Reference group- a designation accepted in marketing for a group of people who have a direct (through personal contact) or indirect influence on a person’s behavior and attitude towards something. In other words, reference group- these are people whose opinions serve as a basis for a person’s assessment, self-esteem or for the formation of standards of behavior, opinions, etc.
Referent term group came to marketing from social psychology and denotes a group of people who are psychologically significant for a person, those whose opinion is authoritative and can influence his behavior.
Despite a large number of reference groups and, to one degree or another, influencing the buyer (consumer), for the marketer special meaning have only three:
- membership group;
- aspiration group;
- unwanted group.
Membership Group – group that has a direct influence on a person. It is the group to which a person belongs and with which he interacts;
Aspiration Group- a group of which the consumer aspires to become a member and with which he would like to identify himself. This could be, for example, some professional community, a group of other social status.
Undesirable (dissociative) group- this is a group whose value orientations and behavior a person does not accept and therefore strives to stay away from.
A person is simultaneously a member of many social groups:
- primary reference groups - family, friends, work colleagues;
- secondary reference groups - public organizations, religious and professional associations.
Reference groups are also divided into several types:
- information (sources of reliable information);
- self-identification groups;
- value groups;
- utilitarian groups.
Information reference group- this is the group of people whose information we trust. It doesn’t matter whether we fall into error or are close to the truth. home distinguishing feature such a group is that we trust the information coming from it.
Self-identification reference group- this is a group to which an individual belongs and is under the pressure of its norms and values. The group directly or indirectly forces him to adhere to a style of behavior, including consumption, that is considered as “appropriate” for a member of this group.
Value reference group- this is a real or imaginary group of people who are considered by a given individual as bright carriers, exponents of the values that he shares.
Utilitarian reference group- this is a group that has an arsenal of positive and negative sanctions, that is, it is capable of both rewarding and punishing an individual. A variety of real and imaginary social groups can act in this capacity.
The marketer should strive to identify all specific reference groups that influence consumer behavior. When making various purchases, an individual experiences pressure from reference groups of varying strengths. Thus, when buying food, clothing and other essential goods in conditions of dire need, people do not look back at their reference group: hunger and cold dictate these purchases. However, given the choice of a specific type of essential commodity, the individual is already under the influence of his reference group.
Number of impressions: 39860
Reference group- is it real or imaginary social community, acting for the individual as a standard, a role model, a source of formation of social norms and value orientations; a group to which an individual would like to belong. The concept of “reference group” is used in the system of social sciences and was first introduced in the 30s of the 20th century by G. Hyman. Initially, the term “reference group” meant community, a member of which the individual is not, but to which he strives to belong. Later, it began to be interpreted more broadly, including the group to which the individual belongs and whose opinion is authoritative for him. Both small and large can act as a reference group social group. Thus, for a child the reference group is the family, for a teenager it is a community of peers, for young man- often students in general, for an adult - representatives of a specific prestigious profession. As a rule, the higher the level of social maturity of an individual, the more demands he places on the community he chooses as a reference group. And vice versa, the lower the degree of social maturity, the worse the quality of the chosen reference group.
Right choice an individual of the reference group plays two important social roles - comparisons And socialization. When comparing himself with a reference group, the individual evaluates his current social position and chooses the desired benchmark for future advancement or building a social career. In the process of socialization, he assimilates the norms and values of the reference community, that is, first he identifies himself with it, and then internalizes (assimilates) its cultural patterns of behavior. The reference group also serves as a center social attraction when an individual, dissatisfied with his group of belonging, moves up the social ladder to another. Social mobility contributes to the presence of a center of repulsion - the antipode of the reference group. The reference group also performs the function support groups, increasing the social well-being of the individual and [in some cases] providing him with physical protection.
IN social sciences reference groups are distinguished on the following grounds:
- Based on the functions performed, normative and comparative reference groups are distinguished. The normative reference group acts as a source of norms regulating the behavior of an individual, a guideline for a number of problems that are significant to him. In turn, the comparative reference group is a standard for the individual in assessing himself and others. The same reference group can act as both normative and comparative.
