Conformity In Teenagers

As a group, we decided to tackle the topic of sexual conformity in teenagers in high-school. The main objective of our poster is to appeal to as large an audience as possible but at the same time promote the idea of making your own decisions. The poster has a big font and contrasting colors (black, white, and red) in order to grab the attention of the audience immediately. Additionally, the use of the cartoon images of a banana and a doughnut is to add some humor to the campaign since we are addressing high school students and we want the poster to be approachable. As seen in section two of this paper, there are a number of campaigns related to sexual behavior. The main difference between the ones already published and ours is that the scope …show more content…
Normative social influence concerns the issue of changing a behavior (conforming) in order to be liked or accepted by others. It is important to note though that this type of conformity doesn’t necessarily result in an internal change of attitude. In any case, normative social influence is very prominent in the high-school setting, where being liked, accepted, and able to 'fit in ' are detrimental to a teenager’s social life an overall experience in high-school. What we try to do through our campaign is to explain that whether other people like you or accept you should not be the factor that determines what an individual 's actions and beliefs are in relation to sex. What should drive them are the individual’s beliefs and wants. This is also why we chose to make the “make your own choices” part of our poster one of the focal points; because it emphasizes the notion of not conforming to other peoples’ beliefs and …show more content…
Cognitive dissonance, as explained in the textbook, is the uncomfortable feeling when our beliefs and attitudes are opposite to our actions and behavior. In order to avoid being in a state of discomfort there are three pathways one can take: changing the behavior, changing the cognitions, or adding a consonant cognition. In our campaign we want to position the viewer in a state of cognitive dissonance in order to change their cognitions and behaviors. For example the reader might feel that he or she is a person who makes their own decisions and does think before they act, but they may have done something that goes against this image of themselves. This creates cognitive dissonance and in order to reduce this feeling they might change their behavior or attitude. We tell the audience "don 't be a sheep" and "think before you act" in order for them to feel like they have a say in what they do, and in order to not fall into the category of just following the norm, be themselves and make their own decisions based on their beliefs and not anybody else 's. Creating cognitive dissonance in this particular case is somehow difficult though since high school students have a tendency towards following the norm in order to fit it and preserve their self-esteem, regardless of whether their behavior reflects their internal