Conformity Among Adolescents

We live in a wonderful world of technology, have become a society with the desire for instant gratification, and are a species that is inherently nosy and judgmental. In this new world of information, the desire to conform to the idea of being popular has been pushed to the limits with the help of social media. With the pressure to conform and the anonymity of the internet, bullying has be transformed into a plague where not even the safety of one’s bedroom can help you escape from the torment of a bully. This new level of bullying has and can push people, young adults especially, to a breaking point. Some of the most horrific events to take place at a school, have been directly related to peer pressure and bullying.

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,

Many individuals is faced with the decision of conforming or choosing personal desire, and it is not an easy decision. It is hard because being shunned by others for being different is not a good feeling. Choosing to conform over personal desire, often leads to loss. On the other hand, personal desire is what sets others apart and gives them joy. In the poem, “The Jackhammer Syndrome”, Al Purdy discusses the good and bad memories he has experienced. He goes through his memories of when he had fun and made mistakes, but he reflects on what he could have done better. The author of “The Jackhammer Syndrome informs against choosing the welcoming joy of conformity over the long-term gains of personal desire. Making the decision to pursue conformity over personal desire may seem easy at first, but if the choice is to conform, the joy it gives will not last. Making the decision to pursue conformity over personal desire Conformity may seem to give joy at first, but it does not last. When Al is playing pool with his brother, he wants to win badly, but losses. However when he did not care to win, Al wins! Conforming can lead to loss but personal desire has much to gain. If the choice is to conform, personal identity may be lost. In my life, I recognize several instances in which I found several similarities between Al and myself. I have made decisions that were not always good ones such as swimming across long distances with friends.

To better understand the role of peer groups on adolescent behavior, we must first examine its origin in contemporary society. Industrialization in the

More than ever in this society as children find the need to belong or fit in to the popular crowd in school for acceptance they often tend to mimic their friends behaviors. This is often a result of the individual child trying to find him or herself. The results however, are not always negative. In fact, there are some positive results that may occur as a result of copying their peers. Simply stated, “When teens surround themselves with people who make good decisions and who are involved with positive activities and choices, it makes the adolescent child want to be better” (Stock, 2010 pg.2). Positive peers influence adolescents and can drive the child toward improved confidence, and improved grades in school. Inversely, the same can be said for the adolescent child who decides that he or she wants to be like his or her friends who have a negative influence. Children who fall into this category are those that are of the bandwagon philosophy. Those negatively impacted by peers often show signs of lower grades in school, increased distance from family. In fact, “peer pressure can lead to experimentation with drugs and alcohol, and various high risks behaviors” (Fact Sheets, 2009 pg.1). The changes in the adolescent child can have lasting effects depending on which type of peer influences that child may be surrounded by. The negative impact of peer pressure can be strong; however there are also positive influences.

The first study in this section was conducted by Cornell, Gregory, Huang, and Fan (2013). The participants of the study include ninth-grade students and teachers. Students provided reports of bullying victimization, and both students and teachers reported their perceptions of the prevalence of teasing and bullying at school, using the Prevalence of Teasing and Bullying (PTB) scale (Bandyopadhyay, Cornell, & Konold, 2009). Measures of peer victimization were obtained from 25 ninth-grade students and 10 ninth-grade teachers from Virginia public high schools. The study revealed that bullying, as perceived by both students and teachers, was predictive of dropout rates four years later (Cornell et al., 2013). The results of the study provided evidence that peer victimization in high school is an important factor in high school academic performance. The results of the study also contributed to knowledge about predicting dropout rates of high school students who have been exposed to bullying (Cornell et al.,

Tennagers are always warned about the dangers of conformity. Parents worry about what kids might do when it comes to peer pressure. This is not a new concern since, overtime, conformity has shown little positive outcome. Conforming led to disasters such as the horror of the Dark Ages and Hitler’s Germany. When individuals begin thinking for themselves, great things and advances in society happen.

Conformity illustrates the shaping thoughts and beliefs to align with the opinions and thoughts of others. Teens feel this pressure the most. At least 40% of teens say that peer pressure distracts them from reaching their goals. (Peer Pressure Survey Statistics, 2010) Teens are unable to develop a sense of independence to deal with peer pressure. Psychologist Abraham Maslow says “a hierarchy of human needs and one of the needs is to belong and to be accepted by friends, family and peers.” (Grayson, 2015) Due to this, teens end up joining gangs and showing gang behaviour. Gang behaviour and conformity is therefore due to lack of family, guidance, and authority, lack of opportunity, and social and peer pressure.

