Reference Groups and Human Rights

Abstract

The usefulness of the reference group concept in social psychology and sociology was established during the 1940s and 1950s by Gerth and Mills (1953), Hyman (1942), Kelley (1952), Merton (1957), Sherif and Sherif (1953), Shibutani (1955), Stouffer et al. (1949) and Turner (1956). Up until the early 1970s, the concept “enjoyed extreme success” and was “utilized in literally hundreds of theoretical and empirical studies by representatives of all the social sciences” according to Schmitt (1972, p. 1). Though it has not been employed nearly as extensively in the research literature during the late 1970s and 1980s, it has continued to be used as a theoretical tool in analyses on diverse subjects. These include traditional social psychological laboratory studies (Lau, 1989; Montgomery, 1980), personality theory (Miller, 1977), use of alcohol and drugs (Hill & Dodder, 1978; Hunt, Lipton, Goldsmith, & Strug, 1984), family and sexuality issues (Houseknecht, 1977; Sebald & White, 1980), patterns of organizational and occupational identification(Kronus, 1976), social stratification (Bock, Beeghley, & Mixon, 1983; Patel, 1973), education (Richer, 1976; Schwarzer & Schwarzer, 1982), politics (Braungart & Braungart, 1979), consumer behavior (Bearden & Etzel, 1982; Sapp & Harrod, 1989), and counternormative behavior (White, 1977).