Peer
Pressure
Peer
influence refer to influence that individuals exerts force to change their
behaviors, attitudes, values in order to conform with respective group norms. According
to Haun, he brought out several aspects on conformity to peer-pressure in
preschool students, and he analyzed that both adults and young people make
judgments’ trying to conform their behaviors (Haun 20). Opinion based on peer
groups despite having known themselves better in another term it is referred to
as mob psychology. In the current analysis, it is clearly evident that
judgments made by children conforms to three of their peers where in some
instances have made errors but unanimously public judgments mostly drives them.
Through a follow up case study of 18 groups in four children at the age of four
and six years of age have clearly portrayed that children do not their ideal
judgments to the situation only they do it for the favor of public expression (Haun
11). Pre schools children are victims of peer pressure that is referred to as
primary social reference group that is common in preschool times.
This affects mostly children in
their younger stage as clearly analyzed by Haun that most student in younger
age is usually predetermined b their peers. Emotional expressions of members in
a certain group shape conformity in response to members of a certain group. It
is hypothesized that anger and happiness to a certain group has an
interpretation as a signal of rejection or acceptance in the group doings. In a
case study deductions are made that anger leads to individual feeling of
rejection while expression of happiness leads o feeling of one feeling a sense
of acceptance in the group (Haun, 23). Another study reveals that the
availability of alternative groups determines whether a group conforms to
another abandoned group after experiencing an angry reaction. This shows that
happiness and anger are features of conformity pressure in situations that were
that was cooperative than a competitive environment. Lastly, it defines that
those individuals who receive angry reactions contributes less in a cooperative
group task than those who receives a happy reaction.
People are affected by peer
pressure may have the willingness or lack the willingness to belong to these
groups because they recognize this bad groups and they lack the willingness to
be associated with this groups and they behave positively towards this group. Peers
become influential in adolescence and peer influence has been termed to be
hallmark of adolescent. Peer influence in adolescent age is influential in
respect to style, appearance, values and ideology. It is usually associated
with risk taking process such as reckless driving, drug abuse, sexual behaviors
and delinquency because the activities happens in the companies of peers. Affiliations
of friends who engage in behaviors that are risky have strong challenges facing
the adolescent behaviors. Peer influence can also have positive impact in
youths if they convert them in positive behaviors such as volunteer in clarity
work and their effort together in excelling in their academics. The advantage
of peer influence reduces it level in entering adulthood.
Kids mostly have most opportunities with positive
experiences, research have showed that being in popular crowd leads to moderate
deviant behaviors in the behaviors of this children. Adolescents are the most
affected in peer groups resulting vulnerable to peer pressures, such as
behaviors that are reserved to those are mature and have great understanding
with exposure of life. Kids social have the acceptance to conformity as well as
norms of teen behaviors, good and bad aspects inclusive. Adolescents are most
strongly associated in peer influence with behaviors such as tobacco, alcohol
and drugs. Study shows that majority popular students also attain lower grades
than less socially accepted students. This is possible due to fact that most
students prefer spending more of time thinking about their social life than on
education purposes. Though, there is a risk of correlating with popularity,
frequent behavior that is often mild to moderation.
Peer pressure has been the
Main cause of moral decay in our societies whereby friends influence heir
counterparts on the choice of behaviors. In most cases, people do things no
because of heir will but as a means of avoiding humiliation and loneliness
since everyone around hem chooses to do a certain thing. Peer pressure in our modern society has
affected even those pas adolescent as they at times opt to follow their
friends. Peer pressure often results negative outcomes to those involved.
According to different studies that have been conducted, it have been noted
that people between the ages of 15-30 years are the most effected people in
terms of peer influence. They fail to
resist to the demands of their friends and ends up making their choices
according to what their friends do and choose.
Peer pressure can be reduced among the affected people b
counseling to aid them follow their own desires. Peer pressure may result in
behavioral changes. These people develop a code of conduct that in most cases
go contrary to the norms of society. In schools and other institutions of
learning, peer pressure has been a major challenge among the students as they
are easily influenced o makes the wrong choices. Most students end up to waste
since they follow the vises of their friends. Schools thus have a role to
establish programs that will deal with counseling of the students on matters of
peer influence and how they can evade them. Peer pressure at times makes people
refrain from their core goals in life and op for other things they find their
friends doing. As a result many people ends up making the wrong choices in life
and hence are unable to achieve their goals in life.
