Peer Pressure: How to Receive the Benefits of Peer Pressure

Introduction

Humans strongly desire a group of people they can be comfortable with, which is called peer pressure. Throughout history, the desire to fit in has been so strong that some individuals decided to go down the wrong path to seek a sense of belonging in this huge and lonely world. Therefore, people usually call that the consequences of peer pressure. On the other hand, peer pressure has much more potential, such as pushing an individual to step out of their comfort zone. There are lots of different types of pressure in various environments. By defining the right types of pressure under a specific circumstance, peer pressure could lead to unimaginable success for an individual.

How to have a different view about peer pressure

To acknowledge the good side of peer pressure, an individual might need to seek guidance from trustworthy adults, learn how to view challenges as opportunities for personal growth, and decide to be with the right group of peers.

Background of peer pressure

Peer pressure most likely bears many negative connotations due to the meaning of the word “pressure.” Pressure is happening to everybody in many different ways, and peer pressure especially needs to be the first type of pressure a person has to go through at an early age. Peer pressure can be everywhere at any time and will likely appear most regularly in school settings. With the desire to find a person or a group of people to be a part of when an individual begins their educational journey, they would start to go through all types of influences that their peers have on them, to fit in, and to fit in means to change themselves. However, despite all the negative connotations peer pressure has, pressure could turn a piece of coal into a precious diamond, and those pressures could also apply to human beings. With the right pressure from the right group of peers, nothing would seem impossible or out of reach anymore to individuals.

Methods

1) To begin with, to recognize the good that peer pressure brings to an individual, a person would need to seek guidance from adults in their life. Because peer pressure is most likely to appear during adolescence when children explore the world and search for their interests, it becomes the responsibility of adults to help children in their early steps of learning to adapt to society, especially parents and teachers. According to Laursen, PhD, professor of psychology at Florida Atlantic University, through a talk with the American Psychological Association about the good and bad of peer pressure, states that peer pressure “begins as soon as children start to pay attention to what other children think about them,” and that it requires parents and teachers to guide the children through the right mindset in viewing those opinions that their peers have on them (Laursen). Moreover, peers and teachers significantly affect children’s engagement, motivation, and adjustment in school (Vollet). For guiding children through peer pressure, parents could give children advice on how to navigate their feelings and emotions toward their peers and expand them to religious belief in recognizing the good and bad for themselves. Also, teachers could show their kids how to behave well with each other, and they could pre-pick the group for students with different personalities who would work well with others for class projects. According to Ajisukmo, Ph.D., family advice, teacher guidance, and religious beliefs are crucial factors in reducing negative behaviors from peer pressure (Ajisuksmo). Because peer pressure is a constant part of daily life for nearly everyone, learning how to manage others' perceptions effectively can lead one toward success and away from negative paths. In this journey, adults are pivotal in guiding individuals toward harnessing the positive aspects of peer pressure – the kind that benefits everyone involved.

2) After an individual learns how to view pressure with an open mind from trustworthy adults, they could view challenges as experiences and opportunities to gain experiences and improve their growth. When individuals view challenges as opportunities instead of obstacles, they could open numerous doors to success - as it allows them to take advantage of the risk and learn from either their failure or success - from the surroundings, the situations, or people. Everybody meets new challenges regularly every day, and nobody can pick the obstacles in their will. However, they could manage how they react to them. Humans are in charge of their emotions, and people who are good at dealing with their own emotions tend to be more successful in life as they have a good sense of controlling the out-of-hand situations daily - and it is a similar deal with peer pressure. As stated by Annie Murphy Paul, author, and scientist, in “Peer Pressure Has a Positive Side,” her studies suggest that “teenagers learn more quickly and more effectively when their peers are present than when they're on their own” (Paul). In educational settings, the people who appear smarter than an individual would be the catalyst that built the obstacles for an individual to face. By accepting that there are much better individuals than oneself, an individual will lower their ego and start to learn from their peers. From that, an individual would view others as an opportunity to grow instead of being jealous of others' achievements and dwelling in the pit of hatefulness. With the adapting mindset that peer pressure would bring numerous opportunities, people can keep striking for once “impossible” things by surrounding themselves with greater individuals than themselves in the room. That would ultimately lead to the road to success in any educational journey.

