Peer Pressure'S Effect On Collectivistic And Individualistic Cultures

People live in groups, following their social ability to form a peer group. The group is form by people of similar age which appears at all stages of life. Peer pressure has the most prominent influence on teenagers. In terms of personality development, young people developed from ego stages to developmental stages. American psychologist states that “The needs safety, belonging, love, relations and for respect can be satisfied only by other people” (Abraham Maslow, 1943). According to the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, teenagers have a stronger need for self-esteem, belongingness, and love needs except of the basic physiological needs. They eagerly want to be loved and belong to a group. Teeenager expect to be respect and gain self-esteem by their peers. Also, peer groups can meet the teenagers’ psychological needs and help to develop a healthier personalities. Following of the Erik Erikson’s theory (1958) of the psychosocial development, establishing an individual identity is an essential developmental task during adolescence. Through constant self-exploration and role identification, teenagers can determine what kind of person they are. With a sense of self-worth, they can achieve self identity. Therefore, peer group plays an important role in the development of adolescent self-identity. Being as a part of a group is an inescapable thing for human nature. In other word, people, especially youngsters, can not avoid peer pressure. Peer pressure normally happens when your behaviour influenced by other people neither positive nor negative ways. In addition, different culture can also determined the effect on peer pressure. Peer pressure can have either positive nor negative reaction from a perspective of a collectivistic culture and individualistic culture.

Cultural differences takes an important role in the differences of peer pressure. The differences between eastern and western culture influence the motivation either fit in or stand out in a group of people. Teenager from western country are grown up in a individualist culture which contrasts of the collectivistic culture from eastern country. In collectivistic culture, people are more likely to promoting selflessness, participating in a community, and working as a group of people. Countries that are considered collectivistic culture are include Japan, China, Korea, India, Indonesia, Brazil, and Argentina. In a study of Deviance and Uniqueness by Heejung Kim and Hazel Rose Markus (1999), the experiment are asking participants from American and Japanese to choose between two kinds of object. In this study, participants are asked to choose one pen from a group of five pens. “The purpose was to test about whether it appeared as part of a minority or majority in relations to other objects.” The result comes to the “Americans would choose objects that are different from others, whereas East Asians would choose objects that are the same as others.” In contrary of the collectivistic culture, people in individualistic culture are seem as autonomous and independent. North America and Western Europe are representatives of individualistic culture. Youngsters who grown up in an individualistic culture focus more on self-reliant and unique. The research by Vaunne Ma and Thomas J. Schoeneman (2010) found that “while 60 percent of Kenyans described themselves in terms of their roles within groups while 48 percent of Americans used personal characteristics to describe themselves.” In other word, Kenyans from a collectivistic culture are more likely to be in a group than Americans from an individualistic culture look forward to be unique and individualism. Culture differences are persuasive and can influence many aspects of how society functions. People’s behaviour on shopping, talking, and reacting may be different due to the differences on collectivistic culture and individualistic culture. In a peer effect research of National Institution of Health mentioned that ​Prinstein and Dodge (2008) have hypothesized that peer effects may be larger in collectivistic than in individualistic societies, stating that “it is possible that the effects of peers would be stronger for persons who are sensitive to the collectivistic orientation that may exist in their society [and] persons who believe that their culture is characterized by individualism may be more likely to be immune to the effects of peers.” The hypothesis of Gwozdz et al using data from the IDEFICS study that covers several regions in eight European countries, they show that “substantial variation in peer effects among the regions exists, with generally larger effects in the Spanish, Italian, and Cypriot regions than in the German, Swedish, Belgian, and Hungarian areas.” According to a culture study, it explained that both individualistic and collectivist culture have their disadvantages. People in individualist cultures are more susceptible to the feeling of lonely. In contrast, people grown in collectivist cultures have a strong fear of rejection by others. Therefore, people who live in individualistic and collectivist culture are grown up in different culture and habit which leads to differences in their aspects of peer pressure.