Conformity is the act of changing behavior as a result of real or imagined group pressure. Everyone at one point has experienced this type of pressure at one point in their life. I remember this one time when I was confirmed into doing something because everyone was doing it. This happened back in my high school years. There was a point in the eleventh grade that I felt kind of peer pressured into skipping school. I never really had the urge to be a bad kid and go skipping. I actually loved coming to school. I loved learning new things I was always that kind of person. But of course I started hanging out with the wrong group of people. Which I never should have but I wanted to be so called cool. I wanted and had the desire to fit in always, I always wanted acceptance and to be popular. I honestly regret ever going skipping. It wasn’t only once that it happened. It occurred multiple times until it got out of hand and I was caught by my parents. I never heard the last of it from them even until this day I still hear it. From that point on I was always brought to school; until the day I graduated. I regret these poor decisions I made, I feel like if I wouldn’t have done it I would have finished my schooling by now because I found it acceptable to skip school. All because I wanted to be accepted and be one

Everybody strives to survive and has a will to stay alive. This is easily achieved by attaining the basic necessities for survival; water, food, and shelter. In Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, individuals have access to all of these, although they may sometimes struggle to actually come into their possession. Even still, these are not enough to ensure survival in the world of Panem. The Capitol uses totalitarianism to govern its people, controlling every single aspect of every single person’s life. This system brings survival to a completely new level in this society: conformity. Suzanne Collins utilizes her novel’s characters, along with their wills to survive, to convey that conformity is key to survival, even in the real world.

I see alot of people that act all wild, fun, and cool right but when you have that one friend that acts different when your not all together

Young or old, people are always influenced by peer pressure. In the two articles, “Students’ Work Ethic Affected by Peer Groups, Desire to be Popular,” by Shankar Vedantam and “The Queen Bee and Her Court,” by Rosalina Wiseman discuss the positive and negative effects of peer pressure. Both, Vedantam and Wiseman conduct research and experiments to prove their points about how peer pressure can have an impact on people’s life.

In study after study, peer pressure is associated in adolescents of all ethnic and racial backgrounds with at-risk behaviors such as cigarette smoking, truancy, drug use, sexual activity, fighting, shoplifting, and daredevil stunts. Again, peer group values and attitudes influence more strongly than do family values the level of teenage alcohol use. The more accepting peers are of risky behavior, and the more they participate in that behavior, the more likely a person is to do the same thing.

At step 1, peer pressure and selfishness significantly explained 19% of the variance in behaviour scores, F ch.(2, 145) = 16.41, p < .001. Peer pressure was found to be a significant positive predictor of behaviour, such that higher peer pressure was associated with higher behaviour, β = .44, p < .001. Peer pressure uniquely accounted for 18% of the variance in behaviour scores. Selfishness was found to be a non-significant predictor of behaviour, β = .06, p = .455. Selfishness uniquely accounted for less than 1% of the variance in behaviour scores. Shared variability was found to be less than 1%.

Bullying can be hard to define, because research has shown that it comes in many forms which makes it difficult to find one set of characteristics that will describe a bully. Conclusively, studies have defined bullying as a set of repeated aggressive behavior that is intended to harm someone, which usually involves an imbalance of power between the victim and the perpetrator (Morgan, 2012, p. 174). Studies have shown that there are two distinct types of bullying, which is a direct form of verbal and physical aggression, and indirect, which often results in name calling, rumors and exclusion (Aluedse, 2006, p. 38). This form of peer victimization can have devastating effects on a child 's academic work and their physical and psychological well being (Limber, 2003, p. 23). In terms of gender, boys are more likely to be involved in physical bullying (direct) as for girls are more likely to be involved in indirect bullying (Wang et al, 2009, p. 371). Previous research indicates, that parents and friends are two important factors of social interaction associated with bullying and victimization among adolescences. Bullying is quite common among middle school children, because it is during this time that children go through puberty and hormonal changes. During this time students are looking to be accepted and fit into a specific group; however, when there is a lack of acceptance and esteem due to victimization, this can cause children to isolate themselves from those around them