Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
merit of peer pressure
the effect of peer pressure
importance and effects of friendship
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: merit of peer pressure
As mammals, humans share the same traits as wolves. We feel the need to form packs as an inherent part of life. I think this feeling derives from years of solitary confinement and the lack of individuals to comfort you through your times of need. This could both be beneficial and a hindrance. If you are not accepted into a group, your self-esteem plummets beyond despair and you begin to deem yourself unworthy. Social status in this world means everything. It is the so called ‘friends’ who aid in this bittersweet process. They encourage that which should not be encouraged. They promote distasteful ideas because in turn, it was the same way for them. The only way to influence is to be influenced. Instead of cultivating your own idea, you take on the opinions of others and you make this your belief. Furthermore, when something contradicts with this belief, you make it your mission to mindlessly defend it while regurgitating what you’ve been told. It’s human nature. Then again, influence is not all that bad. At times it could prove inspirational. What is born from inspiration but ideas and change? You also have to take into account that most people struggle with change because it conflicts with their cognitive way of thinking. It is an idea which they are not used to when they’d rather settle for what they know. To find people with similar thinking, they turn towards the unreliable term, “friends.”
Unlike wolves, we don’t create groups in order to hunt. We can find all of our chemically induced processed foods at our local supermarkets, but instead we create groups for a less fundamental reason; that is to fit in and to be accepted. But fit in with the wrong group, and it’s a life-long onslaught of regret. This is when the quote...
... middle of paper ...
... are. If it doesn’t threaten your life, it really isn’t important. These people aren’t special, they’re just more self-aware. They care less. Ignorance can be a good thing. The less you know, the less you have to worry. Once you have a taste of friendship, it’s addicting. It’s as if it has its own mixture of nicotine. This is the reason why there are so many groups. To be a loner, you have to start a loner. This takes commitment. Your school life will become miserable and days will seem longer. This is all for the sake of escaping the falsehood that hides beneath the term friendship. If you’re kind to me, you’re kind to others. If the truth is cruelty, then kindness must be a lie. Not all lies are bad, and the truth is not always cruel. But, the majority dominates the minority. This is a fact of life. A fact that shares the bond between friendship and rivalry.
Conformity is defined as behavior in accordance with socially accepted conventions or standards. This is not a good or bad thing, this just is. It exists as a compliment to earlier humans congregating into larger groups, using agriculture and domestication to create sustenance. Also, conformity is essential for life. We need people to share the same ideas, ideologies and a way of thinking in order to work efficiently and effectively. There many examples that exist like, at work or in your house and even within yourself. Sigmund Freud has explained the phenomena of group psychology in a piece titled, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego. Using Freud’s theory of conformity I will explain the self, what we call “me”,and its different constituents using The Principles of Psychology by
Many people have trouble being apart of a society. These troubles come from trying to fit in, which is also known as conforming. Another trouble is trying to express one’s own style with one’s own opinion. This is a trouble due to the fact that many people have the fear of being frowned upon when being the black sheep of the group if one’s opinion does not correspond with other opinions. This is where one’s own sense of who they are, individuality, and trying to fit in, conformity, can get confused. A nickname for conformity is “herd behavior” which is the name of an article where the author relates animals that herd with people that conform. Many people have a different philosophy of this topic which will be expressed in this essay. An important
A person can stand up for their beliefs against another person, but as more people criticize those beliefs, it becomes much harder to stand up for what one believes in and much easier to give in and agree with the majority. When a person begins to feel condemned and cornered against a group of people, they tend to conform their actions in order to align them with their new identity. Gladwell states about the Stanford Prison Experiment, “the guards, some who had previously identified themselves as pacifists, fell quickly into the role of hard-bitten disciplinarians. The first night they woke up the prisoners at two in the morning and made them do push-ups, line up against the wall, and perform other arbitrary tasks.” (158). The subjects’ identities fell into align with respect to their immediate environment. With no control over their true identities, their actions as a group must coincide with each other’s. The situational pressure is automatically exerted onto each member of the group; if one member does not act in accordance with the group’s actions, one will most likely face criticism from the other members. The conscious awareness of these consequences will keep most members of the situation in align with their newly molded identities. External pressures play a very similar role, without the presence and involvement of groups of people. Like peer pressures, external influences lure us to change our actions according to the expectations of those certain outer influences. Davidson states, “…given that our system of education presumes college preparation is the ideal, even in environments where most kids are not going on to college” (59). Even if a student does not have the ambition to attend college, they are still forced to meet the expectations of those who plan to attend college. If they do not meet those expectations, they will be
... Involvement, the more we involve ourselves with the people in that group the more we’ll seek their approval of them causing us to conform. Beliefs, when people share the same norms and values they are less likely to argue and resist conformity. If social bonds are weak then the chances of becoming deviant is increased. Those that lack these four basic elements of social bonding will have little respect for society and do whatever they want.
