The first object in a reference relationship is something that acts as a reference to the second object. The second object referred to by the first object is called the referent of the first object. The name of the first object is usually a phrase or expression. Or some other symbolic representation. Its referent can be anything - a material object, a person, an event, an activity or an abstract concept. Small group referentiality is an example of how a term can successfully migrate from linguistics to sociology. Nowadays, such incidents are not uncommon.
Features of the definition
A synonym for reference is reference. References can take many forms: thought, auditory perception (onomatopoeia), visual (text), olfactory or tactile, emotional state, relationship with others, space-time coordinate, symbolic or alphanumeric, physical object or energy projection. In some cases, techniques are used that deliberately hide the link from some observers. Like in cryptography.
References are mentioned in many areas of human activity and knowledge, the term taking on shades of meaning specific to the context in which it is used. Some of them are described in the sections below.
Etymology
Referentiality is a word of foreign origin. The word reference comes from Middle English referren, from Middle French référer, from Latin referre, formed from the prefix re and ferre - “to carry.” There are a number of words that come from the same root - these are reference, referee, referent, referendum.
The verb refers (to) and its derivatives can carry the sense of “referring to” or “connecting with”, as in the meanings of references described in this article. Another meaning is “to consult.” This is reflected in such expressions as “reference work”, “reference service”, “certificate of work”, etc.
In linguistics and philology
Studies of how language interacts with the world are called reference theories. Another name is the theory of reference. Frege was a proponent of the mediated standard theory. Frege divided the semantic content of every expression, including sentences, into two components: meaning and reference (reference). The meaning of a sentence is the thought it expresses. Such thought is abstract, universal and objective. The meaning of any subrepresentational expression lies in its contribution to the idea of what the embedded sentence expresses. Feelings define reference and are also ways of representing the objects that expressions refer to. Links are objects in the world that select words. Feelings of sentences are thoughts. And their references are true values (true or false). References to sentences included in statements about statements and other opaque contexts are their ordinary meanings.
Concept and examples of reference and non-reference groups
Referentiality in psychology is a property of an individual or a group, which is reflected in their ability to exert a decisive influence on a person.
His own values, principles, attitudes and views are formed under their influence.
Any event or phenomenon is also considered and assessed from the position of approval or possible condemnation of significant subjects.
When planning any activity, a person always focuses not only on his own desires and preferences, but also on the position of his reference group or individual.
This psychological and social phenomenon occupies an important place in the system of interpersonal relations. However, it is often contrasted with emotions
Thus, a person may not feel sympathy for any individual, but recognize his importance. Or, conversely, an absolutely uninteresting social group, whose members are not authorities, evokes a certain emotional response.
It should be noted that the impact can be both positive and negative.
In this case, a significant subject can provide assistance in forming the right attitudes and choosing the right path of personal growth.
If the reference is possessed by a person who has a negative impact on the individual and his life, such dependence leads to negative consequences. A similar principle applies to relationships with social communities.
Characteristics of the reference personality
This is a person of particular importance to the subject of the relationship. Such a person is a role model, a model.
The object to which influence is directed turns out to be in strong psychological dependence on the person of reference for him, who acts as the main provider of values, rules, and principles.
In any of his actions, a person under influence is guided by the opinions and views of his idol. He tries to demonstrate only that behavior and thinking that will cause approval.
Usually the reference personality is a strong, self-confident individual.
His authority is explained by the stability of his life principles and his ability to persuade.
A person under the influence of such a personality may not only not feel sympathy, but even feel hostility. But such emotions will not be of key importance.
Reference group
What is a reference group? From the point of view of significance for the subject, the social groups in which he belongs can be:
- referential. A real, conditional small group that is a standard. In his behavior and even in the perception of his own personality, the individual is guided by those values, views and norms that are established by the group. The community is able to influence self-esteem, control his behavior, determine actions;
- non-referential. This is a small group whose psychology does not cause an emotional reaction. A person may not be a member of it or may be a member, but in any case feel indifference to the values, norms and rules broadcast by its participants.
The reference group performs normative, comparative functions.
