Achievers: My Secondary Group Analysis

Do not stoop to low levels and follow the worlds views of who you’re ‘supposed’ to be. Instead, seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all other things will fall into place. It is easy to become who society wants you to be, you see, God says that the path to destruction is a wide one but that of goodness and righteousness is narrow. So, although it may seem harder and more difficult to lead life in the right way, especially when there are so many around you, that live in an unrighteous manor; things will surely work out for you in the end.

The one thing I learned growing up was to just be myself and not worry what others may think. It’s important to stick to what you think matters. Most of all, I think people should look at the big picture, instead of trying to impress the people around

Individual, Group, and Societal/Community values are all listed as parts of the model, and within my studies, both as an M&M major and a Lead Scholar, I have seen purpose in my career goals for all three (55).

Journalist Alexandra Robbins ventures back to her old high school to examine the competitive efforts students are having to take to compete on the battlefield that is the education system in her book, The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids. Robbins explores the lives of multiple students who are stressed and pressured to maintain good grades and get into an Ivy League college. This text allows for intriguing insight on how the educational system has “spiraled out of control” and displays the different measures students must now take to be the best. Robbins’ The Overachievers is an eye-opening bestseller which exposes the social pressures and anxieties students must overcome in their high school lives as they attempt to impress and prove to colleges they are worthy of acceptance.

Psst... What's the answer to number four?” High school students hear things such as this all too much.“We live in the Age of Comparison. Too often, we deem our own achievements worthless if they fall short of others' standards. Our best isn't good enough if it's not as good as someone else's best” Alexandra Robbins, The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids. It is this type of elitist thinking that compels so many young students to copy work from pers or “cheat”. It is my belief that all work requires original thoughts to complete it.

We must decide for ourselves whether to conform to such a social etiquette. We are taught as soon as we are old enough to grasp the idea that it is bad to be unique and to avoid being different. At some point, however, we must decide within ourselves whether to spend every day trying to be like everyone else because society says we should or living each day true to ourselves. Our strength as a person is proven through what we decide. The benefits of being true to ourselves greatly outweigh any negative aspects of choosing that path.

Overachievers, by Alexandra Robbins, is an exposé about the lives of driven high school students at Walt Whitman High School in Maryland. Throughout the book Robbins central argument is that college admission expectations have made high school a very cut-throat environment, leading students who try to meet these expectations to have deteriorating mental and physical health.

People strive for many reasons in their life such as fortune, fame and successes. Strive is an accomplishment people work for on their own such as a moving up on a job position, earning a 4.0 GPA, and making their long-lived dreams become a realistic thought. On the other hand, some people lack ambition to accomplish promising goals, that will lead them into their future. Strive can be described as a competition between a number of people. Colleagues will want to win against each other out of greediness to prove they are more qualified for a higher position in the company. No matter what risks the employee has to take they will make sure it best suits their needs before any other staff member. Such as stepping into the shoes from an assistant

Over the course of the past few months, I believe that I have learned a lot about my values, career choices, and my possible future. Both The Values Survey and the Rokeach Assessment helped me to understand what category my most important values were in. After Completing the Values Survey, I can conclude that some of my most important work values are family, friendship, helping others, creativity, and knowledge and truth. I agree with those values being my top five values. They also relate to the career that I am hoping to pursue. I want to be a special needs teacher, which is a job that revolves around helping, and caring for others.

Conformity- individuals accept the culturally approved goals and strive to achieve them legitimately. This is most likely among middle-class individuals who have good opportunities to achieve, but Merton sees it as the typical response of most Americans.

In years past, I felt as if I need to conform to what was around me to fit in or be considered a normal person. I struggled with this for a long time until I realized on how unhappy I was. I thought that if I had done all these things that I belonged with my peers .I learned that I would be much more happy in my own skin and doing things that make me happy as well. I learned that it was okay to be different and have a strange personality and perspective on life.

You cannot please everyone and you will never please everyone. So get on your feet, do your own thing, see yourself succeed just like how you dream to be and stop minding others unnecessary indiscriminate destructive blabbers. After all, it is how you believe in yourself that defines you and not others own definition of

wanting to be envied by others because of what we have or can do. The need to do better, have prestige and more power than anyone else is a

Everyone wants approval, whether it's from peers to family. We want to be accepted, to be praised. However, there is always a person not happy with you. Trying to please everyone is impossible. Trying to accommodate everyone is a route to failure. There will always be that one person going against you.

Nathan DeWall, a Psychologist at the University of Kentucky says that “Humans have a fundamental need to belong. Just as we have needs for food and water, we also have needs for positive and lasting relationships.” The need to belong can be so strong that we are willing to change who we are just to belong to a group. Most times it is small changes. For people who are people pleasers, we will go out of our way to help others, even if that means we are neglecting ourselves, just to get their approval.