The period of adolescence is crucial in the development of identity and social integration, and for many teens can be very trying. From the moment children begin attending programs such as daycare and elementary schooling, they are transferred from an environment that no longer exclusively contains their parents, to one where they are integrated with other children who are similar in age; also known as peers. In the United States, adolescents spend twice the amount of time within peer groups from a day to day basis than with their parents (Dijkstra & Veenstra 2011). The socialization that occurs within these peer groups plays a large role in influencing the behaviors of adolescents during this developmental period; whether reinforcing positive behaviors such as academic achievement or encouraging questionable behavior and delinquency. The importance of peer groups in contemporary society is accurately represented in the 2004 movie Mean Girls, adapted from self-help book The Queen Bee’s and Wannabees, depicting the life of a young adolescent who struggles to prove herself worthy of being accepted by the dominant social group. Whether it is deciding on identifying with the ‘Brains’ or choosing to imitate the ‘Cheerleaders’ in hopes of obtaining status, overall adolescent behavior is greatly influenced by their peer groups. To better understand the role of peer groups on adolescent behavior, we must first examine its origin in contemporary society. Industrialization in the
It has not been too long ago that I still remember my adolescent years. I always remember the unintelligent things I did that I wish could change, but this Psychology class made me realize that all adolescents go through the same things I experienced. Adolescents are known to try to find their identity, go through peer pressure, make mistakes, and try new things. The move I picked that closely represented what adolescents go through was “Mean Girls”. Some of the scenes in the movie seem a little exaggerated, but it has happened in certain high schools even though I had not experienced it personally.
The film that I chose to write about is a Paramount Pictures presentation titled Mean Girls, starring Lindsay Lohan and also featuring a handful of Saturday Night Live cast members, including Tina Fey the author of this picture. The reason behind choosing this film is because it has a unique style of introducing characters, transitioning between scenes, and various tools to help spice up the film. Being one of my personal favorites, Mean Girls is a comedy about a home schooled teenage girl who enters high school for the first time. She tries to figure herself out by where she can fit in and who she needs to become friends with.
In the movie “Mean Girls” being plastic is a desire most teenage girls have. This causes the girls actions to be based on the thought of being plastic and popular.
As children enter adolescence, cultural, biological and cognitive changes cause variation in their daily lives. Adolescents spend far less time with their parents and begin participating in both structured and unstructured peer activities.Without the direct presence of their parents or other adults, their peer network begins to become the primary context for most socialization and activity. These social "cliques" fundamentally influence adolescent life and development.Perhaps because they are perceived as an external threat to parental authority, undesired changes in adolescent behavior are often attributed to cliques.In these situations, cliques are described as "social grouping[s] of persons that exhibit a great deal of peer pressure on its members and is exclusive, based on superficial differences".Researchers, however, question these assumptions: based on empiric data from both experiments and ethnographies they suggest that clique structure characterizes many friendship networks within any given school, not all of which negatively affect adolescents.A more neutral and scientific definition of clique is "a grouping of persons who interact with each other more regularly and intensely than others in the same setting."
I really feel that Alison did a mean thing to her former friend Stephanie. I would speak to all the students involved about the situation at hand. I would suggest that all parties involved will need to stay after school for a student-teacher conference. At the meeting, I would share a video of students being bullied and harassed by other students. I would ask the girls involved what can be done to make them feel safe. I would let the girls know that they’re not at fault and should not be singled out and feel alone. I would say something to other students about the issue of bullying and what it means to be a mean girl. I wouldn’t find it beneficial to ignore the problem at hand. I would seek support from peers, school counselors, parents,
It has been a couple days since her close friend, Holly, disappeared from the streets. Stan, their pimp, also disappeared around the time that she went missing. The police don't care about prostitutes unless they want sex with them to 'release stress'. Selina grew tired of waiting for the police to do their job and put on her catsuit again. She just got word that one of Stan's prostitute was somewhere in Gotham and she didn't have a clue where she was. Selina got finished putting on the suit as he grabbed her mask and grinned as she begun to say, "It's time from me to get answers.". She put on the mask and opened the window as she exited out of it.
