How to win the battle against Peer Pressure?

Peer pressure is such a common term. We hear it growing up and most of us have fallen prey to this psychological pressure sometime or the other in our lives. 

What is Peer Pressure?

It is a direct or indirect social pressure exerted by a group or person which leads to a shift in attitude, values, beliefs of another person in order to conform with the group.

Is all Peer Pressure negative?

Despite the common notion, all kinds of peer pressure are not negative. Some times, the pressure can have a positive impact on the person experiencing it. For instance, if Sumi becomes a part of a group that believes in working hard, meeting deadlines, is ambitious then naturally Sumi, too will tend to become goal-oriented. 

Why is this Pressure so influential?

Human beings are social creatures. There are mainly two types of identities that we all strive for: Self Identity & Group Identity. 

The social group we join reflects the kind of group identity we will develop. Becoming a part of any group gives us a feeling that we belong somewhere, that we are a part of something larger and we define ourselves in conjunction with this group. That's why it becomes important to follow whatever the group members do, be it positive or negative because we don't want to lose out on the group identity, we don't want to lose out on the feeling of belongingness. 

Which age-group is most influenced by peer pressure?

It is hard to generalize the phenomenon to a particular age group, however, by far adolescents is one such time period where most people would experience peer pressure. This is because the need to belong to a group and the search for one's identity is highest during this time period. Most adolescents will be open to experimentation as they are still trying to understand themselves and the world around them. Thus, getting entangled in the cycle of negative peer pressure is common. 

How can we prevent our teenagers from the negative effects of peer pressure?

1. William Mcguire, an American Social Psychologist gave us an important concept of 'Innoculation against Persuasive Attacks'. He believed that just like we innoculate infants against diseases by introducing a vaccine into their body, we can also psychologically innoculate human beings against any persuasive attacks by first exposing them to weaker counterarguments. For example- Many times teenagers are pressured by their friends to try out different substances like alcohol, cigarettes. If parents and schools are aware of the substance use problem, they can innoculate the students against the persuasive attacks that they are going to face in the future. You as a parent could educate your children about the harmful effects of smoking a cigarette and eventually help them learn how to refuse a smoke when they are offered one. The child could probably tell their group members that smoking can be addictive and lead to us becoming dependent on the substance every time we face stress. It is on the parents and schools to devise ways to innoculate students from different kinds of negative peer pressure they would eventually face. Most students would know that smoking is bad for health, they just don't know how to refuse a persuasive pressure imposed on them by the social group they really want to be a part of. Using role-plays to help your child understand and enact how they can behave if they are offered a substance can help as well.

YouTube Channels Every Psychology Student Should Follow!

    As a student of Psychology, we are constantly required to update our knowledge. The field is regularly updating with new researches & books being published every other day. Human behaviour is complex, it's understanding takes time but is required if you are practising in the field. In my years of study of this subject, I have found some Youtube Channels that provide concise, empirically- valid information about different psychological concepts.

Dr Tracey Marks [https://www.youtube.com/user/MarksPsych]

    Dr Marks is a Psychiatrist with over 20 years of experience in the field. In her channel, she talks about the clinical picture of various Psychiatric disorders, the common treatment methodologies and creates awareness about mental health topics. What I like most about her videos is her style of communication, it is very crisp, to the point and free of any medical jargon. If I put myself in the place of a client, I know her videos would help me understand and create more insight into the condition.

Kati Morton [https://www.youtube.com/user/KatiMorton]

    Kati is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the US. The first thing that I noticed about her channel is that she is extremely passionate about mental health education. She has made tons, I mean tons of videos about disorders, signs & symptomatology, therapy modalities & self-help.

Dr Todd Grande [https://www.youtube.com/c/ToddGrande/featured]

    Dr Todd Grande has a PhD in Counselor education and supervision. He makes a variety of videos on mental health topics like psychopathology, research and statistics, true-crime wherein he makes research-oriented speculations about some famous criminal stories. I especially like his detail-oriented descriptions of personality disorder and his videos depicting role-plays wherein he demonstrates the counselling process of different therapy modalities, like motivational interviewing, how to assess suicidality, Psychodynamic therapy, CBT and even gestalt therapy -the empty chair techniques. These videos on the counselling process have cleared so many of my doubts and inhibitions not just once, but multiple times. I often refer to his video for understanding techniques related to the process of counselling. 

The Virtual Knowledge Centre by NIMHANS [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfrxPXvFCibh6mqUDErBi6g]

    The Virtual Knowledge Centre is a channel developed by the National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, India in collaboration with Project ECHO (Extension of Community Healthcare Outcome), University of New Mexico Health Science Centre, USA. The channel is informative, research-driven with high reliability. I have learnt about so many different therapy modalities through their channel including about Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Case history taking, Motivational Interviewing, Narrative therapy. In most of their videos, they give acronyms which can be used as a mnemonic device for better understanding.

    These were some interesting & informative youtube channels that you must follow if you are in the field of mental health. Let me know in the comments section below which are your favourite Psychology Youtube channels.

The Perfect Guide for Choosing a Career: Psychologist's Perspective

     Most movies (Hollywood or Bollywood) give us a very rosy idea of following our dreams, choosing a career that you are really, really passionate about. I am sure there was once a time in your life where you came out of a movie theatre feeling confident about pursuing your dreams.

    But what happens when you don't really know what you want to be or worse you know what you want to be but just don't know how to take the next step?

