Mental Health: Peer Pressure and its Presence - Essay Example

Peer Pressure: An Orientation for High School Freshman Student Name Department name Professor name March 6, 2009 Explaining “Peer Pressure and its presence” There is a saying by some poet that “ if you want to know the person, look at his/her company and you will have all your answers” that’s true to most of the extends. The term “Peers” means mates, same age friends, company with whom one remains with most of the time. Peer influences every individual in the society and in every way. It is irresistible and very smooth process which one can not stop to occur. Teenagers specially High school students and freshmen are the most effected population in this regard to accept all types of influences from peer side, it is highly justified from their point of you as they spent most of their time with their peers and they usually are in learning process of life where they start taking the effects of good or bad, negative and positive of life and its events. So therefore, to remain and spend time with peers is a natural process and it assures that peers learn from others and others learn from their peers. Due to its reason that it is in human nature to follow or imitate the crowd or things done by majority has more weigh to influence others, the process has its own value and affects and it can be long lasting or short term in life. Therefore it can have positive and negative aspects on some ones life. Peer pressure is the word usually people use in negative way while it also supports all the positive aspects of pressure too. It is mostly powerful and strong because of its presence in human nature and also the feeling of dependency it gives to the individual to stay and sustain in society. The thoughts, behavior, hair, dressing, language, music, tastes, fashion, games, television and other aspects of life are highly enriched with peer pressure. The different lifestyles and surrounding influence individual to adapt those in same way most of the times, this is in humans that they usually follow the Crowd to safe themselves from insecurities and consequences to abide from that pressure. Few people get successful to resist from this crowd and make their own choice and take risks. However, one can not negate with the negative and positive aspects of peer pressure in teenage or long term in life. The distinction between positive and negative is hard but still following the peer blindly with no individual element leaves a whole negative impact in life of that individual and vanish the approach in person from childhood till adulthood with the feeling of dependency and lower self esteem to perform better in life on individual basis. After understanding the peer pressure meanings, our rationale of this paper is about what kind of examples of peer pressure lives in the society on a high school level and then to the further life with time. This paper will also discuss parents’ role and concerns regarding peer pressure in schools and learning environments, what teachers perceive and handle about the peer pressure and all the negative and positive aspects of peer pressure along with the interventions and influences and its handling and cope up strategies in life. Instances of peer pressure in High school life High school is the phase of life which every individual gone through once in lifetime and expose to the world outside. That’s because it is the beginning of understanding the life in real and to be independent at the same time. This is the year usually to made up minds, and thought about ideas and principles. Therefore, most of the time usually get spend with peers and friends more then their family and that is due to the fact they High school or freshmen are usually in their sensitive age when they all get excited usually on small things and have urge to trey every new thing with out understanding the consequences of it. Individual in the teenage find him / her self more vulnerable to adopt peer pressure and follow the crowd blindly just to fit in the group successfully. And then it will be of no argument to them (Johnson 1979). Some instances from the High school life may be that some times peers in school might force a mate to bunk the class or in soccer the peer might try to convince the player not to forward the ball to other players just in case of his own jealousy or revenge or some times peer forces other person to experience the swig of alcohol or a puff of cigarette as adventure, and no wonder few of them usually caught up with drug addiction too in extreme situations. Juvenile delinquency also includes peer pressure as an extreme cause to get addicted to some thing illegal (Sadave, 1973). Other examples may contain the first shop lifting in adventure or trying to lie on a big scale to parents and teachers just in fun. Having sexual relations before time and cheating culture in examinations. Teasing and bullying to other weak friends in fun and make fun of them often in front of the class or friends. Disobedience or unacceptability of instructions and perceiving parents as negative people in life are some examples in teenage life which can create grave differences to other peers or on individuals themselves for the rest of the life. Now as the above explanation and examples from the high school population briefly describes about the situations and argument, one should now have a analysis as to what extend the teens or individuals can remove or stay away from these peer pressures specially to those which are non beneficial and harmful as a person in society (Dashiell 1935, Cottrell 1972). Strategies to handle Peer pressure It is of course not easy to say that one can avoid having peer pressure by not been present in those places realistically because it is not usually happens in life and teens and peers are usually the charm of that phase of life which should not be deleted from any ones life just because of its bad pressures. Apart from bad ones, good ones still remain and can be powerful