Peer Pressure Papers

Studies have been conducted and poems have been written about our instinct to conform and how it could affect the future. Solomon E. Asch, a social psychologist, conducted one of these studies. The experiments, which examined a person’s responses when faced with social pressure, consisted of a group of people that were shown two cards: one with one line drawn on it and another card with 3 or more lines drawn on it. The subjects were to respond which line on the second card was the same length of the line on the first card. However, not all of the participants were actual subjects.

Society can create expectations of how people should act, but these expectations are often broken by other influences. Often times people can be influenced to do things by other peers that they would not commonly do by themselves. This is called peer pressure. An example

Peer pressure is a term we all have heard of growing up. Not only have we heard of peer pressure, but we have all experienced peer pressure at some point in our lives. It could have been as little as a friend saying to take that one kids crayon from him to being pressured to sign a multibillion dollar contract that can change the face of the planet. No matter the act, one loses control over their own choices due to the influences of their peers. This is not only seen in the real world, but also in all types of literature. In “Shooting an Elephant”, George Orwell presents the idea that peer pressure is a powerful force that takes away one’s freedom of choice with the use of internal conflicts and connections to the real world.

There is a fundamental human need to belong to social groups especially if people were to live and work together, it is likely that they need to agree on common beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviours in order to get along and fit-in. Thus, we learnt to conform to rules of other people, the more people see others behaving in a particular way or making particular decisions, the more likely people will feel obliged to follow the suit. This is called conformity and can be defined in different ways, Aronson, Wilson & Akert (2014) stated it is the changing of one’s behavior due to the real or imagined influence of other people. According to Deutsch and Gerard (1955), social influence should be distinguished into two types, the informational social influence and normative social influence. The occurrence of social influence has implied to many real life events, which has drawn many researchers to attention. This has lead many researchers to design distinct experiments to try and understand the cause of the conformity, whether conformity is situation dependent, and whether we are able to resist social influences.

In psychological terms, conformity refers to an individual`s urge to follow the rules or behaviours of a social group to which he belongs. Psychologists have put forward many theories to find out why people conform and obey and have completed studies to confirm their ideas. In this essay I will explain why people conform and obey.

There are lots of articles discussing this topic and there are a few specific ones that stand out. In the article “You Are a Conformist (That Is, You Are Human)” by Noam Shpancer, it shows the pros of conformity of society by using facts and other conducted experiments.In his article Shpancer states that “ Recent research shows that social disapproval provokes the brain’s danger circuits. Conformity soothes”(Shpancer, par.

Obedience and Conformity Both obedience and conformity involve social pressure in obedience the pressure comes from behaving as you are instructed to do; whereas in conformity the pressure comes from group norms Behaviour in obedience is determined by social power, whereas in conformity it is influenced mostly by the need for acceptance. In nearly all societies, certain people are given power and authority over others. Our society, for example, parents, teachers, and managers are invested with various degrees of authority. Most of the time, this does not cause any problems.

In this specific experiment, we can see how group pressure can affect our mental process and our behavior. Knowing how our brain works can help us understand why we respond a certain way. What the conformity experiment was trying to show was how likely an individual is to give into society’s ideals and beliefs, without questioning, out of fear of being ostracized or because they believe that the group is better informed. With this experiment, we can understand the reason why our behavior and mental processes can

First, an individual usually internalizes compliance, but this is not necessarily the case in obedience. The latter can occur through internalization as well as through the existence of cognitive dissonance. In other words, conformity is a form of social influence that emanates from within the individual (Milgram, 2010). As it has been mentioned earlier, one does not have to be asked to do something for them to do it in the case of conformity. It is a decision they make due to the external pressures caused by group influence or the influence of another individual. Compliance is ethologically a survival tactic whereby one is forced to do certain things to fit in the group as doing the contrary will make them appear odd. This is not the case in

Social influence is a huge factor in human life; the psychology behind it focuses on how an individual is susceptible to behavioural and attitudinal change when in a social environment. People can be influenced majorly by the actions, opinions and general presence of others and there are psychological reasons for this. One piece of research that supports why people are influenced by others is the study of conformity.

Solomon Asch used a simple experiment to test this question. He devised an experiment in which he took college students and had them match the length of a line against the lengths of three others. Since the comparisons were quite simple, conforming to peer pressure meant that participants had to agree with the other students even when the other students were clearly wrong (Levine, J. M. 1999). To do so, the first two waves were set up in which to gain the trust of the participant by having all the students that were in on it, the confederates, answer correctly. But by the third wave, the confederates were told to answer incorrectly. One by one each confederate answered the same incorrect answer in which it set up a dilemma for the participant. The question then became whether or not the participant was bold enough to answer correctly and stick out or would they just answer the same to fit in because it is less uncomfortable and easier. However, around this time, many of the participants started to show clear signs of being uncomfortable and Asch found that around 73% of the participants caved into peer pressure and answered incorrectly at least once (Levine, J. M.

Peer pressure is strong,and powerful we almost always run into it. People who want to fit in will usually fall into peer pressure. People love the sense of being like everyone else. Individuals might do things that they wouldn't have done by themselves. Girls usually get pressured to work out, where makeup,drink ,and smoke. Guys usually get pressured to drink,and smoke.

As children grow into preteens and then into teenagers, they often become less dependent on the family and more dependent on their peers when it comes to making choices and developing morals and values. Peer pressure can have a positive effect when it encourages teens to develop social skills necessary for adulthood. Unfortunately, negative behaviours tend to travel through groups of teenagers, either due to actual peer pressure or the perception of pressure from friends. By having a close relationship with your teen and by providing

Your peers are the people with whom you identify and spend time. In children and teens, they are usually, but not always, of the same age group. In adults, peers may be determined less by age and more by shared interests or professions. Peer pressure occurs when an individual experiences implied or expressed persuasion to adopt similar values, beliefs, and goals, or to participate in the same activities as those in the peer group.

Peer pressure is the influence that one person or group has on another. Peer pressure is a devastating force that affects the lives of millions across the world. Most often, peer pressure receives a reputation for being demeaning, harsh, brutal, and generally negative. However, peer pressure can inspire the affected party to rise above the cruelty and positively impact their own lives. Yes, peer pressure may negatively affect someone’s life, but it may also change their life in a positive manner.