Peers - Universiteit Utrecht

Lecture 7 Peers 

Book ‘The nurture assumption’: peers play a big role in development of youth (instead of (only) the parents) 

Part 1 - Importance of peers across adolescence 

• Higher in needs fulfillment when you fulfilled the lower needs (survival needs) > belongingness and love needs and esteem needs. These are psychological needs.  

• Importance also visible in the brain: social relationships. Example: exclusion from playing a game: social pain when excluded (analogous in its neurocognitive function to physical pain).  

Peers become more central in adolescence 

• Time spent with family decreases 

• Time spent with peers increases 

Peers compared to parents in adolescence 

• Differences between the two relationships 

• Parents = vertical (parents are more powerful), peers = horizontal relationship 

• Being equal in experiences, characteristics etc. 

• Shift from parents to friends as main source of support and happiness 

• Discuss with friends for romantic issues, emotional issues; 

• Discuss with parents for career/education issues; 

• Thus: relationships are different and friends become more important 

Peers vs friends 

• Peers 

• Large network of same-age peers 

• Friends 

• People you know, like and with whom you develop a valued, mutual relationship (broad definition) 

• More specifically: 

• Mutual liking 

• Emotional closeness 

• Loyalty 

• Reciprocal validation of self-worth 

• General support 

• Time spent together 

• Childhood vs adolescence 

• From shared activities (childhood) to intimacy: trust, loyalty, self-disclosure > relying on each other 

• Why? It requires a certain role-play: perspective-taking, keep their own views and other's views in mind at the same time (that's complex to do) 

• Social competences therefore increasingly important (conflict management, perspective-taking etc.)  

• From same-sex to mixed-sex 

• And “friends with benefits” 

• From dyads (2) and small groups (3-4) to cliques (5-6) or larger crowds (these are larger to contain) 

• “Subcultures” used to form identity > understand who you are 

Selection vs influence 

• Friends are often similar to each other 

• Is this due to selection or influence? 

• Research:  

• On the one hand: due to selection. Principles of interpersonal attraction: 

• Proximity (being close by) 

• Homophily/similarity (in values, interests, characteristics) 

• Adolescents: orientation toward school, leisure activity, SES, ethnicity (perhaps due to attitudes/prejudice) 

• Reciprocity 

• So: selection plays a role > “birds of a feather flock together” 

• But, parents also play a role in this selection process 

• Expressing disapproval 

• Type of school 

• Neighborhood 

• Extra-curricular activities 

• Adolescent personality & behavior 

• Influence: you learn behavior and adopt attitudes from your social environment, especially from those people that you encounter frequently and who are important to you 

• Friendship precedes behavior (internalizing, externalizing, lifestyle) similarity as well 

• So: both! 

How does peer influence happen? 

• Different processes 

• Passive and active influence 

• Passive influence: 

• Asch experiment: a series of experiments that demonstrated the degree to which an individual's own opinions are influenced by those of a majority group. 

• There was imitation and conformity: people are imitating what others do/say > social learning theory (imitate parents/peers in order to learn) 

• Active influence: 

• Video active influence (mean girls):  

• Reinforcement and instigation 

• Being persuaded 

• Examples of compliance-gaining tactics:  

• Suggest; assertion 

• Compliment 

• Promote task 

• Invoke norm 

• Challenge 

• Warning 

• Internal vs external social reinforcement 

• External: reinforcement by others 

• Internal: reinforcement through own mental representations of what others might think/do 

To conclude 

• Peers, especially friends, become increasingly important in adolescence 

• Friendships become more intimate 

• Similarity in friendships is due to both selection and influence process 

• Influence can be either passive or active, and social reinforcement can be internal or external 

Part 2 – group dynamics and bullying 

Fundamental human motivations in peer groups 

• Maslow's pyramid 

• Fundamental needs can also be fulfilled in groups 

• In adolescence, peer groups become increasingly important 

• Social position in group associated with psychological needs 

Relation social position and psychological needs 

• Belonging (affection: horizontal) 

• Provide us with a feeling of belonging in the group 

• Monkey: affection 

• Esteem (popularity: vertical) 

• Extent to which the group admires you 

• Monkey: on the rock, “alpha monkeys” the ones who are the most popular 

Group dynamics: interplay of horizontal and vertical relationships 

• Constantly interacting with each other 

• Example: if your friend (= horizontal) increases in status (= vertical), they also want to hang out (= horizontal) with the “cool kids” 

• This is never stable 

Status: vertical relationship 

• Popularity as indicator of status 

• Popularity gives adolescents power: 

• Popular peers determine the group norms: implicit rules about what behaviors are accepted 

• Do popular peers receive more (visual) attention? 

• Research: computer experiment in which adolescents have to look at a screen with pictures of their peers (popular and not popular). Gazes of the adolescents are tracked. Two measurements: first gaze preference + total gaze time 

• Visual preference for popular peers: first and longer gazes to popular peers 

Understanding group dynamics: social network analysis 

• Facebook: vivid social network, one big worldwide network.  

• Classroom: how do students interact with each other?  

• Measurement: peer nominations (“who...”) 

• Affection: social preference 

• Popularity 

• Other measurements possible as well (leadership, prosocial, etc.) 

• In-degree nominations: how often have you been selected in one of the answers? 

• Actor 1 is well liked in the peer group 

• Out-degree nominations 

• Look at friendships: who are your best friends? 

• Actor 1 at least perceives that he has many friends 

Examples of use group process: bullying 

What is bullying? 

