"DO SOCIAL PRESSURES INFLUENCE STUDENTS DRINKING HABITS AND THEIR PROPENSITY TO OBEY?"
BY
KHANDAKAR ROMENA HAQUE
Abstract
This reports focus is to find out if students in Waltham Forest College conform to peer or social pressure with relation to drinking alcohol.
The results of this study have shown that whilst participants may not like to admit it, with the right line of questioning it can be shown that they conform to society norms or peer influences and disobey religious rules and laws when it comes to drinking alcohol.
60% of students drinking alcohol do so, as a result of socialising with friends with a high number stating it is to 'fit in' to their peer group.
Are our behaviours and actions individual decisions based on our own thoughts and opinions? Or are they influenced some way, and if so by who or what?
There have been many studies by psychologists such as Jennes (1932), Asch (1951) and Kelman (1958) on conformity and have largely resulted in the same argument. People conform to a majority influence. Deutch and Gerrard (1955) suggest that there are two reasons that we as individuals conform. Normative Social Influence (NSI) argues that the desire to 'fit in' and 'be liked' and not to be rejected influences us to conform to the majority, Informational Social Influence (ISI), argues that the desire to be correct and the lack of knowledge in an unclear situation influences us to be guided by those around us who have a greater knowledge.
Taking NSI and ISI into consideration the, aim of this study is to conclude if social and group pressures play a part in conformity and obedience.
Today's society suggests students are not even aware that they are conforming to group pressure or unknowingly wanting to be accepted by their peer group.
“The desire to attain peer acceptance and social approval or conformity has been a major influence for drinking" Farber, Khavani & Douglas (1980)
By asking a series of question to individuals from a range of different ages, ethnic backgrounds and religious beliefs I can analyse their reasons for drinking alcohol and identify whether or not they have been influenced by the peer groups, religious beliefs or society in general.
Methods
Participants
Participants included 20 students; 10 female and 10 male, a range of ages from under 18 to over 26 and a range of ethnic backgrounds. I have made these choices with regards to the demographics in order to give me a wide generalisation of today's society and a range of perspectives.
Materials
A survey method of 13 questions were asked. The line of questioning being such that it would enable me to get a picture of the participants cultural, familial, and religious background as well as their reasons for, or not for drinking alcohol. This was to identify specific influences which may have played a part in the participants choices towards drinking alcohol. 8 quantitative questions with simple multiple choice answers, and 5 qualitative questions where the focus was on reasons for or not for drinking alcohol.
Procedure
The participants were picked at random and I filled the questionnaires out for them, word for word. I did this in order to engage with them and create conversation, thus enabling me to gain further information outside of the answers of the questions.
When approaching each participant I made sure that the ethical element was covered by reading the following statement to them:
"It is important that you feel comfortable and at ease whilst participating in this survey. All participants are anonymous with answers kept in the strictest of confidence, and should you decide to withdraw for this survey at anytime your decision will be respected whole heartedly."
Results
Discussion
We were limited to carrying out our research within the college environment and as a result needed to pick a hypothesis on a subject matter that would be relevant to the audience and also allow us to study prejudice, conformity and obedience. As a group we thought that influences and choices around alcohol drinking habits would be perfect.
We collated a variety of quantitative and qualitative questions and individually decided which questions we would use for our own surveys. My line of questioning focussed on determining what specific influences were made around choices to drink or not to drink alcohol. According to Youngman (1982) the more structured a question is, the easier it will be to analyse the answers, for this reason I picked 8 quantitative questions with mainly simple 'yes' and 'no' answers, however, although easier to analyse, which is an advantage, quantitative questions can lead the participant into an answer without revealing their true view or opinion, which is a disadvantage. According to Bell (1999) qualitative questions allow participants to express their specific views, they also allow for trends in answers, if any, to be identified. However disadvantages are that qualitative questions can be time consuming to collate and difficult to analyse if no trend is seen.
My survey comprised of 13 questions, 8 quantitative and 5 qualitative. The quantitative questions gave me a direct result with relation to the answers which enabled me to translate them into mathematical terms and the qualitative questions allowed me to identify trends in participants views and thoughts. However questions 6, 8, 11 and 12 could have been asked in a quantitative manner as participants gave multiple answers which was time consuming and somewhat difficult to collate the results.
The results have been analysed specifically taking into consideration gender and age and religion.
