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The influence of peer pressure
Peer pressure and its effects
How the influence of peer pressure may affect the individual
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Imagine being alone with no friends and no one to talk to. Now, place yourself in a location where you are surrounded by closed tight-knit groups where acceptance from those groups is a challenge to obtain. Then, picture yourself back when you were in high school, but this time, apply the image you have created for yourself. Do you wish for acceptance? Or friendship? Do you feel confident in taking the challenges that high school will bring? High school has a significant impact on an individual’s development. Whether it is their personality or behavior, an individual who goes through high school can see changes in their characteristics. A common stereotype in high school that is largely portrayed in the media is the existence of cliques. Cliques can give an individual a sense of belonging or a sense of betrayal. These two behaviors are commonly seen with the acceptance or rejection from these groups. An immediate result from these two actions is a change in morale or confidence for that individual. Cliques exist in high school due to individual conformity. An individual conforms to the group in order to feel accepted or to feel secured. Groups or cliques in high school have a significant negative effect on an individual’s development of characteristic and personality and the reasons as to why individuals join these types are not justified. Group formation or formation of cliques is typically seen as the stereotypical jocks, cheerleaders, geeks, or nerds. But what most do not necessarily take into consideration is that members of each group have an existing commonality between them even if most of the members do not know what that common trait is. Being a part of a group can have an impact on an individual. Through group discussion, individuals only strengthen their beliefs due to the fact that they know that they are not alone in those beliefs since they have friends
Every person has different personalities that they develop during different stages in life. Many personalities start with parents and how they educate their children. That is the basis of who someone is. Once you get older you start to finally try and figure out who you are. High school can be either the best or the worst place to figure it out. High school is usually thought of a new scary place when starting freshmen year. There are kids who will be older and you will meet different types of people that you might have never met before. The way parents treat their kids can affect their school life. Meaning that if student’s lives at home are not good living conditions that can cause a gap between other students at school. The movie Carrie made in 1976, Carrie was bullied at school but also in way by the hands of her mother who also bullied her at home.
Americans, and ultimately every other individual on the planet, believe that we are all different from one another. We contrast from the way we look, to the way we sound, to the way we stand, walk, talk, etc. Overall, we are incompatible. However, what if that’s a false claim? What if we were exactly the same towards one another, like mirrors almost? My own view of conformity and individuality as it relates to humanity, society, teenagers, and the world is that we are the same more than we are different from each other. However, my claim frightens us so much; we practically change who we are and alter our existence into something that we loathe and despise. Ultimately, I believe that humanity is controlled by society and that individuals reap
Our behavior is an obvious effect of how groups affect us. Social facilitation for example occurs when an indivisual changes their performance because others are around (Cacioppo & Freberg, 2014). When Dap and Half-Pint where in the library, Half- Pint acted in a calm relatable matter, yet around the Gamma recruits he conformed to the dumb things they did. Social loafing also affects people within a group. Social loafing is the reduced motivation and effort shown by individuals working in a group as opposed to working alone (Cacioppo & Freberg, 2014). An example of social loafing would be when Dap’s group decided to march in the parade, the people supporting him wouldn’t need to apply as much effort to protest together than they would alone. School Daze also conveys the message of being lost in the crowd, which is Deindividuation. Deindividuation is the lost of personal identity within the crowd (Cacioppo & Freberg, 2014). Sororities and fraternities have the idea that all members are one. Last, but not least a group can affect one’s attitude, or the way you feel about something. The common attitudes of the sororities and fraternities lead to prejudice. Prejudice is a prejudgment, usually negative, of another person on the basis of his or her membership in a group. In School Daze, Rachael and Jane had a rivalry because they had two different points of view on hair, causing the entire group to dislike each other because they were apart of a separate group. As the saying goes, you are the company you
As a student, I am often troubled by the rigid routines of the school day, despite the fact that I am actually a very habitual person. The constant ringing of bells, lectures, bellwork, classwork, homework, each a daily practice throughout the school year. Although all of these components promote conformity, which will ultimately support the balance of school and societal norms, they also tend to threaten each student’s own unique characteristics. This then poses the question; to what degree should schools encourage conformity versus individuality? Certainly, a level of conformity is required to achieve a balanced society however, the overall structure of the school day and class, including the methods used to teach and mandatory classes, is depriving students of their sense of independence by not allowing them to think for themselves and destroying their natural curiosity; therefore I believe schools need to place more emphasis on the individuality of students.
As an individual stuck amidst a foundation known for its propensity to breed social congruity, college has opened my eyes to numerous distinctive reasons why individuals decide to act in ways they wouldn't regularly act. Since they ordinarily aren't certain of their character, adolescents are more inclined to similarity than others. In the most essential structure, college is tormented with congruity through the generalizations that learners seek after and explore different avenues regarding trying to uncover their personality. There are two sorts of Conformity: the kind that makes you do your errands when your father authorizes you to, and the less than great kind in which you aimlessly take after the thoughts and tenets of an inner circle or gathering, without addressing the negative impacts it has upon yourself and the improvement of whatever remains of public opinion. Conformity is basic in that people strive for a feeling of strength and acknowledgement in their lives. As a result of this need, “we therefore figure out how to fit in with principles of other individuals. What's more the more we see others carrying on in a certain manner or settling on specific choices, the more we feel obliged to stick to this same pattern.” Despite the freedoms we are supposed to have in American society most adolescents find it difficult to have their own identity.
