<P> Turner and colleagues stress that depersonalization is not a loss of self, but rather a redefinition of the self in terms of group membership . A depersonalized self, or a social identity, is every bit as valid and meaningful as a personalized self, or personal identity . A loss of self is sometimes referred to using the alternative term deindividuation . Further, although the term depersonalization has been used in clinical psychology to describe a type of disordered experience, this is completely different from depersonalization in the sense intended by self - categorization theory authors . </P> <P> The concept of depersonalization is critical to a range of group phenomena including social influence, social stereotyping, in - group cohesiveness, ethnocentrism, intragroup cooperation, altruism, emotional empathy, and the emergence of social norms . </P> <P> In self - categorization theory the formation and use of a social category in a certain context is predicted by an interaction between perceiver readiness and category - stimulus fit . The latter being broken down into comparative fit and normative fit . This predictive interaction was heavily influenced by Bruner's accessibility and fit formula . A social category that is currently in use is called a salient social category, and in the case of a self category is called a salient social identity . The latter should not be confused with level of identification, which is a component of perceiver readiness . </P> <P> Perceiver readiness, which Turner first described as relative accessibility, "reflects a person's past experiences, present expectations, and current motives, values, goals and needs". It is the relevant aspects of cognition that the perceiver brings to the environment . For example, a perceiver who categorizes frequently on the basis of nationality (e.g., "we Americans") is, due to that past experience, more likely to formulate a similar self category under new conditions . Accordingly, social identification, or the degree to which the group is valued and self - involving, may be thought of as an important factor that affects a person's readiness to use a particular social category . </P>

Social categorisation can be described as the process of what