PSY 204 Lecture Notes - Lecture 29: Peer Group, Peer Pressure, Psy
Document Summary
Adolescents have an intense desire to belong". During adolescence, the peer group is more structured and exclusive than during middle childhood. Stage 1: adolescent peer group formation starts during early adolescence when boys and girls form small, separate friendship groups. Stage 2: girl cliques and boy cliques start to interact with each other. Stage 3: more popular members of boy and girl cliques begin to form mixed, i. e. heterosexual cliques. Stage 4: the rest of the girl and boy cliques form heterosexual cliques, thus forming a new peer group structure, known as a crowd, the crowd usually consists of members with the same values, interests and attitudes. Conformity: refers to the degree to which a person is willing to change his or her behavior, attitudes and belief in order to fit in with a group (in this case, peer pressure) Dependency upon the peer group seems to be a necessary step in adolescents" development toward independence from their parents.
