Some Relationships of Peer Liking Patterns in the Classroom to Pupil Attitudes and Achievement

Since the important research contributions of Whyte,2 Newcomb,8 Lewin, Lippitt, and White,4 Reisman,5 Coleman,6 and others, laymen, youth workers, and social scientists have been interested in understanding the mechanisms by which peer groups influence their members. Some explorations of juvenile delinquents7 and of industrial work groups8 have focused systematically on these mechanisms. Also some current research concerning peer-group influences is being undertaken in the context of educational inquiry, especially in studies on school and classroom milieu. Along these lines, several new theoretical analyses9 and empirical studies'1 directly relate peergroup processes to the academic motivations and successes of individual pupils. These contributions leave little doubt concerning the interrelatedness of youth friendship patterns and norms on the one hand; and the school-related attitudes, self-concepts, and performances of individual pupils on the other. However, even with this current interest in school peer culture, few studies present in detail empirical associations between interpersonal processes of school peer groups, the psychological processes of individual pupils, and pupil behavior in the classroom. In reviewing studies on classroom peer groups we have been able to derive social psychological organization and continuity among the results of research only by integrating findings from studies using various concepts and methods. Of course, when a number of different pieces of research are described side by side, they do tend to