- Based on the fact of group membership, presence groups and ideal groups are distinguished. A presence group is a reference group of which an individual is a member. An ideal reference group is a group whose opinion an individual is guided by in his behavior, in his assessment of events that are important to him, in his subjective attitudes toward other people, but of which he is not a member for some reason. Such a group is especially attractive to him. The ideal reference group can be either actually existing in social environment, and fictional (in this case, the standard of subjective assessments and life ideals of an individual are literary heroes, historical figures of the past and similar characters).
- In accordance with the individual’s agreement or rejection of the norms and values of the group, positive and negative reference groups are distinguished. If the social norms and value orientations of a positive reference group fully correspond to the ideas about the norms and values of the individual, then the value system of a negative reference group, with the same degree of significance and importance of the assessments and opinions of this group, is alien to the individual and is opposite to his values. Therefore, in his behavior he tries to receive a negative assessment, “disapproval” of his actions and position from this group.
In sociology and social psychology, the concept of “reference group” is used mainly to explain the socio-psychological mechanisms involved in the formation of individual consciousness installations of value-normative regulation of personality, as well as when conducting sociological research.
During his life, a person experiences a variety of influences from a number of different groups of which he is a member. However, one cannot help but notice that some groups significantly influence the personality in many of its manifestations, others - insignificantly and only in individual traits. The strength of influence of a particular group on a person depends on many factors. The greatest effect is observed in cases where a certain group is the reference (or standard) for a given individual. This is the name of the group with which a person identifies or compares himself. Reference groups can be large, including a nation or all those who practice a particular religion, but they can also be small, such as a family or group of friends. Social values and norms of the reference group act as standards of activity for the individual, although he himself may sometimes not even be a member of this group.
This phenomenon is well described by Moliere in the comedy "The Bourgeois in the Nobility." Her hero Jourdain, belonging to the bourgeois class, wants to be like a nobleman in everything. Therefore, he orders dresses that nobles wear, hires teachers of dancing, fencing and even philosophy, in order to join the nobility in everything. With good reason we can say that for the tradesman Jourdain, the reference group is the noble class. Or let's take, for example, a teenager who is not accepted into a very significant more adult company older brother's comrades. This teenager can also be guided by the group norms of a given company, copy some elements of clothing, forms of behavior, and vocabulary of members of his reference group.
In the socio-psychological literature, such a phenomenon is designated by the special term “anticipatory” socialization. This refers to certain efforts of the individual aimed at building his behavior in anticipation of gaining access to a group with a higher social status.
The reference group can even be imaginary. For example, a romantically inclined boy tries to behave in accordance with the code of the musketeers of Dumas or other literary heroes. “The artist born “before his time,” the scientist working for “humanity,” or the philanthropist donating for “future generations,” do not expect immediate reward and sometimes make incredible sacrifices in the belief that they will be appreciated by some future audience. which, probably, should be more reasonable than modern, - writes T. Shibutani. - They evaluate their efforts from the point of view attributed to people who have not yet been born and, perhaps, will never be born... The fact that for There is no material basis for such reference groups, which does not make them any less important." .
In the works of American researchers, several types of reference groups are identified.
Normative reference groups- those whose values and norms the individual approves and wants to join these groups or win their favor. Such groups provide the individual with guidance for action and expect him to obey accordingly. TO normative groups may include family, religious or national community. Often such groups for an individual are friendly companies, professional or political associations.
Comparative reference groups- those that the individual does not want to join, he does not need their location, but he uses these groups as a certain basis for assessing his status or behavior. Thus, an individual can turn to such reference groups to compare his actions with the actions of other people, to determine the degree of legality of his actions, to compare his successes in certain areas. For example, researchers in the field of organizational psychology use the concept " social norm" wages, i.e. such a level that the employee considers “normal” for himself, corresponding to his labor contribution. The formation of this “norm” is the result of the influence of the corresponding socio-professional reference group. It is typical for both workers and employees to compare their wages with wages other persons of the relevant professional group and this hierarchical level in the organization. The higher the qualifications and education of the employee, the wider the reference group in such a comparison.
