--Original published at HuntersCollegeBlog
https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/peer-pressure.html
https://www.loveandlogic.com/articles-advice/helping-kids-resist-peer-pressure
https://www.positiveperformancetraining.com/blog/female-athletes-and-peer-pressure
The first website that I looked at had advice on how teens should go about resisting and dealing with peer pressure. The website talked about who peers are, and how they can influence you. It explained how the idea that not all peer influence is bad, since peers can serve as friendships, advice givers, and so forth. When negative peer pressure arises, the tips that this website gave on how to deal with peer pressure are as followed: listen to yourself- if something seems off, it probably is, plan out how you’ll react to peer pressure before it happens, have some sort of excuse to leave a pressured situation, make it known that it’s okay to say no, be with people that you know won’t pressure you into doing something you don’t want to do, aka people that agree with you and will stand up for you, and if you don’t want to do something, say your parents would not want you to do this. Our psych textbook talk about how people normally do what the other people around them are doing (often referred to as the chameleon effect). This automatic mimicry allows people to empathize with others. This can be considered a type of conformity. Asch found that people are more likely to conform to something if you’re in a group of people who are all doing the same thing, or if we are made to feel like we’re wrong. I think these methods of resisting peer pressure are beneficial, because it’s important to stand your ground, and have that sense of individualism, which is focusing on yourself, but sometimes you will be faced with a group of people that don’t agree with you. In those cases, you have to make sure you stand your ground, and even if you don’t agree with what’s happening, you have to be able to accept their opinions, also known as the informational social influence. These tips can be used especially with teens, because they can be pressured into doing things they don’t want to do, don’t think is right, or even things that are illegal, so I feel that these tips will help you in a pressured situation, especially if other people in the group are using the informational social influence.
The next website talks about how parents can help their kids resist peer pressure. Their strategies are as followed: teach your kids what decisions lead to negative consequences, as parents, don’t fight with your kids about who their friends are, give your kids positive encouragement about making smart choices, and allow your kids to blame you if they don’t want to do something (i.e., my mom would not want me to do that). I think that these tips can be successful, because the parent is able to explain to the kids what the consequences will be if they make bad decisions, which I know for me, if I knew the consequences for something weren’t in my favor, I wouldn’t do something. If your child is made aware and has known that bad behaviors cause negative consequences, they’ll be able to use social facilitation, where the audience (group in this situation) will make them do things better, and the drive theory, which says that this takes place when behaviors are mastered. If your child has mastered the art of saying no to something, then in peer pressure situations, they won’t have a problem with saying no.
The last website talked about how a female athlete was a star basketball player, but then her performance started getting worse because the other girls on the team were jealous of her skill and success, so she would pass to them, or purposefully get less points, and make her own game suffer, just so she would feel liked by the team. In order to fight back against this type of peer pressure, here were the steps given: know that it’s okay to feel how you feel, knowing the right question to ask yourself (i.e. do I really care more about other people’s happiness or my own?), find support from friends, family, etc., remind yourself daily your reasons of resisting peer pressure, and build yourself up. I think these tips can lead to success when dealing with peer pressure, because it allows you to validate your feelings during a situation, and it lets you know that it is okay to not feel the same was as others. Informational social influence can also be used here because you have to accept others opinions as well as your own. These tips can also lead to success because you’ll be able to find support in friends and family, and with this, you’re not doing what other people around you are doing, rather you’re doing what you feel they want you to do. So, if you believe in yourself and tell yourself why you are resisting the peer pressure, you’ll be more successful in situations where you are faced with it.