Traumatic events, because they affect people’s social identities and group memberships, can ultimately impact their psychological outcomes after trauma. Traumatic events that consolidate social identities can provide a platform for resilience and even give hope for the future. Trauma that is seen as a shared experience can offer a new basis for connecting to others in difficult times. This can also be a source of resilience. This chapter delves into existing new and multiple group memberships as a foundation for resilience. The role of changes in group memberships and degree of connections to these groups on psychological outcomes after trauma is reviewed. Paying attention to political dimensions, the impact of shifts in the value placed on groups and identities by changing social and political circumstances is also considered. The chapter concludes that changes in social identities and group memberships are a powerful determinant of psychological adjustment to trauma.

This chapter draws out the implications of the patterned nature of traumatic experiences. The chapter offers a new way of understanding trauma that emphasises the significance of group memberships. Trauma and adverse experience can lead to the categorisation and recategorisation of people into different groups, such as labelling them as ‘refugees’ or ‘widows’ due to war or bereavement. Trauma can also reinforce existing group memberships and boundaries. This social identity approach is useful to studying trauma, then, because the risk and experience of trauma can shape identity. And though shared group memberships and identities can be crucial social and psychological resources for coping with trauma, where blame is laid for the experience of a trauma, this can disconnect those who experience trauma from their own group. The chapter emphasises the value of a social psychological analysis, and especially a social identity analysis, in comprehending the relationship between traumatic experiences and our sense of ourselves and others as group members. This hinges on the core idea that group memberships play a crucial role in how we experience and manage trauma.