Understanding influences on behaviour

2. Place the 8 pieces of the butcher's paper around the rooms.
3. Split students into 8 groups and explain to students that they will be conducting a graffiti walk. Tell students to place a tick next to a comment if it was something that they would have written.

Trigger warning: Walk around the room to check what is being written to ensure there is no disclosures of abuse. 

Teaching tip: You may want to put music on to keep up the energy or use a timer for how long groups should stay with their butchers paper. 

4. Review the completed sheets as a whole class and identify the most common responses on each sheet (as identified by the number of ticks). Whiteboard these or highlight the top responses on the sheet.

5. Ask:

   How does it feel to be influenced in a negative way to do something?

            (Not very nice, mean, sad)

   How does it feel to be influenced in a positive way to do something?

            (Helped, cared for, bit annoyed if you don't want to do it)

   Which influences are easier to handle? Positive ones or negative ones. Why?

             (Encouraging you to do something you want to do, or should do, you already agree with them)

   How can you avoid some of the negative influences?

   (Using positive self-talk, using optimistic thinking, choosing different friends, gaining some knowledge or skills, being assertive)

   Have you heard of the term 'peer pressure' before? What do you think it means?

            (Peer pressure is when someone who is your age tries to get you to do something that you don't want to do)

   Give one example each of when peer pressure can be a good and/or a bad thing. Why?

   Why do some young people give in to negative peer pressure?

            (Want to fit in, don't realise it is bad)

   How might influence from your parents or adult family members be different from your friends or siblings?

   (They are adults so influence our behaviour more, assume they know best, you should do as they say)

   Do you think your family or your friends have more influence over how you behave?

   How might this change as you get older?

   How does access to the internet on devices such as mobile phones affect young people's relationships with each other? How can you make sure you maintain healthy relationships?

            (Means you can be pressured even though they are not there, pressure to do cool things you see online.)

   Do you sometimes feel pressured to do something even though your family or friends may not have said or done anything to pressure you? In other words, the pressure is something you create for yourself with certain self-talk? 

   (young people often feel like they need to wear the same clothes or have the same hairstyles as their friends, or smoke or drink with their friends, so they ‘fit in’ even though their friends may not have put any pressure on them to conform.)   

6. Explain that influence or pressure can be both a positive thing and a negative thing, e.g. your friends can influence you be nice to the new kid at school or be mean to others.
7. Explain that pressure can be external (when friends, family or people in the media do or say things to persuade us to do something they want) or internal (when we put pressure on ourselves to behave in a certain way, perhaps to please or be like friends, family or people in the media).
8. Ask for examples of both internal and external pressure.
9. Ask students to re-group and examine one graffiti sheet sheet. The group decides whether the influence in each situation is external (things other people say or do) or internal (thoughts that put pressure on ourselves), and also whether the influence is positive or negative. Different attitudes may result in conflicting answers!