Role Models of Black and White Rural Youth at Two Stages of Adolescence

This report contributes to Texas Agricultural Experiment Station Project H-2811 and to Southern Regional Project S-81, Development of Human Resources Potentials in South and Their Patterns of Mobility. It is a revision of a paper presented at annual meeting of Southwestern Social Science Association, Dallas, Texas, March, 1971. We appreciate support of Dr. William P. Kuvlesky. 2The definitional problems associated with concept role are not unknown to concept group. See: Neal Gross, Ward S. Mason, and Alexander W. McEachern, Explorations in Analysis: Studies of School Superintendency (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1958, pp. 11-18, Elizabeth Bott, Concept of Class as a Group, Human Relations, VII (1954), 259-285; Ralph Turner, Role Taking, Standpoint, and Group Behavior, American Journal of Sociology, LXI (January 1956), 316-328; Eleanor E. MacCoby, Theodore M. Newcomb, and Eugene L. Hartley, Readings in Social Psychology (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Inc., 1958); Theodore Kemper, Reference Groups, Socialization, and Achievement, American Sociological Review, XXXIII (February, 1968), 31-45; Erik H. Erikson, Autobiographic Notes on Identity Crisis, Daedalus (Fall, 1970). We accept Merton's distinction between a role model and a individual: person who identifies himself with a individual will seek to approximate behavior and values of that individual in his several The concept of role model can be thought of as more restricted in scope, denoting a more limited identification with an individual in only one or a selected few of his roles. See: Robert K. Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure (New York: The Free Press, 1957), pp. 302-303. We reject assertion that term (defined as the specific persons from whom individual obtains his level of aspiration, either because they serve as models or because they communicate to him their expectations for his behavior) is more appropriate than that of reference group because it eliminates implication that collectivities . . . are necessarily influential agents for all individuals. See: William H. Sewell, Archibald 0. Haller, and Alejandro Portes, Educational and Early Occupational Attainment Process, American Sociological Review, XXXIV (February, 1969), 84-85. As defined, former term complicates conceptual clarity (1) by minimizing, if not ignoring, point that an individual does not necessarily identify with persons with which he interacts; and (2) by overemphasizing aspirational dimensions of status attainment process. The term role model will be used in this paper. Sewell and his colleagues operationalized significant others influence by constructing an index of three indicators which concern influence of others on educational plans: perceived parental encouragement to attend college, perceived teacher encouragement for college, and friends' college plans. It is important to note that many Black youth do not plan to attend college

Adolescent development · Developmental psychology · Geography · Sociology · White (mutation) · Demography · Diverse Educational Innovations Studies · Gender Studies · Psychology · Social Psychology

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