Talk:Adolescent clique

Wikipedia Ambassador Program assignment
This article is the subject of an educational assignment at King's University College supported by the Wikipedia Ambassador Program&#32;during the 2012 Q3 term. Further details are available on the course page.

Above message substituted from on 15:23, 7 January 2023 (UTC)

Types of Cliques
I moved some of the previous content around to make more sense, and added a section for middle school cliques. Please leave me a comment if there are any problems. Thanks!

Tdb17 (talk) 00:14, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

Removal of See Also and External Link section
I think that these two sections should be removed, because they add little to the article. Instead of See Also section, relevant internal links can and should be used. Is anyone opposed to this? Rebecita.angle 22:15, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Strange picture
That picture seems really odd: surely there is something better? Turnstep 19:00, Apr 6, 2005 (UTC)
 * I'm removing it. It's illogical. --Sn0wflake 23:07, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Social Groups and World Events
Studying world history spanning the centuries it becomes noticeable that more often than not the wrong people become the leaders. There are exceptions, of course, Ghandi being one of them.
 * Ghandi is not without criticism

If leaders are people who are driven by the need for acceptance, and are willing to exact pain and suffering upon those who do not meet their personal needs, then it is likely that those people should not be leaders.

Rather, those people who excel in a craft, or science, or any given human endeavor, should be taught leadership and allowed to practice it.

Cliques (or gangs in many instances) become a defining force for individuals. The leaders of cliques often become the leaders of countries, transnational corporations, and social institutions worldwide, and because of that cliques are social objects that should be thoroughly studied. The manipulation of clique behavior might better serve societal goals if that behavior is integrated into social systems rather than peripheral to them.

Clique behavior has been integrated to some degree in the more formalized activities and events such as sports programs and debate teams. The observation is that in these activities the team and program goals define the social behavior and social stratification within the group.

It may be interesting to find that less formal activities, such as water cooler discussions and power lunches, assign disproportionate meaning to unstructured behavior, and so allow a greater possibility of unhealthy social outcomes.

Related:

Interpersonal Configurations and Cliques

Populars and other cliques

Intergroup Conflict and Cooperation: The Robbers Cave Experiment

Xmo1 12:11, 11 February 2006 (UTC)

Pariahs/outcasts
Not a big issue, but I don't like the inconsistent terminology used for outcast. early in the article the term ``pariah" is used while it is later replaced in favor of ``outcast".

Feminist Bias
This Article dosent say anything about boys cliques or even list common cliques. someone please clean this up.


 * Well first of all, it wouldn't be feminist bias because that would imply that this article is biased for/against feminists, depending on how one looks at it. Anyways, cliques are simply more common in females. Cliques exist in males but not to as much of an extent. --72.226.224.251 17:55, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

''I can assure you that this article is not only feminist biased but also toward the juvenile. Cliques exist in the adult world and can be male, female or mixed. For example, attractive confident queen bee greatly influences male leaders for example. Also I think there are more than two roles - coming from two groups, insiders and outsiders. This article only describes two.'' --Dixx 22:09, 7 May 2006 (UTC)Dixx.
 * I took out the part that mentions that it's thought to be more prominent among women, and politics. Replaced politics with workplace. added nearly to a generalization that said, "...all cliques have some sort of power structure"  Also removed "Thus, it is inaccurate to describe all social groups of teenagers as cliques, as often said groups do not have any particular power structure."  Looked up a defintion of clique in a dictionary, it's simply an exclusive group of friends, often with a common factor, such as purpose or belief.  (ie a bunch of goths, or with a nod to Hunter's little known "Freak Hallway", a bunch of "freaks")

Pronunciation
Is the pronunication written supposed to be read as a homophone of the word "click"? Although I am aware of this pronunication (which I think is particularly common in America), I believe the more classical pronunciation is somewhat like "cleek". (This agrees with its origin as a French loanword.)

I do not know what phonetic standard Wikipedia recommends for writing out pronunciations, but perhaps both should be included at least for the sake of comparison. Could someone else knowledgeable in these matters update the pronunciation?


