A Descriptive Study on Peer Group Influence in an Individual’s Decision-Making

Abstract

The Rotary Club of Cabuyao, Laguna - Ladies' Circle has been giving career orientations to several schools in Cabuyao for the past few years. This time, they (Rotary Club) decided to change the format of the career orientation. They decided to make an audio-visual presentation of the career orientation, to make it more interesting, appealing and apt to the taste of high school students. They want to air it on the community cable for the students, together with the other sectors that subscribe to the community cable. And to help Rotary in this project of theirs, nine students were tasked to do a research on the different factors and reasons that could help answer that question why their high school graduates do not pursue higher education. Education has always been important, especially to us Filipinos. The researcher and the other related studies affirm that there are a lot of factors that contribute to Laguna's, specifically, Cabuyao's problem. Social factors such as: financial, economic, etcetera. But, this study focuses on that factor where an individual does not function alone and indeed, acknowledge those people around him or her, which is his or her peer or group. This study alone focuses on the extent of peer influence in an individual's decision making, if they acknowledge peer influence and do the students of Cabuyao, Laguna know that peer influence exists. Furthermore, the primary goal objective of this study is to know, as to what extent does peer group influence an individual's decision making. The framework used by the researcher is taken from the book Our Social World, by Forsyth, Donelson R., 1995. This particular framework focuses on several concepts: the individual, social influence, types of opinions, and decision-making according to opinions. The researcher used the student as the individual and the peer or group as the social influence. The three types of opinions discussed are the conversion opinion, which states that an individual, a student for that matter, would have a change in opinion or judgments, when he or she personally agrees with the group. And in this type of opinion, an individual would do and say what the group would. The second opinion, which is the compliance opinion states that an individual accepts the group'' beliefs, but still maintaining his or her own. The decision that would entail this type is that the individual, even though disagreeing with the group, would still do what the group would. The third type, which is independence states that, an individual, would not be afraid to voice out his or her own opinion, whether it conforms with the group or not. The decision that the individual would make, having this type of opinion would be that he or she would do what he or she wants regardless of his or her group's opinions on the matter. The researcher used the descriptive-explanatory design. Descriptive because this study aims to describe as to what extent peer influences an individual. Explanatory because this study further explains the concept of peer influence together with the extent of peer influence in decision-making. The researcher used two tools in data gathering. First is the questionnaire to ask specific questions and the focus group discussion, so that the researcher could know what the respondent wants to say and explain, and if he or she wants to go deeper into the topic. Respondents were 100 students from Cabuyao National High School that is for the questionnaire. For the focus group discussion (FGD), there were five students from the same school who are randomly picked in order to conduct the said tool for data gathering. From the data gathered, the researcher is able to conclude that indeed, a peer or group influences an individual in his or her attitude and in other things. But, although the respondents admit that they are influenced by their peer or group, when it comes to decisions like their education, whether to pursue it or not, the individual decides for himself or herself. It is still what he or she wants that would prevail. Which at the same time answers the researcher's inquiry as to what extent does peer influence an individual's decision making. A group influences an individual to shape him or her into what he or she is, but when it comes to decisions, like going to college or choosing a course. to take, it is still the individual who will decide.