Personally, my life and high school was affected by Mean Girls and I didn’t even know it. At my high school, we had a film fest every year, where each grade made a film and they were judged by the teachers. The winning grade got some sort of prize or points towards field day. Our senior year- we made a parody of Mean Girls. It wasn’t quite Mean Girls, but most of the movie was some reference or another to the iconic movie. That was the year that I sat down and watched Mean Girls for the first time- I did not want to go to our film fest and not understand the references. Finally I understood why everyone was obsessed with this movie- and our film fest was all the better. Just a few nights ago- my friend from high school came to visit me- and we ended up watching some of our old film fest movies. Three out of four movies that we made during our high school career had references to Mean Girls- ones that I didn’t notice the first time I saw them because I had not seen the movie. Now I am able to look back and smile at these movies even more, understanding the cultural significance that Mean Girls had on my high school- that was about as far from the high school in the movie as you can get.
The middle adolescence phase is highly influenced by peer group involvement. Friends become the primary source of influence on the young people’s behavior (Neinstein, Gordon, Katzman, Rosen, & Woods, 2009, p. 16).
There is little to question about youth who socialize with peers who engage in deviant behavior. They are at a bigger risk for criminal behavior and substance abuse–related activities. In addition, there is more research suggesting that interventions that aggregate the at-risk peer go hand and hand with one another. They Examined data from two peer-group intervention studies and found that youth in the experimental group had increased adolescent problem behavior and negative life outcomes in adulthood, whereas youth in the control conditions did not show such effects. I suggest that, youth may be particularly vulnerable to negative outcomes as a result of peer aggression. The youth in the juvenile justice system have to deal with peer
The authors believed that the single biggest factor that played a part in predicting adolescent health behavior is peers. It is a known fact that parents play a big part in their children life, but we also know that as they get older those in the network play an even bigger role in shaping their health
So there is this girl. She is very average, she has golden brown hair that goes to right below her shoulders and deep brown eyes. She is on her boarding school soccer team and is one of the leading players, but heart is never in it when she plays. She feels that because of that she does fit in at Westwood Academy. She spends most of her time in her room on the third floor alone doing homework. Her roommate rarely even acknowledges that she exists if she even bothers to be around. Deep down the girl’s deepest passion is singing and that is all that she wants to do. She knows that if anyone knew that she sang she would be the laughing stock of the school. If only she could talk to her parents and have them understand but they only saw her as a gifted athlete with so
The adolescent peer group could make great influence on teenagers. For example, one of my junior high school classmates, A, hadn’t like to play basketball. But, the others in my class often played basketball or discussed the ball games. Therefore, he started to learn how to pass, layup, and make a shot. As time went by, he gradually liked to play basketball and watch the ball games. He even spent eight hours taking train from Kaohsiung to Taipei because his favorite NBA player, Kobe Bryant, would visit there on that day. Due to the impact from the peer group, he changed his hobby and action a lot. To sum up, the influence of adolescent peer group is powerful enough to change one
In “Ecology of Youth Collective Socialization”, Nicotera, Williams, and Anthony argue that multiple social ecology influences of peers, school, as well as neighborhoods are extensively related to youth’s well-being, as well as misconducts. Within the article written, the intended audience consists of scholars, professionals, parents, as well as current and future researchers. The three authors submitted multiple hypotheses regarding the influences of peers, school, as well as neighborhoods on today’s youth while omitting familial influences.
Social adolescent development has changed dramatically compared to growing up as a teenager in the 1950s. Technology, conventions, and a continuous developing society have influenced how kids grow up today, specifically girls. While there are some biological transitions through adolescence that differ, there’s a larger variance of social progression between peers, cohorts, and families through generations. The shift in marriage trends, family values, and social interaction have modified, and continue to transform the nature of adolescence. To draw on specific examples, comparisons were made based off interviews given to a typical teenage girl today and a female adult the same age in the 1950s, which from now on will be referred to as Generation Z and Happy Days Generation.
The influence of peers on adolescent development has been well documented in research. Adolescence is documented as a period of development in which peers begin to have a greater influence than parents (Schwinn & Schinke, 2014). Increased levels of peer interactions, with a decrease in parental interactions, are observed during adolescence. Increases in peer interactions can result in greater orientation toward peer conformity and acceptance, and an increased importance of close friendships (Telzer et. al, 2015). Adolescence is also marked by a heightened involvement in risky behaviors (underage drinking, illegal drug use, risky sexual behaviors). The presence of peers leads to more engagement in risky behaviors by adolescents. Numerous studies have shown that adolescents take more risks when in the presence of peers (Smith, Chein, & Steinberg, 2014).