Research has shown that popularity is very important to a child. Popularity is more than just making friends but shows status and can be measured on a scale. Prominence is also important to a child and can be measured with other social domains. Children will prioritize being popular than other aspects of their social lives such as fixing friendships or maintaining acquaintances. Especially Sullivan has written many theories about friendships and popularity in children. It is more important to be popular in a group of friends rather than just having a lot of friends, or just having a few important friends. Adolescents have rather complicated goals when it comes to making friends. Popularity is usually a personal aspect that children do not talk about publicly but everyone wants.
According to theories about popularity, popularity is a selective process that must happen for children to be included in a specific group. These groups are usually looked up upon other students although they may be vocally talked down upon. Many adolescents may make fun of other “clicks” when interpersonally they would like to be part of it. Children drive on status, which is automatically given to them if they are associated with a popularity group. Popularity has a large impact on children of all ages and once children realize the concept of popularity, they want it. Within the study, two questions are asked. How is popularity related to the behavior of obtaining it and how the behavior of becoming popular affects the actual outcome of it? There may be specific behaviors that are associated with becoming popular or having popularity as a very specific goal that a student wants. Aggression and popularity perception have both been grouped together when tr...
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...e interaction between their personal status, goal, and aggression connected to becoming a popular student. Physical aggression was also used from students with low popularity priority but increased their popularity throughout the end of the year. Students that began with low-popularity status were known as a wannabee. These students are expected to have no chance on obtaining a goal of high popularity status.
The study only used one variable to measure the amount of behavior to become a popular student. In future studies, more measurements can be added to see if the results are similar or if precision was correct in the first study. Popularity is a relevant topic to still be studied in adolescents due to its high priority overall during student behavior. The study concluded that, including social aggression, other behaviors are factors during adolescent popularity.
The Geeks Shall Inherit The Earth is a book by Alexandra Robbins which summarizes the story of seven different teenagers that have many different problems, which many of todays teenagers also have. I found myself having many similarities to the teenagers in the story, for example, when with her group Whitney, the popular bitch, thinks “You didn't day that when we were alone, but now that you're in front of a group you do” (Robbins 21). I can relate to this because I feel as though many people are pressured to say or do things they normally wouldn't whenever they are with their group or ‘clique’. Robbins has this idea that the freaks and geeks, or “cafeteria fringe” will someday grow up and use what they are criticized for to become more successful than the other peopler people. She calls this the ‘Quirk Theory’ (Robbins page 11). This helped me to learn that right now, in high school, not being ‘popular’ may seem like the end of the world, but the reality of it is that after these four years, it wont even matter, but what will be important is how you learned to grow as a person and the true friendships that were made. This makes me want to focus more on my education and learning to grow as a person instead of focusing on how many friends I have or who I sit with at lunch, because truthfully it wont matter once high school is over.
Friendships are vital in helping children develop emotionally and socially. They provide a training ground for trying out different ways of relating to others. Through interacting with friends, children learn the give and take of social behavior in general. They learn how to set up rules, how to weigh alternatives and make decisions when faced with dilemmas. They experience fear, anger, aggression and rejection. They learn how to win, how to lose, what's appropriate, what's not. They learn about social standing and power - who's in, who's out, how to lead and how to follow, what's fair and what's not. They learn that different people and different situations call for different behaviors and they come to understand the viewpoints of other people.
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
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.
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.
Conformity means a change in one’s behavior due to the real or imagined influence of other people. As a teenager, the pressure to conform to the societal “norm” plays a major role in shaping one’s character. Whether this means doing what social groups want or expect you to do or changing who you are to fit in. During class, we watched films such as Mean Girls, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and The Breakfast Club which demonstrate how the pressure to conform into society can change who you are. In the movies we have seen, conformity was most common during high school.
A large majority of teens want to fit in and feel like they belong, but how far are they willing to go to fit in? The more they want to fit in the more likely they will be easily influenced by suggestions from others. During my second week of eighth grade, I felt like I wasn’t fitting in and that everyone was silently judging me and criticizing me. Of course now that I think about I don’t think anyone really cared about me, but I was more self-conscious about myself then. One day during lunch my friends and I sat next to a couple of girls who were known as the “popular” girls and I thought that maybe I would fit in more if I was friends with them. I spent the rest of that lunch hour trying to build up the courage to talk to them and at last minute I told the friendliest looking girl, that I loved her shirt and I asked her what store she bought it from. She told me that it was from Free People; she then gushed about the store and told me how everything there was amazing. She suggested that I should check it out sometime so I did. I, of course couldn’t wait to shop there. I told myself that if I shopped at Free People, I could maybe fit in with her and even be a part of the popu...
