Influence of Social Demand, Peer Pressure and Economic Instability on Adolescents’ Behavioral Pattern
CHAPTER ONE
Purpose of the Study
Specifically the study intends to:
- Examine the relationship between school counselling practices and psychosocial adjustment of students.
- Investigate the perception of students to guidance and counselling.
- Assess the extent of psychological adjustment problems among students.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Peer pressure
As people grow older, they are faced with some challenging decisions (Steinberg & Monahan, 2007). Some don’t have a clear right or wrong answer. Other decisions involve serious moral questions. Making decisions is hard enough, and can be even harder when pressured by other people. People of the same age group, like classmates, or workmates are called peers. Your peers are the people with whom you identify and spend time with. In adults, peers may be determined less by age and more by shared interests or professions.
They heavily influence ones behavior, and get one into doing something. Peer pressure occurs when an individual experiences implied or expressed persuasion to adopt similar values, beliefs, and goals, or to participate in the same activities as those in the peer group. It’s something everyone has to deal with, even adults (Rubin, Bukowski, & Parker, 2006). Paying attention to own feelings and beliefs about what is right and wrong can help in knowing the right thing to do. Inner strength and self-confidence can help one to stand firm, walk away, and resist doing something when they know better. Therefore, peer pressure exists for all ages and no one is immune to peer influence.
Peer pressure can be either expressed or implied. In expressed peer pressure, an individual is challenged directly to comply with existing norms. Studies show that both peers are inclined to take risks they do not want to take because they believe the risky behavior will increase their standing in the eyes of their peers and assure their acceptance in the group (Cotterell, 2007).
Implied peer pressure is more subtle and can be harder to combat. For example, a group of peers may make fun of the way another peer is dressed up, pressuring members of their group to dress only in one acceptable style. Often young people who look, dress, or act differently, or who have significant interests that differ from those of their age group become outcasts because of the pressure groups place on their members not to associate with anyone unlike themselves (Perkins, 2003). This can lead the rejected person to feel desperate and depressed.
Adult peer pressure can be challenging when an individual is trying to fit in a certain group given the fact that resources are a key factor here. It is all about the social class of an individual in the society which is as a result of the socialization process that one was exposed to. Having good company is everyone’s wish but that may not be the case once there is low self-esteem. In order to curb the challenge, adults begin to work on areas that will help them fit in a given peer group (Fishbeim, 1996). By the time a person reaches the age of forty in a professional or managerial career, it is clear whether he or she will make it to the top of the field. If individuals have not reached their goals by this time, most adjust their level of aspirations and in some cases start over in a new career. Many however are unable to recognize that they have unrealistic aspirations and thus suffer from considerable stress.
Erikson stated that the primary psychosocial task of middle adulthood-ages 45-65 years is to develop generatively or the desire to expand one’s influence and commitment to family, society and future generations (Clausen, 1968). In other words the middle adulthood is concerned with forming and guiding the next generation. The middle adult who fails to develop generatively, experiences stagnation, self-absorption with its associated selfindulgence and invalidism. Studies show that most adult peer pressure is about not taking action because, as one get older they fear change. Not only do they fear change for themselves, but also for their friends because if they change we might have to change too (Bibb and Darley, 1968).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
For the purpose of this study, the research design of concern is mainly descriptive in nature employing the field dimension. Research design is mainly defined as the grand plan structure or strategy designed to ensure the collection of data from sample respondents with a given population. We used the survey research method in the work.
Population of Study
Our population of study is limited to the influence of social demand, peer pressure and economic instability on adolescents’ behavioural pattern.
The population of study would consist mainly of the households in mainland local government area in Lagos. The primary focus should remain the social demand, peer pressure, economic instability and behavioral pattern.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
Introduction
This chapter deals with research questions and treatment.
- Is there any relationship between school counselling and students’ psychological adjustment?
- To what extent does the students’ perceive guidance and counselling positively?
- To what extent does the students’ perceive guidance and counselling negatively?
- To what extent do students have psychological problems?
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Conclusion:
To conclude, we can briefly summarize the main ideas discussed above which are as follows:
- Factors which might strongly affect and determines different types of human behavior styles created are mostly related to people’s community’ characteristics under which they are living which part of it reflects their living conditions, their norms ,believes, their psychological and emotional feelings towards each other within their community and towards other people of other communities and cultures.
- Same styles of behavior can occur in different communities of different characteristics for an ethic, religious, psychological or historical rivalry reasons.
Techniques which might help us to deal with difficult people:
The researcher suggested the following techniques as a tool to help us in dealing with difficult behavioral styles of people, these techniques suggested are shown in the below table.
Collect the required Data and information, and then analyze the personality type of the individual:
The Timetable shown below could help us to collect the required data and information about others as the first step, and to analyze the collected data and information as the second step, in order to understand others very well and then proceed to deal with them as the third and final step
Human behavioral styles are subjected not only to socio-economic and political living conditions of the people, but to many other factors such as genetic, psychological, brain structure, norms and values act.
The development and enhancement of human behavior must be preceded by the deep understanding of those factors which affects and determines human behavioral styles through the understanding of its interdependent and interrelated relationship, and through finding out how these relations could be affected and changed among those different factors and other variables as what have been done by this research.
More over this research came to the conclusion that, the improvement of human behavior at the local or international level could leads to more cooperation, collaboration among people and exchange their experiences with each other, which enhances and promote their skills and productivity, leading to better socio-economic living conditions which strengthen those people to live under a good and positive political conditions and gain their freedom and independence.
The above minimum mentioned expected outcomes as a results of improvement in human behavior will leads automatically to bring about much more improvement in human behavior- creates a positive, productive, peaceful, assertive and creative behavioral styles of people- which will contributes strongly and directly to decrease violence, aggressiveness among people and build a peaceful societies and in turn a peaceful globe.
Recommendations for future research.
- To study and understand human behavior deeply, what you have to do? The first step is that, you have to live and deal directly with a given samples of people of different cultures in their communities for at least 6 months – as the least and the minimum time – to be spent in each of these communities, in order to be able to understand the minimum information about their behavior and human relations. Human behavior is not an easy task to understand it thoroughly in reality which might need tens of years to understand for the reason that , still the previous studies either the ones which have been done by the scientists or the researchers at the individual or at the institutional level did not reach up to date to a clear and accepted common vision and it will never happen in the future because, human behavior issue is related to human beings directly, their behaviors are not stable and static due to many factors as this study concluded, more over, some of our human behavior cant be measured since it is related to our emotional and psychological feelings.
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