 * Unfortunately, I don't know how to code IPA (but who does, anyway? Esperanto-speakers?).  I think it would probably be sufficient to say that some Americans say pronounce the word "click" to rhyme with "stick", and everybody else says "cleek", to rhyme with "peek". 32.97.110.142 23:09, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Bad Article
The person who wrote this watched "Mean Girls" one too many times.


 * thats exactly what I was thinking. Not neccesarily a bad article, but the wrong type of tone. However I don't have the slightest clue how to fix it so I shouldn't complain. Bawolff 07:00, 8 June 2006 (UTC)


 * I have to agree. I think all the "queen bee" stuff needs to be reworked - I don't think real-life cliques are as structured as this article explains.  I just can't figure how to reword it myself.


 * I would like to see more of an evolutionary / psychological definition without any sort of moral standpoint to it. This article seems to want to talk about clique as the preconception of a clique, than to talk about clique as what it actually may be. Cliques seem to be nearly universal in our youth culture so how could they just be chalked up to kids being 'bad'? Phonemic IPA should be in /'s.


 * I agree with the "Mean Girls" statement, immensely. Having glasses and a watch doesn't make a person smart, preps are hated by many people, goths, emos, skaters, and many others are omitted completely(as far as secondary school cliques go), and jocks aren't all powerful.  Also, being a nerd doesn't mean you're lonely, or undesirable in any way, being one myself, I know, I have quite a few friends, of both genders...it's not difficult, or a stretch of the imagination.  Just basic misunderstanding of the entire clique concept is shown in this article, making a simple friendship with similarities(such as rich preps or black clad goths) seem like some kind of fraternity or occult initiation process.

I definitely agree that this article needs to be reworked. One sentence that really jumped out at me was "Cliques may also be a source of distraction from studies, both for clique members and for the outcasts they victimize." Doesn't seem very NPOV to me. Not all cliques "victimize" non-members. This article seems like it was written by someone who had a bad time at high school and is now trying to make cliques seem like a malevolent presence. --Sidhebolg 07:07, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

political cliques
Uh, cliques are also military alliances formed within warlords. Elle vécut heureuse à jamais  (Be eudaimonic!) 01:44, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Yeah...I heard that before. Hmp ;). -- hello, i'm a member  |  talk to me!  06:48, 18 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Is this use of the word only common in Chinese translation? That's the only place I've heard it as such (as a modern example, the "Dalai clique"). 130.85.251.16 (talk) 15:42, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
 * For me this was and is the main meaning of the word, e.g.the Shanghai clique, Guangtung cliques etc, however this wordseems to have been hijacked by the American and teenage centric useof this word. KTo288 (talk) 07:32, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Problems with this article

 * 1) American centric
 * 2) Youth centric
 * 3) Female centric
 * 4) Human centric (Yes, cliqueish behavior can be seen in animals)
 * 5) Where are the references??? (I didn't see a single one)
 * 6) Reads like it was written by a teenager
 * 7) Pro & Con list

I re-worked the intro, and made the pro & con list look less like a pro & con list, but the article still needs a lot of work. I thought I'd leave a note here so people have my ideas to work with. ~ ONUnicorn (Talk / Contribs) 18:23, 26 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Since this has been tagged for clean-up forever and had so many problems I have now cut about half the content from the article; reducing it to a stub and "see also" section. ~  ONUnicorn (Talk problem solving 17:25, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

A Mess
Decided to lose half the article about the ridiculous game called 'bully' as it is irrelevant. Also, i removed the family clique information as it was ungrounded and technically a clique concerns only unrelated peoples 'with common interests' as the article states. --EvansUK 10:03, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Ridiculous
Cliques are really a natural and inevitable part of human nature whether manifesting in highschool cafs or high politics.Once you are in a clique it takes time to learn. Yet this article goes out of its way to make them sound ominous and evil, invoking Zhilis, Nazis and (unidentified) people from the Middle East. Get a sense of balance morons! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.252.48.239 (talk) 05:41, 25 September 2007 (UTC) Not only high school, but also primary school, university and workplace!194.141.3.17 (talk) 01:22, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

