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Peer pressure among teens
Peer pressure among teens
Negative behaviours by peer pressure
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Peer pressure is a substantial challenge faced by teenagers in the modern world. From negative peer pressure to positive peer pressure and bullying, everyone will face these taxing obstacles at some point in their lives. The article “Queen Bee and Her Court” by Rosalind Wiseman gives us a detailed understanding of how the seven stereotypes in high school cliques fit into these pressures. In reading this article, I realized the truth behind the patterns presented by the author. Peer Pressure often revolves around one thing: power. Furthermore, everyone met in the hallways unfailingly falls into one of the seven categories as described throughout the story. As Rosalind Wiseman says, “Our best politicians and diplomats couldn't do better than …show more content…
The stereotype commonly associated with bullying is indefinitely the “Queen Bee”. In playing this role, “Queen Bees” gain a sense of power over the other girls within the clique. They enjoy the fact that the others feel as though they must pay homage to them. However, “Queen Bees” lose a real sense of self, and become cynical of their position. Often, they wonder if people only speak to them as a result of their popularity or looks. The simple fact that they feel as though they must routinely exert their power over the others, proves that their actions are spurred from a place of loneliness.When they are able to control others, it proves to them that they are still better than everyone else. This pattern repeats, as they are constantly in need of reassurance, and surround themselves with people who will do so. Often the recipient of the bullying, are the “Targets”. Commonly meek and insecure, they provide the weakness that the “Queen Bees” need to prey upon. For instance, should a “Target” come to school wearing a new pair of shoes that a “Queen Bee” envies, the “Queen Bees” will incessantly call the “Targets” names and make fun of their shoes. This will eventually cause “Targets” to leave or feel so terribly that they will take the shoes off in hopes of the nonsense coming to a stop. This causes “Targets” to feel worthless and unvalued. As one can see, bullying is a terrible form of peer pressure in which both the administrator and recipient suffer negatively
In many high schools, there is an unspoken social order amongst peer groups; teenagers are either included in the popular group or the unpopular group. These social standings are determined by the popular group whether they will accept certain people based on shared interests and values but mainly on appearance. For example, some groups may isolate a student who does not have clothing considered attractive enough. Teenagers belonging to the popular clique label individuals as outcasts who do not fit the clique’s standards of a perfect appearance. This repression can cause a build up of anger if an outcast seeks to be accepted into that popular group.
When the word bullying is brought up, one always pictures in his or her mind a big angry boy, who picks on other small helpless children. What some don’t realize is that bullying comes hand in hand with popularity, likeability, and peer acceptance. Children are heavily influenced by other kids his or her age, as the old saying goes, “But mom Jimmy gets to stay up past 10, why can’t I?” According to Miranda Witvliet, to understand children’s peer group affiliation, you need to be able to examine children naturally occurring groups resemble each other on bullying, likeability, and perceived popularity. To be accepted by a popular group of kids, others would follow in his or her footsteps and will bully others, even if the child knew it were wrong. Schools around the country have constructed anti-bullying campaigns and have programs setup to teach students, teachers, and family members what to do to prevent bullying. In an article by Jennifer Dignan, she explains how Stomp Out Bullying and The National Center for Bullying Prevention are two organizations working to put an end to the epidemic. To help prevent bullying people need to understand how the victims and the bullies are affected by other peers.
“Just do it, it’ll be fine.” or things like “Nobody will know, trust me” or even “If you don't do it we can’t be friends anymore.” These are all examples of peer pressure, a problem the whole world faces. Peer pressure is a big problem, and also is in the book Speak too. Peer pressure is the act of peers trying to make you do something, whether it be good or bad. Peer pressure can vary from friends wanting one to help them in doing good deed, or wanting one to do something bad like steal or disobey one’s parents or elders. Peer pressure in the book had put the main character Melinda Sordino through a lot, not knowing where she belonged and who was really there for her throughout the story. Peer pressure in schools and in everyday life of
Remember being a little kid and being pushed down on the playground, being picked last in middle school, or being called horrible names in high school? Those are just a few examples of how people are bullied. A person who repeatedly physically or verbally torments or harasses someone in anyway is bullying (“Bullying” par. 1). It unfortunately happens almost everywhere. It’s a huge problem that is beginning to take over schools. Middle school is an especially troublesome time because this is the time where kids are just trying to be accept by others and they are the most vulnerable. Bullying damages children and teens in all aspects. (“Verbal” par. 4) Depending on how they are being bullied it can affect them physical, emotionally, and even physiologically. (“Verbal” par. 4) There are tragic stories of suicides and teenagers cutting themselves everywhere because of being bullied and finally they’ve reached their last straw. (“Verbal” par. 4) Which makes since because kids who are being bullied are twice as likely to commit suicide compared to someone who is not being bullied. (Murray par. 5) Suicide has hit number three on what kills teenagers in the United States. (Murray par. 6) Victims who become bullied are normally people who try to separate themselves from conflict. (“Bullies” par. 7) They normally are “loners” or “outcasts”, which makes them more vulnerable to become the victim. (“Bullies” par. 7) They may like different types of music, dress unlike others, or have a disability. (Petrocelli par. 3) Children who are being bullied often show common signs like crying and not wanting to go to school. (“Bullying” par. 4) Many say people bully others because they themselves feel like “outcasts” or like they have no friends but ac...
... instead of following the majority. The issue of peer pressure can relate to teens, as they are in constant pressure to be ‘cool’ or to be in the ‘in’ group. It does not really promote individualism, so people cannot develop their own ideas but rather follow the leader of their group.
Bullying has both short term and long effects on the victim. A victim of someone who has been bullied for so long can lead to them bullying other individuals, making this a never-ending cycle. "Bu...
