In The Lonely Crowd David Riesman presents a different set of social types, one which has probably achieved wider currency than any sociological typology, ever attained. Riesman distinguished three main types, each of which represents a different model of conformity, or of response to social control.

The “tradition-directed” are those whose behavior is minutely controlled from without by traditional cultural standards, by kinship ties, religion, ceremonials, and the like. Their outstanding characteristic is conformity to the external standards of behavior, the etiquette of their community. “Inner-directed” people are responsive not to “strict and self-evident tradition,” but rather to standards “implanted early in life by the elders and directed toward generalization but nonetheless inescapably destined goals.” By contrast, the “other-directed,” the men with a gyroscope inside, are individuals for whom their contemporaries are the source of direction. They follow the crowd.

Riesman called these “historic” types because he feels that each is most characteristic of a given kind of society at a certain stage of development. The tradition-directed man is typical in long settled, unchanging societies where there is a fairly stable ratio of man-to-land, combined with great potential for growth in the unused reserves of the society. In Western history the Middle Ages may be regarded as a period high in tradition-direction.