گروههاي مرجع در جامعه شناسي و روانشناسي اجتماعي با تاكيد بر نظريه هاي مرتن و فستينگر

Reference Groups in Sociology and Social Psychology, with a Focus on Theories Advanced by Merton and Festinger

Several factors play out in the formation process of attitudes, decisions, and actions within the society. Most important among them are reference individuals or groups who form the bases for and standards against which the actorsʹ acts are judged. Reference groups have two main functions-normative and comparative. The main research question in this study is to what extent individualss tendencies and needs have a social basis and to what extent they are independent of social and cultural factors. To answer this important question, psychological and social psychological approaches give attention to individual characteristics and dimensions while sociological approaches highlight the society structures and its dominant value system. This paper discusses and compares these different approaches, giving particular attention to the views of Merton and Festinger.