Interpersonal effects on anger and happiness on
conformity versus to deviance as manifested after three weeks of experiment and
the effect is mediated by the feelings of rejection and the availability of
diversity groups is determined b whether the corresponding group conform with
current group or the abandoned group after an angry reaction of the members
(Heerdink, 2013). Effects of emotional
expression on conformity should be regulated by other social factors that
expresses the motivation to be accepted by the group and the extent which the
conformity is mean to the end of a group or not. Emotions have a greater impact
in happiness and anger to any existing conform of the group so as to conform to
interpersonal skills. Therefore, Heerdink had a study on how this virtue
affects of feeling and anger in people behaviors to conformity through
hypothesizing of happiness and angry responses, to members of a certain group b
interpreting the signals of imminent rejection and acceptance. Everyone is
driven by emotion in daily chores where they have conditional have effect to
the motivation in deeds of any member of society.
Human being conforms to the majority opinion even after
having the knowledge of the effect of opinions mostly in schools. Conformity
mostly have a role in the group acquisition of behaviors where we learn how the
group operates by having an observation to group members and when we face
information’s that conflicts without beliefs and preferences we are often
confused and we tend to follow what majority views in their perspective
(Heerdink, 43). People have the tendency of doubting themselves and follow the
majority opinion in fear of being abnormal and being named insane since their
belief fails to conform to the majority.
An analysis was conducted to
show how preschooler understands and take care of the information they get from
their friends. The research was conducted on ninety-six years old boy and girls
in twenty-four different kindergartens. The purpose of this study was to check
whether preschool children opinions conform with the view of the majority.
Despise, having the reality in it there were a distinctive difference on their
point of view on the majority opinion in their judgments. Firstly, they divided
the preschoolers in groups of four children. Children were given seemingly
identical books with thirty double pages that had illustrations of animal families
with a page of mother, father and child in the right side of one the three
pages. The children were asked to identify where the family members were on the
right side of the page. Following conclusions were made that children had
believe that all the books were similar where only the three of the books were
similar and the fourth book included different family members on the right
page. Further deductions were made that children with diversity of books were
confronted with what it was and in their own point of view they had come up
with their judgments based on what their three peers had come in to conclusion
(Heerdink, 33). Eighteen students conforms their judgment in favor of the
majority view of things though they were aware that their response was false.
In another study they investigated the motivation that
was underlying in the children conformity to opinion of the majority .children
were supposed to answer in loud tone or either they had point silently the
correct animal there are required to answer in respect to whether the lamp was
on or not. It was the adults who observer who gave the correct answers and with
the case of children not many who could see their answers. In eighteen children
in the study only twelve who conformed to the majority opinion since they
answered their loudly. In the case of pointing silently to the correct answer
only eight out of eighteen who made their answers based on the majority
judgments. Therefore children mostly conforms their judgments on public
regardless their private opinion which is supposed to be the answer to majority
and their conformity has reasons on why they are opted with reason that is to
avoid conflicts within their conflict groups. Lastly this study concludes that
young children in the age of four years are victims to peer pressure, and the
follow it because of social motivations.
EEG has impact on an early
influence to social conformity in group pressure situations on the basis of
visual processing. Naturally people are social beings and in mere cases they
have to perform and perceive in groups so as to help one another with the
objective that different talents are brought together works best. In the case
of a conflict situation, they work under pressure in order to stick to group
desires and avoid the controversy within the group initiatives
Trautmann-(Lengsfeld, 13). Psychology have showed that most participants
involve in erroneous group opinions in a certain perception task which if they
had done it in their results could be better than when involved in group
opinion. This statement lacks to give a clear statement on whether social
conformity has influence on early stages in perception that have the impact on
the later stages of decision making. Decisions making in people mostly is
usually based on what or how the people will react in your perspective view of
things.
Mob
psychology affects many people decision as they opt to do a thing in
consideration to other people comments on how it should be or why it has been
like that. Another methodology was adopted to analyze the influence of social
conformity in decision-making perspective. Electroencephalography was the
method used to identify the following and following deduction were made that
social conformity to wrong group opinion has lead to decline of posterior
lateral p1 line with the decline in the later central parietal p3
(Trautmann-Lengsfeld, 20). It describes that group pressure results to early
unconscious visual perceptual processing which leads to poor discrimination
stimuli resulting to poor group opinion. This finding gives a clear description
of social behavior in group settings in social influence in a real life
testimony.
Above research gives an analysis
of how individuals have a natural willingness to conform to other people’s
opinions. It have went further on the investigation and concluded that temporal
characteristics of neural processing has involved in a conformity by recording
participant's brains capability on performance of a judgment task. Eventually
after making the choice people present their choices in same group members
which are inversely with the participant's choice. They are in return given the
opportunity to respond to the same stimulus. Participants are likely to conform
to their group’s opinion so as to adhere their response in favor of their group
sentiments.