Since teenager more easily to be affected by peer pressure, it brings many negative influence. Teenager is being proved to be the period of greatest vulnerability to peer pressure, during which the desire to be popular or fit in is felt most acutely. During the puberty period, teenager who have low self-esteem will cause them to seek acceptance which allows them to be more easily drive by peer pressure. Teenager are often highly affected by their peers to do risk such as alcohol and drugs. Negative peer pressure occurs when somebody is forces or encourages you to do something in a behaviour or action is not in their best interest. There are an increasing ratio of adolescents are compelled to participate in a risky behaviour which are not by voluntary. Peer groups are often distinguishes pressure to their members in order to conform to certain inappropriate actions. In the evidence of Dishion, McCord, and Poulin (1999), explained that peers react positively to one another about rule breaking through deviancy training. Deviancy training is a process that youngsters are involved in a conversation with their friends in which followed by their friends action and reinforce them to do deviant comments. Information from the studies of deviancy training evoks that teenager who is characterized as a deviancy friendship will increased the probability of using tobacco and marijuana. Patterson, Dishion, and Yoerger (1999) analyses that the deviancy training can be defined as “sexual promiscuity, substance abuse, relationship problems, and adult convictions”. Furthermore, under the deviancy training, teenagers is going to follow whatever their peers do. Teenager is going to slowly lost their identity if the situation is uncontrollable. Hence, misguided peer pressure may influence adolescents to try risky behaviours.

Accordingly, peer pressure may also bought positive influence to adolescents. Positive peer pressure may provide encouragement and motivation to a peer group. For instance, a family survey study from University of Michigan has found that peer pressure actually has more advantages than disadvantages to student. This research examined “1,500 adolescents, found a majority of participants reported little peer pressure to drink, smoke, or have sex”. In fact, this research found that there are more teenager supported good choices among their friends than bad choices. Peers can serve as a powerful reinforcement in maintaining behaviour such as social and academic skills. As noted by Strain, Cooke, and Apolloni (1976), peers are able to maintain a classroom and provide good monitor skills which is more continuously and contingently than a teacher does. Peers may cues classmates to “engage in desired behaviour and may facilitate maintenance of their behavior following termination of the intervention program”. Students who becomes an intervention agents may be more effective than a teacher maintain a class. With this in mind, peers are having a more stronger influence to each other than adults. The researcher Hendrickson et al. found that an negative behave peers could also function as an intervention agent. Peers have enough ability to operate an independent thought to do their intervention duties. The researcher Hendrickson et al. states that “training in management skills was required before peers provided praise and appropriate point consequences”. Also, teenager are influenced by reputation. They might identify different types of peers and perceive as having an effect on their own behavior and thoughts. In consequence, peer pressure may lead to positive effect to teenagers when they act and thought correctly.

In conclusion, peer pressure concerns both positive and negative effects peers have on children’s behaviors, attitudes, and choices. Children’s peer relationship operates in a complicated structures. Multiple researchers have been conducted a series of data about the advantages and disadvantages of peer pressure. Besides, there are a lot of differences could affect the power and influence of peer pressure. Different people from different area can be influenced to different degree and level of effect. An individualistic culture may have a different perspective of peer pressure than a collectivistic culture. Some positive peer pressure to an individualistic culture may not as effect to a collectivistic culture, and vice versa. Friends influenced can be received on maladaptive behaviour such as deviancy, rule-breaking, smoking, and depression. In fact, it may turns out to a positive affection to teenager if they are treating their peers in a having a healthy relationship with their peers.

References

1. Carolyn P. Edwards, Maria Rosario de Guzman, Jill Brown, and Asiye Kumru. (2006). Children’s Social Behaviors and Peer Interactions in Diverse Cultures. Retrieved from January 11, 2018, from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1065&context=famconfacpub
2. Heejung Kim and Hazel Rose Markus (1999). Deviance or Uniqueness, Harmony or Conformity? A Culture Analysis. Retrieved from January 12, 2018, from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/10d5/863637bd2c095e8c8675675644ada803ca6b.pdf
3. Institute for Health Care & Public Management, University of Hohenheim. (2017). Values, Norms, and Peer Effects on Weight Status. Retrieved January 12, 2018, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5350312/
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5. Peabody J Educ. (2014). Positive Peer Support or Negative Peer Influence? The Role of Peers among Adolescents in Recovery High Schools. Retrieved from January 11, 2018, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4019403/
6. Philip S. Strain, Ph.D., Thomas P. Cooke, Ph.D., Tony Apolloni, Ph.D. (1976). The Role of Peers in Modifying Classmates’ Social Behavior: A Review. Retrieved from January 10, 2018, from ​https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/002246697601000403
7. Psychology Wiki.​ ​Collectivist and individualist cultures. Retrieved January 12, 2018, from http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Collectivist_and_individualist_cultures
8. Thomas J. Dishion and Joan McCord (1999). When Interventions Harm. Peer Groups and Problem Behavior. Retrieved January 11, 2018, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/12789140_When_Interventions_Harm_Peer_Groups_a nd_Problem_Behavior