Abstract

The social psychology literature considers social identity as a multidimensional construct, but there is not agreement about the number and the nature of its components. The aim of this study is to investigate this concept's structure by comparing different kinds of identity. Three components of social identity (cognitive, evaluative and behavioral) has been operationalized and measured in two studies: the first is referred to professional identity measured of 157 bank employers; the second is referred to ethnical and cultural identity (regional, national and European) of 360 adults from Sardegna. Results of this study confirm the multicomponential nature of social identity, showing how the connections between components tend to vary in intensity, according to the nature of considered groups. These findings suggest considering the processes of social identification adopting an ecological approach.