Along with those mentioned above, negative reference groups are also possible, in relation to which one or another individual is in opposition. These are groups that symbolize something unacceptable for a given individual. The values of negative reference groups serve as motivators of opposing opinions and beliefs. Thus, individuals may avoid purchasing goods or products that they associate with social groups that are unworthy of respect.
Typically, each person has not one, but several reference groups. In one situation, he is guided by the values and norms of one group, in another situation - by another group, etc. Obviously, in order to better understand the origins of certain attitudes of an individual, the reasons for his behavior, it is necessary to know which groups are the reference groups for a given individual. The importance of reference groups as a kind of “stronghold” of personality attitudes is directly or indirectly recognized by everyone who wants to radically change these attitudes. In such cases, they often resort to physical and psychological isolation of individuals from their respective reference groups. This is exactly what is done in the religious sects of the Hare Krishnas and Moonies, where potential converts are placed in conditions of similar isolation.
Sometimes the reference (standard) of some two different groups in their norms and traditions for the same person can lead him to a position of marginality. It is characterized by the simultaneous presence of an individual within a certain social group and outside it. Hence the term “marginal personality” (literally: a person on the edge).
This term was introduced into scientific circulation by the American sociologist R. Park in 1928, calling a marginal personality a “cultural hybrid” that follows “the life and traditions of two different groups.” Let's take, for example, a Chechen who graduated from a university in Moscow and has been living in the capital for a long time, or an African who was educated in one of the European countries and works there. Such people are heavily influenced by two different, largely antagonistic cultures. Often they strive to belong to both ethnic groups, but are not fully accepted by either. This can lead a marginalized person to serious inter-role conflicts that negatively affect his psyche. With the favorable development of national relations, marginal people serve, as the Russian sociologist I. S. Kon notes, as a kind of bridge between different ethnic groups and their cultures.
The concept of marginality is used not only in interethnic terms. And the master on industrial enterprise, and a villager who moved to Big city, and a married woman - a high-class professional at her job, but family-oriented - these are also marginal individuals with all their inherent problems.
People whose norms and values act as a standard for him. The concept of "R. G." arose to describe and explain the fact that in their behavior people are guided not only and not so much by the group to which they actually belong, but by the one to which they refer themselves for comparison. assessments of their achievements and status. For individual R. G. can act as a standard for self-esteem (comparative R. G.) and as a source of his attitudes, norms and values (normative R. G.) .
R. G. may or may not coincide with the group to which it belongs. There are also “real” and “fictional”, “positive” and “negative” R. G. (for example, due to a hostile attitude towards “R. G. teachers”, the child sometimes acts contrary to their requirements).
How does it happen to an individual? several R. G. With age, they increase, depending on the content of the problem being solved, they turn to different R. G., the norms of which may be mutually reinforcing, not intersect, or enter into conflict. The latter leads to intrapersonal conflicts, and sometimes to mental illness. diseases. With the emergence of new R. G. the former can retain their influence. Theory R. G. studies their types, factors and causes of formation. One of Ch. its problems are the study of the determinants of individuals’ choice of certain R. G.
Concept R. G. used in the study of personality formation and social regulation individual behavior (“anticipating”, eg, is explained by the fact that the individual in advance assimilates the norms and values of the group of which he hopes to be a member); when analyzing the relationship between the objective position of a person in social structure and his subjective idea of this, to study the causes of some inter-individual and intra-personal conflicts and T. n. Study of R. G. It is important to educate individuals for optimization. work, crime prevention, increasing the effectiveness of propaganda.
Sociology today, lane With English, M., 1965; Shibutani T., Social psychology. lane With English, M., 1969; Yakovlev A.M., Crime and social psychology. M., 1971; Metreveli V.G., On the issue of the theory of R. G. V modern bourgeois sociology, “Sociological. Research", 1975, No. 4; Olshansky V.B., Group of presence and, in book: Social psychological. M., 1975; Kon I.S., Psychology of adolescence, M., 1979; Social personality, M., 1979; Shchedrina E. V., Referentiality as a characteristic of the system of interpersonal relations, in book: Psychological collective, M., 1979; Andreeva G.M., Social psychological. M., 1980; Merton R.K., Social theory and social structure, Glencoe, 19682.
