reference group

Meaning: A reference group is a group an individual uses as a standard for judging their own behavior, attitudes, or social standing. The person may belong to it, such as a family or team, or merely hope to join it, such as a higher social class. Its norms guide the person's choices, and because the mechanism is comparison, whom the person picks determines how they judge themselves.

On the MCAT: Passages describe someone changing dress, speech, or spending to match a group, or feeling dissatisfied after comparing themselves with wealthier neighbors. You identify the reference group and predict the effect. Related ideas are social comparison, relative deprivation (feeling deprived compared with a reference group rather than in absolute terms), and anticipatory socialization (adopting the norms of a group one hopes to join).

Common confusion: Students often treat a reference group as the same thing as one's own group or in-group. It need not be. People can measure themselves against groups they do not belong to, and an in-group is defined by belonging and identification, not by comparison. To settle it, ask whom the person is measuring themselves against.