Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The Effects of Peer Pressure
Challenges associated with peer pressure
The Effects of Peer Pressure
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The Effects of Peer Pressure
"Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself." --Bruce Lee "People! Come on! All of us are cutting history. Who wants to go take that stupid exam? We're going to BreadSticks instead. Let's go!" says the coolest kid in your class. Do you do what you know is right and go take the history exam? Or do you give in and go with the crowd? As you grow older, you'll be faced with some challenging decisions. Some don't have a clear right or wrong answer - should you practice the piano or text your girlfriend? Other decisions involve serious moral questions - should you cut class, should you lie to your parents? Making decisions on your own is hard enough, but when other people get involved and pressure you to make a certain choice, it can be much harder. What is peer pressure? Peer pressure is the influence of a social group on an individual. It is one thing that all teens have in common. You can't escape it. It is everywhere. No matter how popular you are or how together you feel, sooner or later you will have to face peer pressure. Teenagers feel social pressure to conform to the group of peers with whom they socialize. This can influence how you dress, what kind of music you listen to, and what types of behavior you engage in, including risky behaviors such as using drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol, and engaging in sex. The intensity and kind of influence of peer pressure differs from situation to situation. Peers can have a positive influence on each other. They can and do act as positive role models and demonstrate appropriate social behaviors. You might admire a friend who is always a good sport and try to be more like him or her. The ability to develop healthy friendships and peer relationships depends on a t... ... middle of paper ... ...le who feel the same way you do. Stupid as it may sound blame your parents. Here is an example. ?Are you kidding? If my mom found out, she'd kill me, and her spies are everywhere." It's not always easy to resist negative peer pressure, but when you do, it is easy to feel good about it afterwards. And you may even be a positive influence on your peers who feel the same way often times it just takes one person to speak out or take a different action to change a situation. Your friends may follow if you have the courage to do something different or refuse to go along with the group. Peer pressure only works if you let it. If you refuse to let it intimidate you it loses its power. The secret is to assert you without becoming self-righteous. Stand your ground but refrain from standing on a soap box or a seesaw. Remember, peer pressure can only bite you if you let it.
One should remember that not all peer pressure is bad, although that is mostly what you see today. Good peer pressure needs to be done more, because why would you want to make someone do something bad, instead of helping them do something good and impacting them, because honestly who would want a worse world rather than a better one? Truly the way to improve our lives as human beings lies on peer pressure, it is at the core of ways we can make a change for a better, and not more for the
Peer pressure is typical occurrence a majority of high schoolers go through. Most of the time, peer pressure has a negative connotation to it; however, depending on the situation, it could have a positive effect. In “Student’s Work Ethic Affected by Peer Groups, Desire to be Popular,” by Shankar Vedantam, he shows both the positive and negative effects motivational peer pressure can have, while Rosalind Wiseman’s “The Queen Bee and Her Court” displays roles of individuals in teen cliques. The people you surround yourself with could greatly affect your motivation whether it is in school or the workplace. According to Vedantam, “When students were sitting in the honor classes, among peers who were more high-performing, they were more likely to sign up for the SAT.
The emergence of peer groups in elementary school aids children's development by providing positive friendships, relationships, and social support, Killen adds. The downsides include the undue influence of a group when it imposes unfair standards, especially on outsiders, or members of "outgroups," which is what is often created when peers form an "ingroup."
The thing about peer pressure is that it is not real. Or at least not in the way you’re
Haun & Tomasello (2011) best explain peer pressure as doing something to “conform to the behavior and opinions of peer groups, even when one knows better” (Abstract section). A child may know better than to drink underage. However, because of the pressure from peers to drink, a child may end up giving in.
Peer pressure is doing something that is not quite normal, but your friends pressure you into the situation because they do it. This definition of peer pressure is something that is always happening, especially with the world changing each day. Things like tobacco, alcohol, and drugs, are all possibilities that peer pressure is related to. However, in the texts “Shooting and Elephant” by George Orwell and “No Witchcraft for Sale” by Doris Lessing demonstrate peer pressure among many thing; however, there are many solutions resulting in good things compared to the bad things that have happened. Solutions to peer pressure in these texts could be many things, but the three that would work best would be: ignore the person, walk away, and lastly, know that you should not do anything you do not feel comfortable with.
Peer pressure is something that everyone has faced at one time or another. It can happen at any age, but usually affects teenagers the most. Throughout junior high and high school teenagers are desperate to fit in. For example a group of four friends goes to the gas station after school. Three of the girls take a candy bar and slide it in their pocket. They told the fourth girl, Jenny, to go ahead and take one too. Jenny had never done anything like this before and she knows that it is not right. She is new to this school and she wants these girls to like her ,so she goes ahead and does it anyway. This is a perfect example of what teenagers do when they get around their friends. They try to be “cool” and impress their peers even if it means doing something that they would never do it they were with their parents or even if they were alone. Many times when people hear the words peer pressure they think of negative things, but peer pressure can also be positive.
Feller, Robyn M. Everything You Need to Know about Peer Pressure. New York: Rosen Pub. Group, 2001. Print
... instead of following the majority. The issue of peer pressure can relate to teens, as they are in constant pressure to be ‘cool’ or to be in the ‘in’ group. It does not really promote individualism, so people cannot develop their own ideas but rather follow the leader of their group.
It is when one’s age group is inspired to do something whether they like it or not. There are a couple of different types of peer pressure. For example: Verbal pressure: is when someone makes a direct comment to peers their age group to influence them to do something.
The first point I want to make in this speech is that peer pressure is NOT a bad thing. We all are influenced by our peers, both negatively and positively. It helps define who we are and how we feel about subjects in our lives. It is how we chose to react to peer pressure that defines who we are as an individual. Are we a leader or a follower? Both types of people are needed to make the world go round.
An example of how peers can have more influence then parents from my own life who be when I was in middle school, at the time I was hangout with girls who were not a good influence on me, I know this know but at the time I thought my parents were not wanting me to have friends. Those friends would always be late to school and class, at this school we had seven different classes and had five minutes to get to each c...
“Why fit in when you were born to stand out?” (Dr.Seuss). Society often thinks of peer pressure as a negative implement. Often times the community imagines peer pressure as teen influencing one another to experiment with drugs, alcohol, and sexual intercourse. But really all peer pressure is, is the encouragement of changing values and behaviors of an individual. Peer pressure can be thought of as positive for teens, because it allows and individual to become a leader in an environment, strong encouragement to work hard in school, and lead a healthy lifestyle.
When you are a teenager and you have friends that ask you to do something for them and you do not then they get mad. Then think you are a loser and that is ever person's nightmare, to not be liked. Peer pressure is no piece of cake. It is like choosing the wrong thing for what you think is right at that very moment, and then regretting it afterwards, because your parents find out. But most would not care about what they do wrong or right. Unless there is a chance of parental disappointment, and a lot of the time that is the case.
Peer pressure can be both a positive and negative influence and will challenge us do things whether they are right or wrong. This is left for you to determine. Peer pressure can influence several areas in your life like; academic performance, who you choose for friends, it can influence who you mat choose for a boyfriend or girlfriend, it can influence decisions about sex, it may change your feelings about alcohol and drug use, and it can even determine your fashion choice.