Normative regulation of human behavior is expressed in the formation in his mind of certain attitudes and norms that must be met.
The comparative function is expressed in the formation of a certain standard, a sample, which acts as a key criterion for assessing oneself and other people. The same community can simultaneously perform both functions.
A certain problem for a person is the presence of several referent associations of people whose values have the opposite direction.
In this case, a serious intrapersonal conflict occurs, since the individual is forced to make a choice between communities that are significant to him.
For example, family and circle of friends may be of equal importance to a teenager.
Every person living in society is part of a huge number of communities.
This is a family, a friendly company, a professional social circle, a sports section, etc.
Examples
Bertrand Russell, in his later work and for reasons related to his theory of acquaintance in epistemology, argued that the only directly referential expressions are "logically proper names". Logically proper names are terms such as “I”, “now”, “here” and other indexes.
He regarded the proper names described above as “abbreviated definite descriptions.” Therefore, "Donald J. Trump" may be short for "current President of the United States and husband of Melania Trump." Definite descriptions designate phrases that are analyzed by Russell into existentially quantifiable logical constructs. However, such objects are not to be considered meaningful in themselves; they have meaning only in the sentence expressed by the sentences of which they are a part. Hence for Russell they have no direct reference as logically proper names.
Reference groups in human life
As a rule, a person considers himself to belong to several reference groups. The number of such groups increases as a person grows older.
At first, only his family is important for the baby; he is guided by the norms and rules established in it. During this period, the child learns the basic concepts of morality and ethics.
Then the child ends up in a children's group. The influence of the reference children's group on the child is very noticeable when the child begins to ask his parents to buy him, for example, a toy that the majority of children in the group have. At this age, it is difficult for a child to distinguish his own needs from the needs of the group. Therefore, most often the justification for immoral children’s actions is the phrase: “Everyone did it that way, that’s why I did it too!” The baby learns to coexist with other people, communicate, make friends, take into account the interests of others, and be involved in the group.
For a teenager, the company of friends and the class in which he studies are of great importance. If it is “fashionable” in the class to be smart, a child who studies well will study even harder. In this case, the reference group will be “positive” for him. If in the class there are more respected individuals who do not want to study at all, the child will either adapt to the requirements of the group and begin to study worse, or will show such a personality trait as nonconformism and will continue to study well. In the second case, the reference group will become “negative” for him, but will still remain significant.
A teenager is most inclined to compare himself with others; he strives for ideals and wants to be a respected member of a peer group. Teenagers join various groups of youth subcultures, fans of musical groups, computer games and other significant communities.
It is very important for a person, when relating himself to significant others, to have his own opinions and views, and to be able to resist manipulation and negative influence. The more developed and conscious a person is, the more demanding he is in choosing a significant group. In adolescence, a person can become involved with antisocial individuals and groups, following the desire to be in “bad” but authoritative company
In adolescence, a person can become involved with antisocial individuals and groups, following the desire to be in “bad” but authoritative company.
Students in a broad sense and the student group are the next reference group that influences the individual. Young men, when they join the army, find another reference group there.
For an adult, the community of representatives of his chosen profession and the team at work become significant.
A mature person learns to find a balance between the need and need to belong to a group and the ability to defend his own opinion, different from the general one.
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Advanced Theory
Despite the fact that reference in psychology is the more well-known meaning of this concept, it also plays a big role in linguistics. On Frege's account, any referring expression has a meaning and a referent. This "indirect reference" has certain theoretical advantages over Mill's point of view. For example, referential names such as Samuel Clemens and Mark Twain create problems for the direct referential view because someone might hear “Mark Twain—Samuel Clemens” and be surprised—thus making their cognitive content appear different.
Despite the differences between the views of Frege and Russell, they are generally regarded as descriptivists. Such descriptivism was criticized in the name and necessity of Saul Kripke.
