Peer Pressure

Methodology

This study employed the mixed-method research approach, combining both quantitative and qualitative research designs. Results from this study can be used to generalize the population from which the sample is taken. The data will be analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively for deeper interpretations such as understanding deviations in the gathered figures and evaluating the personal insights of the respondents. This research paper will investigate the reasons for teenagers’ conformity to peers and the positive and negative effects of peer pressure towards other teens.

The participants for this study were randomly selected teenagers from different educational backgrounds, social relations, and economic statuses. The sample size

278). Social interaction includes immediate family, other adults, and peers. Following the topic of this research, the focus would be the interaction of a person with his/her peers and how it affects his/her development in life. Furthermore, Vygotsky postulated that a more knowledgeable person initially guides his/her peer in order to advance the latter’s development. He suggested that there are two factors concerning the development of the person, namely, 1) his/her actual development or what he/she can independently do without help and 2) his/her potential development or what he/she can do with the assistance of others (Berns, 2007). This exhibits one of the positive effects of peer pressure.

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) was also present in this theory. ZPD is the place wherein the person and his/her helper will be able to meet halfway and maximize the opportunity of development and learning by working together on different tasks constructed in such a way that helps the person improve (Mercer & Littleton, 2007). The ZPD was in between what the person already knows and what he/she needs to know in order to advance his/her knowledge. This was supposed to be one of the positive features of peer pressure, which can easily be translated to a negative effect when

Outwardly, it may seem as if every person who is a part of the same group are of equal rendering, but inwardly, it is revealed that some members of the group prove to be more superior compared to the others. This affirms the fact that there is a perceived social hierarchy in peer groups (Tarshis, 2010).

This theory was tested and researched by Solomon Asch through the Asch Conformity Experiments, also known as the Asch Paradigm, studying if individuals would yield to the majority group. The researcher showed the subjects a line on one card and asked them to find the most similar line on another card. However, since the other subjects colluded with the researchers, they intentionally answered wrongly. The innocent subjects complied with their answers, despite knowing that it is wrong. This confirmed people’s willingness to conform to the majority’s opinions to attain social reward and avoid punishment.

Furthermore, the experiment by Asch solidified the hypothesis that people are willing to demonstrate conformity in order to feel a sense of belongingness and satisfy social interaction, even to the point of sometimes losing their own sense of self or personal identity (Berns, 2007). Seeing that Philippines is a collectivist country,