High school is a very transitory period for most teenagers. They are just beginning to discover who they are and what they care about in the world. Though within there are many battles for the individual, there also exist many social barriers. The "popular" crowd is generally full of the jocks. The boys who participate in sport every season: football, baseball and track, and the cheerleader girls who are petit in stature and care greatly about their outward appearance (I realize that this is quite a generalization, yet it has proven true in my experience). Somehow, it seems that these peoples' opinions always matter the most. They determine what is "in," they define "cool." Personally, I never was an active member of this crowd, though some close friends of mine were. My "group" of friends however, was fairly athletic. Practically every one of us participated in a sport, track, swimming, gymnastics, basketball, or soccer. One friend was always a bit different from the rest of the guys. While not feminine in his demeanor, he never distinguished himself as particularly "manly." For example, when one of the girls had to go to the locker room for some reason, she always asked Kawika if he wanted...
My analysis is on the film The Goonies. While I view the movie and determine the various norms, behaviors, roles and interaction between group members, as well as individuals the examination within the realm of film can present many of the same components. Thus, our group selected this movie to analyze based on its formation of a cohesive problem-solving group full of unforgettable characters. The Goonies portray many different theories and aspects of small group communication.
The size of a group is considered to be a restrictive condition on the quantity and quality of connection that can transpire amongst particular members. Kephart (1950) established that as group size increases the number of relationships that exist among member’s increases greatly. He suggests that as a result of this increase in relationships among members there will be an increased tendency towards divisions into subgroups in which participants relate to one another.
In my school, the popular kids, otherwise known as the jocks or preps were at the top of the food chain. They were the star football players, cheerleaders and homecoming queens. They were the most attractive, most competitive, and most social of the other groups. The boys wore blue jeans with rolled cuffs and t-shirts with their letterman jackets, and the girls wore skirts with patterned stockings, matching sweaters and sequined hair accessories. This group was the most highly regarded by the adults in the school, and were often given special perks like preferred parking spots. Oozing with school spirit, they were the pride and joy of the school (and the whole town). Most of the kids in this group were bright, well-adjusted, and happy as they strove to do their best to conform, and to meet the expectations of their parents, coach...
As preteens and teens push for increasing independence from their parents, they tend to turn to their peers for guidance, acceptance, and security. For those who are low in self-esteem and confidence, their safety lies in fitting in and having a place to belong. Most people find a group in which they connect with in a healthy way while others make their way in cliques that give them security but at the price of their own values and individuality. The movie Mean Girls portrays how high school female social cliques operate and the effect they can have on girls. I will argue how if one doesn’t have a strong sense of self-identity, the opinions of others will become their identity.
Groups are an essential component of society as they allow individuals to affiliate themselves with certain people, typically those who are most similar to themselves. Groups also provide social support and a greater sense of belonging for the individual, which is not provided by crowds. Due to the significance of groups, it is important that groups are maintained in organized structures that encourages group harmony and group cohesion. It is essentially the leader’s task to maintain these ideals since the leader has authority over the members of the group.
The desire to be accepted and belong to a group is an undeniable human need. But how does this need affect an individual? Social psychologists have conducted numerous experiments and concluded that, through various forms of social influence, groups can change their members’ thoughts, feelings, and behavior.
In public schools, students are faced with the different groups among their peers. The popular group is most favored, which probably means that you go to school in the latest fashion, you are the team captain or captain of the cheerleading squad. If you are a “geek”, you are probably made fun of because you are smart and get good grades instead of spending the morning caring about how you look. If you a...
Because I remember that one member of our team were excluded and did not really allow her to play that day because she was the only one who disagreed with my team and my coach. I cannot really tell if my teammates do that too, like compliance, conversion, independence, anticonformity, or congruence. But, I think most of the time, my team and I agreed with our group, (congruence). I personally think that the dynamic social impact theory has been demonstrated in the group is clustering. In the textbook, Forsyth wrote, “Clustering is more likely when (a) group members communicate more frequently with members who are close by and less frequently with more distant group members, and (b) if members can change locations to join similar others” (Forsyth, pg. 220). Because I do communicate frequently with some of my team members and I felt close to them but not others. I feel distant from other team member and I do not feel that I am close to them compared to other team members that I communicate with them frequently. My group exemplified French and Raven bases of power which are coercive and expert. In the textbook, the author Forsyth wrote, “coercive: the capacity to
Groups influence our everyday lives in ways that we don’t even realize. Most of what is learned from groups are societal norms that are being reinforced on a micro level in everyday life. Group influence on individuals is a clear tangible proof of societal norms by institutions. The groups we become a part of therefore can have a greater influence on our individual actions then we are aware of. As an individual we like to believe we have agency over our actions and what we decide but a lot of our own actions is more a part of a group mentality. Also, individual’s go along with a group’s influence so they feel better about themselves because then they won’t be ostracized. This paper will analyze different aspects of individual behavior and