more then the negative ones within the individuals. But before explaining the strategies the idea is not to say NO to all the pressures but to the one which vanishes or force individuals to do something not right in society. There are many aspects of high school life with which the freshmen can have the tools to effectively tackle the peer pressure. But for that one has to analyze the presence of significant people around them to identify who can help in prevention of the peer pressure from the initial days till the last. Of course it is not yet very appropriate for schools to arrange seminars and work shops to avoid peer pressure because it is often automatic and unsaid in lives and does not necessarily effects all freshmen at the same life time. So due to this reason individual or group counseling or discussions can be arranged by the schools to help the students understand their own significant selves and avoid the dependencies on friends. Schools can also arrange activities like painting, debates, writing, discussions, polls, votes, school elections to develop individuality in students more. Students can also be guided through family and other people in family and extended family to adopt the individuality aspect in life, and if they want to have successful and contended life. The difference of culture, caste, religion and race if take positively can lead freshmen to live and adopt good aspects of life and follow the good pressures of their culture and religion to make their belief and selves strong and confident enough to avoid other environmental pressures Talking about parents and teachers, the discussion can be stronger if the paper also highlights the impression and perception of teachers and families usually follow in regard to peer pressure and high school students. Parents concerns regarding learning environment In high school years parents usually get insecure and frightened because of their children’s brave and blind obedience to their peers. Of course as parents they remain more experienced then their children but they themselves seem helpless when it comes to make their children understand the difference between good and bad influence. In this reference parents still have a very vital role to perform during the adolescence phase of their children. Parents should be careful enough when they are planning to talk to their children about the aspect. Because usually teenagers are very touchy (sensitive) about this matter and they usually do not like their friends to be discussed at home. They usually think that they are old enough to handle things on their sides and are independent to experience any thing and everything comes in their way. In learning environment or schools, it is mostly impossible for parents to see what their children are doing but of course if at home they learn to handle peer pressure then it would not be a problem for them in school or other places. Parents usually get concern more about illegal acts and addictions which actually caused and adapted to these teenagers by their peers and promote to extend of a bad name or life threat. Parents does not and can not stop their children from every environmental factors neither it will be beneficial if they will do it on their children. It is only about making their children understand the difference between the positive and negative elements of peer pressure. It is true sometimes that in the learning environment teenagers get influence from their schools and college to perform well in exams and maintain a good name in class. Also it is preferred from parents in school fro their children to sit in the front rows and be with good mates in class. It is however, a misconception that students bad in studies are not intelligent but still they can discover their abilities and perform well in their interest fields. It is therefore on parents’ responsibility too, not to force much on their children to perform through out outstanding regardless of their interest and choice, and do not indulge in extra curricular. This can might lead the children to become disobedient once he/she got chance to accept the peer pressure. Therefore, parents should also give some space to their children to perform well and select few aspects of their life according to their own choice. Teachers’ perception of peer pressure Teachers are the first and most important significant person in school or any institute to introduce the freshman to the new school mates and class mates in any child’s life. They are also the one who can listen to students more carefully and neutrally. They usually remain unbiased and a good counselor and due to all the above qualities they remain second to parents for the purpose of guidance and advice in reference to studies, life and other students’ issues. And that is why teachers and administrators usually understand the peer pressure and its influences on others more clearly then parents because they see it daily in the classes and in the students. It is easier for them to analyze the students’ nature and work on their nature and learning. Teachers also guide the parents to maintain a significant amount of time with their children to have a maximum positive impact on their children to show that they care for them and are ready to tell them anything at any point of time and they are not lonely. Teachers usually understands that the peer pressure have more positive then negative signs because teenagers learn more in groups or with their mates then learning alone or without mates. Teacher’s perception is correct to extend that “Man is a social animal” and the human beings want motivation and courage to step further and try and do the things in our life with reference to our education, career or other life goals. Teachers can facilitate the peer pressure positive aspects in class by having a healthy competition in class in studies or games. Teachers can also make it more positive by reinforcements and rewards to those who maintain a good name in behavior and studies in