Does No One Even Care About Content Anymore?
The table of contents doesn't even match the article. 72.0.175.144 (talk) 03:51, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

Umm... This book is Amazing OMG i love the brateniess in the book its like real life plus it keeps the book suspenceful!!! Ita a MUST read!!!1 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.225.245.209 (talk) 23:00, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Definition should be updated.
A clique (IPA:/'kliːk/, pronounced /'klɪk/ by some Americans) is an exclusive group of people who share interests, views, purposes, patterns of behavior, or ethnicity.[1] A clique as a reference group can be either normative or comparative. Members of a clique will try to exclude others from the group and are often seen as bullies. This is because they tend to outnumber people when arguing.

The final sentence is a non-sequitur and has no relevance to the definition of a clique.

The second to last sentence is biased and should read: Membership in a clique is often, but not necessarily exclusive, and qualifications for membership may be social or essential to the nature of the clique.

According to http://www.thefreedictionary.com/clique - cliques are not always exclusive therefore I believe the definition should be changed to reflect this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mouseodoom (talk • contribs) 14:53, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Planning to update
I am a senior year Psychology major and I plan to update this article as a final project in my Seminar on Adolescent Development. In the upcoming weeks I will be expanding this article a great deal. Below you will see an outline of the new material, which will be accurate, current, and well cited. If no one minds, I will delete and replace most of what's up now. However, if deleting this work would offend any one, I'm willing to incorporate the existing sentences in the new material. I also plan to delete the irrelevant note on graph theory unless any one is opposed. If anyone has any objections to this plan, please let me know.

Intro Definitions Distinction from peer groups [link] Membership misconceptions: apply to both genders and all levels of popularity Types of membership: Group Members, Liasons, Isolates Stability and Change within individuals within cliques

Within Clique Structure Heirarchy within the Clique Studies have identified standard roles for girls and standard roles for boys Status maintenance New membership: Invitation vs. Application Popularity 2 kinds: Sociometic & Percieved Predictors of both Long-term Effects of Popularity Rejection Popularity (by type)

Between Clique Structure Hierarchy of cliques within peer groups much like individuals within a clique Selection & Socialization: Clique members group together because similar and become more similar over time. Major Determinants of shared group identity and status: -Orientation toward school -Orientation toward teen culture, & -Involvement in antisocial Behavior: Broken down into studies on 1. Aggression 2. Substance Use and 3. Depression Demographic Factors -Age -Socioeconomic Status -Ethnicity (effects of academic tracking, effects of sustance use) -Gender

Decline of Clique Behavior Sex cleavage begins in early childhood -Early adolescence - single gender cliques emerge -Middle adolescence - single gender cliques socialize together, but largely interact within own clique. -Late adolescence – couple form, attention shifts, cliques and organized peer groups replaced by loosely associated sets of couples (which will remain the norm).

Discussion -Contrary to popular belief, cliques aren’t inherently bad. They’re part of normative social development in our culture and can even be beneficial in these ways… -However can clearly also be detrimental … so how can we help? -Group Interventions don’t work and often cause Iatrogenic Effects via Deviancy Training. -Families do seem to have more power than previously thought — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chelthom (talk • contribs) 16:14, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

