Peers are a pervasive aspect of our social life. They entail a broad range of people who surround us in our everyday lives from early childhood until old age. Members of the same classroom, community, work or sports team constitute important and highly salient peer-group contexts. In addition, we seek and maintain a number of dyadic relationships with peers, such as with a close friend, an acquaintance, a flat mate, a colleague, a fellow student or a neighbor. Considering the omnipresence of peers in our lives, it is likely that they influence who we are. This might be particularly true in contemporary society, in which people switch partners more often than in the past and in which families are spread out over larger distances changes that might render peers an influential social factor.

See Samples Undergraduate Project Materials And Research Topics For Students

Peer group has a lot to do with personality development this is because of their dynamic interplay which has been considered to play a key role in personality maturation, because identities are not construed by individuals alone but negotiated in social interaction processes between individuals.

PEER GROUP

Peers are defined as ‘belonging to the same societal group especially based on age, grade, or statuses. Similarly, peers tend to resemble each other concerning individual characteristics. This is called homophile and is captured in the notion that ‘birds of a feather flock together’. In younger life phases, peer groups tend to be homogeneous concerning individual characteristics such as gender, age, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity. For instance, children and adolescents tend to segregate into groups of the own gender and age. This homogeneity decreases from middle adolescence on. In adulthood, peer networks become much more gender-integrated than in adolescence. Similarly, age homogeneity decreases with the decreasing influence of institutions that create opportunities for contact with peers of the same age, such as school.
Peer group is both a social group and a primary group of people who have similar interests (homophile), age, background, or social status. The members of this group are likely to influence the person's beliefs and behavior.
During adolescence, peer groups tend to face dramatic changes. Adolescents tend to spend more time with their peers and have less adult supervision. Adolescents' communication shifts during this time as well. They prefer to talk about school and their careers with their parents, and they enjoy talking about sex and other interpersonal relationships with their peers. Children look to join peer groups who accept them, even if the group is involved in negative activities. Children are less likely to accept those who are different from them.
At an early age, the peer group becomes an important part of socialization. Unlike other agents of socialization, such as family and school, peer groups allow children to escape the direct supervision of adults. Among peers, children learn to form relationships on their own, and have the chance to discuss interests that adults may not share with children, such as clothing and popular music, or may not permit, such as drugs and sex. Peer groups can have great influence or peer pressure on each other's behavior, depending on the amount of pressure. However, currently more than 23 percent of children globally lack enough connections with their age group, and their cognitive, emotional and social development is delayed than other kids.

PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

Personality development encompasses the dynamic construction and deconstruction of integrative characteristics that distinguish an individual in terms of interpersonal behavioral traits. Indeed, personality development is ever-changing and subject to contextual factors and life-altering experiences.
Personality development also refers to how the organized patterns of behavior that make up each person's unique personality emerge over time. Many factors go into influencing personality, including genetics, environment, parenting, and societal variables.
TYPES OF PERSONALITY
The Following are the main types of personality
1. Introvert and extrovert personalities
2. Type A and type B personalities
3. Judging and perceptive personalities
Introvert personalities
Introvert persons with introvert orientation are primarily oriented to the subjected world. They look inward, process their thoughts and ideas within themselves. They also avoid social contacts and initiating interaction with other group members.
Extrovert personalities
Simply speaking extrovert is just contrary to introverts. They refer to the level of comfort ability with relationship to others. They represents active, assertive, talkative, outgoing, social energetic and ambitious.
Type A and type B personalities
Type A- these people are known for their hard working personality and high achievement oriented. They are also impatient and aggressive with competitive drive etc. such people are known to be very productive.
Type B: they are easy-going, sociable and free spirited. They are also non-competitive which is typical of type B personality.
Judging and perceptive personalities
These people do better on tasks involving accuracy rather than speed and team work. They are highly judgmental. They like to follow a plan, make decisions and need only what is essential for their work.
PEER GROUP AND PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT AMONG YOUTHS
Socialization in peer groups becomes an increasingly important determinant of personality development that accounts, for example, in large parts for personality differences between siblings. Siblings may as well experience environmental differences. Siblings who grow up in the same family become different from each other not only because 50% of their genes differ, but also because they belong to different peer groups. The importance of peers is beyond adolescence, peers account for a substantial share of variance in lifespan personality development. Peer-group processes of within-group assimilation lead to peer-group members’ personalities becoming more similar over time; at the same time, between-group differences increase. Nevertheless, peer-group members also differ in their personality development, which is driven by unique dyadic relationship experiences.
Adolescence is a period during which great differentiation takes place on the social terrain. Although adolescents are still close to their parents, they spend increasingly more time with their friends. Their physical and emotional dependence on their parents decreases and they move closer to the peer group. During this time, the personality development of adolescents (specifically identity formation) reaches a crisis point, and the development of a unique and stable personality is often a very difficult aspect to deal with. The peer group has a stronger influence on the personality development of the adolescent than parents, brothers, sisters, family, friends, teachers, or any other adults. To a large extent, that which a person becomes is, therefore, a result of heredity and the person's relationship with the pee r group and, to a lesser extent, a result of parent relationships.
Peer relationships also provide a unique context in which children learn a range of critical social emotional skills, such as empathy, cooperation, and problem-solving strategies. Peer relationships can also contribute negatively or positively to overall personality development as well as social emotional development through bullying, exclusion, and deviant peer processes.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, peers are a pervasive aspect of our social lives that impact us from childhood to old age. Whereas individual peer characteristics vary between life phases, equality matching characterizes peer relationships across the entire lifespan. The concrete manifestations of reciprocal exchange can, however, manifest in different forms over the lifespan, and thus, the roles and functions of peers can differ across life phases. By pointing to the complex nature of peers and their specific but sustained relevance across different life phases.
Peer groups can influence personality development by defining peer-group norms that increase similarity among group members and explain differences between peer groups. Dyadic peer relationships influence personality development by dyad-specific interaction patterns and relationship characteristics that increase individual differences. As such, they account for differences in personality development within peer groups.
Finally, the peer group has a stronger influence on the personality development of the adolescent than parents, brothers, sisters, family, friends, teachers, or any other adults. To a large extent, that which a person becomes is, therefore, a result of heredity and the person's relationship with the pee r group and, to a lesser extent, a result of parent relationships.

Informative Post. Thanks for sharing the most informative Post. Get much more information at TSPSC Online Preparation