Kripke advanced what became known as the “modal argument” (or “argument from rigidity”). Consider Aristotle's name and description of "Plato's greatest student," "founder of logic," and "Alexander's teacher." Aristotle obviously fits all the descriptions (and many more that we commonly associate with him), but it is not necessarily true that if Aristotle existed, he would be any or all of these descriptions. Aristotle could well have existed without doing any of the things for which he is known to posterity. He could exist and not become known to posterity at all, or die in infancy. Suppose that Aristotle is associated with Mary with the description "the last great philosopher of antiquity", and the (actual) Aristotle died in infancy. The description of Mary then seems to refer to Plato. But this is deeply illogical. Therefore, according to Kripke, names are rigid designators. That is, they refer to the same person in every possible world in which that person exists. In the same work, Kripke formulated several other arguments against Frege-Russell descriptivism.
Grouping of goods according to the influence of reference groups
When making various purchases, an individual experiences pressure from reference groups of varying strengths. Thus, when buying food, clothing and other essential goods in conditions of dire need, people do not look back at their reference group: hunger and cold dictate these purchases. However, given the choice of a specific type of essential commodity, the individual is already under the influence of his reference group.
Many products bear the imprint of prestige: various kinds of delicacies, expensive alcoholic drinks. Each group has its own table setting standards: if you want to be considered one of your own, set the table no lower than the standards accepted in this group (the influence of the self-identification group). If for the owners the value reference groups are in the West, then imported products of a specifically Western type (“Coca-Cola”, pickled corn, specific seasonings, etc.) prevail on the table. If the owners are guided by the customs of Russian antiquity, then the emphasis will be on domestic, simple products, and national cuisine. Similarly, a clothing brand is associated with a selected reference group. At the same time, essential items that are not to be shown to outsiders are selected with minimal influence from reference groups.
When purchasing items that are considered luxury in a given country, the influence of the reference group is strong across the board.
We briefly reviewed the definition of the term reference group, grouping of goods according to the influence of reference groups, influence of the reference group, reference group of self-identification, need for export, positive and negative reference groups, typology of reference groups, classification of groups. Leave your comments or additions to the material.
Semantics
In semantics, “reference” is the relationship between nouns or pronouns and the objects that are named by them. Therefore, the word "John" refers to the person John. The word "it" refers to some previously specified object. That is? The object referred to is called the referent of the word. Sometimes a word denotes an object. The reverse relation, the relation from an object to a word, is called an example; the object illustrates what the word stands for. In parsing, if a word is related to a previous word, the previous word is called an antecedent.
Gottlob Frege argued that the reference cannot be interpreted as being identical in meaning: "Hesperus" (the ancient Greek name for the "evening star") and "Phosphorus" (the ancient Greek name for the "morning star") refer to Venus, but the astronomical fact is that " Hesperus" is "Phosphorus", that is, it is still the same object, even if the meanings of the words mentioned are known to us. This problem led Frege to distinguish between meaning and reference to a word. Some cases seem too complex to be classified within this framework. Adopting the concept of a secondary link may be necessary to fill the gap.
Linguistic sign
The very concept of a linguistic sign is a combination of content and expression, the former of which may refer to entities in the world or refer to more abstract concepts such as "thought". Certain parts of speech exist only to express reference, namely anaphors such as pronouns. A subset of reflexives expresses the joint reference of two participants in a sentence. These could be agent (actor) and patient (acted), as in “the man washed himself,” topic and recipient, as in “I showed Mary to myself,” or various other possible combinations. But it is not only the humanities that have absorbed this term. The exact sciences also boast their own versions of this term, such as the dispersion and referentiality of light in physics. But a much more extensive definition of reference is given to us by computer science, which is discussed below.
Principle of reference
Of unique importance to the study of personality is the study not only of individual characteristics, but also of intergroup tendencies and relationships that contribute to the development of human reactions and views.
The definition of reference is used in the construction of experimental psychodiagnostic studies, which are based on certain principles. This is the principle of adequacy (correspondence of the research method to the phenomenon being studied), parallelism (registration of indicators parallel to the process being studied), extremeness (creation of such a critical situation when the studied properties are most clearly manifested), gradient registration (registration of parameters in diverse situations), consistent explanation (use for explanations of only the two closest levels of generalization), psychological expediency (not all processes are of a psychological nature) and the principle of reference.
