Role model Information & Role model Links at HealthHaven.com

For other uses, see Role Model (disambiguation).

The term role model first appeared in Robert K. Merton's socialization research of medical students.^[1] Merton hypothesized that individuals compare themselves with reference groups of people who occupy the social role to which the individual aspires.^[1] The term has passed into general use to mean any "person who serves as an example, whose behaviour is emulated by others".^[2]

[edit] See also

Identification (psychodynamic)

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b Gerald Holton (4 December 2004). "Robert K. Merton - Biographical Memoirs" (PDF). Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 148 (4): 506–517. http://www.aps-pub.com/proceedings/1484/480411.pdf. Retrieved 2007-08-07. "He developed a theory of the reference group (i.e., the group to which individuals compare themselves, which is not necessarily a group to which those individuals belong), and elaborated on the concepts of in-group and out-group.".
^ "Role model". Wiktionary. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/role_model. Retrieved 2008-04-23.

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[Holton_2004-0] Gerald Holton (4 December 2004). "Robert K. Merton - Biographical Memoirs" (PDF). Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 148 (4): 506–517. http://www.aps-pub.com/proceedings/1484/480411.pdf. Retrieved 2007-08-07. "He developed a theory of the reference group (i.e., the group to which individuals compare themselves, which is not necessarily a group to which those individuals belong), and elaborated on the concepts of in-group and out-group.".

[1] "Role model". Wiktionary. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/role_model. Retrieved 2008-04-23.

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