Group pressure is a social phenomenon, the essence of which is that people within the community feel compelled to agree with a certain opinion, if it is supported by the majority in the environment. This is a kind of tool with the help of which a society (group) affects an individual, creating a certain framework for a person that makes him obey the requirements of the environment.
Group pressure can be formulated in different ways: coercion, demand, request, and simply the existence of society and its expectations. A group member has the choice to obey or not to obey community pressure. In addition, you can obey to varying degrees: from the adoption of the norms of the group, to pretense. The process of group pressure exists where there is a conflict between the individual and the opinion of the environment. A measure of resistance to the environment is the level of subordination to the group when the opinion of the environment is perceived by the person in the form of a conflict. Distinguish external subordination, when her opinion is accepted only externally, but in fact, the individual resists, and internal, in this case, the individual actually supports the majority opinion. Internal submission is the result of overcoming the conflict in favor of the group.
An individual can put forward his own demands on the environment in relation to himself. This causes conflicts between an individual and a group. The nomination of one's own environmental requirements serves as the reason for exemption from liability for actions.
The phenomenon of group pressure has another name in social psychology - conformism. At the level of everyday perception, group pressure was recorded in the tale of the naked king.
The reason for submitting to such pressure is the lack of experience in making decisions individually due to the fear of the unknown, independence, responsibility, life in which no one will tell you how to do it.
In studies of the influence of community pressure, another position of the individual in relation to the group was revealed - the position of negativity. When pressure is exerted on an individual, resistance to pressure arises, which at first glance seems to be an independent position, because the standards of society are denied. But this is only at first glance, negativism can be perceived as a form of extreme denial of pressure. In fact, negativism is not true independence; on the contrary, it is a specific variant of submission, but only inside out. After all, if an individual aims at resistance to a group, then he depends on it, since he needs to actively defend the anti-group position, and therefore be attached to the opinion of the community. Therefore, the position opposing the pressure of the environment is independence and independence. Group pressure exists only where there is a conflict between the environment and the individual, and overcoming the conflict is in favor of the group.
Exemption from excessive group pressure and the formation of a free partnership with the environment, with another individual requires renouncing claims for guardianship from others, for living in a protected world, for some guarantees for the future. Unfortunately, such a decision may not be affordable for everyone, the desire to preserve childhood dreams can defeat, which will force us to continue to seek support in the group, in religion, and so on. Together with the illusion of security, they prefer group pressure and the fear of being rejected for disobedience. And the individual who has chosen responsibility is free from submission to the pressure of society. Such an individual gets the opportunity to apply group pressure for good, using it as a motivation for mobilization.