The principle of reference is used to simplify and rationalize the research process in situations where the entire system under study is displayed in a single location, as if in focus. In this case, there is no need to carry out a huge number of registration data, which speeds up the research process and increases its accuracy and efficiency. This principle applies to other scientific fields where similar mapping laws apply.
When studying a person’s attitude to various groups of people, it is possible to draw up his personal portrait, identify his motivational orientation, and professional orientation. The study of the system of these relationships is not only a multifaceted method of psychodiagnostics, but also a method of formation and development of personality, its leading orientations, and motives.
The principle of reference in matters of pedagogical activity is important. Identifying the child’s standard groupings, significant ideas and people helps to form the necessary personality qualities. With the correct use of this data and through the use of the principle of reference, it is possible to push a person to certain judgments and actions. What nature or direction they will be depends on the significant grouping, since the child will not particularly critically perceive the information provided by the reference group or its representative.
Equipment and computers
In computer science, hardware referentiality is a value that allows a program to indirectly refer to a specific piece of data, such as the value of a variable or an entry in computer memory or some other storage device. A link is said to refer to data, and accessing the data is called link dereferencing. The concept of equipment reference therefore often refers not to the equipment as such, but to the data.
Referentiality is different from the database itself. Typically, for references to data stored in memory on a given system, the reference is implemented as the physical address where the data resides in memory or on a storage device. For this reason, a link is often mistakenly confused with a pointer or address and claimed to "point" to data. However, a reference can also be implemented in other ways, such as an offset (difference) between the address of a data element and some fixed "base" address as an index into an array. Or, more abstractly, as a descriptor. More broadly, on the Web, links can be network addresses, such as URLs. In this context, the term “referentiality of technology” is sometimes used.
Reference groups in human life
As a rule, a person considers himself to belong to several reference groups. The number of such groups increases as a person grows older.
At first, only his family is important for the baby; he is guided by the norms and rules established in it. During this period, the child learns the basic concepts of morality and ethics.
Then the child ends up in a children's group. The influence of the reference children's group on the child is very noticeable when the child begins to ask his parents to buy him, for example, a toy that the majority of children in the group have. At this age, it is difficult for a child to distinguish his own needs from the needs of the group. Therefore, most often the justification for immoral children’s actions is the phrase: “Everyone did it that way, that’s why I did it too!” The baby learns to coexist with other people, communicate, make friends, take into account the interests of others, and be involved in the group.
For a teenager, the company of friends and the class in which he studies are of great importance. If it is “fashionable” in the class to be smart, a child who studies well will study even harder. In this case, the reference group will be “positive” for him. If in the class there are more respected individuals who do not want to study at all, the child will either adapt to the requirements of the group and begin to study worse, or will show such a personality trait as nonconformism and will continue to study well. In the second case, the reference group will become “negative” for him, but will still remain significant.
A teenager is most inclined to compare himself with others; he strives for ideals and wants to be a respected member of a peer group. Teenagers join various groups of youth subcultures, fans of musical groups, computer games and other significant communities.
It is very important for a person, when relating himself to significant others, to have his own opinions and views, and to be able to resist manipulation and negative influence. The more developed and conscious a person is, the more demanding he is in choosing a significant group.
In adolescence, a person can become involved with antisocial individuals and groups, following the desire to be in “bad” but authoritative company.
Students in a broad sense and the student group are the next reference group that influences the individual. Young men, when they join the army, find another reference group there.
For an adult, the community of representatives of his chosen profession and the team at work become significant.
A mature person learns to find a balance between the need and need to belong to a group and the ability to defend his own opinion, different from the general one.
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Differences
The concept of reference should not be confused with other values (keys or identifiers) that uniquely identify a data element but provide access to it only through a non-trivial lookup operation in some table data structure.
References are widely used in programming, especially for efficiently passing large or volatile data as arguments to procedures or for exchanging such data among different applications. In particular, a reference can point to a variable or record that contains references to other data. This idea is the basis of indirect addressing and many related data structures such as linked lists. Links can cause significant complexity in a program, partly due to the possibility of dangling and wild links, and partly because the topology of the linked data is a directed graph, the analysis of which can be quite complex.
