Interview with Paul Zager

Interview with Paul Zager

Prepared by Nick Goldsmith

On April 12, 2010, I conducted an interview with marriage, family, and child therapist (MFT) Paul Zager in his office on 946 Irving Street in San Francisco. Mr. Zager is a licensed MFT who has his own private therapy practice and also works for the San Francisco Unified School District as a special education teacher. He attended Sonoma State University where he received his Bachelors degree in Humanistic Psychology. He received his masters from San Francisco State University for Counseling with a marriage, family, and child emphasis. Paul works with families and married couples but he specializes with children and teens that have school and family issues. It is with this specialization that Mr. Zager brings excellent knowledge and experience on child and adolescent peer pressure. Paul’s time on the San Francisco Unified School District also has given him first hand experience in seeing peer pressure occur in the San Francisco school system. When asked for the origin of peer pressure, Paul stated that the beginning of puberty is when adolescents start to become susceptible to peer pressure. He identified puberty as the slow process in which one’s identity begins to change. These changes happen mentally and physically to the child. The girl or boy in puberty begins to feel insecure because he or she does not feel like a child or an adult. They feel awkwardly stuck in the middle. This feeling is the basis for peer pressure. This awkward phase makes teens more dependent on each other for comfort and security. With this dependency, teenagers form groups or cliques. These groups are the ultimate source of peer pressure. Teens either want to be in one these groups or they want to remain in a group. Teens want to feel accepted by the group, so their feelings of insecurity vanish. It is this feeling of wanting acceptance that defines adolescent peer pressure. In other words, peer pressure occurs because teens want to feel accepted by the peers and their peers’ social groups in order to feel secure. Paul also added that peer pressure leads to conformity, drug use, experimentation, and that he has seen peer pressure occur as early as preschool. Lastly, Paul stated that popular social groups have strong influence over their peers. They often enable members of the group to use drugs and they set the social norms of the school.
When I walked into Mr. Zager’s office I was received very warmly. He introduced himself, shook my hand, and thanked me for coming all the way to his office for this interview. His positive and upbeat attitude continued throughout the interview. He responded to every one of my questions and gave me sincere responses. His attitude helped the interview go smoothly and helped me to ease my nerves.
Prior to arriving at Paul Zager’s office, I knew that teenage social groups or cliques were important factors in peer pressure influencing teenage drug and alcohol use. I wanted to learn more as to why cliques are so influential in leading their members and outsiders to experimenting or using drugs. Paul responded to my inquiry by saying that cliques resemble security. Outsiders of the group visualize group members as being without insecurities. This thought makes the clique popular and outsiders begin to idolize the group. The group most likely uses drugs and the outsiders begin to idolize the group members’ drug use. This idolization leads to experimentation. This experimentation can then lead to drug use due to peer pressure and other factors. A second thing I learned that I expected to learn was that insecurity is the biggest factor of peer pressure. When Paul told me this I was not surprised. A teen feeling insecure about them will most likely do anything, including drugs, to feel secure.
It was surprising when Paul said that the earliest age he has seen peer pressure occur is in preschool. It was hard for me to fathom that pre-school aged children could actually peer pressure other children. I thought that they were not mature enough to influence others and that they were incapable of feeling insecure. I definitely did not expect to learn this but was fascinated by it and has given me more knowledge on the subject.
I was glad that I conducted the interview. The interview gave me new information on the subject of peer pressure. I will use this information in my project, especially when I write the background for my social justice project. It also gave me a new perspective on peer pressure. This allowed me to have a better perspective on peer pressure and its influence on adolescent drug use. Lastly, It was really cool to interact with someone who has knowledge on peer pressure because his opinions were unique and substantial.