Chapter 5: Peers Flashcards
how are peer groups different in contemporary societies
narrowly defined and age segregated (due to age education)
when was age grading developed
19th century
but It was not until the second quarter of the twentieth century, however, that most adolescents were directly affected by educational age grouping
T: Groups of individuals of approximately the same age.
peer groups
T: The process of grouping individuals within social institutions on the basis of age.
age grading
Perhaps the most important factor influencing the rise of adolescent peer groups in contemporary society was….
the rapid growth of the teenage population between 1955
126
and 1975.
when was the adol boom
The products of this baby boom became adolescents during the 1960s and early 1970s, creating an “adolescent boom” for about 15 years
how much of the pop were adol before and after the adol boom
The size of the population ages 15–19 nearly doubled between 1955 and 1975 and, more importantly, rose from less than 7% of the total population to well over 10%
During the mid-1970s more than … Americans was a teenager.
1 out of every 6
when did the adol boom stop and begin declining
1975 to 1995 growing again since then
Today, approximately …% of Americans (about 42 million people) are between ages 10 and 19.
13
is adol rate expected to go up or down
down
patterns of change in adol pop are universal
f patterns of change in the size of the adolescent population vary considerably around the world, mainly because of different birth rates
where is adol pop highest around the world
developing countries like Arab lowest in industrialized countries like Japan
Social scientists track the size of the adolescent population for several reasons.
- changes in the number of adolescents may warrant changes in the allocation of funds for social services, educational programs, and health care, since adolescents’ needs are not the same as those of children or adults.
- changes in the size of the adolescent population have implications for understanding the behavior of cohorts
a crowded cohort =
competition for jobs public attention
Is the rise of peer groups in modern society necessarily a bad thing?
claim that age segregation has led to the development of a separate youth culture, in which young people maintain attitudes and values that are different from—even contrary to—those of adults. But some argue that industrialization and modernization have made peer groups more important, that adults alone can no longer prepare young people for the future, and that peer groups play a vital role in the socialization of adolescents for adulthood
recent studies have found that adolescents engage in more …3 when they are with their peers than when they are by themselves
exploratory behavior, behave more prosocially, and learn faster
why cant children be educated in kinship based societies
need to learn different norms
not an effective strategy for socializing them for adulthood, since their family ties, not their age, determine what their rights and responsibilities are.
why can industruazed societies educate groups all together
the rules governing behavior apply equally to all members of the community.
age groups are necessary in ind societies why
modernization
Without systematic age grouping in schools, it would be impossible to prepare young people for adulthood.
Cultures in which the socialization of young people is done primarily by adults. because they will live the same way :T
postfigurative cultures
T: Cultures in which young people are socialized both by adults and by each other.
cofigurative cultures
Cultures in which society is changing so quickly that adults are frequently socialized by young people, rather than the reverse.:T
prefigurative cultures
in prefig cultures the adolescents of the future will cease to profit from having close relationships with adults
f
Four specific developments stand out in change of peer adol relationships 4
- there is a sharp increase during adolescence in the sheer amount of time individuals spend with their peers and in the relative time they spend in the company of peers versus adults.
- peer groups function much more often without adult supervision than they do during childhood
- increasingly more contact with peers is between males and females
- whereas children’s peer relationships are limited mainly to relatively small groups—at most, three or four children at a time—adolescence marks the emergence of larger collectives of peers, called crowds
well over half of the typical American adolescent’s waking hours are spent with peers, as opposed to only …with adults
15%
during adol trans how do boys and girls spend time instead of with parents
during the transition into adolescence, there is a dramatic drop in the amount of time adolescents spend with parents; for boys, this is mainly replaced by time spent alone, whereas for girls, it is replaced by time alone and time with friends
The shift from same-sex peer groups to mixed-sex groups tends to occur …
around the beginning of high school
“brains” in another, and the “jocks” in a third :T
crowds
define crowds
Large, loosely organized groups of young people, composed of several cliques and typically organized around a common shared activity.
These changes in peer relations have their origins in the biological, cognitive, and social transitions of adolescence cognitive?