References increase flexibility in where objects can be stored, how they are distributed, and how they are passed between regions of code.
Important point. As long as the data link can be accessed, the data can be accessed through it, the data itself does not need to be moved. They also make it easier to share data between different areas of code. Everyone keeps a link to it.
Classification of groups
Based on the functions performed, normative and comparative reference groups are distinguished; based on the fact of group membership, presence and ideal groups are distinguished; in accordance with the individual’s agreement or rejection of the norms and values of the group, positive and negative reference groups are distinguished.
The normative reference group acts as a source of norms regulating the behavior of an individual, a guideline for a number of problems that are significant to him. In turn, the comparative reference group is a standard for the individual in assessing himself and others. The same reference group can act as both normative and comparative.
A presence group is a reference group of which an individual is a member. An ideal reference group is a group whose opinion an individual is guided by in his behavior, in his assessment of events that are important to him, in his subjective attitudes toward other people, but of which he is not a member for some reason. Such a group is especially attractive to him. An ideal reference group can be either a real one existing in a social environment or a fictional one (in this case, the standard of subjective assessments and life ideals of an individual are literary heroes, historical figures of the distant past, etc.).
If the social norms and value orientations of a positive reference group fully correspond to the ideas about the norms and values of the individual, then the value system of a negative reference group, with the same degree of significance and importance of the assessments and opinions of this group, is alien to the individual and is opposite to his values. Therefore, in his behavior, he tries to receive a negative assessment, “disapproval” of his actions and position from this group.. In sociology and social psychology, the concept of “reference group” is used mainly to explain the socio-psychological mechanisms involved in the formation of attitudes in the individual consciousness value-normative regulation of personality
In this regard, it is of interest for sociological research related to the study of the effectiveness of pedagogical and propaganda influences, since the ability to find and identify reference groups significantly simplifies the work of studying the orientation of the individual and the search for ways to purposefully influence its formation.
In sociology and social psychology, the concept of “reference group” is used mainly to explain the socio-psychological mechanisms involved in the formation of values and normative regulation of the individual in the individual consciousness. In this regard, it is of interest for sociological research related to the study of the effectiveness of pedagogical and propaganda influences, since the ability to find and identify reference groups significantly simplifies the work of studying the orientation of the individual and the search for ways to purposefully influence its formation.
Mechanism
The referencing mechanism, while it varies in implementation, is a fundamental feature of a programming language. Common to almost all modern programming languages. Even some languages that don't support explicit use of references have some internal or implicit use. For example, the call-by-reference convention can be implemented using explicit or implicit references.
More generally, a link can be thought of as a piece of data that allows another piece of data to be uniquely retrieved. This includes primary keys in databases and keys in an associative array. If we have a set of keys K and a set of data objects D, any well-defined (unambiguous) function from K to D ∪ {null} defines a reference type, where zero is an image of a key that does not refer to anything meaningful.
An alternative representation of such a function is a directed graph called a reachability graph. Here, each data element is represented by a vertex and there is an edge from u to v if the data element in u refers to the data element in v. The maximum output degree is one. These graphs are valuable in garbage collection, where they can be used to separate accessible from inaccessible objects.
Psychology
In psychology, reference is a very common concept found in several theories. From a mental processing perspective, psychology uses self-reference to establish identification with a mental state during introspection. This allows a person to develop his own guidelines to a greater degree of immediate awareness. However, it can also lead to circular reasoning, preventing thinking from developing.
According to Perceptual Control Theory (PCT), the reference condition is the state in which the output of the control system tends to change the controlled quantity. The basic statement is that “all behavior is oriented at all times to the control of certain quantities in relation to specific reference conditions.”
Functions of the reference group
The norms and orientations of social associations act as a standard of activity for a person, even when he is not a direct member of it. Thus, a teenager who wants to infiltrate the company of his older brother imitates his behavior, clothes, habits, and manner of speaking. Social psychology calls this phenomenon “anticipatory” socialization, which means certain efforts of the individual that he directs to the formation of behavior, in anticipation of access to a group with a status greater than he currently has.