Updated
I rewrote this article to be more accurate, better cited, and include far more information. It is still more America-centric than I would like, but that's what was in the literature. It may also be too long but I'm not sure what to cut. What do you guys think? I'd really love it if anyone else has something to add or cares to help edit! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chelthom (talk • contribs) 20:14, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Deceptive titling
This is a good start for an article on adolescent cliques, but hardly an article on clique social structures at large. There are a number of societies and cultural groups that rely on cliques extensively, across age- and gender-limits. Examples include clique structures in organized crime, business, and politics. Somebody who is /not/ specialized in child psych or sociological studies of adolescents (or, rather, getting undergraduate degrees in those fields) needs to retitle this article to "teen cliques" or something and write a reasonable, general article on clique sturctures without the overt disciplinary and cultural bias that currently dominates the article. 156.98.129.16 (talk) 16:15, 1 May 2012 (UTC)
 * This article is both better and worse than my last complaint about it in 2008 (see above), it no longer reads as if it was written by a gaggle of LiLo wannabes, however the professional gloss and credentials given to it by the psych students means that the worrd clique here has further been hijacked to mean adolescent cliques, adult cliques being dismissed with the single line-"Although similar cliques may re-emerge in adulthood in specific contexts characterized by large, undifferentiated, anonymous crowds, overall, cliques are a transitory social phase"- well just because they are harder to study- being better able to resist the intrusions of graduate researchers-doesn't mean they don't exist. This week this appeared in the news {http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9648949/Camerons-clique-network-bars-women-claims-Dame.html Cameron’s clique network bars women, claims Dame}}, and before Cameron there was Blair's Kitchen Cabinet, groups to which the words "large, undifferentiated, anonymous crowds" do not apply.--KTo288 (talk) 11:49, 2 November 2012 (UTC)

Editing
I have decided to edit this article for Psych 2410A at King’s 2012 Charlesdavybrown (talk) 13:55, 3 October 2012 (UTC)

I will be adding the article "Clique Membership and Social Adjustment in Children's Same-Gender Cliques: The Contribution of the Type of Clique to Children's Self-Reported Adjustment". I will also be adding a more elaborate description of cliques and the effects they have on children's social and emotional well-being.

I have decided to edit this article for Psych 2410A at Kings UWO 

I will be making three steps to improve this article 1) including the article "Change and Stability in Childhood Clique Membership, Isolation From Cliques, and Associated Child Characteristics" by Miranda Witvliet, Pol A.C. van Lier, Pim Cuijpers, and Hans M. Koot, 2010 2) fixing and adjusting the section "between Clique structure" by editing the grammar and adding more depth to the subtopics. 3) adding visuals to the page including diagrams and various visual aids with descriptions allowing further understanding 

I have decided to edit this article for Psych 2410A at King’s 2012 Tmihalop (talk) 04:49, 20 September 2012 (UTC)

I will be making the following three steps to improve this article:1)describing some of the types of cliques 2)creating a new "cliques in schools" subheading and expanding on the effects of cliques in schools 3)including the article "Longitudinal Associations Between Clique Membership Status and Internalizing and Externalizing Problems During Late Childhood" by Miranda Witvliet, Pol A. C. van Lier, Mara Brendgen, Hans M. Koot, & Frank Vitaro, 2010. Tmihalop (talk) 01:41, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

Doing copy editing for my CSC class here. made some changes on march 3rd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Carmyd/sandbox2  Open to suggestion on specifics anyone wants me to fix. So far, I've picked up on some punctuation issues  Carmyd (talk) 18:10, 5 March 2014 (UTC)

I am doing copy editing for my CSC104 class on this article. To improve this article i will be focusing most of my time on spelling, grammar, punctuation and capitalization issues. So far, i have found several issues in the area i am looking under. Here is a link to my sandbox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Lolasoji/sandbox I am open to any suggestions on how to improve this article even more. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lolasoji (talk • contribs) 03:54, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

removal of content
almost everything within the sections "Types of American cliques" and "Within clique structure" seems to be essentially unfounded (and crucially, uncited) assertions based on flawed and ridiculous tropes. i seriously think it's worth considering removing those sections altogether. Farleigheditor (talk) 21:22, 15 December 2020 (UTC)


 * This entire article reads like a piece of fiction. Should be scrapped and entirely rewritten with evidence. donnellan Donnellan0007 (talk) 09:10, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
 * I agree. The tone and content of these sections suggest that they were written by young adolescents themselves. Bernsteinnn (talk) 22:04, 9 March 2024 (UTC)

Page deletion
I have nominated this page for deletion. Many issues have been raised with this article for the better part of 20 years. It's time that it either was deleted, or a serious and in-depth re-write took place recentlyryan RecentlyRyan 11:21, 18 May 2024 (UTC)