An exploratory study on the presence of cliques within Singapore Polytechnic

GROUP: SPLIT SECONDS

Title : An exploratory study on the presence of cliques within Singapore
Polytechnic.

Date: 7th November 2007 AY 2007/2008, Semester 2

Conducted by:
Chong Wenling (p0557036, DMTM/3A/24)
Wee Kellyn (p0727934, DDM/1B/03)
Jazreel Tan (p0646066, DTRM/2B/04)
Phua Yong Bing (p0743129, DOPT/1B/04)
Dila Bte Yazid (p0716275, DBT/1B/02)
Aisaruddin Bin Shamsuddin (p0747529, DEEE/1A/24)
Terrence Tan Wei Yang (p0658953, DIT/2A/22)
Xie Xiqing Gena (p0627469, DDM/2B/06)


AIM OF STUDY
This study aims to find out:
· Why are there cliques in Singapore Polytechnic?
· What are the factors that cause the formation of cliques?
· What are the pros and cons of having a clique?

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS METHODS
This study employs a qualitative social-psychological research paradigm. The research is conducted in a Singapore Polytechnic. The research takes a total of seven weeks to complete and it stretches from 7th November 2007 to 21st December 2007.

The forms of data collection for the research are as below:

FINDINGS
The findings for this research are as follows:

a) The ultimate definition of a “Clique” is mainly seen to be a group of friends hanging out together with a common interest. However, the definition differs with male and female counterparts. For the female, “Cliques” are a group of friends whom they can talk to openly and have a “common” interest which is mainly shopping which bonds will develop naturally. As for the male, their definition of a “Clique” is also a group of friends hanging out together and their term of “hanging out together” usually refers to soccer and whatnots.

b) Cliques often occur “naturally” based on the research done earlier. However there is other forms in which contributes to the occurrence of a clique. They are class outings (which leads to bonding and thus to the formation of clique), CCA (bonding) and the most interesting one, clubbing (mingling).

c) The necessity of having a “Clique” is said to be a YES. There are in total of 5 Yes’s and only 3 No’s. The main reason for a Yes is said to be that “everyone needs companionship”, “everybody need friends”, “better to have friends than being a loner”, “don’t fancy being a loner and bored to death”, “no clique, no fun”. However not All of them have the same mindset, some independent people begged to differ. Their reasons for a NO are, “We can have friends everywhere, therefore there’s not a need to actually be in a clique”, “it doesn’t harm to be alone”, “do not have to listen to other’s opinion”. There are those who chose between a No and a Yes as they all felt that it actually differs from people to people.

d) The factors that results to the formation of “Clique” are due to common interests and getting along well with one another. However there are some who agrees that popularity plays a major role in having cliques. Example, one of the member is a really known and popular person, others would want to join the clique in order to gain the same popularity standard as that of the “popular” therefore results to more others wanting to join the clique to be popular. Although this is not really a major issue here in Singapore as that in the western countries we see on the silver screen, the typical high school scenario.

e) The pros and cons of having a clique differs from person to person and the great difference can be seen between that of a male’s answer and that of a female’s. The majority pros of having a clique are, having companionships, having a supportive backbone, sharing problems. It is like having a secure feeling that there will always be someone whom will always be there in times of trouble and hardship and never being lonely. While the cons are, having the tendency of hanging out with the same group and getting too dependent to it; sticking to one clique, limited amount of friends, conflicts, disputes. Since having a clique means having to spend lots of time together, there will always be conflicts arising due to misunderstanding and whatnots, it is good to be having frequent time apart so as to minimise the disputes.

f) Based on the research done there will definitely be a smaller clique within a huge clique, say 10. The reasons given were, “Cliques that are big would have internal clique, and most probably lead to tension”, “Big cliques are hard to maintain, and only a matter of time they will split up”, “difficulty in communication”, “slight different clashing personalities”, “and Big groups cannot get along”. There was only one person who claims that having big groups won’t lead to a smaller group as they get along well as they tend to talk things through.

g) Being in a clique gives one a higher social status, based on our research most disagree with it however there are handfuls whom agrees. The reasons on disagreeing is that it is stupid to befriend someone just to make use oh him/her for the social status it thus shows that one is not sincerely a friend. The main reason for agreeing, “gives a sense of popularity” and this two scenarios, “we were the Popular girls and all of us became popular all because of one girl”, “like friend like macho2 one ah, then you also become macho automatically”

h) Based on the research, the ideal number of clique is 3 and having an ideal clique is having the ability to, “do things together and stay out together”, “can have fun together”, “Can communicate well”, “Common interest”, and “getting along well with one another”.

