The study that I chose for social psychology was conducted by Poteat Mereish, and Birkett. The name of their article is “The Negative Effects of Prejudice on Interpersonal Relationships within Adolescent Peer Groups.” Social psychologists study how people affect and are affected by other people and by their social and physical environments (“All About Social Psychology,” 2016). Peers often play an important role in socializing attitudes and behaviors while we are young. According to the theory of homophily, people tend to associate and bond with people who are similar resulting in peers having similar prejudices. These include racial and sexual prejudices. The researchers of this study wanted to find out more about whether group-level sexual
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Fifty-five percent were female and forty-five percent were male. Parents were required to sign consent forms in order for students to participate in the study. The students were given a general description of the study prior to participating. They were told that the purpose of the study was to gain a better understanding of attitudes and experiences during adolescence. Researchers assured students that their responses to the two surveys that would be conducted would remain confidential. Participating students were give an individual numerical code to write on their surveys so as to link individual survey responses during the study. The first survey was conducted approximately six weeks after school began and the second took place at the end of the school year. The surveys assessed negative attitudes toward lesbian and gay individuals, any aggressive behavior over the past 30 days such as spreading rumors, and any negative peer interactions. Participants also completed the Network of Relationships Inventory (NRI) which allows researchers to examine a broad array of relationship characteristics across a number of different types of personal relationships (Furman & Buhrmester, 2005). The NRI requires participants to use the same set of items to describe their relationship with each of several members of their social network such as their parents, siblings, and …show more content…
Also, more aggressive teens reported a greater number of negative interactions with the peers they had listed as being their friends during the first and second survey. Participants who reported the most negative peer interactions were those who personally reported that they had high levels of prejudice and were friends with peers who also reported high levels of prejudice. This could result in even more incidences of homophobic banter, greater competition as more teens sought to gain dominance in the group, or more pressure to “prove” their heterosexuality. The researchers concluded that peer interactions in groups with stronger levels of sexual prejudice were more negative. Overall, their findings support their hypothesis and show that sexual prejudice has a negative effect on people who have these attitudes and this negativity is reflected in how they come to relate with their peers over
Fifty-five percent were female and forty-five percent were male. Parents were required to sign consent forms in order for students to participate in the study. The students were given a general description of the study prior to participating. They were told that the purpose of the study was to gain a better understanding of attitudes and experiences during adolescence. Researchers assured students that their responses to the two surveys that would be conducted would remain confidential. Participating students were give an individual numerical code to write on their surveys so as to link individual survey responses during the study. The first survey was conducted approximately six weeks after school began and the second took place at the end of the school year. The surveys assessed negative attitudes toward lesbian and gay individuals, any aggressive behavior over the past 30 days such as spreading rumors, and any negative peer interactions. Participants also completed the Network of Relationships Inventory (NRI) which allows researchers to examine a broad array of relationship characteristics across a number of different types of personal relationships (Furman & Buhrmester, 2005). The NRI requires participants to use the same set of items to describe their relationship with each of several members of their social network such as their parents, siblings, and …show more content…
Also, more aggressive teens reported a greater number of negative interactions with the peers they had listed as being their friends during the first and second survey. Participants who reported the most negative peer interactions were those who personally reported that they had high levels of prejudice and were friends with peers who also reported high levels of prejudice. This could result in even more incidences of homophobic banter, greater competition as more teens sought to gain dominance in the group, or more pressure to “prove” their heterosexuality. The researchers concluded that peer interactions in groups with stronger levels of sexual prejudice were more negative. Overall, their findings support their hypothesis and show that sexual prejudice has a negative effect on people who have these attitudes and this negativity is reflected in how they come to relate with their peers over