Entitativity, identity, and the fulfilment of psychological needs

Social groups provide many benefits to the individual and some groups are better able to meet the needs of their group members. The current research examines the impact of perceived entitativity on the degree to which groups are able to fulfil the psychological needs of individual members. Participants listed ingroups based on the group typology of Lickel et al. (2000) and rated characteristics of the group, level of identification, and the degree to which the group met a series of needs. The results indicate that increased entitativity predicts greater perceived relative need fulfilment and that this effect is mediated by level of identification with the group. These results extend our understanding of the functions that different group types serve and the consequences of ingroup entitativity perceptions for the individual.