• Complex phenomenon  

• Four main characteristics: 

• Goal-directed: it doesn't happen without a reason. Goal: to achieve dominance 

• Power imbalance: bully has more power than victim 

• Intellectual or physical power 

• Repetitive: it happens all over again 

• Harmful: it isn't perceived as a joke 

Goal-directed: functional approach 

• Bullies' goals are not sadistic, but social in nature 

• Social dominance goals 

• Boosts your self-esteem 

• Without losing affection from significant others (belonging) 

• Show behavior that others encourage them to do 

Apart from bullies and victims, who are also involved? > video 

• Bullies 

• Victim 

• Bystanders/outstanders: watch the bullies but don't participate 

• Defender 

• Assistant: doesn't start bullying, but helps the bully 

• Reinforcer: doesn't actively bully, but reinforces by (for example) laughing 

• Defender: standing up for the victim 

• Outsider: observe the bullying without playing an active role in it 

Understanding who bullies whom: social network analyses 

• Measurement: peer nominations 

• “who bullies you?” 

• To understand what relates to bullying/victimization, this can be combined with information on... 

• Upper left: victims. Lower left: bullies 

• They are standing closer to each other 

• Victims form cohesive group, bullies also form a group 

• Also some other groups formed 

• Friendships are based on popularity, sex, etc. 

• With the information on social networks, you can make sense of group dynamics and of bullies and victims. 

Social networks in anti-bullying interventions 

•  “sociograms” for teachers 

• Especially in adolescence, when bullying is indirect and not visible to teachers 

• Teachers can understand social dynamics in their peer groups 

• Caution needed: confidential, lack of contextual information (specific moments of when students reported this information) 

To conclude 

• Peer group dynamics are interplay between horizontal (affection, belonging) and vertical (status) relationships 

• Popular peers determine the norms and receive more attention 

• Social network analysis can be used to identify peer group processes 

• Bullying is a strategic behavior and peer group phenomenon in which all peers play a role 

Part 3 – unsuccessful peer relationships 

Social withdrawal 

• Active isolation vs social withdrawal 

• Active isolation: someone is isolated by others/excluded 

• Withdrawal: you decide to withdraw from social interactions 

• Subtypes  

•  

• Anxious-withdrawn: there are two conflictive motivations at work. You want to approach others, but at the same time you are anxious of what could happen (> avoidance motivation).  

Consequences of social withdrawal 

• Lower social skills 

• More internalizing problems 

• “developmental cascade model” 

• Model describes that social withdrawal is a problem that can for example manifest in adolescence but is already developed and escalated in interaction with others in infancy.  

• In adolescence it starts off appearing as a problem 

When peer relationships go wrong 

• social withdrawal 

• Peer victimization 

• What makes someone vulnerable? 

What explains peer victimization? 

• Bullies are strategic, want to achieve dominance. They don't want others to support the victim. 

• Being an easy target: undefended (not supported by others) 

• More maladjusted children (different in social behaviors, externalizing behaviors) 

• Role of parents 

•  

• Parent who are rejective, low in warmth > maladjustment symptoms (socially withdrawn, depressed) > peer victimization 

• Or other way around: peer victimization > more internalizing/externalizing symptoms at home > parents respond to this behavior (> more rejective) 

Being “different” 

• Others will not support you 

• Traditionally: specific characteristics predict victimization (e.g., being fat, ginger hair, braces, etc.) 

• Modern view: it depends on the norm (in the classroom or social group) 

• Being different from the norm: less likely to recruit support 

• Selection: people support those who are similar to each other 

Minority youth: therefore at risk for persistent victimization in adolescence? 

• Ethnic, sexual or gender minority 

• Studie:   

• Three groups: not victimized, decreasing victimization trajectory, persistent victimization trajectory 

• LGB adolescents 3 times more likely to be in persistent than in decreasing group 

• More likely to be victimized (according to both self- and parent-reports of victimization) 

• Persistently victimized adolescents: higher risk for increased anxiety 

• Lack of support for handling victimization in other contexts (not only school, but also in other contexts: for example, at home) 

• In a period in which “being the same”/” fitting in” matters, minority adolescents (likely also ethnic, physically disabled etc.) are especially likely to be outcasts (because they are different than many others in the context) 

Microaggressions 

• More subtle, implicit type of victimization 

• Video about microaggressions 

Microaggressions and depressive symptoms in sexual minority adolescents (article) 

• Microaggressions related to depressive symptoms in adolescents 

• Explained by rumination (rethink about thinks over and over again) 

• Microaggressions are ambiguous and make the victim doubt themselves 

• Less explicit, but not less serious than explicit harassment 

• Awareness needed: normalization, not tolerance 

• Example: GSA's: clubs in schools promoting diversity 

To conclude 

• Social withdrawal severe type of lack of peer relationships 

• Subtypes determined by approach versus avoidance motivation: anxious-withdrawn type most problematic 

• Developmental trajectory: social withdrawal can result in severe, internalizing problems and escalates across childhood and adolescence 

• Peer victimization 

• Victims are strategically picked: those who receive least support 

• Hence, minority adolescents are at risk 

• Also for microaggressions: more recent, subtle but equally severe form of harassment towards marginalized groups 

Take home message 

• For adolescents, peers fulfill fundamental psychological needs of belonging (in friendship dyads, or in “fitting in” in groups) and esteem (in status) 

• Through selection and influence processes, adolescents become more similar to their peers (especially their friends) 

• Group processes can be visualized through social network analysis, which helps to identify positive, but also negative (bullying) processes 

• Not fitting in can result in peer victimization, explicitly or more subtle but equally serious (microaggression)