Group conformity, opinion leaders and peer pressure

A group is any number of entities (members) considered as a unit
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

A group is an important part of a human's social life. They can be from just two people or they can be cery large. They are highly rewarding to their members and sometimes to a society. Sometimes groups can cause danger.

http://www.infed.org/groupwork/what_is_a_group.htm

A prime example of a group is what is known as a 'Chav'.



A 'chav' is known to wear burberry, hats, tracksuits, excessive amounts of gold jewellery, walk funny, curse a lot, get children at ridiculously young ages and drink a lot. Above is a stereotypical image of what a chav is said to look and act like.

There are many different types of groups:
Abscribed - the group one is born into
Reference - is a group looked to for lifestyle
Acquired - Is one which is joined or moved into
Aspirational - This is a group one apsires to belong to. Perhaps a group someone looks up to
Dissasociation - A group someone would hate to belong to. e.g. 'Chavs'
Contrived Formed for a specific purpose - This includes unions and committees.
Associative - What group someone realistically belongs to such as college friends and neighbours.
Peer - These are people of equal standing like school student or a regular contact

My Group Types:
Abscribed - A middle class, close family who act in a acceptable manner.
Acquried - New university friends group
Aspirational - Fashion groups of people such as models and fashion designers including Chloe, JackWills, Topshop, Christian Dior
Dissassociation - Chavs and Glam Rockers
Contrived - Used to be part of sports teams such as basketball, touch rugby and athletics
Associative - My classmates and the people i work with

Here is an aspirational advertisement:



The reason as to why I had chosen this ad is because firstly the product (perfume) is called 'the one' which already makes peopel aspire to be 'the one'. Secondly, during the ad the model looks to be having fun although it looks to be hectic, getting all the attention, famouse due to the paparazzi and she is also attractive which makes me aspire to live her life and be like her.

Different products make people associate them to specific groups. A prime example of this is someone wearing the labels Ralph Lauren or JackWills are said to be upper class posh people, where as someone wearing Lonsdale and Burberry are considered to be living in counsil flats and are chavvy.





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Every group has expectations of behaviour which include the way they act, what they wear and what they do. Peer pressure can affect different groups in different ways. Some groups may pressure people to buy more luxuries and branded things such as a blackberry, Chanel bag and a nice sports car. Other groups on the other hand can pressure people to drink, smoke, or even act in violence.