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.
Is adolescence really about fitting in or not standing out? Do you have any responsibility to those students who do not fit in? Do you hear that? Hush, and listen closely. Do you hear it now? The cries for help of the kids who don’t fit in with the crowd. The cries aren’t always loud. Sometimes they don’t make a sound. Stop and listen to them. Take responsibility for those kids and stand up for those kids who won’t stand up for themselves.
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.
One of the most important psychological aspects is self-esteem; how people view themselves and their self-worth. It affects one 's personality, happiness and personal well-being. Self-esteem is defined as the "confidence in one 's own worth or abilities; self-respect" ("Self Esteem", 2010, p. 1615). With access to the internet and media twenty-four hours of the day, teenagers begin to take in and believe what is said on social media; believing that is what they are supposed to be, listening to other teenagers who do not have as much knowledge and experience dealing with self-esteem rather than parents. The self-esteem of young adolescences was usually stable before the media became more involved in the lives of teenagers and now their self-esteem
“Kids who had lower (athletic) confidence said they were more lonely at school” (Dunn 1). When teens have a higher self esteem, they tend to feel more confident in who they are and what they are doing. Teens who are confident in themselves tend to make friends easier, because they appear to their peers that they are confident in what they are doing and people who are confident appeal more to people then those who are not. “Children and adolescents often make friends with others on their sports teams, or in their activity programs, and these friendships help keep them involved in the activity, and make the activity more fun” (Brehm 258). Furthermore, friends that are made on a sports team result in a strong friendship because teens can have fun with their new friends during practice or games. Some will argue that sports can cause athletes to become more likely to do drugs than students who do not do sports. While this might be the case, sports do in fact keep teens out of trouble because sports provide more opportunities to make new friends. “At some schools, it is cool to be an athlete. And students who are lucky enough to become athletes receive reinforcement from their peers” (Brehm 258). Popularity and making friends in middle school and throughout high school is something most teens struggle with. However, if teens play on
In the past, research often examined child and adolescent popularity levels and their relation to peer group affiliation, developmental outcomes, and a host of other variables. Recent literature has however established a variation within the concept of popularity that challenges past research regarding its effects and characteristics. Popularity is now understood to encompass two different constructs: sociometric popularity and perceived popularity. Sociometric popularity is described as representing a person’s level of overall likeability, and sociometric popular peers are frequently described as kind, trustworthy, and dominant, but not aggressive (Sandstrom & Cillessen, 2006; Parkhurst & Hopmeyer, 1998). On the contrary, perceived popularity captures an individual’s level of social reputation despite likeability (Prinstein & Cillessen, 2003). It encompasses a peer’s status, influence and centrality in a peer group (Sandstrom & Cillessen, 2006). Perceived popular peers are often described as untrustworthy, unkind, and dominantly aggressive (Parkhurst & Hopmeyer, 1998). Unusually, perceived popular peers are also regularly found to possess prosocial tendencies despite their overwhelming use of aggression (Sandstrom & Cillessen, 2006).
Influence plays a major role in their overall development. Promoting social and emotional skills and intervening in cases of difficulty very early in life will be effective for promoting positive experiences among children. Peers play important roles in children’s lives at much earlier points in development. Experiences in the beginning of life have implications for children’s acceptance by their classmates in nursery school and the later school years. When I was in the fourth grade a really wanted to be accepted by people around me. I would switch my friends a lot looking for people’s approval. For example, if I was friends with a girl on Tuesday but I heard someone say she was weird I would abandon the friendship in order to gain peer approval. Early friendships and positive relations with peer groups appear to protect children against later psychological
Many adolescents display qualities of social interest (Ballou, 2002) such as self-worth, self-assurance, involvement in community, and encouragement of others. However, the adolescents who display traits of selfish tendencies, including the need to dominate, refusal to cooperate, desire to take not give, greater concern with self than community (Durbin, 2004), will be perceived as socially useless. Roger Ballou discusses this by stating some youth, “become discouraged either because of unfortunate life situations or despite the quality of their upbringing. Some teens become demoralized in their attempt to find their place in life and instead decide to pursue mistaken beliefs” (2002, p.