The cognitive changes of adolescence permit a more sophisticated understanding of social relationships, which allows the sort of abstract categorization that leads to grouping individuals into crowds.
These changes in peer relations have their origins in the biological, cognitive, and social transitions of adolescence: biological?
Puberty stimulates adolescents’ interest in romantic relationships and distances them from their parents, which helps to explain why adolescents’ social networks increasingly include more other-sex peers and fewer adults
These changes in peer relations have their origins in the biological, cognitive, and social transitions of adolescence social
changes in social definition may stimulate changes in peer relations as a sort of adaptive response: The larger, more anonymous social setting of the secondary school forces adolescents to seek out individuals whom they perceive as having common interests and values, perhaps as a way of re-creating the smaller, more intimate groups of childhood
Adolescents’ peer groups are organized around two related, but different, structures
cliques and crowds
what defines cliques
friendships or interests
T: Small, tightly knit groups of between 2 and 12 friends, generally of the same sex and age.
cliques
the researchers categorized adolescents as …. (individuals who have most of their interactions with the same small group of people), … (individuals who interact with two or more adolescents who are members of cliques, but who themselves are not part of a clique), and … (individuals who have few or no links to others in the network).
clique members
liaisons
isolates
all adolescents in any school were members
of cliques
f fewer than half
what is the gender difference in cliques, isolates and liaisons
girls were more likely than boys to be members of cliques, whereas boys were more likely than girls to be isolates
Adolescents who were members of cliques in the 9th grade were clique members in 10th grade: what does this tell us
adolescents’ positions in their school’s social network were relatively stable over time:
This does not mean that the membership of specific cliques is stable
…% of 7th-graders were members of cliques and about …% were isolates; … were liaisons or connected to just one other adolescent in a dyad
75
15
very few
3 crowd purposes
to locate adolescents (to themselves and to others) within the social structure of the school, to channel adolescents toward some peers and away from others, and to provide contexts that reward certain lifestyles and disparage others
“reputation-based clusters of youths, whose function in part is to help solidify young people’s social and personal identity”:T
crowds
are crowds founds globally?
yes
which crowd only is UN
jocks (clubs vs school teams in other parts of the world)
how are cliques different in structure and purpose from crowds
cliques for social interaction and based on friendship and activity crowds for reputation and based on stereotypes, contribute to sense of identity rather than social development
an adolescent does not have to actually have “brains” as friends, or hang around with “brainy” students, to be one of the “brains.” why is this
If he dresses like a “brain,” acts like a “brain,” and takes AP courses, then he is a “brain” as far as his crowd membership goes.
problem with crowds
struck in a crowd you down want to be in
… of high school students are associated with one crowd, about …are associated with two or more crowds, and about …. do not clearly fit into any crowd
close to half
one-third
one-sixth
crowds are just clusters of cliques
f they differ
There are important changes in the structure of cliques and crowds during the adolescent years, driven in large measure by the increased importance of …
romantic relationships
explain the transition from same sex cliques in early adol to romantic relationships
same sex cliques mixed interactions in groups mixed cliques (lead by cliques leaders romantic relationships peer group begins to disintegrate
A study of middle school dances over the course of the academic year found that the integration of boys’ and girls’ peer groups increased over time, but that this occurred mainly among …
physically attractive adolescents (no surprise, because being good-looking contributes to status in the peer group)
the transition from same-sex groups to mixed-sex groups is associated with an increase in alcohol use among males, and in both alcohol and drug use among females, why
most likely because the activities that draw males and females together often involve partying
why does the peer group start to disintegrate during late adol
As students approach their senior year and feel more secure about themselves, there is a decline in the extent to which they say they want to improve their social skills and the quality of their relationships attention away from group toward romantic partner
There also are changes in peer crowds during this time. Many of these changes reflect the growing cognitive sophistication of the adolescent 3
- define crowds more in terms of abstract, global characteristics (“preppies,” “nerds,” “jocks”)
- they become more consciously aware of the crowd structure of their school and their place in it
- the crowd structure also becomes more differentiated, more permeable, and less hierarchical, which allows adolescents more freedom to change crowds and enhance their status
T: A type of research in which individuals are observed in their natural settings
ethnography
what is the The Transformation of the Nerds
many individuals managed to transform themselves from “nerds” into “normals” during high school.
many individuals managed to transform themselves from “nerds” into “normals” during high school. why 3
this was accomplished because the high school peer structure was more differentiated and permeable. not just popular and unpopular
- the transition to “normal” came about through gains in self-assurance that came with physical and social development
- the transformation was facilitated by a more sophisticated, confident view of the social hierarchy—one that permitted them to reject the premise that whatever the popular kids valued was necessarily desirable.
