REFERENCE GROUPS
There are groups which ,are important to us as models even though we may not be a part of the group. the opinions of “high society” may be important to the social climber who has not yet made the social register. At times the in groat and the reference group may be the same, as when the teenager gives”prole weight to the opinions of t,he gang that to those of his or her teachers. Sometimes an out-group is a reference group: American Indians used war paint to impress their enemies, and each sex – dresses to impress the other sex. A reference group is any group to which we refer when making judgmental any group whose value judgments become our value judgments. You will recall the concepts, of the reference group and the looking-glass self, and how the young child is interested in the reactions of everyone with whom it is in contact, while the more mature person selects particular groups whose approval or disapproval is especially desired.
