Influencia social y toma de decisiones. Análisis de los discursos de jóvenes universitarios entre 18 a 25 años de Quito, Ecuador durante el 2022

Abstract

The current investigation work, concerns the topic of social influence and decision-making, which is framed within the field of social psychology. This manifestation has been placed as a central topic of analysis in different branches, such as economics, marketing, politics and psychology due to its huge impact on individual and collective behavior according to the demands of social environments. The methodological proposal of the project is based on a descriptive qualitative approach, which seeks to determine the relationship between social influence and decision-making in young university students. To the process of data collection, analysis and interpretation, semi-structured interviews were made and divided into categories of analysis and finally interpreted from the participants discourse. The criterion of the population, corresponds to eight young university students in total, four male and four female between 18 and 25 years old for each university (Universidad Politécnica Nacional, Universidad Central del Ecuador, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador and Universidad San Francisco de Quito). These participants were selected from a non-probabilistic sampling for convenience. The results which were obtained from the investigation work, suggest that social rejection and group pressure are closely present in the relationships, group interactions and decision-making of the participants.