The 7th - Groups and Peer Pressure

A group is two or more individuals who
–share a set of norms,
–have role relationships,
–and experience interdependent behaviors.

In the lecture we disscussed what the main groups are in society. The first one which was talked about was the Burbury group. This group of people is often compared with 'chavs'. Below is a video which I think shows exactly what a chav is.

Take a look.

We all have certain groups we belong to, these people belong to the chavs group. They, in my opinion, are more likely to be influenced by peers because they tend to socialise the most as they have no jobs.

When we are in a group we tend to spend more money, this may be because when we are with friends we tend to just enjoy ourselves and more watch the money as much as we would if we were alone. Also we may think its a one off so we tend to spend more money. Marketers will take advantage of this by having deals in which there are discounts when you bring more people.

There are certain groups which we would not want to belog to, chavs being one of them. A famous brand which was targeted at 40 year old males has not really found the group it was ment to target because I have seen many people my age wearing Levis jeans!

With regards to groups and peer pressure, I think this is a very relevant story.
The story of the monkeys:

Start with a cage containing five monkeys.

Inside the cage, hangs a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it.

Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the monkeys with cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result - all the monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, turn off the cold water.

Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one.

The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm.

Again, replace a third original monkey with a new one. The new one makes it to the stairs and is attacked as well. Two of the four monkeys that beat him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs, or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing the fourth and fifth original monkeys, all the monkeys that have been sprayed with cold water have been replaced. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs.

Why not?

Because as far as they know that's the way it's always been around here….