Nonconformity and Avoidance for Coping with Peer Pressure

Throughout the course of a day, a person has many social encounters. Typically, these consist of small talk and jokes, perhaps even personal conversations about their lives, and among these encounters, peer pressure is also a typical thing. Most of the time it appears as a friend trying to convince someone to go somewhere, such as the friend’s house, do some activity, such as see a movie, or obtain something, like food. These examples are neither good or bad (with no context), but peer pressure can be used in either way. For example, perhaps a friend is trying to get someone to come to his house to study; this is positive peer pressure. Or, if the roles are reversed, a friend might try to convince someone to come over with the purpose of neglecting schoolwork or other responsibilities; this is an example of negative peer pressure. This paper will outline two types of strategies used to deal with peer pressure and why they are used.
When investigating just what peer pressure is, one may come across the question of why peer pressure works. The most influential force, probably, is conf...