Friends' influence and academic motivation in adolescence
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to test hypotheses about the processes of friends' influence derived from two theoretical perspectives. According to the persuasive-arguments perspective (Piaget, 1965; Youniss, 1980), friends' influence results from negotiation and debate during discussions with friends. According to the heuristic-processing perspective (Chaiken, 1980; 1987a), influence results from reliance on simple decision rules, such as, "Friends can be trusted." Adolescents using this friendship-agreement heuristic may be willing to accept opinions from friends without thinking carefully about them because they trust their friends' judgment. Eighth- and twelfth-grade adolescents (N = 130) responded to dilemmas measuring academic motivation before, during, and after a videotaped discussion with a friend. Half of the students were assigned to an experimental condition designed to increase reliance on the friendship-agreement heuristic. The persuasive-arguments perspective was only partially supported. Adolescents whose friendships had many positive friendship features reported less pressure to agree with their friends and had discussions with a higher frequency of agreements and disagreements, but not reasons, than adolescents whose friendships had fewer positive features. The heuristic-processing perspective was not supported. Students in the experimental condition did not report more confidence in their friends' judgments and did not have discussions with fewer reasons than students in a control condition. Also, students whose friendships had many positive features did not have more confidence in their friends' judgments or use fewer reasons in their discussions than students whose friendships had fewer positive features. However, the results indicated that adolescents' academic motivation was influenced by the discussion with their friends. Adolescents whose friendships had many positive features were influenced more than adolescents whose friendships had fewer positive features. Adolescents who perceived more pressure from their friend to agree during the discussions were not influenced as much as adolescents who perceived less pressure.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Berndt, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Social psychology|Developmental psychology|Educational sociology
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