Freaks, Geeks, and Cool Kids

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Freaks, Geeks, and Cool Kids

• The Importance and Implications of Peer Crowds
• Annie Pezalla

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Important in high school (and in Hollywood)

• http//www.ifilm.com/player/?ifilmId2533928pgde
  faultskindefaultrefsiteifilm

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What the research says

• Definition of Crowds
• the collections of adolescents identified by
  their common interests, attitudes, abilities,
  and/or personal characteristics (Brown, Mory,
  Kinney, 1994, p. 123)
• Different from cliques!
• Cliques are small and interaction-based
• Crowds are large and reputation-based

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Development of Crowds

• From middle school
• Trendies
• Dweebs

• To high school
• Jocks
• Burnouts
• Druggies
• Preppies
• Populars
• Nerds
• Brains
• Normals
• Skaters
• Loners

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Characteristics of Crowds
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Functions of Crowds

• Structure the social environment (Brown et al.,
  1994 Eckert, 1989)
• Through hangout locations or activities in school
• E.g., Populars preside over student council
  Burnouts dominate the autoshop.
• Through styles of dress
• E.g., Jocks wear athletic clothing Nerds wear
  outdated clothes Punks wear black.

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Functions of Crowds

• Structure the social environment (Brown et al.,
  1994 Eckert, 1989)
• Through adolescents conversations
• Oh, yeah the Populars all wear these
  tight-fitting jeans and sit around the commons in
  between classes like they own the place!
• Youd be crazy to walk down the B-wing by
  yourself because the Headbangers, they, like,
  attack you.
• The Nerds all wear glasses and kiss up to the
  teachers, and after school they all tromp uptown
  to the library, or they go over to somebodys
  house and play some stupid computer game until
  900 at night and then they go right to bed
  cause their mommies make em! (Brown et al.,
  1994 p. 128).
• Consensually validated meanings of crowds direct
  adolescents toward peers whose crowds are
  proximal, desirable, and permeable.

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Functions of Crowds

• Promote identity development
• Crowds help adolescents to de-attach from parents
  and explore their values, beliefs, and talents.
• Erik Erikson (1968)
• Identifying with a peer crowd is important to
  maintain a healthy sense of self.
• Crowds provide a testing grounds for identity
  exploration and commitment.

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Implications of Crowds

• Associations found in adolescence
• Mental health
• Jocks and Populars highest levels of global
  self-worth lowest levels of loneliness, social
  anxiety, and depressed affect (Brown Lohr,
  1987 Prinstein La Greca, 2002) .
• Outcasts and Freaks highest levels of depression
  and anxiety greatest likelihood of engaging in
  self-harm or suicide attempts (Klein, 2006
  Young, Sweeting West, 2006).
• Why is this?
• Differential provision of social opportunities
  (Brown et al., 1994).
• E.g., Populars have many opportunities to date,
  socialize, etc. Outcasts do not.
• Unequal value systems in schools (Klein, 2006).
• E.g., Jocks/Populars are praised Freaks, Goths,
  and Outcasts are frequently mistreated and
  victimized.
• Cooleys (1902) notion of the looking-glass
  self
• We think about ourselves from the viewpoints of
  others as they key mechanism of self-evaluation.

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Implications of Crowds

• Associations found in adolescence
• Risk behavior
• Druggies and Burnouts higher levels of illegal
  behavior, aggression, alcohol and marijuana use,
  and risky sexual behavior, including promiscuous
  and unsafe sex (La Greca et al., 2001 Prinstein
  La Greca, 2002 Sussman, Unger, Dent, 2004).
• Why is this?
• Crowd stereotypes may influence development of
  behaviors
• E.g., an adolescent who identifies as a Burnout
  uses marijuana b/c all Burnouts smoke pot.
• Crowd affiliates may actively pressure one
  another
• Research suggests this is not likely.

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Implications of Crowds

• Associations found in young adulthood
• High-risk crowd members most likely to use
  alcohol and other drugs, be depressed, and have
  low self-esteem at age 24 least likely to have
  graduated from college most likely to
  demonstrate problem behaviors and violence after
  high school (Barber et al., 2001 Sussman et al.,
  2004).
• Why is this?
• Crowd affiliations influence identity, values,
  and behaviors in adolescence, which may actually
  alter life courses in young adulthood.
• Not really clearfew studies have examined crowds
  beyond high school!

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Challenges of Crowd Research

• Definition of peer crowds is not universally
  accepted
• Reputation-based groupings, whose members do not
  interact (Brown, 1990).
• Collections of cliques, whose members have
  frequent interactions with each other (Dunphy,
  1963).
• Methodological difficulties in measuring peer
  influence
• Initially similar adolescents identify with same
  crowd (selective association)
• Initially dissimilar adolescents identify with
  same crowd and become more similar as a result of
  association (peer influence)
• Research suggests BOTH!
• Differing approaches to crowd measurement
• Self-report
• Close-ended?
• Open-ended?
• Ethnography

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My own work with Crowds

• Laws of the Lab
• Didnt have to collect my own data ?
• Limited in what I could measure ?
• Variables available Self-esteem, gendered
  traits, body image.

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My own work with Crowds

• How do people identify themselves?
• Self-normalization
• Do crowd identities differ depending on gender or
  ethnicity?
• Gender Girls will be less likely than boys to
  identify themselves with a crowd label
• Ethnicity African Americans will be less likely
  than European Americans to identify as Brains.
• Do crowd affiliations still matter beyond high
  school?
• After they leave the nest (aka high school), do
  birds of a feather still flock together? ?

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My own work with Crowds

• Depending on crowd identity
• Do people evaluate themselves differently?
• Those who were Nerds and Outcasts in high school
  would have the worst self-esteem in college
• Do relational styles differ?
• http//www.imdb.com/title/tt0377092/trailers-scree
  nplay-E20426-314
• Those who were Populars and Jocks would be the
  most socially aggressive in college
• Are body image concerns different?
• Those who were Preppies in high school would be
  the most body image conscious in college.

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Analyses

• Analyzing open-ended questions
• Gearheads
• Band nerds
• Stoners
• Academic crowd
• Dirt people
• Social butterflies
• Loners
• Weirdos
• Ballers
• Preps
• Crew people

• Into categorical data
• 1 Brain
• 2 Nerd
• 3 Preppy
• 4 Jock
• 5 Popular
• 6 Normal
• 7 Outcast
• 8 Druggy

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Articulating my Results

• Crowd identity versus public crowd
• When asked about their crowd identity,
  participants were likely to identify themselves
  in fairly broad, inclusive terms.
• Crowd identity, gender, and ethnicity
• Ethnic minority men were least likely to identify
  as Brains in high school.
• Crowd identity and psychosocial traits
• Gendered traits ?those who identified as Jocks or
  Populars in high school were most socially
  aggressive in college.
• Body image ?those who identified as Preppies in
  high school were the most oriented toward and
  dissatisfied with their bodies in college.
• Self-esteem ?No differences in self-esteem.

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Acknowledging Limitations

• Small cell sizes (few Druggies or Outcasts)
• Limited dependent variables
• One time point
• Cannot attribute causality!
• Thinking about the Future
• Examine the outlier crowds in more depth
  (Goths, Freaks, Weirdos)
• Use a broader array of crowd dimensions (salience
  of crowd identity, contentment or satisfaction
  with ones crowd, permanence of crowd)
• Make it qualitative! ?