Bullying is a very common part of a person’s life experience and certainly everyone could mention the instances when they were subjected to peer pressure. In school and at work, or more informally in day to day social interaction with friends and acquaintances, peers have a lot of influence over our behavior and choices, considerably. There are direct pressure which is in form of force or persuasion to change and conform to a certain behavior as well as indirect pressure; here, an individual is pressured into changing by comparison with other members of a certain group or club among others. Still, peer pressure is seen not only in a positive way as motivation promoting achievements and success accomplishment, but also as negative influential factor that may push people to make dangerous and unpredictable actions.
One of the classical examples of this phenomenon is when people in their teenage stage of development are prime targets for peer pressure. At this stage, individuals are beginning to develop their personal identities, and desperately seeking social approval from peers, which makes them easy prey in most cases for the so called ‘peer pressure’ to get involved in risky behaviours. This can be witnessed in various items like taking drugs, taking alcohol, or involvement in various sexual activities and risky experience.
A survey carried out among the adolescents by the National Institute on Drug Abuse established that one of the main reasons for use of drugs among the adolescents is peer pressure. Teenagers could easily get involved in drug or alcohol use if they assume that their counterparts are using drugs or alcohol, because they would want to be accepted in the society. This can culminate into a destruction loop of substance abuse and dependency, where people will keep using drugs or alcohol in a bid to retain their status in the gang.
Nevertheless, peer pressure is not exclusive only for the teenagers – it is possible to experience this in adulthood too, in any spheres of life. For instance, at the workplace, individuals may experience pressure to do the right things at the workplace or follow certain behaviours so that to fit in with the rest of the workforce or bosses. Thereby, people may lose their personal values or beliefs in order to conform to organizational culture that is manifested in the first factor, which ultimately affect their job satisfaction and organizational health.
In addition, peer group pressure can also be observed in social aspects of people’s lives which often individuals feel compelled to change their behaviors in order to meet their peers’ expectations. As a result, people end up adopting an unhealthy lifestyle that affects their health negatively, and includes risky behaviors like smoking, overeating, and more.
It is also necessary to stress that the concept of peer pressure is not entirely negative, there are cases when influence from peers can be beneficial. For instance, peers can push each other to the set goals, practice healthy lifestyles, and give each other morale when they down. Healthy peer pressure makes people become stronger, more confident, and support each other as well as feel that they are not alone in the world.
Thus, to be equipped to handled peer pressure, personal assets like self-esteem, assertiveness and decision making skills have to be well developed and based on personal values and beliefs. This way, they would be more likely to reject malicious influence from fellow companions and select the best decision for themselves.
