Role model

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For other uses, see Role model (disambiguation).

The term role model was introduced by Robert K. Merton[1]. Merton says that individuals compare themselves with "reference groups" of people who occupy the social role to which the individual aspires.[2] The term has passed into general use to mean any "person who serves as an example, whose behaviour is emulated by others".[3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Robert K. Merton article on Wikipedia
  2. ^ Gerald Holton (4 December 2004). "Robert K. Merton - Biographical Memoirs". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 148 (4): 506-517. “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.” 
  3. ^ Role model. Wiktionary. Retrieved on 2008-04-23.
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