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Effects Of Social Pressure On Academic Performance. Essay, Research Paper

Abstract

The current experiment investigates the effects of different types of social pressure on academic performance of entering freshmen. Ninety undergraduate students (45 males and 45 females) were randomly assigned to three equal groups. Students of the first group experienced positive social pressure and their first semester GPA’s were used as a dependent variable. Those in the second group experienced negative social pressure. Meanwhile, students in a third control group experienced no social pressure at all. Using a one way ANOVA of the independent variable, the experimenters found a significant difference in the GPA’s of the students. A Tukey’s post hoc analysis showed that the significance of the effect was found between the positive and control groups as well as the positive and negative groups.

The Role of Social Pressure on Academic Performance of Entering Freshmen

According to Rosabeth Kanter (1977), the more isolated the minority group members are among majority persons, the less likely they are to be successful academically. However, the higher the proportion of minority members in a group, the more likely they are to be successful. She also suggested that the presence of female students in a male dominated law school tend to affect their achievements. She also claimed that minority students are perceived as tokens or symbols and not as individuals. There are three main characteristics of a token student that can be explained as forms of social pressure. First, they are highly visible, thus they face performance demands that can be met by over achieving. As a result, they face performance pressure and they tend to perform differently than other dominant individuals. Second: token individuals tend to polarize and this polarization leads to further isolation. Third: token individuals suffer from role entrapment. They are stereotyped and expected to behave according to these stereotyping. Using these 3 characteristics of social pressure, she hypothesized that female students with fewer female colleagues will do less well academically (i.e. performance pressure), will be less integrated into law school (i.e. isolation) and will chose stereotypical female careers and studies (i.e. role entrapment)

Spangler, Gordon& Pipkin (1978) tested this token hypothesis. They investigated female law students in a male dominated law school. They operationally defined the 3 social pressure characteristics of a token student as follows: for performance pressure: grades, volunteering to speak in class and answering yes or no to a question about considering withdrawal from law school. For social isolation: measuring the amount of leisure time spent with other law students and membership of extracurricular groups. For role entrapment: extent to which female students select stereotypical feminine practice area (e.g. divorce). After administering these questions, they concluded that these three social pressure characteristics do exist when female students are a very small minority in a male dominated law school. They added that these characteristics would influence the over all performance of these female students.

Meanwhile, Allen & Bragg (1968) investigated the effect of social pressure on learning acquisition. In their experiment, they tested the attainment of the concept of colored circles and triangles by subjects. They had three groups: the first group was called the veridical feedback group in which subjects received correct feedback for their answers. In the second group, called non-veridical group, subjects received incorrect feedback for their answers. The third group, control group received no feedback at all. They observed that subjects in the first group significantly perform better than those in the other two groups. Thus, they concluded that social pressure (i.e. veridical feedback vs. non-veridical feedback) affected concept acquisition. They extended their experiment to include two more groups; one group, veridical- non veridical: subjects of this group got correct feedback for their first task then incorrect feedback in their second task. Another group, non veridical – veridical; subjects of this group got incorrect response in their first task then correct response in their second task. They observed that the non veridical-veridical group showed a transfer effect. In other words, social pressure resulted in poorer performance in the second task. This research illustrated that a group of peers can strongly influence the concept attainment of each member. Agreement with the group is therefore

advantageous for the individual in some circumstances(i.e. if the group is right) and disadvantageous in other circumstances(i.e. if the group is wrong). If this group gives correct information, it exerts a positive social pressure by facilitating concept attainment. However, if the group start giving incorrect information, a member s learning will be hindered. They also concluded that the most efficient relation of the individual to a group is conformity when the group is correct and nonconformity if the group is incorrect.

Asali, Khamaysi, Aburabia, Letzer & et al (1995) interviewed 21 Bedouin women in Israel about the history of their Ritual Female Genital Surgery RFGS or circumcision. Ironically, the most common reason for this horrible habit was social pressure. Women interviewed indicated that their mothers were the primary decision-makers of this mutilation ritual. Those mothers used pressuring remarks to their daughters. For example, some mothers indicated that women who do not have circumcision are not good cooks and are not clean! Despite the fact that most of these interviewed women do not experience any sexual pleasure, the insisted that they are going to do the same thing to their daughters. They explained that by doing so,

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