Identification-driven well-being depends on felt agency and control, not perceived status or self-esteem.

Evidence

The motive for group-based control is also distinct from self-esteem striving, which was social-identity theory’s (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) initial assumption as to why people identify with groups and engage in intergroup conflict. Although control might be an important source of self-esteem, it is conceptually distinct, because control requires not only high social status but also a sense of agency. Accordingly, the indirect effects of ingroup identification on well-being through perceived control have been shown to operate even when selfesteem is accounted for (Greenaway et al., 2015; Relke et al., 2021). Furthermore, in other studies, threat to control had an effect on in-group identification even though the control manipulation did not affect selfesteem (Goode et al., 2017), and the effect of threat to control on in-group identification was shown to be moderated by collective agency but not collective status (Stollberg et al., 2015). — Immo Fritsche, Agency Through the We, 36

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s testing of group-based control theory: the Stollberg finding that collective agency but not collective status moderates the control-threat effect bears on whether hollowed-out identities restore felt control. — connects to: Personal identity is largely an outcome of status appraisal — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 296; In-group identification boosts well-being through gains in perceived control, not self-esteem. — Immo Fritsche, Agency Through the We: Group-Based…, 24; Negational identity may stem from low-status individuals’ need to feel superior (+2 more)
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: does ‘collective agency not collective status’ imply that purely negational identities (defined by opposition/status subordination) should fail at control restoration unless they supply a sense of shared agency?

Broader Connections

• High self-esteem buffers against the need for external control. #contradicts (0.90) — Dmitrij Agroskin and Eva Jonas, Controlling death by defending ingroups, 129
• Negational identity may stem from low-status individuals’ need to feel superior #contradicts (0.85)
• The drive for positive self-identity fuels favorable ingroup comparisons #contradicts (0.85) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 546