Social Contexts: Peers

1
Social Contexts Peers

• Peer group A collection of individuals
  approximately equal in age, social status,
  ability, and other characteristics.

2
The Nature of Peer Relations

• Peer Group Functions
• Family-Peer Linkages
• Peer Conformity
• Peer Statuses

3
What is a crowd?

• Consists of individuals who act similarly, share
  the reputation of the group, but why may not
  interact with one another most of the time crowd
  functions to organize social activities provides
  a venue for peer interactions.

4
What is a clique?

• A small group of friends which has greater
  interpersonal intimacy and cohesion than a crowd.
  Function is talking, sharing information, etc.

5
Theoretical views

• Erikson
• Piaget
• Elkind
• Kohlberg
• Bandura
• W. Hartup T. Berndt
• B.B. Brown

6
Stages of Peer Group Development

• Stage 1 Precrowd isolated unisex cliques.
• Stage 2 Beginning of crowd cliques begin to
  interact.
• Stage 3 Crowd in transition heterosexual
  pairing.
• Stage 4 Fully developed crowd.
• Stage 5 Crowd disentegration.

7
Peers influences are

• multidimensional
• subtle
• take different forms, depending upon the
  organization of the peer group.
• more significant among younger adolescents
• more influential for neutral behaviors

8
Friendship

• Companionship
• Stimulation
• Physical Support
• Ego Support
• Social Comparison
• Intimacy/affection

The Function of Friendships
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Benefits of friendships

• Increase self-esteem and self-confidence
• increase perspective-taking skills
• facilitate social skills
• foster sense of belonging
• lead to good psychosocial adjustment
• leads to good academic achievement

10
Strategies for Making Friends at School