Group influences on behaviour

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Group influences on behaviour
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• People belong to groups throughout the span of
  their lives
• Some groups are by choice and others we
  automatically become a member of
• Successful functioning of a group depends on
  members working towards a common goal

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Peer groups

• A peer group is made up of people who have
  similar interests, do the same sorts of things
  and often interact with each other
• Peer refers to anyone who has one or more
  characteristic in common with an individual

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Distinguishing characteristics

• it often has its own norms or standards of
  acceptable behaviour
• it often has its own style of dress, its own
  places for socialising, its own taste in music,
  dancing, sport etc
• it usually has its own attitudes to issues such
  as sex before marriage, smoking, alcohol, illegal
  drugs, bullying and so on
• it often has its own language or expressions
  which may not make sense to anyone outside the
  peer group
• its members usually discuss their problems with
  one another but not with outsiders

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John Cottrell (1996)

• Described the term clique as a relatively small
  group of friends of similar age, and generally of
  the same sex, which most adolescents belong to

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Peer pressure

• Peer pressure is social influence by peers that
  is, real or imagined pressure to think, feel or
  behave according to standards, or guidelines
  that are determined by peers
• It can be experienced in a wide variety of areas
  of everyday life

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Categories that peer pressure occurs in
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Peer Pressure

• The negative influence of peer pressure can often
  over-emphasised, especially by worried parents
  (Coleman Hendry,1999)
• Peer influence of a group is usually positive and
  constructive
• Supported by research of Berndt Zook, 1993
• Influence of peer pressure peaks at age 14 then
  declines after that

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More research

• In some areas the influence of best friends is
  greater than that of other friends, and other
  friends influence is greater than that of peers
  in general (Kaplan, 2004 Heaven, 2001)
• Girls generally experience more peer pressure
  than boys, however they also experience different
  types of pressure (Kaplan, 2004 Berndt, 1996)

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• Peer pressure is often not direct, rather coming
  from a desire to fit in with group norms
• Although this pressure is subtler, it can be just
  as intensive
• Low status members in a group are more likely to
  be influenced by members of the group with higher
  status

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Risk Taking behaviour

• Risk-taking behaviour is behaviour that has
  potential negative consequences
• Behaviour viewed as risk-taking has the potential
  to be harmful
• Can be both negative (binge drinking, drug abuse)
  and positive (performing a brave action, standing
  up for something you believe in)

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• Positive risks are still considered risks because
  there is the potential for negative consequences
• Gullone Moore (2000) identified the social cost
  of embarrassment or failure, the physical cost of
  accident and injury, or the emotional cost of fear

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Gullone and Moore (2000)

• Australian study on risk taking behaviour
• Involved giving a risk-taking behaviour
  questionnaire to a sample of 459 (239 males and
  220 females) adolescents from four government
  high schools in Melbourne
• The sample included 197 younger adolescents aged
  11 to 14 years (108 males, 89 females) and 262
  older adolescents aged 15 to 18 years (131 males,
  131 females)

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Cont.

• The questionnaire required participants to name
  behaviours they believed to be risky, to judge
  the riskiness of them, and to rate each risky
  behaviour according to how often they engaged in
  it.
• On the basis of their results, Gullone and Moore
  categorised the responses into four types of
  risk-taking behaviour
• thrill-seeking
• reckless
• rebellious
• anti-social

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• Thrill-seeking risks involve behaviours that are
  challenging but relatively socially acceptable,
  such as dangerous sports
• Reckless risks are often thrill-seeking but have
  a higher chance of not being accepted by the
  adult population, and have negative social or
  health-related outcomes. Examples include
  drinking and driving
• Rebellious behaviours involve experimenting with
  activities that are usually acceptable for adults
  but are generally disapproved of for adolescents
• Anti-social behaviours are those which are
  considered unacceptable for both adults and
  adolescents. Examples cheating and bullying
  others

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Data
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Data
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Causes of risk taking behaviour

• Peer pressure is one factor however not the only
  important one
• Individual factors that can contribute to risk
  taking behaviour include age, sex, personality
  type, mental health (for example, whether they
  are depressed), family background, cultural
  background, perceived positive outcomes of risky
  behaviour, the level of maturity or development
  of the brain and ability to judge the level of
  risk or potential harm
• To date, psychologists have no satisfactory
  explanation for adolescent risk-taking behaviour
  (Abbott-Chapman, Denholm Wyld, 2008 Bennett,
  2007 Kaplan, 2004 Carr-Gregg, Enderby Grover,
  2003).