Investigating the Process of Attitudinal Changes of the Third Generation on the Reference Groups in 1980s

Reference groups are the most important identity resources of the society by which individuals obtain their behaviors and values. Therefore, the analysis of changing process in young generation attitudes in regard with reference groups is accounted as the most significant concerns of the social program makers. Regarding the rapid changes in human societies, especially in our society, changes have also been occurred in social references. Due to the lack of studies in 1980s in this field, first, the related surveys were closely examined. Then, three studies done in the years of 1980, 1981, and 1982, which have identical indexes, were chosen. By adopting the indexes and obtaining the means of values in this relation, the attitude changes have been shown through the graphs. In this research, the analysis of secondary data from national surveys has used applied. The results of the research show that the trend of the younger generation to clerics has been decreasing in these 5 years. The findings indicate that young people adopt their behavioral and intellectual models mostly from their teachers, university professors, and athletes. Considering the inevitable effects of the clergies in our country during the past 150 years, and also the notion of religious characteristics of our political system, this issue is more significant. In the end, solutions are provided to solve this problem.