By … grade, there is nearly universal agreement among students about their school’s crowd structure, and the strength of peer group influence is very high
9th
Between … grades, however, the significance of the crowd structure begins to decline, and the salience of peer pressure wanes.
9th and 12th
why the decline I n the influence of peer pressure over adol
As crowds become less important, between middle and late adolescence, their influence over the individual’s behavior weakens
Just as the changes in the structure of cliques play a role in the development of …, changes in the salience of crowds play an important role in adolescent …
intimacy
identity development
why does the role of the crowd decreases
As adolescents become more secure in their identity as individuals, the need for affiliation with a crowd diminishes
“Burnouts” and adolescents who are members of delinquent gangs : where do they fall on dimensions of involvement in peer culture and adult institutions
are not involved in either the peer culture or adult institutions.
who are very involved in the peer culture, but they are also very involved in the institutions valued by adults
“Jocks” and “populars,” for example,
T: A group against which an individual compares him or herself.
reference group
Knowing where an adolescent fits into the social system of the school can tell us a lot about the person’s behavior and values
t
Such labels as “jocks,” “brains,” “populars,” “druggies,” and “skaters” serve as shorthand notations—accurate or inaccurate—to describe someones activities
f more than that what someone is like as a person, what he or she holds as important, and how he or she spends time
Individuals who are members of more … crowds engage in more problem behavior, whereas those who are in more … report less
unconventional crowds
conventional ones
crowds
how they talk about one another
think of themselves (self concept)
boys whose crowd dislikes school. why would Doing well on a test or receiving a compliment from a teacher is likely to be dismissed as unimportant.
Since this attitude toward school is continuously reinforced by the clique, each boy’s feelings about school become strengthened, and not liking school becomes part of each boy’s identity
how does SE relate to crowds
Crowd membership can also affect the way adolescents feel about themselves. Adolescents’ self-esteem is higher among students who are identified with peer groups that have relatively more status in their school
Over the course of adolescence, symptoms of psychological distress decline among the … and increase among the …
“populars” and “jocks” but increase among the “brains”
adolescents whose peers identify them as members of low-status crowds fare better psychologically when …, but the opposite is true for adolescents whose peers label them as members of high-status crowds, where …
they don’t see themselves this way
denying one’s affiliation with the crowd is associated with worse mental health
… showed the most favorable patterns of psychological adjustment over time into adulthood
“brains” and “jocks”
Adolescents’ behavior is affected by their crowd membership in several ways 4
- adolescents often imitate the behavior of high-status peers—the crowd leaders
- crowds establish social norms—values and expectations—that members strive to follow
- when crowd members behave in ways that are consistent with these norms, they are reinforced for doing so.
- when adolescents are reinforced for following a crowd’s norms, they feel better about themselves and further incorporate their crowd membership into their identity
popular students get the most attention from not popular students
f popular ones
teenagers are especially likely to conform to their peers when they are not sure just how to behave
t
how does ethnicity change crowd membership
There is evidence, however, that in multiethnic high schools adolescents first divide across ethnic lines and then form into the more familiar adolescent crowds within ethnic groups.
and change what groups have status based on disvalues
high-achieving Black students are ostracized for “acting White”
f all students who are highly committed to school, regardless of their ethnicity, are teased or excluded for being “nerds” or “brains,” or simply for doing well in school
high-achieving Black students are ostracized for “acting White”
f all students who are highly committed to school, regardless of their ethnicity, are teased or excluded for being “nerds” or “brains,” or simply for doing well in school