i) When asked one’s feeling if not be in a clique, many gave the same answer, “upset”. The reasons, “Left out because I need a strong sense of security and companionship, after all I came to poly to make friends”, “shows that people don’t like me”, “ Loner”. However there are others who felt nothing as they claimed that they don’t really care unless they have mutual friends having a clique is unnecessary.

j) Based on the research, 8 out of 10 people interviewed happened to be victims of being an outcast. The main reason to this are, “bad experiences on some occasion leads to bad impression”, “due to own character dislike by friends in the clique”, “they said I am weird”. A research was done based on the Virginia Tech Massacre and it was said that the murderer was a victim of being an outcast and that the massacre is the only way to get back at the people dishing him and he developed a great hatred toward everybody and thus it involves the killing of innocent people. The feelings felt by the used-to-be-outcasts, “crappy”, “angry”, “hatred”, “it is unfair that you just cut someone out for puny reasons, it is good to talk things out then to take drastic actions as to cut someone out like that”.

k) People with cliques still makes time for friends out of their cliques and thinks it is fine to be having and hanging out with mutual friend. The reasons are, “expand circle of friends”, “I do, but there would still be some things either party cannot share”, “certain interest might not be the same as the people in own clique”, “circle of friends do not revolve around the clique”, “socializing must still go on”. However there are some who do not socialize with those out of the clique, with reasons, “there will be a point when there is just no more topics to talk about and thus there will be an awkward silence making the situation even more embarrassing”

l) Rivalry between one clique and another is common. The reasons are, “different people have different perspectives”, “jealously over popularity”, “disputes”, “Influence; due to one person in our clique has dispute with another person in another clique”

m) Welcoming peers into a clique may be a little hard for the new comer and they might somehow feel a little left out within the first few days in the clique. The clique members are open with welcoming new “members” with reasons such as “The more the merrier”, however some are not. The reasons are, “I would prefer to not accommodate to them” and “it’s hard to start over”.

From the above findings, the conditions and causes that cause students to form their own cliques are as follows:
· Actions done by individual
It is shown that what the individual do will determine the acceptance by the clique. The individual will try to do his/her best to please the already formed clique. It is to make sure he/she gain the acceptance of the clique.

· The peers
Peers also play an important part. The acceptance of the individual into the clique will be determined by the members of the clique who are the peers.

· Situations
If the clique is newly formed and is seeking members, the individual will automatically be accepted when he/she hangs out with the group from time to time

DISCUSSION
From the research and data collection, we can see different personalities of a person, such as the confidence and the fear of being alone. During the interview, the “ATTITUDE” is shown, that are the affective component (emotional reactions to the attitude object), the cognitive component (thoughts or beliefs about the attitude object) and the behavioural component (actions towards the attitude object).

Human beings are relationship oriented. And we cannot survive alone without having relationships. Some may say they need company; some need confidence, some need attention, and some need security thus resulting people to go find company. And cliques are there to help ease those “problems.”

The results differ from male and female. Females tend to be more dominant and would rather have a smaller clique which is easier to maintain. But males tend to be friendlier and more welcoming towards a bigger clique.

Due to the fact that they have more time to interact with each other, there is a higher chance that miscommunications and misunderstandings will surface. This is because different people have different perspectives under different situations. This might also be one of the reasons why females rather keep a smaller and easier to maintain clique. The males however might not even put this dispute as their setback to seek a bigger clique as males are often described as ‘social animals’.

CONCLUSION

“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” So would you rather stay alone or stick as a group?

Cliques have always been in our lives, as long as you would to have a big group of people (e.g. a company or a school as long as there is a social interaction), cliques are bound to be formed. Cliques are an exclusive group of people who normally share either their social status, the type of interests or even similar personalities etc. Cliques can be the beginning of a long lasting friendship or just another part of the social circle that you would just consider as acquaintances.

Cliques are also known as reference groups. A reference group can be comparative or normative. A normative clique or reference group is the source of values and beliefs for each individual. The comparative clique or reference group is a standard of comparison by which the individual evaluates himself as well as others.

The effects of being in a clique can be positive or negative. Inclusion in a clique gives an individual a type of peer acceptance, however, a clique can hinder peer acceptance and damage an individual’s self-image and self-confidence.