Abstract:
Social identity theory (SIT) was used to investigate the effects of social categorization on adolescents' intergroup behaviour. One hundred and forty-nine male adolescents aged 14-15 years made comparisons between an ingroup and an outgroup along a series of dimensions. Participants displayed consistent ingroup-favouring behaviour in their ratings: the ingroup was associated to a greater extent than the outgroup with positively valued dimensions, and to a lesser extent with negatively valued dimensions. Those participants who demonstrated the most discrimination reported highest levels of ingroup identification. The utility of applying predictions from SIT to the study of adolescence is discussed.
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