Philosophical encyclopedic Dictionary. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Ch. editor: L. F. Ilyichev, P. N. Fedoseev, S. M. Kovalev, V. G. Panov. 1983 .
REFERENCE GROUP
(from the English to refer - refer) - in sociology, social psychology and psychology, denoting a social (economic, political, professional, cultural, etc.) group to which an individual consciously refers himself. R. g. is the everyday consciousness of members of society. The concept of R. was introduced in Amer. social psychology in the 30s. 20th century in connection with the establishment of the fact that individuals belonging to a certain social group, they build their own (in work, in everyday life) in accordance with the norms and values accepted in the social group to which they consider themselves. Therefore, initially R. was used to designate such ideas of an individual about his social affiliation, which do not coincide with his actual ones. social status. He helped, according to G. Hyman, to explain “why some individuals do not assimilate the positions of the groups in which they are directly included” (“Reflections on reference group,” in The Public Opinion Quartery, 1960, v. 25, p. 385). Subsequently, it was found that an individual’s behavior is determined not only by his membership in a group, but also by his ideas about his social affiliation. The theory of R. g. studies the factors of their formation, the types of R. g. A distinction is made between “real” and “fictitious” R. g. (in the first case, the individual, for example, classifies himself as an “engineer”; in the second, as a “spiritual elite", which does not really exist as a group). R. g. may coincide with the actual one. group of the individual (the engineer considers himself to be a technical intelligentsia) or not to coincide (the capitalist considers himself to be a worker).
For bourgeois sociologists are characterized by a fetishization of individuals’ subjective classification of themselves into one group or another. At the same time, the concept of R.g. can serve as a tool for studying the mechanism of interaction between objective social position and subjectively felt (R.g.) as factors in the formation of individual behavior. R.'s theory finds application in the analysis of various social phenomena. Functionalist sociologists (in particular, Merton) use it to explain deviant behavior. It is also used in creating systems of social stratification of society. The concept of R. g. is important for understanding the phenomena of anti-societies. criminal behavior. It is used in psychology (to explain internal personality conflicts), in psychiatry (primarily in the form of the concept of “social role conflict”). The concept of R. g. has great importance will educate in practice. work (at school, first of all): taking into account which group the student belongs to (capable, incapable, active, etc.). Taking into account the everyday beliefs of individuals is important for the effectiveness of propaganda. In Sov. sociology term "R. g." sometimes translated as "reference group".
G. Andreeva, N. Novikov. Moscow.
Philosophical Encyclopedia. In 5 volumes - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Edited by F. V. Konstantinov. 1960-1970 .
REFERENCE GROUP
REFERENT (from Latin réfère - compare, compare, report) - real or imaginary social, acting for the individual as a standard, a role model; a group he would like to belong to. Both small and large can act as a reference group. The concept of “reference group” was first introduced in the 30s. 20th century G. Hyman. For a child, the reference group is , for a teenager - a community of peers, for a young person - often in general, for an adult - representatives of a specific prestigious profession. Thus, for a novice athlete, the reference group is professional hockey players, football or basketball players, for a novice scientist - outstanding luminaries of science, etc. The higher the level of social maturity of an individual, the more demands he places on the community that he chooses as a reference group. And vice versa, the lower the degree of social maturity, the worse the quality of the chosen reference group. Youth without secondary or higher education who has not had a successful career, was brought up in single-parent or unsuccessful families, often takes the path of crime also because the reference group she seeks to imitate consists of local “authorities”, people with a criminal past.
