Readings: Peer Groups

Question 1

What can size changes in the number of adolescents cause?

Answer 1

Changes in the allocation of funds for social services, educational programs and healthcare, and also changes in the behaviours of cohorts (generations)

Question 2

Why do peer groups change in adolescence?

Answer 2

Puberty stimulates an interest in romantic relationships (distancing from parents), abstract categorization develops to allow for grouping into crowds, and a want for the familiarity of a group to belong to

Question 3

What are clique members?

Answer 3

Individuals who have most of their interactions with the same small group of people

Question 4

What are liaisons?

Answer 4

Individuals who interact with two or more people who are part of cliques, but whom are not part of cliques themselves

Question 5

What are isolates?

Answer 5

Individuals with few or no links to others in the network

Question 6

What 3 broad purposes do crowds serve?

Answer 6

To locate adolescents (to themselves and to others) within the social structure of the school
To channel adolescents towards some peers and away from others
To provide contexts that reward certain lifestyles and disparage others.

Question 7

What is crowd membership based on?

Answer 7

Reputation and stereotype

Question 8

What is clique membership based on?

Answer 8

Hinges on shared activity and friendship

Question 9

What 2 aspects of development are crowds and cliques good for?

Answer 9

Crowds: Development of self identity
Cliques: Social development

Question 10

What does the shift in adolescent friend groups from same to mixed sex function as?

Answer 10

Socialization. The slow moving, getting more comfortable with the opposite sex is buffered by the familiarity of the peer group, which is no longer needed after a certain amount of time when romance becomes more prevalent and comfortable.

Question 11

What happens when the importance of the crowd goes down?

Answer 11

Susceptibility to peer pressure also goes down

Question 12

What are the two dimensions that crowds are classified on?

Answer 12

How involved they are in the institutions controlled by adults and how involved they are in the informal school culture.

Question 13

How are crowds reference groups?

Answer 13

Provide their members an identity in the eyes of others- adolescents judge others on the basis of the company they keep and become branded based on who they hang with

Question 14

How do ethnic crowds differ from white crowds?

Answer 14

Ethnic minority schools are more likely to have everyone be split into ethnic groups and then divide those groups further into cliques. Members from one ethnic group do not recognize the crowd diversity of the other ethnic groups.

Question 15

Which is stronger when it comes to teens hanging out with other problem behaviour teens: selection or socialization?

Answer 15

Selection

Question 16

What are high functioning friend groups?

Answer 16

Network of high achieving friends who go to extracurriculars together, reported low use of alcohol and few symptoms of depression

Question 17

What are maladjusted friend groups?

Answer 17

Opposite pattern from high functioning

Question 18

What are disengaged friend groups?

Answer 18

Friends are not engaged in much of anything

Question 19

What are engaged friend groups?

Answer 19

Friends were engaged in school, achieved decent grades and neither abstained from nor abused alcohol

Question 20

What types of teens are more likely to fall into the high functioning and engaged groups?

Answer 20

Teens from more educated, two-parent families

Question 21

What are the two distinct types of popular boys?

Answer 21

One: Physically and academically competent, friendly, neither shy nor aggressive
Two: Extremely aggressive, physically competent, average or below average in friendliness, academic competence, and shyness.

Question 22

What is the hostile attributional bias?

Answer 22

The tendency to interpret ambiguous interactions with others as deliberately hostile

Question 23

Why are some kids unpopular?

Answer 23

Because they lack the social skills and competencies required to be popular

Question 24

Which areas have higher prevalences of bullying?

Answer 24

Higher in schools and countries characterized by a greater income inequality

Question 25

Why is bullying and victimization often seen in the same children?

Answer 25

Some adolescents react to victimization by becoming bullies, class climate could affect bullying rates

Question 26

In what situations are students more likely to intervene in a bullying scenario?

Answer 26

If other students in the school hold the expectation that intervention is needed.