- Role model
The term role model was introduced by
Robert K. Merton [Robert K. Merton article on Wikipedia] . Merton says that individuals compare themselves with "reference groups" of people who occupy the social role to which the individual aspires. [cite journal |url=http://www.aps-pub.com/proceedings/1484/480411.pdf |author=Gerald Holton |title=Robert K. Merton - Biographical Memoirs | journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society |volume=148 |issue=4 |pages=506–517 |date=4 December ,2004 |accessdate=2007-08-07 |quote=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.] The term has passed into general use to mean any "person who serves as an example, whose behaviour is emulated by others". [cite web |url=http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/role_model |title=Role model |publisher=Wiktionary |accessdate=2008-04-23]References
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