Initially, the term “reference group” denoted a community of which an individual is not a member, but to which he strives to belong. Later, it began to be interpreted more broadly, including the group to which the individual belongs and which has authority for him. The correct reference group plays two important social roles - comparison and socialization. When comparing himself with a reference group, the individual evaluates his current social position and chooses the desired benchmark for future advancement or building a social career. In the process of socialization, he assimilates the norms and values of the reference community, that is, he first identifies himself with it, and then internalizes (assimilates) its cultural patterns of behavior. The reference group also functions as a center of social gravity, when an individual, dissatisfied with his group of belonging, moves up the social ladder to another. Social mobility is facilitated by the presence of a center of repulsion - the antipode of the reference group. For young people today, this is the army, which they strive not to get into and therefore direct their efforts to enroll in a university that provides a deferment. The reference group also performs the function of a “support group”, increasing the social well-being of the individual and providing him with physical protection.
A. I. Kravchenko
New Philosophical Encyclopedia: In 4 vols. M.: Thought. Edited by V. S. Stepin. 2001 .
a real or imaginary group that serves as an individual’s model, standard, frame of reference for evaluating oneself, etc., as well as one of the foundations for the formation of social attitudes, norms of behavior and value orientations. This is a group to which a person belongs consciously. R.g. must meet the following meanings: 1) the group towards which the individual is oriented in his actions; 2) a group that serves as an individual’s model, standard or criterion for assessing personal behavior; 3) a group that an individual seeks to join and become a member of; 4) a group whose views and values serve as a kind of standards for an individual, who is not a member. its direct member. Individual's choice of R.g. and relating oneself to it fulfills two main functions. functions: socialization and social. comparison, dynamic aspect of the phenomenon. the individual's attitude towards social mobility (if the R.g. of an individual does not coincide with his membership group, the R.g. is a guideline for his social movement). There are R.g. real and imaginary. Real R.g. - this is a group of people that serves as a standard for an individual to implement optimal social networks. norms and values; imaginary - his value and normative orientations, his life ideals reflected in the consciousness of the individual, appearing in the form of personalized standards and ideals. These personified images of people represent “internal audience,” to which a person focuses in his thoughts and actions. In practice, the concept of R.g. used in the study of social mobility, personality adaptation processes to various social environments, the effectiveness of mass communication. Lit.: Rudensky E.V. Social Psychology. M.; Novosibirsk, 1997; Frolov S.S. Sociology. M., 1997. L.G. Skulmovskaya
Excellent definition
Incomplete definition ↓
REFERENCE GROUP
from lat. refere - compare, compare, report) - a real or imaginary social community that acts for an individual as a standard, a role model; a group he would like to belong to. Both a small and a large social group can act as a reference group. The concept of “reference group” was first introduced in the 30s. 20th century G. Hyman. For a child, the reference group is the family, for a teenager - a community of peers, for a young person - often students in general, for an adult - representatives of a specific prestigious profession. Thus, for a novice athlete, the reference group is professional hockey players, football or basketball players, for a novice scientist - outstanding luminaries of science, etc. The higher the level of social maturity of an individual, the more demands he places on the community that he chooses as a reference group. And vice versa, the lower the degree of social maturity, the worse the quality of the chosen reference group. Young people who do not have a secondary or higher education, who have not made a successful career, who were brought up in single-parent or unsuccessful families, often take the path of crime also because the reference group they seek to imitate are local “authorities”, people with a criminal past.
Initially, the term “reference group” denoted a community of which an individual is not a member, but to which he strives to belong. Later, it began to be interpreted more broadly, including the group to which the individual belongs and whose opinion is authoritative for him. The correct choice of reference group plays two important social roles - comparison and socialization. When comparing himself with a reference group, the individual evaluates his current social position and chooses the desired benchmark for future advancement or building a social career. In the process of socialization, he assimilates the norms and values of the reference community, that is, he first identifies himself with it, and then internalizes (assimilates) its cultural patterns of behavior. The reference group also functions as a center of social gravity, when an individual, dissatisfied with his group of belonging, moves up the social ladder to another. Social mobility is facilitated by the presence of a center of repulsion - the antipode of the reference group. For young people today, this is the army, which they strive not to get into and therefore direct their efforts to enroll in a university that provides a deferment. The reference group also performs the function of a “support group”, increasing the social well-being of the individual and providing him with physical protection.
Excellent definition
Incomplete definition ↓