Participants have the likelihood
to conform to the group members by changing their choices that are in conflict
with the group choices resulting to adjustments of behaviors that often occur with
the increase of the level of incongruence (Trautmann-Lengsfeld, 25).
Electrophysiological dictates that choices of groups that were incongruent with
the participant choices have a negative on medical frontals that is a component
that is associated with the increase of incongruence state. Moreover, levels of
incongruence may increase due medical fontal negativity arriving for the
incongruence trials which results to participant adjusting their behavior
performance than for trials they stick to their initial choices on things.
Therefore, individuals that are likely to conform to others exhibit strong
medical fontal negativity than the individuals who have independent thought in
their decision-making processes.
People sometimes have
different opinion in a group and they have to adjust their perception and
attitudes and behaviors in order to meet group need and reach to a consensus
which in other terms is referred to as social conformity to reach a certain
objective. Afflictions lead to an abnormal conformation that people they change
their norms in order to fit in them. Though different accuracy of accounts
exists and makes people conform to them which are learned from other members of
the group (Haun, 2011). People reach a deduction regardless whether the
decision made experiences a negative emotion when the group decision turn to be
ineffective projected by the group members. Through events, related potentials
and novel gambling task founded that the participant of the group tends to make
a decision that was made by other parties in the previous trials. The problem
with this comes as a result of the existence of little explicit pressure at a
decision stage thus making the group choices become poorly informed resulting
to a poor judgment made by the group members.
In the case of
choices differing from others event, related potential and feedback related
negativity methods are prone to errors and losses are incurred giving a
suggestion that the decision was independent. In the outcome stage losses incurred
reduces the conformity choices than judgment on the independent choices. Series
of analysis have revealed existence of same patterns that are both in the
outcome and response period. Finally, the study analyzed that a social
conformity acts emotional hindrances that give protection to individual from
strong negative emotions in case the projected outcome becomes null and void.
This mostly has the spontaneous conformity that have a diminishing power to
sensitivity of projected outcomes. Individuals have the sense to feel free
incase the decision made fails to meet the required task.
Electrophysiological and brain studies gives a motion and
how the optic flow functions in the body of human. Single unit study gives
indication of the optic flow extraction; this information acts as guide to
movement of eye with estimate of heading of individuals decisions. The EEG
studies a point localized electrical dipole that faces evocation by the visual
motion. As evidenced on various analysis study that imaging studies for
response specifies on the optic flows and visual motions and further techniques
have been employed to locate the region that borders the visual cortex (Trautmann-Lengsfeld
14). This gives how EEG has effect on the responses of a group decision making
process as people tends to prioritize group ideas rather than the ideas
developed by themselves independently. Arguments are based on the discussions
thus developing a valid agreement to be followed by all the members of the
groups regardless whether the judgment is valid or not.
Peer influence plays a standing role in the life of many
people due to a natural fear of personal decision validity thus many opt to
have a discussion and reach to an agreement. It is properly evident that group
discussions are not always valid sometimes they may have errors and are even
outdone by the personal decisions (Haun, 14). Peer influence lead to
involvement of immoral practices due to sensing that many people take the
chance to be compromised by other people acts. They tend to prioritize peer
decisions thus interfering with social fabrics in the current society. Children
also fall in these critics that regardless what they are aware of they make
decisions based on group choices. Peer influence has the greater impact in the
society due to almost all decision made are based on the favor of mob decisions
toward a particular goal. This is mostly evident in democratic voting process,
and the prioritized party is the one that has the numbers in the voting
exercise.
People should restrain from peer pressure as it may have
adverse effects in their lives. Peer pressure is the main reason for moral
decay in most societies and thus people should lay strategies that will prevent
it. Parents also have a big role to play as they have to often counsel their
children on matters about peer pressure. In most cases, children have adapted
the wrong conducts as their parents are not concerned. Parents thus have a role
to regularly monitor their children as a way of preventing peer influence among
them.
In conclusion, the result shows that an incongruence of
opinions has an effect to brain responses that are similar to outcome
evaluation and performance monitoring. Brain signals are commonly utilized by
adjustment of behaviors. In recent research brain works by identifying temporal
characteristics of neural processing that is usually involved in the conformity
of social aspects by giving a suggestion of the best mechanism for reinforcing
social or non social situations of learning.
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