...ip and they lack what it takes for a real friendship to flourish. Aristotle talks about how “cities are built around friendships” and believe this to be so true because friendships can mature into such greater things. A friendship consists of so many things within it, a true virtuous relationship relies on communication, trust, loyalty, and many other things. These qualities that make up a good friendship are nonexistent in a Utility or Pleasure relationship.
“Social conformity has been practiced in societies around the world since ancient times,” and the reason it is so effective is that humans have an inherent need to be accepted as part of a group (Sadat). Furthermore, Hossna Sadat reports that:
The desire to be accepted and belong to a group is an undeniable human need. But how does this need affect an individual? Social psychologists have conducted numerous experiments and concluded that, through various forms of social influence, groups can change their members’ thoughts, feelings, and behavior.
Conformity, or going along with the crowd, is a unique phenomenon that manifests itself in our thoughts and behaviors. It’s quite simple to identify countless examples of the power of conformity in virtually all aspects of social life. Conformity influences our opinions and relationships with others, often to a higher extent than we realize. It is posited that people generally conform to the group in order to fit in and avoid rejection or because they truly believe the group is more knowledgeable than they are. After analyzing numerous studies and experiments on the nature of conformity, one will find that the motive of social acceptance is the greatest driver of conformity.
This essay concerns social influence in general. Aspects of social influence as such as majority influence and minority influence will be discussed in terms of their underlying psychological processes and how they differ. Majority influence or conformity refers to the desire to belong or to fit in within a particular group which involves adopting certain attributes, behaviour and attitudes of a particular group. As a result individuals consequently experience group pressure (in Baron, Branscombe & Byrne 2008). Minority influence on the other hand, refers to the influence that the minority exert over the majority in that the majority come to accept the beliefs and behaviours of a minority (in Baron et al. 2008).
Remember those times in class when the teacher has asked a question and the answer in mind is surely correct, yet when you look around the majority have chosen an option completely opposite? What about the time your friends pressured you into stealing that shirt or CD or involving in mocking little Johnny because he was a ‘geek’? At the time there was no problems. As a part of the group you felt confident, secure and “like so cool”.
Developing a group’s identity can be difficult as an identity is a multi-faceted project due to the clashing of multiple egos and personalities. The crucial points of development are: which team building perspective to work from, how to prevent role conflict and encourage role acceptance, and encourage personal and interpersonal cohesion which leads to group cohesion.
Elliot Aronson (2012) provides a definition of conformity, two social psychological processes that underlie a conformity and cited examples of reasons why people conform in the book, The Social Animal. Aronson (2012) defines a conformity as “a change in a person’s behavior or opinion as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people” (p.19). In accordance with Aronson’s (2012) definition of conformity, people do conform owing to the social influence, which are two main social psychological processes: belonging and getting information.
In situations of social facilitation, social loafing, or groupthink, individuals often have a tendency to change the way in which they think and/or behave.
Groups influence our everyday lives in ways that we don’t even realize. Most of what is learned from groups are societal norms that are being reinforced on a micro level in everyday life. Group influence on individuals is a clear tangible proof of societal norms by institutions. The groups we become a part of therefore can have a greater influence on our individual actions then we are aware of. As an individual we like to believe we have agency over our actions and what we decide but a lot of our own actions is more a part of a group mentality. Also, individual’s go along with a group’s influence so they feel better about themselves because then they won’t be ostracized. This paper will analyze different aspects of individual behavior and
On a daily basis, people are being influenced by the people around them, whether it is directly or indirectly. A person’s thoughts, feelings and actions can influence and be influenced by society. These social interactions provide enough opportunity for the presence of people to influence and change behavior, views, and attitudes of an individual. There are several forms of social influences, such as conformity, which I will be discussing. Why we conform has been a topic of considerable interest to social psychologists in particular such as he classic and well-known studies of Muzafer Sherif and Solomon Asch. In addition to researching why we conform, there’s also the question of whether conformity is good or bad.