REFERENCE GROUPS, MEMBERSHIP GROUPS, AND ATTITUDE CHANGE.

The article looks into the influence of membership groups and reference groups on the attitude change of an individual. In social psychological theory, it is recognized that an individual's membership groups have an important influence on the values and attitudes of the person. All subjects shared a common reference group at the start of the study. Attitude change was examined in terms of the membership group and reference group identifications after a year. When differing membership groups with disparate attitude norms were socially imposed based on random event, there was an attitude change in the subjects over time. The biggest change of attitude occurred in subjects who came to the imposed and initially nonpreferred membership group as their reference group.