class. As administrator or principal level the aspect of peer pressure taken as more serious and disciplinary, as sometimes the administrators are not very much close the children and want them to be obedient enough to follow school discipline. Therefore, teachers are more humble then high authorities and their part of work is actually to substitute and train students to the level of learning which can make them a good citizen a son and a good human being in life. While on the administrative side the principal system usually runs intervention program and workshops to motivate the positive and creative aspects from each student to wash out the bad pressures from the environment including peer pressures, because they know more finely as to which of the distractions can work positively on students mind to overcome and handle peer pressures in daily life. Interventions from Schools to minimize peer pressure effects In schools and institutions the peer pressure does not rise as a major problem mostly because of the implementation of school programs and informative seminars on different aspects of school aged children which mostly distract their minds to follow one path. But of course to be sure enough that there is no chance left to wait for the worst the school authorities and administration work hand in hand for the betterment of environment of school. That is because schools are like second home to the students where they spend most of their time in learning new things and preparing for life challenges and if there they have learnt once to follow the peers blindly and adapt all negative impacts of their peers then it will be out of question for a student to go to school to learn something. In most of the schools the programs like, seminars, workshops, competitions, quizzes and surveys were conducted to have maximum participation from the students and also to collect their personal opinions about certain issues to motivate their personal goals and objectives regardless of peer pressure, it is the most beneficial technique a school can use. Apart from that, role playing and modeling of the personals is also the intervention type to judge the other persons feeling and expression by putting it all up to one own self. It is also the best strategy for students and teachers to realize how difficult and true it is to judge the other person on different levels and in different situations. Teachers in schools also guide students psychologically and academically so that if they seek any personal guidance they can have easy access to that expert person to take an advice on issues. Student counselors are the people best for this service that can perform well in this regard. The student counselor can guide students to accept them selves as they are and think positive about what ever they do. They can also guide students to get psychological or therapeutic help if needed in worst cases of students where parents and others fail to analyze student’s failure causes. Some times rehabilitation centers also help students to learn the coping up strategies as they come in life accordingly or suddenly with time. Students can get maximum support and intervention from school to support their emotional and social selves and work for the betterment of their education and future goals and avoid peer pressures that can hurt their selves and their mind set at the same time and left them with no Self (Dashiell 1930). Conclusive points: Peer pressure will remain in every individuals life the only aspect to understand is that what more parents and teachers can do to avoid the upcoming pressures from children’s life. As the world is growing faster and so the expectation of being a successful man in life is growing more in every family, it is to some extend dangerous to expect from every child to perform good in field of not his choice and to be a goal achiever without exploring the world. It is therefore important and right of every child to explore the world and experience new things either with the peers or without them. However, one must not ignore the positive points of peer pressure, that even when the child grow up and competes with the society and his colleagues he/ she experience the same pressure form their colleagues and mates in office/ work. Since it is a preparation period for the child to prepare for the real life challenges it will not be good on student’s part to cage him without friends and does not allow him to socialize in society on terms or on no terms situations. Thus, it is still on parents and teachers shoulders that in childhood they prepare the students for future challenges and to learn the new things without following their peers but to analyze and select the things on their own terms and observations. It does not only develop confidence in them but also develop and reinforce the zest for success full life and a different human being in society. No doubt, that the future is all about changing the mind sets and setting new trends. Today’s society does not need people to follow others but to bring a change in the system and to come up with some beneficial and new ideas for the world systems. We can have examples of Einstein, Aristotle, Socrates and Alfred who were all great and famous scholars, scientists and philosophers they did not follow what world said to them and they did not follow what their peers said to them, but they only follow their heart and mind to follow their dreams and still their names are known to each and every person in world. it is only because they come out of the crowd did not care about societal myths and fake norms and made name and success even after their deaths in the world just because they were the individual believers and different from others. Students should take aspirations from them if they need to be some one like the above. By removing the peer pressure and blind obedience students can work for the betterment of the societies and for the betterment of the future. 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