Changes over time in reference group and sociometric choice

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the relations between sociometric choice-behaviour and reference groups, and to examine their stability with time. It has been assumed that a longer acquaintance between two people in the same group enables them to choose each other and reveal agreement with one another on everyday things. To find evidence in this area, four main problems were studied: change and persistence in intensity of interpersonal identification within a group; change and persistence in sociometric choice behaviour over a period of time; the individuals' insight and its change or persistence in the range of expected and actual choices; and the relationship between agreement in choice of everyday things and mutuality in sociometric choice behaviour. These variables were observed for ten groups of students who were initially strangers. In six of the groups, the subjects were tested shortly after they were brought together for the first time, and then at two later stages of their acquaintance. These three trials allowed an assessment of stability and change in all the variables and revealed a relationship between agreement and mutuality of choice behaviour. Two types of questionnaires were used: a sociometric questionnaire with one part asking a subject to make actual choices, and the other asking him to indicate people by whom he expected to be chosen, and an agreement questionnaireasking a subject to choose the items he most preferred from the everyday life situations. Three groups of students were distinguished: those living together, those working together and a group both living and working together. The experiments were conducted in a naturalistic setting over two years time.As predicted, the individuals of all groups differed in the intensity of interpersonal identification across the given criteria in the limited range of this experimental situation. In both expected and actual choice-behaviour there was markedly higher intensity of interpersonal identification for the leisure criteria than for criteria which reflected work activities; and the intensity of interpersonal identification over a period of time was fairly stable. Individuals showed stability in receiving and choosing others in actual and expected sociometric choices, and the pattern of given and received choices was a relatively constant factor in the structure of self's orientation towards others (choosing stability), and the orientation of others toward one's self (receiving stability), once acquaintanceship was established among strangers. As predicted, individuals from all of the groups showed significant insight or correspondence between expected and actual choices. Finally, there was clear evidence that individuals from all groups who expressed their mutual orientation in sociometric choices, had a higher degree of agreement with each other on everyday life items, than those who expressed onlyone-way orientation or no orientation towards each other. In both experiments the expected and actual sociometric choices revealed a consistent tendency for differences between mutual, one-way and neutral choice-agreement behaviour. The mutual sociometric choices revealed a significantly higher degree of agreement, as predicted, at each stage of testing, with a particularly noticeable increase at the third stage of testing.