The reference group has two main functions: comparative and normative.
The comparative function is expressed in the processes of perception, where the reference group appears as a standard, using which a person can evaluate himself and evaluate others.
The normative function is expressed in various motivational processes, and the reference group appears as a source of development of social attitudes, orientations, and rules of behavior. Both functions can be performed by different groups or by the same one.
The number of standard unions in which an individual can be a member is influenced by his direct activities and types of relationships.
It often happens that the entire reference group has no idea how important it is for a person. He then, usually, makes personal assumptions about the probable opinion of the participants of the referent association about his person, formulates what this judgment could be if the standard were some kind of conditional group, for example, unreal characters or personalities of bygone times.
If it nevertheless happens that the subjects of the referent association begin to have contradictions in values, intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts arise, it is necessary to resort to tactful help from the outside.
Self-reference (self-reference)
Self-reference occurs in natural or formal languages when a sentence, idea, or formula refers to itself. The reference can be expressed either directly (through some intermediate clause or formula) or through some encoding. In philosophy, it also refers to the ability of a subject to talk about or refer to himself: to have a type of thought expressed in the nominative singular case of the first person.
Self-reference has been studied and has applications in mathematics, philosophy, computer programming, and linguistics. Self-referential statements are sometimes counterintuitive and can also be considered recursive.
In classical philosophy, paradoxes were created by self-referential concepts, such as the paradox of omnipotence: to establish whether it was possible for a being so powerful that it could create a stone that it could not lift. Epimenides' paradox "All Cretans are liars", uttered by an ancient Greek Cretan, was one of the first recorded versions. Modern philosophy sometimes uses the same technique to demonstrate that an intended concept is meaningless or ill-defined.
Intergroup referentiality
In sociology there is such a thing as a reference group. It denotes a social group to which a person is accustomed to refer. And with which he identifies himself in one way or another. Intergroup referentiality is the ability of multiple groups to refer to each other.
Reference group theory is regularly used to analyze the current socio-political situation in the country. In recent decades, sociologists have paid close attention to the referentiality of small groups, because this is an important phenomenon from the point of view of microsociology.
What is referentiality
With the advent of the social structure of society, a person, upon being born, already belongs to various groups. A newborn baby already has social groups (parental family, national and spiritual environment), they are all divided according to social, spiritual and financial status. Further, when a person develops, the number of group affiliations grows, and awareness appears, and not the givenness of joining them.
The definition of reference was introduced by G. Hyman, and he understood reference as a type of relationship in which the opinion that a person develops regarding the characteristics of himself and the world, values and goals, the feeling and definition of life principles are related to which group he belongs to, with whom relates itself. The object of reference relationships can be people or an individual, whether really existing or not.
Referentiality itself has the ability to manifest itself during the interaction of the subject with significant objects in group activity. Objects can be understood as participants in the activity, as well as their emotional reactions, character traits, and emerging difficulties. This type of interaction is mediated and occurs through the individual’s appeal in a situation of orientation of his assessments to a significant reference group. According to the mechanism of action, reference relationships are divided into non-internalized (when behavior is dictated from the outside) and internalized (conditioned not by external influences, but by consciously processed factors that have already become a person’s internal motives).
Referentiality displays the measure of significance of an object or grouping, and this significance exists exclusively in the perception of a specific subject in relation to objects. An individual's belonging to certain groups of people changes his personality through internalization of the norms characteristic of these associations.
Intergroup reference occurs when a person strives to achieve, turns to a certain external reference group, which determines the basic values and socially significant norms that correspond to his worldview. Intergroup reference is determined by the social attitudes of the group, its values, and development vectors.
Referentiality has a broad influence on a person’s reactions and personality, which comes from the demands of society to obey its norms and conform to inherent standards in behavior. A deeper influence is value-oriented, when a person absorbs the moral and ethical rules of a given group; this is an internal process of acceptance that cannot be imposed by demands from the outside. And the last layer of influence is informational, since information emanating from a positively perceived reference group does not undergo the proper level of criticism and is considered a priori by a person as correct, trustworthy and worthy of implementation.