3) When peer pressure is no longer the downfall of an individual and becomes the key opening many greater possibilities, an individual could learn how to accept themselves as they are and keep leaning on each other for success. When openness and curiosity take over the place of jealousy and hatefulness, an individual might begin to recognize entirely new things they have never seen before. According to Paul, “peer pressure follows people across their whole life course. But you are going to receive in different ways from different people” (Paul).  Learning to perceive different pressures from different people will help individuals grow and lead them on the best road to success. In addition, Psychologist Walters, through the data from a study of Australian children to see if good friendships can lessen the influence of friends who might be involved in bad behavior, suggests that “having good friendships can protect teenagers from getting involved in bad behavior” (Walters, 719-732). By defining and recognizing different types of pressure that different groups of people can bring, an individual would know how to avoid bad influence and enhance good motivation from different groups of peers, and aiming for the good will sprout the plant of success of an individual.

Counterargument

However, while being optimistic with peer pressure is important yet difficult, some will say that being under too much pressure would lead to some chronic stress and anxiety due to the fear of falling behind. According to the social experiments of Bursztyn and Jensen about educational investments affected by peer pressure, they illustrate that “when effort is observable to peers, students may try to avoid social penalties by conforming to prevailing norms.” In other words, students' academic decisions and success are strongly influenced by their desire to fit in with social norms and avoid negative social consequences (Bursztyn and Jensen). As everything has two sides, like a coin with a head and a tail, being the smallest person in the room could lead to major stress that causes the opposite effect of good peer pressure. An individual might lose interest and feel guilty by constantly comparing oneself with their peers. However, the stress and anxiety are temporary, and nothing will last forever. Going through stress and anxiety is inevitable when a person is getting out of their comfort zone, and those types of stress and anxiety will help lead them to success when they encounter it with the right method that they gained from their loved ones. Even though constantly comparing oneself with peers might bring up negative thoughts, it is impossible to dodge a hardship when that hardship is a challenge that helps an individual reach their goals, and peer pressure will stick with them every day in education and the workplace according to Paul. For that, by learning how to use peer pressure as the tool to overcome the shell of comfort, an individual is also required to learn how to manage the pressure that peer pressure brings in their friends and families, and overcoming fear and anxiety means overcoming every boundary that one once set to prevent them from success.

Conclusion

When individuals go through guidance and teaching from trusted adults on managing different peer pressure situations, they could start to learn how to address difficulties with their best open minds, while also learning how to surround themselves with the right people. Experiencing pressure is an inevitable part of growing up, and learning to view it as an opportunity instead of an obstacle with the right groups is an option. Learning to do so will allow the roads to be open for a better version of oneself than yesterday.

Sources

Ajisuksmo, Clara R. P. “Why Some Adolescents Engage in Risk-Taking Behavior.” International Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 10, no. 2, June 2021, pp. 143–71. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.occc.idm.oclc.org/10.17583/ijep.2021.4258.

Bursztyn, Leonardo, and Robert Jensen. “How Does Peer Pressure Affect Educational Investments?” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2015, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4698889/.

Paul, Annie Murphy. “Peer Pressure Has a Positive Side.” Scientific American, 20 Feb. 2024, www.scientificamerican.com/article/peer-pressure-has-a-positive-side/.

“The Good and Bad of Peer Pressure, with Brett Laursen, PhD.” American Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/peer-pressure. Accessed 13 June 2024.

Vollet, Justin W., et al. “In Peer Matters, Teachers Matter: Peer Group Influences on Students’ Engagement Depend on Teacher Involvement.” Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 109, no. 5, July 2017, pp. 635–52. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.occc.idm.oclc.org/10.1037/edu0000172.

Walters, Glenn D. “Positive Peers-The Neglected Stepchildren of Social Influence Theories of Crime.” Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, vol. 48, no. 5, May 2020, pp. 719–32. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.occc.idm.oclc.org/10.1007/s10802-020-00630-x.