Blogosphere Exploration: Thoughts on Peer Pressure

This week I decided to take another jaunt into the vast realm of the Blogosphere. While on my exciting journey, I discovered two highly compelling blogs that both discussed the issue of peer pressure. This topic is one that I feel very strongly about and that I feel is often not given the attention it deserves. The first blog I came across was written by Dr. Catherine King, an associate professor and chair of the psychology department at Elon University. The post was titled, “Surrounded by it: Peer pressure comes in many forms, and parents can help their kids deal with it,” and it offered many helpful tips and insightful advice for parents. After reading King’s post I was inspired to leave a comment in response to her article. The comment I left can be read either on the post itself or directly below. The second blog I stumbled upon is titled “Successful Teaching” and came from Pat Hensley, a teacher of 26 years experience who was given the 2006 Teacher of the Year award in her school district. Hensley’s post was titled, “Use of Peer Pressure” and it focused on teachers using positive peer pressure in their classrooms in an attempt to motivate their students to encourage each other to do better in class. This was also quite an engaging article that left me enthused enough to leave a comment. My comment can be read on the post or directly below. These blogs discuss the same issue but come from completely different perspectives, which I found gave fullness to this topic that I found very appealing.


“Surrounded by it: Peer pressure comes in many forms, and parents can help their kids deal with it,” comment:

Dear Ms. King,
I would first like to applaud your post for bringing about awareness on an issue that I feel is often overlooked or down played. Your post was very engaging and I felt you gave some very good advice to parents dealing with the effects of peer pressure on their children. One of the most important points in your post is when you highlight the significance of the home life and the quality of relationships the child has with family and, more specifically, their parents. Children need to bond and if their home life is such that they cannot bond and even may want to escape it, they will find something or someone else to connect and bond with. Many times this leads good children down destructive paths in which “friends” become the most important relationships in their lives and they are highly susceptible to peer pressure from these so-called “friends.” I firmly believe many of the larger issues in society can be traced back to the home and this is no different. People have often scoffed at the notion and impact of peer pressure however, clearly with events in the media, specials on primetime televisions, and parents witnessing first hand how their child can go from getting straight As and loving school to lying, stealing, and engaging in illegal activities, peer pressure is a substantial issue worthy of our attention. While I found your post insightful, I also must say that I felt the crucial element of the home was glossed over. Perhaps I am a bit biased with my feelings of how vital the home environment is to children and families, but I feel you could have put more of an emphasis on the role of the parents and the family as a whole. However, this in no way detracts from my overall positive opinion and enjoyment of your article. I look forward to reading more of your posts in the future.
MMR
http://www.psychologicalthinktank.blogspot.com/


“Use of Peer Pressure,” comment:

Dear Pat,
I am compelled to first mention how much I enjoyed your blog. After reading this post on peer pressure, I browsed through your blog and found it very engaging. Your blog highlights issues in the education of children that I find very noteworthy and I am grateful people, like yourself, who are taking time to comment on these critical issues. Too often people in your position, who have the experience and first-hand knowledge, find themselves stretched too thin to take the time and energy to provide insight into issues that plague society as a whole. However, that being said, I must say I felt your post on peer pressure was slightly off target. By this I mean that I agree there is such a thing as positive peer pressure, but I do not believe it is the place of teachers to attempt to impose this on their students.

Positive peer pressure, in my opinion, is a natural evolution among children who feel a competitive camaraderie with one another. Children on sports team who race with their friends to see who is faster or a group of friends who study for a test together and then compare test scores later, these are groups in which the natural path might be for the individuals within these groups to feel the pressure to push themselves to be better. But your post seems to point to a much more artificial form of positive peer pressure, and it is this contrived environment that leads me to conclude this may not be the best way to motivate your class. I believe in positive reinforcement just as much as the next psychology major does, however I cannot shake the feeling that this system you have designed might lead to children being targeted, perhaps even outside of class, for ruining the reward for everyone.

This system may in fact be working for your classes; however I feel the pressure put upon children should not come from an authority figure. Imposing rules which are designed to single out the child who failed to complete an assignment for reasons the child will most likely not disclose is setting up a system in which children point fingers and potentially harass others because their rewards is based on the action of others. I also would be remiss not to mention that these reasons could be as simple as the child choosing to play video games instead of completing their homework or as drastic as having an abusive parent and a horrifying home life, and there is no sure way to tell which is which when the child fails to turn in their assignment. My position is that true positive peer pressure comes from within the group of peers and should not be superimposed upon a group, and especially not from an authority figure. I thank you for your post as it was quite compelling and I look forward to reading more from you.
MMR
http://www.psychologicalthinktank.blogspot.com/

Bullying: An Epidemic Still Plaguing Our Children

Children who tease each other playfully and engage in mutual, friendly banter are just being kids growing up together. But when does this cross the line and become bullying? In the past, people have referred to bullying as more of a right of passage most children have to go through at some point during their childhood. Parents have often scoffed at the complaints of their children and cast them off as needing to be “toughened up.” Boys, in particular, have been targeted for being “too sensitive” and have often been told to “be a man about it.” These common responses do nothing to alleviate the constant fear, anxiety, insecurity and misery that a child who is being bullied in school lives with every day. School can be difficult enough without the added worry and stress of being at the mercy of bullies. And moreover, children should not have to go to school in fear of what humiliations they will be subjected to that day. It is incumbent upon the adults in society to take action against bullying. The responsibility is not limited to the parents, but it also extends to the teachers, administrators and any other adults present in the school environment. A child has the right to go to school without being afraid. It is society’s duty to ensure this right is upheld and to protect those whose rights are being violated.

