Peer Group Relationships in Age Groups

Peer Group Relationships in Age Groups

For decades, experiences with peers account for a significant sequence in context for children. Correspondingly experiences with peers affect social, emotional and cognitive functioning beyond the influence of family, school, and neighborhood. Peers have been responsible for problematic aspects of adolescent functioning and contribute to adolescent health.  Actually, the influence of peer group typically summits during adolescence.  Especially they encourage individuals to change their attitude, behavior, or interpersonal relationship in order to abide by group norms. This is the time when an individual learns to build a relationship. Unlike the cause and effect reflects short term interest. However, it could be more effective in the case of family.

Tactics used in the boarding process includes workplace, school, libraries, cafeteria, etc. Employees who find it difficult to adjust to an organization often face peer group activities. At the same workplace, employee experiences also affect the boarding process, such that an experienced individual tend to adapt organization culture more rapidly in contrast to those students who are just beginning his/ her career by becoming a part of the organization. The interaction of peer among individual of any age group is quite normal and somewhere it is an essential part of learning lifelong habits. The potential effect of peer group relationship varies from person to person. Some individual is more receptive than other groups of society.

In a book of Henry Stack Sullivan outlined a developmental theory describing the changes in inter-personal needs as an individual matures. He observed that elementary school students tend to work with larger peer groups, which are usually the whole class with whom the young student spends their academic. This is how peer group tend to occupy a different position in the social behaviors norms.

In a few instances, moral values developed when we interact with other peers. This in turn form a new form of learning, where peer offers another source of learning about what is right and what is wrong and what aspect of life is important. The study of the peer system has become more articulated, more naturalistic as well as diversified. Prior emphasize on how good or bad relationship from among peers and other individuals, the past incidents account for more bad effects of developing peer system rather than a good circle. A rejection from the group imposes certain rules and regulation that can distract an individual from his direction.

In parallel to these rejections, it is found that competitiveness arise different sets of emotional triggers that can affect an individual personality wholly. Although a few traits such as aggression, withdrawal, sociability, sociometric status, and victimization continuously measures the potential of an individual that keep on refining the thinking of individual characteristics.  Thus literature of peer relationship and groups continually is evolving towards a higher level of complexities to specificity.

Finally, some of the ethnic research of researchers or scientist concludes different results which suggest the individual ‘effects of peer pressure could be both positive and negative. To fully understand the significance of peer relationship, given below there are fractionated subsets that imply the major role played by peer system on an individual or group.

•    The need for popularity- when an individual seeks for short term popularity, the only way appears for becoming popular is a member of the peer group. Usually, a demonstration of particular trait saturates one person from a different group. Let’s have a scenario to elaborate this point concisely. Suppose a student migrate from other section where the sociometric status measures one ‘qualification or adjustability in a group. To opt for the place in a group, the student tries harder for standing on their norms. This generates popularity in a small interval of time.

•    Having extreme anguish and anger- an individual having extreme anger or feeling sad incline towards aggression to ambiguous behavior of peers. This would lead them to sustain characteristic that isolates them from other people. In return, they can bully other forecasts out their temper.

•    Motives and Expectation- with lofty expectation and motives, individuals feel more pressure at a great extent. This contributes to low esteem and self-confidence. Peer group don’t care for any expectation or motives, they move freely wherever they want. This carefree attitude attracts other individuals much more. Some join these groups to release their backlog while some move ahead and carry this burden for a long period of time.

•    Adulthood- Adulthood is a stage where the entire society expects the individual to become more focused and have some sort of success in his or her life. However, this might not always be the case. It is also during this stage when an individual has little or no time for an active social lifestyle. This is why adults have a harder time navigating through peer relationships.