Gender:
Females seem to drink alcohol only slightly more than males. 40% of females and 30% of males claimed that they had felt pressured into drinking alcohol, when asked what form the pressure had come in, they stated multiple answers with over 70% stating that the influence was from friends, this would be considered as peer pressure. Interestingly 70% of males said they had not felt pressured into drinking alcohol, however when asked in question 10, did someone give you your first alcoholic drink 50% of males answered 'yes' which does not match the earlier answer of feeling pressured. It could be argued that the males did not realise they felt pressured or they did not want to admit to being pressured. In addition, the results of question 10, would you be more likely to have an alcoholic drink if your friends were? showed that 8 out of 10 females would. This clearly shows that they would conform to the majority, conversely only 5 out of 10 males would conform to the majority of their friends drinking alcohol. These results show that females feel more pressure and subsequently are more likely to conform to group pressure.
Age:
When analysing the results with relation to age, the first thing that is clear to see that 100% of the under 18's were disobedient, this is with regards to disobeying licensing laws as it is illegal to consume alcohol under the age of 18 in Britain. Furthermore, only 1 said they had felt pressured into drinking alcohol, however all said they had been given their first alcoholic drink, again, this contradicts the results from question 5 with regards to pressure. Only 1 said they would not be more likely to drink alcohol if their friends were which supports the arguments that the majority will conform to social and peer pressure. All under 18 year olds said their reasons for drinking alcohol were to socialise and have fun with 75% saying it was to fit in with their friends. This supports Deutch and Gerrard (1955) theory of NSI.
The majority age group of participants were 18-25, here more females to males drank alcohol with a majority of the males not feeling pressure to drink alcohol. This was supported with the males answer to question 10 where only 2 were given their first alcoholic drink, however all the females stated that they were given their first alcoholic drink. All the females who drank alcohol said they would be more likely to drink alcohol if their friends were, this result suggests that they would conform to the majority.
All non drinks from all age groups except 1 answered 'not applicable' when asked if they had ever felt pressured into drinking alcohol. The 1 participants shows that regardless of whether as an individual you drink alcohol, pressure can still be applied to do so.
Religion
Of all the participants, 40% were Muslim and 60% were Christian. Both religions state that they should not drink alcohol, however over 50% of both religions drank alcohol therefore disobeying their religious beliefs, it could be argued that their disobedience to religion is in accordance to conforming to the society norm of drinking alcohol within Western Culture.
2 of the Muslim non drinkers expressed very bias views, stating that those that do drink alcohol are not only 'bad' but would also 'go to hell'. It could be suggested that this prejudice view is as a result of religious influence.
Limitations
There were a variety of limitations identified in this study.
Firstly, the assumption is made that each participant answered the survey questions completely honestly.
Many of the questions were somewhat ambiguous, for example, when asked if participants families drank alcohol there was confusion as to the definition of family, did we mean parents, or extended, for this reason I decided not to analyse the influence of family drinking habits.
All 5 of the qualitative questions should have been asked in a quantitative manner, although I was able to see a trend in answers if the questions had been quantitative they would have been easier to analyse.
Conclusion
Whether we like to admit it or not, whether it is done knowingly or not, regardless of our age, gender or race as a society a majority of us will conform to influences such as peer groups, religious beliefs and societal norms. On the surface, males seem not to conform as openly as females, however this could have more to do with how males would like to be perceived rather than reality.
Ultimately the results of this study show that 60% of students drink alcohol do so as a result of socialising with friends with a high number stating it is to 'fit in' this supports Farber, Khavani & Douglas (1980)
References / Bibliography
Asch, S. E. (1951). Effects of group pressure upon the modification and distortion of judgments. In H. Guetzkow (Ed.), Groups, leadership and men. Pittsburg, PA: Carnegie Press.
Bell, J (1999), Hart, E. & Bond, M (1995) Action research for health and social care: A guide to practitioners. Buckingham: Open university press.
Deutsch, M., & Gerard, H. B. (1955). A study of normative and informational social influences upon individual judgment. The journal of abnormal and social psychology,
Farber P.D, Khavari K.A &Douglas, F.M (1980) A factor analytic study of reason for drinking. Empirical validation of positive and negative reinforcement dimensions. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology 48, 780-781.
Jenness, A. (1932). The role of discussion in changing opinion regarding a matter of fact. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology
Kelman, H. C. (1958). Compliance, identification, and internalization: three processes of attitude change. Journal of Conflict Resolution,
Youngman, M.B. (1982) Designing and analysing Questionnaires, Rediguide 12. Nottingham: University of Nottingham School of Education
