The essence of the phenomenon
Referentiality in psychology is a property of an individual or a group, which is reflected in their ability to exert a decisive influence on a person.
His own values, principles, attitudes and views are formed under their influence.
Any event or phenomenon is also considered and assessed from the position of approval or possible condemnation of significant subjects .
When planning any activity, a person always focuses not only on his own desires and preferences, but also on the position of his reference group or individual.
This psychological and social phenomenon occupies an important place in the system of interpersonal relationships. Moreover, it is often contrasted with emotions.
Thus, a person may not feel sympathy for any individual, but recognize his importance. Or, conversely, an absolutely uninteresting social group, whose members are not authorities, evokes a certain emotional response .
It should be noted that the impact can be both positive and negative.
If an individual chooses as a role model , the influence is positive.
In this case, a significant subject can provide assistance in forming the right attitudes and choosing the right path of personal growth.
If the reference is possessed by a person who has a negative impact on the individual and his life, such dependence leads to negative consequences. A similar principle applies to relationships with social communities.
Referentometric method
The method consists of two procedures. The first of them is preliminary, when, with the help of a questionnaire, the positions of group members on any significant event, phenomenon, object, etc. are revealed. At this stage, the experimenter can work with the group as a whole.
There are requirements for the preliminary procedure: the object of assessment and the procedure itself must be significant for the subjects and, secondly, no one in the group should know the answers of their comrades.
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Using the second procedure, those individuals are identified whose position, stated in the questionnaire, is of greatest interest to others. At the second stage or a little later, the actual referentometric survey begins. In the traditional form, it is carried out individually.
Working with each group member, the experimenter must find out whether the subject agrees that his completed form will be shown to those study participants who show interest in it. Agreement and disagreement must be recorded. The subject is informed that his group mates are not against other group members reading their questionnaires.
The subject is also asked a question regarding whose questionnaires he would like to familiarize himself with. To increase selectivity of choice, you are given the opportunity to look at only one form.
When the surname of a group member whose form is of interest is called, the experimenter refers to the fact that this comrade may not agree to the publication of his answers and asks to name the surname of another representative of the group.
After making the second choice, as an exception, it is allowed to name one more person whose answers are of interest to the subject.
The number of such elections should not exceed 3, because the selectivity of inter-individual preferences can sharply decrease and the nature of the relationship will appear in a distorted form.
After the reference persons have been identified, the subject cannot be asked who is more significant to him from the group members, and whose opinion he will take into account first.
If such a question is asked directly, it is difficult to count on real answers. This can be explained, first of all, by the fact that the subjects do not want to admit that they personally depend on the opinion of another person; in addition, the person is not fully aware of his position in this community.
Note 2
Thus, in order to identify the degree of significance of any representative of the group for his comrades, there is a need for an indirect survey, and the technique for this is referentometry.
Characteristics of the reference personality
This is a person of particular importance to the subject of the relationship. Such a person is a role model, a model.
The object to which influence is directed turns out to be in strong psychological dependence on the person of reference for him, who acts as the main provider of values, rules, and principles.
In any of his actions, a person under influence is guided by the opinions and views of his idol. He tries to demonstrate only that behavior and thinking that will cause approval.
Usually the reference personality is a strong, self-confident individual.
His authority is explained by the stability of his life principles and his ability to persuade .
A person under the influence of such a personality may not only not feel sympathy, but even feel hostility. But such emotions will not be of key importance.
Reference group
What is a reference group? From the point of view of significance for the subject, the social groups in which he belongs can be:
- referential. A real, conditional small group that is a standard.
In his behavior and even in the perception of his own personality, the individual is guided by the values, views and norms that are established by the group.Community is capable of influencing self-esteem, controlling one’s behavior, and determining one’s actions;
- non-referential . This is a small group whose psychology does not cause an emotional reaction. A person may not be a member of it or may be a member, but in any case feel indifference to the values, norms and rules broadcast by its participants.
The reference group performs normative, comparative functions.
Normative regulation of human behavior is expressed in the formation in his mind of certain attitudes and norms that must be met.
The comparative function is expressed in the formation of a certain standard, a sample, which acts as a key criterion for assessing oneself and other people. The same community can simultaneously perform both functions.
A certain problem for a person is the presence of several referent associations of people whose values have the opposite direction.
In this case, a serious intrapersonal conflict occurs, since the individual is forced to make a choice between communities that are significant to him.
For example, family and circle of friends may be of equal importance .
Often the values and attitudes conveyed by peers diverge from the parental attitudes embedded in the minds. an internal conflict arises , forcing you to make a choice in favor of one thing.
Every person living in society is part of a huge number of communities.
This is a family, a friendly company, a professional social circle, a sports section, etc.
Reference groups are not always aware of the significance they have for the individual. Also, such communities may be initially conditional. For example, a person chooses as an authority a certain group of people to which he has no direct relationship.
He correlates all his actions and actions with the principles transmitted, in his opinion, by this community. In reality, the individual is not part of the circle of people significant to him, but in his subconscious he lives according to their rules.
The perception of a social group is formed through the authority of its individual representatives. As a rule, these are managers, leaders. They are the ones who determine the norms and rules by which the community functions.
Referentiality
[referens (gen. referentis) reporting]
1. Psychol. Associated with significance, authority for someone; being significant, authoritative for smb.
Referential relations. Reference person
(a person with whose views, positions, norms and values the individual correlates his behavior).