Bullying, according to an article posted on KidsHealth.org and reviewed by Michelle New, PhD, is “intentional tormenting in physical, verbal, or psychological ways.” The torment inflicted on the target victims comes in many different forms, such as verbal insults, threats, humiliation, name-calling, rumor spreading, physical abuse, shunning and isolation. There is also an emerging medium involving the latest technologies in which children are finding bullies lurking around every avenue. Cellular phones are used to leave harassing messages and to send mean, nasty, and often threatening text messages. Internet sites designed to promote communication between friends, like MySpace or online chat rooms, have become horrific new channels for derogatory statements, photos and multimedia creations to be displayed in order to further persecute and endlessly hunt these target victims. These forums have grown to be a safe haven for bullies to humiliate, threaten and maliciously tease their victims in a seemingly relentless pursuit to destroy every last shred of peace of mind these victims may have left. Today, society knows a different name and with it comes a new understanding; “Social cruelty” is the new term for bullying and it can be found in every school across America.

Many schools across the U.S. are attempting to deal with this problem in a variety of ways. Peer programs, parent involvement, and early intervention are just a few of the current solutions that are being put together in an effort to stop and prevent bullying. The Winneconne Community School District Middle School Counseling Department in Wisconsin is taking steps to bring about awareness of differences to its students by designating a day during the month of November to “Celebrating Diversity/Building Social Skills.” The Winneconne school district describes this event as, “An effort to raise awareness of acceptable and unacceptable social behavior. Winneconne Middle School participates in the national Teaching Tolerance Mix It Up at Lunch Day in November to confront social cruelty and promote inclusion. Diversity and multi-cultural activities include guest presenters, arts enrichment, and handicapped awareness. Students are informed about the consequences for harassment. Counselor classroom sessions on bullying, teasing, gossip/rumors, name-calling, and ostracism are often presented on Parents Days to increase open discussion of this topic. Opportunities for building self-esteem, respect and friendship and learning empathy and compassion are woven throughout the curricular and co-curricular programs including lunch bunches, Circle of Friends, Peer Helper Team, and SAP Groups.” This is an excellent example of teachers and administrators taking proactive measures to ensure their students are exposed to the moral responsibility they each bear in treating each other with dignity and respect. While schools are a primary focal point when addressing the issue of bullying, there is a new wave of innovation on the horizon in this area.

According to an article posted on ScienceDaily.com, a pan-European group known as Kaleidoscope, a network devoted to the research and innovation of technology-enhanced learning, has created a new tool to combat social cruelty, which is a role playing computer game. Rui Figueiredo, a scientist at the Institudo de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores in Portugal and one of the Kaleidoscope researchers involved in the project, says, “This 3-D interactive virtual environment provides a safe haven for individual children, where they witness bullying scenarios without being directly involved.” “FearNot!” is the title of the game and the premise is that each child player is an invisible friend of the victimized main character. The player narrates the storyline and influences the path of the game through the decisions they make when presented with various scenarios. The child bears the responsibility of determining the fate of the victim. Researchers from Germany, Portugal and the UK are currently conducting studies with “FearNot!” on more than 1,000 children throughout Europe and plan to present their findings at the upcoming Kaleidoscope 2007 Symposium, which will be held in Berlin, Germany, on November 26th and 27th.

The importance of addressing the topic of social cruelty cannot be overlooked or pushed aside. Recent events dealing with students bringing guns to school in an effort to literally wage war on their tormentors cannot be ignored. Victims are being pushed to their breaking points and when this happens the American people watch the horror unfold on television, as lives are shattered and scarred forever. People who have scoffed at the notion of bullying being a real issue in schools have been forced to rethink their perspectives as they question how children, and we must not forget that these individuals attacking their peers and teachers are still children, can be capable of such atrocities. The answer lies not in what the police find hidden in their bedrooms at home, but in paying closer attention to their past. A CNN.com article, written a few short months after the now infamous Columbine High School shooting, points the finger at bullying as a primary force in the actions of these young students against their peers. The article stresses the importance of addressing the issue of bullying by saying, “Recent school shootings across the country have put a spotlight on bullying. The shooters in those tragedies had said they'd been made to feel like social outcasts. [Dorothy] Espelage is concerned that ignoring bullying behavior is the same as condoning it.”

Dorothy Espelage, a psychologist and professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, lead a study that established a new perspective on the prevalence of bullying in middle schools. It was previously thought that only about 15 percent of the student body of a typical junior high school engaged in regular bullying behaviors. However, the findings of this study suggest the actual reality is closer to 80 percent. This is a significant increase from what researchers had formerly believed to be an accurate evaluation. This study links the prevalence of bullying to the increase in violent attacks on peers by the victims. A child who, from a young age, has been constantly victimized and relentlessly tormented by peers has years of suffering, anger, aggression and resentment that have been bubbling inside of them until it explodes outward. People respond with shock and unimaginable horror, and yet it too bears a responsibility. In turning a blind eye to the problems of social cruelty in schools, society is walking away from its accountability to the children of our nation and therefore is just as culpable as those who wield the guns.

The Kaleidoscope network is pioneering a shift in thinking as well as a new method in reaching children. By creating a video game to teach children values in regards to bullying, they are tapping a medium children already gravitate toward. This is crucial in communicating to children on a level they are comfortable with and, thus, to which they are more likely to respond positively. The importance of early intervention cannot be emphasized enough. Children must be taught to bear moral responsibility and accountability towards one another. It is the duty of the teachers and administrators in schools and parents at home, to instill these values within children. The responsibility rests upon the adults to be ever more vigilant and watchful so as to address any problems between students as quickly and effectively as possible. A new age of understanding, tolerance and acceptance of one another is dawning. Kaleidoscope is at the forefront in sending the message that social cruelty is a problem of epic proportions that warrants serious research in an attempt to find effective solutions.