Sarah's Night Out

Sarah’s Night out

Rebecca Nickerson

PSY 201

Sunday March 20, 2014

Professor, Amy Baker

Sarah’s story is actually something a lot of us can relate to. We are under a lot of peer pressure in today’s society and the interaction of kids from back in the day is completely different. We rely on technology and we do not get to take the time to actually enjoy interacting with other students. Sarah had a lot of decisions in her story to decide on and a lot of factors with regards to interacting with other students in a brand new school.

There are many factors that contributed toward Sarah’s attitude. She has never been in any trouble before so curfew should not have been an issue. She also gets good grades and is a follows the rules by the book. One time coming home late is not going to cause any trouble. She does not think or try to rationalize what the consequences are thought because she has never been in trouble. Even though she has to have an inkling that she may be in trouble, she definitely thought it was going to be an issue because of her good girl status. She always had followed the rules that people put in front of her.

Another factor is the new friends that wanted her to go to the party. Sarah wanted to impress them especially being a new student. Sarah might not have had many or any friends before so she wanted to make sure to make a good impression, not only to the girls, but to the boys as well. My friend has moved around a lot and has been and started in new schools. Making friends and fitting in is one of the biggest challenges with today’s kids. When you enter into a new school new friends can also be exciting, however some kids feel partying is better than concentrating on her school work. The idea and thought of going to a party excited Sarah more because she had never been to one. Sarah was trying to impress these friends by doing things she had never done.

The ways Sarah displayed cognitive dissonance was her excitement of having new...