What is the SENSE of BELONGING in psychology?

The sense of belonging is one of the most surprising things that we can experience as human beings: being the social beings that we are, we often get support and inspiration whenever we are surrounded by the people who we love. This feeling of desire, companionship, and brotherhood is part of our human genetics. Thousands of years ago, human beings knew that if they wanted to survive, they had to live in tribes; And since human beings are naturally created for tribal life, it cannot be denied that we can be in our happiest and most satisfied state when we are part of a tribe. With this article of Psychology-Online we will deepen together what is a sense of belonging in psychology, with some examples.

Index

1. What is the sense of belonging
2. The meaning of a sense of belonging in systemic psychology
3. The concept of a sense of belonging in social psychology
4. Functions and importance of the sense of belonging
5. Examples of a sense of belonging

The sense of belonging represents a fundamental human need, an essential dimension to structure an own identity that is at the same time individual and social. Indeed, it would be unthinkable for us to describe our identity without anchoring it in the multiple groups to which we belong. Here you can see the Maslow's Theory of Needs.

When a person feels that he belongs to a social group, a cognitive and motivational process takes place in him that takes the name of identification. This process leads to perceive yourself as a member of the group, successively the affective aspects of belonging occur, and finally the person deduces the evaluation of himself as positive or negative from the evaluation of the whole group.

According to the structural systemic approach (Minuchin, 1976), the experience of human identity is based on two elements: a sense of belonging and a sense of identification. The laboratory where these ingredients are mixed and distributed is the family, or whoever replaces them. The family is considered the first identity matrix, and the feeling of belonging is formed with the child's adaptation to family groups and with his appropriation of models transactional structures of the family structure, which in the various life situations tend to reproduce as schemas relational.

To this day, Minuchin's theory is a bit sketchy: the sense of belonging is what makes the child (and the adult) feel safe and, although this is structured from the primary affective reference nucleus, it is also repeated in the different significant contexts in which the child will find himself to live. The feeling of belonging then becomes a primary need that any human being tries absolve to have a seismic base (Bowlby, 1989) and that heat that gives the confidence of being able to move and Express oneself.

With the theory of Social Identity, Tajfel and Turner (1978; 1981) precisely defined social identity as part of the self-image that derives from consciousness belonging to a social group, along with the value and emotional significance associated with that membership. According to Tajfel, in fact, no matter how rich and complex the image that individuals have of themselves, some aspects of it are identified with the belonging to certain groups or social categories, attributing the social connotations that these groups or categories possess.

The sense of belonging plays a particular role in the formation and maintenance of the concept of identity at different levels. On the one hand, the group provides the reference for evaluation at the individual level and for the selection of significant others from an interpersonal point of view; on the other, the group plays an important role in definition of identity that derives from the comparison between the characteristics shared between the members of the group and those of the other groups, which represents the very essence of the social identity theory.

At the group level, the sense of belonging has three main functions:

1. Create cohesion in the group. The feeling of belonging enriches the internal life of the group and to a certain extent generates it, as norms, values ​​and culture produce forms of useful identification for the recognition by individuals in the actions of the group itself and functional for the development of a common identity supra-individual.
2. Define your limits with respect to other groups. The sense of belonging, creating feelings and bonds of internal cohesion, delineates the boundaries that separate the group from the environment and from other social groups.
3. Regulates relations with the outside. To an internal life of the group corresponds an equally important relationship with the exterior. Indeed, social comparison, that is, the comparison of the characteristics of one's own group with other groups, is a direct source for the formation of identity.

To better understand what it is and how it affects the feeling of belonging, let's look at a practical example. Changing countries implies a cultural change and, therefore, a transformation of our sense of belonging. When we change country, in effect, we can feel:

• Belonging to the new country and the new social group.
• Not belonging to the new country and the new social group.
• They do not belong to the new one, but neither to the original one.

Those who manage to enter the new context identify with the models, values, common goals, behaviors, norms, interests of the new country. They are also relatively socially active and feel close to others. On the other hand, those who do not feel they belong to the new, or to the new or to the original, often feel ignored by others and by the community in general, does not feel recognized, sometimes feels rejected. Also, they don't share many aspects of the reference culture. The opposite of the sense of belonging is, therefore, a sense of alienation, low self-esteem and little feeling of reciprocity.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to What is the sense of belonging in psychology?, we recommend that you enter our category of Social psychology.

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