Continuing Task 4D - Literature Review

My second literature review has been taken from The American Psychological Association -

'The Motivational Theory of Role Modeling: How Role Models Influence Role Aspirants’ Goals

Thekla Morgenroth University of Exeter

Michelle K. Ryan University of Exeter and University of Groningen

Kim Peters University of Queensland'

This piece of literature is research into role models, it does not relate directly to dance teachers or even teachers in general, but this will help me gain a better understanding of how role models work and also on the people who they are being a model for 'role aspirants'. The study focusses less on the role models themselves but the people who the role models are inspiring and the motivational processes on their side, the research calls these the 'role aspirants'.

Leaders do not exist without followers, therefore role models do not exist without the role aspirants.

"role models are seen as those who motivate us to set more ambitious goals or make the right decisions"

The three role model qualities - 

Goal Embodiment

Attainability

Desirability

The diagram below is taken from the research and it a flow chart showing the motivational theory of role modelling.

The term 'role models' was introduced in 1957 by Merton and was used to refer to people with specific roles and the behaves associated with them. Since then it is used much more widely and can relate to celebrities and people in the public eye rather than just a doctor or teacher etc.

This could make my using the term for my inquiry very difficult, as the term has become unclear over time with the increasing use of the term.

In this article, despite the term being unclear it intends to argue that role models still have three themes among all definitions of the term -

"(a) they show us how to perform a skill and achieve a goal — they are behavioral models; 
(b) they show us that a goal is attainable — they are representations of the possible, and 
(c) they make a goal desirable — they are inspirations."

As our blogs are now to be kept to a minimum word count I do not want to keep talking about what I have read.

What i will take from this piece of research is that not only do I need to look at the people who are considered to be role models, but I need to look at the aspirants, as i said before, without followers (role aspirants) the leaders (role models) would not exist.