Adolescence Peer Presure

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Running Head: ADOL. PEER PRESSURE Peer Pressure During Adolescence Esther Malka Cooper Touro College Los Angeles Adolescents & Peer Pressure It is said that peer pressure has the greatest impact on adolescent behavior than any other factor. What is peer pressure? Simply put, it is the influence that the teen’s social group has on his or her actions – different than what the teen would have done otherwise. Peer pressure is the social and psychological pressure a person feels from his or her peers – the pressure to blend in and do what one’s peers are doing, to “fit in”, regardless of the person’s own desires or logic. Although peer pressure is classically thought of as taking place at school, adolescents also feel this pressure through media such as movies and television shows, and through social media cites such as Facebook – making peer pressure all the more present in a twenty first century teen’s life than in any others. In reality, all humans are affected by peer pressure, yet it is commonly considered a predominantly adolescent issue. Why? Adolescents and Heightened Peer Pressure Research has shown that although adolescents have the ability to judge the dangers of an action against its immediate rewards, they are usually much more likely than adults are to ignore risk of danger to get reward. An experiment was done where both adolescents than adults were tested to see whether or not they would speed through a yellow light – with and without peer pressure. The study showed that the teens were more likely to speed the yellow lights (i.e. take risks) when they knew that two or more friends were watching than if they were alone. The study also showed that the teens were much more likely to run the yellows under this peer pressure than the adults were. Interestingly, when the researchers looked at the brain activity of the adolescents, they noticed
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