    In my role as a School Counsellor, one of the common concerns of students and parents alike were career-oriented. Psychologist, specifically those in the field of career counselling have devised a refined way of understanding career choices. In the following article, I am going to give you a glimpse of what we as Psychologists do to help a client understand their career trajectory. 

    While there is no magic formula to this question but if you understand a few things about yourself, you might be able to make a well-informed choice in this regard.

Interest

    One of the first things, like most movies would tell you, is finding your passion. You need to understand what is it that interests you the most -Is it being a cricketer, a singer, an airline pilot or a doctor? 

    Sometimes, finding your interest might be difficult. I remember one of my students telling me that they opted for the Science stream in their high school not because they liked physics & chemistry but because they didn't enjoy studying subjects in the humanities or commerce stream. Here, the choice of higher education was made by eliminating options. Another way of deciding is to observe one's own behaviour, is there a particular subject that you enjoy studying? Is there a sport that is an integral part of your life? There is usually some element that is driving your behaviour- a subject, a sport, an activity that you would do even if you were in a bad mood- reflect on it. It is equally important to note some of your dislikes. For example - I knew from a very young age that I am not good at Mathematics and I will never enjoy a career that would be based on this subject. Understanding your dislikes will help in elimination and arriving at a conclusion.

     Next task would be listing your 'Why' Why do I enjoy studying History? Why do I enjoy playing Basketball? Why do I want to become a Doctor/Engineer/Pilot/Airhostess? Without a reason for your passion, your journey towards a successful career might be unfulfilled. Understanding the driving force behind your interests will help you connect with your goals in a better manner & help in envisioning a future for yourself. Just listing out that I will do a Bachelor's in Psychology because I am interested in Psychology is not enough, listing out the reason like "I find the subject interesting", "I feel that I would be good at understanding other people's problems because I am an empathetic and patient person", "I want to have a role that impacts community welfare" is important.

Aptitude 

    Aptitude is your underlying ability to grasp the skills of a particular field. This basically means exploring if you have the mental capacity, the personality type, the right mindset required for doing the job of your interest. Exploring if you have what it takes to be in the profession. For example - a person who is an introvert trying to pursue a job in sales. A salesperson has to constantly engage in conversations with people, convince them to buy certain products- an introvert by nature would not prefer talking to a lot of people constantly. In such cases, one's personality will prevent them from acquiring the aptitude required for a job profile. 

    There are pros & cons to choosing your career based on just your interest or only on your ability to acquire skills (aptitude). Let me explain why using a simple example -Raj is incredibly interested in becoming a cricket player. He even listed out his WHYs, "I enjoy watching Virat Kohli play", "I am the biggest fan of  Indian Cricket Team", "I love reading about the history of Indian Cricket Team" - but does Raj have the motivation to get up every morning and train for 8-10 hours, what would his reaction be when he encounters consecutive defeats in a game and is not able to qualify for the nationals, is he a team player. Such skills are required for becoming a good sportsperson. On the other hand, let's say that Raj grew up seeing his father bat for the Indian Cricket Team. Raj admires his father's ability, precision and has no shortage of training when it comes to cricket. The only thing is that he is more interested in music than cricket. Do you think that by acquiring an aptitude for the sport he will be able to excel like his father?

    Aptitude, while necessary, will soon lead to burn out at a job if done without interest. Similarly, interest, passion, your driving force, will fail you in every profession, without having the ideal skills (aptitude) for the job. 

Ideal Career  =  Interest +Aptitude

    Real-life is much more complicated than just pursuing your interests or having the right skills for the job. If you belong to India, you might have a lot of pressure from your family to pursue a career in the sciences. As a 16-year-old, confused about career, it is difficult to understand where your parents might be coming from. It makes no sense as to why your parents are forcing you to become a doctor or an engineer with taking their perspective. If we try to think from their perspective- becoming an engineer, doctor, lawyer does guarantee a stable source of income throughout your life and are jobs well understood by our society. If you have a stable lifestyle, your parents will not have to worry about you. Once you understand their perspective it helps you comprehend their reality.

[Note: I am not trying to generalize. I understand that there are many Indian parents out there who give their children the space to pursue their dreams.]

    If you are someone who wants to pursue a non-traditional career path and are finding it difficult to convince your parents about it, try out the following steps. I have used an example of a makeup artist to explain the process. 

• Do a thorough Google search about the career. What is the exact role of a makeup artist, what are some of the best institutes in India that offer training, make a profile on LinkedIn and interact with people who have passed out from these institutes, check with them about the scope in the industry, how much do makeup artists earn, will the income help you become financially independent etc. See for yourself whether you will be able to pursue a career or not. If possible write down all the information you can about it.
• Make a pros & cons list of the career you want to pursue.
• Talk to your parents once you have done a thorough research. Parents may dismiss the idea of becoming a makeup artist because they don't know the job profile, while they know the job profile of an architect and they may ask you to pursue that. If you present your research in a convincing manner wherein you lay out a direction for your career, it will give them the confidence to see your reality.
• If you and your parents both are in a state of confusion about your career, schedule an appointment with a career counsellor. They will help you find a direction and the right institutes offering a course of your choice.

    As human beings, we often restrict ourselves when it comes to career options. A doctor might think that their life purpose is to help people. This might be true, but it doesn't mean that you cannot pursue alternative career pathway. Humans are creative beings, explore your passion, your skills as much as you can. Don't be bound by age or what stage are you in your career. Save & invest before making a career switch, but please allow yourself to explore.