著者

安藤 延男

出版者

公益社団法人 日本心理学会

雑誌

心理学研究 (ISSN:00215236)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.37, no.4, pp.219-229, 1966

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The main purpose of this study is to find out how the natural transition of reference groups occurs in female adolescence, and what are the determinants in such a transition.<br>A trend analysis and panel study were made concerning the transition of reference groups on the basis of responses to the reference group checklist, which were obtained from 152 students of the Fukuoka Jo-gakuin Girls (Junior High and Senior High) School.<br>They were first tested in November, 1959, when they were first-year junior high students, and second in February, 1965, or six years later.<br>The reference group checklist was designed in order to determine what reference groups are chosen by each individual in a critical situation where she must make a decision as to whether becomes a Christian. Out of school authorities, parents, intimate friends, classmates (as a total), teachers, church members and all the rest, Ss were required to choose their four most significant ones, to form six-pairs by combining the four and to state to which group's (or individual's) expectation or norm they would attach the greatest importance, supposing they were faced with the decision as to whether they become Christians or not.<br>A group chosen once was given one point and, therefore, the highest possible score one group could have was 3 and the lowest 0. The group which obtained 3 points was referred to as the &ldquo;first refer ence group&rdquo; (called RG 1 for short), one which obtained 2 points as the &ldquo;second refer ence group&rdquo; (RG 2), and one which obtained 1 point as the &ldquo;third reference group&rdquo; (RG 3) for a given individual respectively. The intensity of the normative function a group has on an individual also followed the same scoring method.<br>The results of trend analysis mainly based on the group reference indices (RG 1) which appear in Table 1 and Fig. 1 were as follows:<br>1. When <i>S</i> was J₁ (1 st year-junior high), the choice of reference groups showed a trend toward parents, w<b>hile</b> when she was S₃ (3 rd-year senior <b>hi</b>gh) this trend waned, and gave way to <b>tha</b>t toward diversity. However, a rela<b>tiv</b>ely large number of <i>S</i>s retained their identification with parents even when they were S₃, probably because they were female.<br>2. Their choice of parents ranked first when they were J₁ and S₃, but this trend gradually decreased.<br>3. Their choice of school authorities and classmates also showed a drastic downward trend, while their choice of intimate friends, teachers, church members and all the rest increased; particularly the increase of intimate friends and church members was striking.<br>4. From the results of this trend analysis based on the &ldquo;reference transition index&rdquo; (RTI for short) in Table 2-2, Fig. 2 and Fig. 3, it follows that the transition of reference groups in female adolescence is charaterized by the emergence <i>away from</i> reliance on parents <i>toward</i> peer-group and <i>away from</i> the more secondary formal group of school authorities and classmates toward the informal face-to-face groups around their school life. Generally speaking, as the frame of reference of individual social attitudes, the function of thier family group is considerably strong in the early stage of adolescence and becomes relatively weak in the middle stage, while the function of primary face-to-face groups, particularly that of intimate friends, increase considerably.<br>As a result of panel study based on Table 2-2 and Fig. 2, it was found that the transition of reference groups in female adolescence can be divided into two types of pattern; the first pattern may be called the &ldquo;<i>continued family group reference</i>&rdquo; type which is one shown by those groups who chose their parents or church members when they were J₁; the second pattern may be called the &ldquo;<i>peer group-oriented</i>&rdquo; type which is