Bullying in girls is said to peak between the ages of ten and fourteen (Simmons, 2002, p. 4). This adolescent period is characterized by physical changes as well as cognitive and social-emotional changes. During this time, an adolescents' relationship with her peers is most important for support and approval of ...
In every clique, each girl has a specific role that they play. Some of the roles can be good; however, some can also be very bad. There is always a girl that gives positive peer pressure, one that gives negative peer pressure, and one that bullies. In Rosalind Wiseman’s story “Queen Bee and Her Court,” she describes the roles these girls play and how they act around their peers. Though not all are bad, the floater, sidekick, and queen bee all play roles in either peer pressure or bullying.
Social influence/peer groups were one of the dominant themes in my observations, survey, and literature. Social influence looks at how individual thoughts, actions and feelings are influenced by social groups (Aronson, 2010).The desire to be accepted and liked by others can lead to dangerous behavior. College life can be an overwhelming experience for first time college students and or transfer students as they struggle to manage class time and social activities in an attempt to fit-in in the new environment that they may not be used to. Students can experience too much anxiety and drop out of college or fall behind classes. Working at the Cambell Student Union information Center, I observed a great deal of students falling into this trap of social influence and peer pressure. A female student tripped as she was going up the stairs to Spot Coffee but did not fall. What appears to be a group of guys who are not popular (guys who are not very well known), were seating where popular students normally seat. The group of guys started laughing at the girl and stopped. One guy kept laughing, but it was obvious he was forcing the laughter as to purposely attract attention. He started making jokes about the girl and carrying on the laughter so he would appear to be funny. Another example, which portrays peer influence, involves parties over the weekend. Multiple students stated they were falling behind in classes on the grounds of their friends wanted to go out the night before and they did not want to seem/appear “lame” so they tagged along. The influence of a group is intensified by the person’s desire to be an accepted member of the peer group. To achieve this desire he tries to conform in everyday to the patterns approved by the grou...
Everyone has been bullied or encountered someone being bullied at some point of their life. Whether it would be physically or verbally both can be exceedingly traumatizing and can have a long-term psychological influence on children’s development. Majority people may define bullying in a more physical term; nevertheless that’s not always the case. The act of bullying can occur in several ways and in reality affect the individual in the same way. Bullying is generally defined as repeated, negative, and harmful actions focused at target throughout a course of time, exhibiting a sense of power difference between the bully and the victim (Olweus, 1993; Limber & Mihalic, 1999 as cited from Douglas J. Boyle, 2005). A survey was conducted in the United States estimating that over six million children, about 30% in grade six through ten have experienced frequent bullying in a school environment (Nansel, 2001 as cited from Douglas J. Boyle, 2005). Many people might debate that bullying is something that every child goes through and is simply a part of growing up, although there are several damaging consequences that happens to the child’s brain. Bullying causes the child to feel upset, isolated, frightened, anxious, and depressed. They feel like they reason they are being picked on is because there is something wrong with them and may even lose their confidence feel unsafe going to school (Frenette, 2013 as cited from Douglas J. Boyle, 2005) Anthropologically, sociologically, or psychologically, bullying can be analyzed through different perspectives and several questions can be asked based on the topic:
Bullying has been around for decades and yet it is still a reoccurring problem, and it is only getting worse. The National Center for Educational Statistics, in 2009, said nearly 1 in 3 students between the ages of 12 and 18 reported being bullied in school. Eight years earlier, only 14 percent of that population said they had experienced bullying(Ollove,2014). There are two types of bullying the direct form and indirect form, in the direct form the victim receives physical harm example kicking pushing shoving. In the indirect form the victim receives emotional or mental harm by name-calling, rejection, gossip, threats, or insults(Green,2007). It doesn’t matter which way the victim was bullied it still causes
Peer pressure and acts of mass blind obedience are all too common occurrences in our everyday society. A person, who under any other circumstances would never act in such a way, will commit unthinkable acts when backed by a single person or even worse, a large mass of individuals. It’s almost always destructive, and the person or persons involved usually always end up feeling regretful and bewildered by their actions. When thinking about group peer pressure, there are several other words that come to mind such as; conformity, compliance, brainwashing and social influence. Group peer pressure can make a person with the purest morals and the highest values act in ways that are more than contradictory. Group peer pressure can turn a saint into a sinner, a leader to a follower, and an individual to a tiny speck in a large and corrupt mass.
The article, “Bullies and Their Victims”, by Berk (2010) gives an analysis of how bullies and their victims develop, what makes them persistent and how they and their victims can be assisted. Bullying is an activity that thrives mostly in a school setting because of peers and the various cultures and diversities among them. Interactions are inevitable among children, but bullying is destructive because it aims at peer victimisation. Both boys and girls have the ability to become bullies but the majority of them are boys who use physical and verbal attacks on their victims. In the more recent generations, the means of bullying is amplified in the adolescent stage by using electronic means like cyber bullying. Students will rarely like bullies but if they do, it is because of their leadership abilities or influential personalities. Their peers may join or stand by to watch as the victims are bullied.
Bullying is something that is not something new and is actually something that society continues to face. Over the years, bullying has been looked at as being so ordinary in schools that it is continuously overlooked as an emanate threat to students and has been lowered to a belief that bullying is a part of the developmental stage that most young children will experience then overcome (Allebeck, 2005, p. 129). Not everyone gets over the extreme hurt that can come as an effect from bullying, for both the bully and the victim. Because of this, we now see bullying affecting places such as the workplace, social events and even the home. The issue of bullying is not only experienced in schools, but the school environment is one of the best places
Bullying can also be considered as a major problem in the teenager bracket. This can occur in any social environment not just schools as mostly portrayed. Bullyi...