3月17日

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詞匯

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1.?bad company

2.?peer pressure

3.?positive

4.?negative

5.?activity

6.?affect

7.?common

8.?crowd

9.?curious

10.?decision

11.?directly

12.?distance

13.?effect

14.?effort

15.?encourage

16.?energy

17.?goal

18.?influence

19.?mate

20.?otherwise

21.?performance

22.?pressure

23.?process

24.?range

25.?regularly

26.?resist

27.?achieve

28.?adopt

29.?confidence

30.?ensure

31.?inspiration

32.?majority

33.?motivation

34.?personality

35.?reflect

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詞組

reach their goal?????????????????達到他們的目標

be aware of ???????????????????意識到，察覺到

reflect on your actions ???????????反思你的行為

shut themselves off???????????把自己封閉起來，不再和別人來往

go along with the group???????????合群

make a dip in your self-confidence???降低你的自信

build up one’s self-confidence ?????建立自信

put in twice the time and energy?????投入兩倍的時間和精力

take up activities?????????????????拿起；開始從事；花時間,占地方

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Peer Pressure

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People who are at your age, like your classmates, are called peers.?When they influence you on your decision or action, it’s called?peer pressure.?All of us, at some point in our lives, have had to deal with peer pressure.The need to follow the crowd and do what majority of us are doing forces us to take up?activities which we wouldn’t otherwise.

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Recent studies have shown that peer pressure might?cause?an upside?(好處)?to you. It can make you?reflect on your actions and make changes to your ways to become a better one. Observing others working hard to reach their goals will definitely encourage you to make a great effort to?achieve something positive.When a teen knows that his teammates are practicing hard to become better?players then it will directly affect his own performance.?He will put in twice the time and energy to raise the level of his game and ensure he has a place on the team.

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Having a group that brings positive peer pressure?can also help you pick up healthy?habits?that can shape both your personality and your future.The motivation to do well because of pressure from your peers can actually become inspiration.?For example, when a child knows that some of his friends regularly read?storybooks, he may get into?the habit of reading. Seeing that?his friends exercise daily, even he may take up the habit?and adopt it in life.

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Just as some influences can be?positive, some can be negative too.?Peer pressure sometimes can make a dip?in your self-confidence.?Some kids give in?to peer pressure because they want to be liked, or because they worry that others might make fun of?them if they don’t go along with?the group. Others go along because they are curious to try something new.The idea that “everyone's doing it" can influence them to leave their better judgment behind.?Besides, peer pressure can distance you from your family and friends. It is common for teenagers to think that nobody understands them and that the whole world is against them.The influence of peer pressure?is such that it draws them completely away from their family and friends who mean well.They just shut themselves off and fall into bad company.

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It’s likely that you've experienced the effect of peer?pressure?in different areas,?ranging from?the clothes you wear to the music you listen to.?Sometimes?it?can be hard to resist?and you may feel forced to do something you’re uncomfortable with.?So being aware of?and carefully choosing the influence of peers that will lead to healthy and happy experiences is a lifelong process.

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Text 2

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What is Peer Pressure?

Matthew F.

Last Modified Date: March 11, 2023

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The phrase, "everybody's doing it," is very much at the center of the concept of peer pressure. It is a social influence exerted on an individual in order to get that person to act or believe in a similar way as a larger group. This influence can be negative or positive, and can exist in both large and small groups. Most people experience it in some way during their lives.

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Social Behavior

Peer pressure can influence people to make bad decisions.

People are social creatures by nature, and so it is hardly surprising that some portion of their self-esteem comes from the approval of others. This instinct is why the approval of peers, and the fear of disapproval, is such a powerful force in many people's lives. It is the same instinct that compels people to dress one way at home and another way at work, or to answer "fine" when a stranger asks "how are you?" even if it is not necessarily true. There is a practical aspect to this; it helps society to function efficiently, and encourages a general level of self-discipline that simplifies day-to-day interaction.

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Positive Peer Influence

Positive peer pressure can help people strive to be better.

Despite the most common associations with the term, peer pressure is not always negative. A student whose friends excel in academics may be compelled to study harder and get good grades. Players on a sports team may feel driven to play harder in order to help the team win. This type of influence can also be exerted to get a friend off drugs, or to help an adult take up a good habit or drop a bad one. Study groups, class projects, and even book clubs are examples of positive peer groups that encourage people to better themselves.

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Negative Influence

Peer pressure can make teenagers engage in sexual activity before they're ready.

For certain individuals, seeking social acceptance is so important that it becomes like an addiction; in order to satisfy the craving, they may go so far as to abandon their sense of right and wrong. Groups of children may join in bullying newcomers in school. Teens and young adults may feel compelled to use drugs or alcohol, be sexually promiscuous, or join gangs that encourage criminal behavior. Mature adults may sometimes feel pressured to cover up illegal activity at the company where they work, or end up in debt because they are unable to suppress the temptation to buy a house or car that they can't afford in an effort to, "keep up with the Joneses."

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Children

Peer pressure is often increased at social events.

When discussing peer pressure, children and teens are often the greatest focus of concern. Because of their lack of maturity and judgment, children are especially vulnerable to this kind of influence, and often find it difficult to resist joining group activities, even when their own common sense warns against it. Likewise, group leaders themselves can easily become enthralled with their power over the rest, leading them to spur the group to take actions that no individual member would have considered on his or her own. Many teens become absorbed into different cliques and groups, spending less time with their families, causing previously strong family influences to diminish. This puts them at greater risk.

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Combating Negative Pressure

Peer pressure stems from the desire for the approval of others.

Schools and other organizations try to teach kids about the dangers of negative peer pressure. They teach kids to stand up and be themselves, and encourage them to politely decline to do things that they believe are wrong. Likewise, it can be helpful to encourage children to embrace the beneficial influence of positive peer groups.

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Proactive Parenting

Giving in to peer pressure can have emotional consequences.

Parental involvement can also help negate harmful peer pressure. Parents can take a number of steps, including working to build closer relationships with their children, getting to know both the children's friends and the parents of those friends, knowing where their children are and who they're with, and providing structure and discipline at home.

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Self Awareness

Peer pressure often impacts a person's self-esteem.

There is no question that some people are more vulnerable to peer pressure than others, and that some people are more vulnerable to it at one stage in life than in another. Being self-aware is at the root of managing this type of pressure. Although peer pressure is sometimes quite overt, it can also be so subtle that a person may not even notice that it is affecting his or her behavior. For this reason, when making important decisions, simply going with a gut instinct is risky. Instead, people should seriously consider why they feel drawn to taking a particular action, and whether the real motivation is simply that everyone else is doing the same thing. "Going with the flow," so to speak, is not always a bad thing, but as each individual is still responsible for the consequences, it is important to be a thinking participant in the decision.

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