(a group of people that serves as a source of social norms and value orientation for an individual).
referential
R-th group (people whose views and behavior are a model, a standard for someone).
Referentiality is
Referentiality [lat. referens - reporting] - a relation of significance connecting the subject with another person or group of persons. The concept of “R.”, which was first used by the American psychologist G.
Hyman's assertion that people's judgments of themselves largely depend on the group they identify with has gained widespread acceptance, but the concept has been interpreted differently by different researchers.
In Russian psychology, its interpretation was based on the moment of significant selectivity when a subject determines his orientations (opinions, positions, assessments) (E.V. Shchedrina). Hence R.
was understood as a special quality of a subject’s personality, determined by the measure of its significance for another person or group of people, and also acting as a factor of personalization. Depending on the situation, R. manifests itself in different ways.
For example, the object of reference relations for a subject can be a group of which he is a member, or a group with which he relates himself without being a real participant. The function of a referent object can also be performed by an individual person, including one who does not really exist (a literary hero, a fictional ideal to follow, the subject’s ideal idea of himself, etc.).
It is necessary to distinguish between non-internalized relations of R.
, when the referent object really exists as an external object that defines (“dictates”) the individual’s norms of behavior, and relations are internalized, when the individual’s behavior is not externally determined by any objects, and all referent relations are removed and “remelted” by his consciousness and act as his , individual, subjective factors. Nevertheless, in this situation, referential relations also take place, although they are more complex in form. R. as a quality of a subject or group always exists only in someone’s perception and reflects the connections and relationships of the subjects; it records the measure of significance of a given subject or group in the eyes of a particular person. The specificity of R. lies in the fact that the subject’s focus on some object that is significant to him is realized through an appeal (real or imaginary) to another significant person. Thus, R. has the form of subject-subject-object relations, i.e. those in which the subject’s relationship to an object that is significant to him is mediated by a connection with another subject. The fact of R. of an individual for other members of the group is established using a special experimental procedure - referentometry.
The word referent
- The letter r
appears 2 times. Words with 2 letters r - The letter t
appears 1 time. Words starting with t - Letter f
occurs 1 time.Words starting with f
- The letter s
appears 1 time. Words starting with y - The letter e
appears 3 times. Words with 3 letters e - Letter th
occurs 1 time.Words starting with y
- The letter n
appears 2 times. Words with 2 letters n
Examples
What does reference group mean? These groups include:
- Family . The socialization process for most people begins with the family. These are people related to each other by blood or family ties. The formation of a child’s personality is significantly influenced by his parents, older brothers and sisters, and closest relatives. It is these people who become a source of knowledge about the world and role models. The child perceives the norms, values, and life attitudes of the parents as the only true ones. Under their influence, the first inclinations of personality are formed. The presence of both positive and negative reference is fully reflected here. A child who is completely dependent on the family cannot abstract himself from the influence of the parents who are significant to him, even if their life principles and behavior not only do not correspond to the attitudes of the child himself, but are also initially negative.
- Friendly company. A particularly strong influence of this community on the individual’s consciousness is manifested in adolescence, when the opinion of peers becomes more important than the authority of parents. Trying to earn the approval of friends who are role models, a person tries to demonstrate typical behavior patterns, interests, views and tastes. His own attitudes may differ from the opinion of the majority, but he will try not to express them, fearing condemnation from his friends.
At a young age, there is often a change in leaders in friendly companies or a change in the companies themselves, since as community members grow older, their perception of role models changes.Adults experience greater stability in their choice of social circle, so significant subjects can maintain their positions for quite a long time. At the same time, a mature, accomplished person does not depend on his role model to the same extent as a teenager.
- Labor collective . Professional recognition is an important sign of success in modern society. An individual can recognize the undeniable authority of colleagues who have achieved certain heights in their specialty. The opinions of these people, their views and beliefs, will command his respect. The desire to share values and attitudes will be associated with the desire to achieve the same success, to become a full-fledged member of the team.
- Other communities. This could be a class at school, a sports section, a political party, a public organization, etc.
All of these communities can influence the person associated with them. Moreover, the degree of this influence directly depends on how important a role this community plays. Thus, for a young man who is passionate about sports, the views and beliefs of his teammates will be more important, rather than those he knows from the yard.
Classification of groups
Associations are classified according to their influence on the individual, the characteristics of relationships within the team, and the individual’s attitude to intragroup norms. Accordingly, they are primary and secondary, formal and informal, positive and negative.
Primary and secondary
Primary communities include those communities whose influence is most pronounced. Participants in them are more united than in other associations. Secondary groups have a situational influence; participants unite only for the sake of some cause, for a certain period. An example of a primary association: family. Secondary ones include the team at work.
Formal and informal
Formal groups are based on official relationships, business communication. Informal ones are built on friendships, likes and dislikes. A formal community is a class in a school, a political organization. An example of an informal organization: a group of friends, a musical subculture.
Positive and negative
The norms and values of positive associations do not contradict the beliefs of the individual. She accepts them, identifies herself with them. Values that contradict the inner world of the individual are perceived negatively. An oppositional and disrespectful attitude towards them is formed.
The same community can be positive or negative for different people. The more social groups, minorities, and subcultures there are in a society, the higher the relativity of attitudes toward them. For example, some people like outrageous personalities, freaks, while others categorically do not want to associate themselves with them.
