In the movie “The Breakfast Club” there are several social psychological principles occurring during the course of the film. The film focuses on five students, Claire, Brian, Andrew, Allison, and John, or “Bender” as he more commonly referred to. The students arrive at their high school to serve a Saturday detention sentence. The central plot revolves around each of the characters personal lives, personal characteristics, and relationships, and how they each develop over the course of the film. While there are several social psychological principles that were present in the film the major principles that truly stood out included: the cognitive dissonance theory, stereotypes, and conformity. Each of these principles can be seen in several …show more content…
The scene occurs after Claire takes Allison into the bathroom and gives her a makeover. The scene includes Claire wiping off the normal dark makeup Allison wears and replacing it with softer makeup that was more socially accepted at the time, she also fixes her hair into the ideal hair of that time. Later, Allison emerges post-makeover and both Andrew and Brian are struck by the “new” Allison and pay her several compliments. Towards the end of the film, Allison and Andrew have a romantic encounter which Andrew initiates as he is now more attracted to Allison after her makeover. Conformity is what happens when individuals behave and act in accordance with the socially accepted standards. In this particular case, Allison changes her appearance due to normative social influence. Normative social influence is when an individual is influenced to change their behavior in order to fit into the group and to be liked and accepted by that group. In this scene Allison allows Claire to change her appearance in order for her to fit in and be liked by the group, specifically Andrew. The main influencer on Allison was Andrew as she expressed interest in him, however, he only thought of her as “the freak” and was not attracted to her. Andrew and Claire appear to be somewhat friends as they hang out in the same social group. This social group is assumed to be the “popular” group and in order to fit into this group the individuals must behave and appear in specific ways. Because of this Allison would have never fit in with that group, and therefore would not have grabbed Andrew’s attention. So, to allow Claire, who is a part of that group, to make Allison look like her, allows Allison to conform into that group and be liked by them, more specifically to be liked by Andrew. After Allison’s makeover Andrew shows much more attention and
Toy Story brings to life the question of every six-year-old, “Do my toys love me as much as I love my toys?” Produced by Pixar and published by Disney in 1995, Toy Story is about Andy and his toys as they grow up together. Woody has been Andy’s favorite toy for his whole life, the toys get along and live happily together. But Andy’s birthday is coming up, and it is a stressful time for all the toys because of fear of replacement. The last gift Andy receives is a Buzz Lightyear, Space Ranger. Buzz becomes Andy’s new favorite, replacing Woody. Woody and the rest of the toys have to adapt, but Woody struggles the most with being replaced. Throughout the movie, many psychological perspectives are explored. Conformity, disorders, and prejudice are
Allison obviously lacked the respect of others, for she had no friends whatsoever prior to her time spent in this detention. She also has nervous ticks, such chewing her nails, and played with her hair. Brian was another case of insecurity. The influence of self-concept was strong with Brian Johnson for he had no sense of self. He could not meet the standards of his desired self and was therefore unhappy with himself as a person.
The 1985 film The Breakfast Club examines the cases of five individuals during their experiences in a Saturday morning high school detention session; each is bound by unique characteristics and circumstances, yet their shared experience allows them to form a group— an assortment of people who interact with one another and who feel as if they have reason to belong together— and socialize, or gain knowledge of group traits as well as the knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, norms, and actions thought appropriate for each member. Notwithstanding the fact that each of these young scholars possesses wildly different attributes, they are all able to overlook such factors in favor of attainment of personal progress as well as propagation and fortification
In the movie, the principle asks the students to each write a 1,000 word essay on who they think they are as a person. By the end of the day, they decided instead of each writing their own paper they would have Brian, the nerd of the group to do it for all of them. In the essay, he stated, “We think you’re crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us, in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions.” This quote is significant because even though they spent the entire day getting to know each other, they all know that they’ll still be labeled as how everyone else sees them. Also, they realized they were comfortable in the social statuses they are in and rely heavily on these labels to make it through high school because to get others to see them differently they would have to get to know everyone who has labeled them previously. This can be related to the socioeconomic structure of America because many people are defined solely by their placement in social classes and they rely on their status for many situations in life.
The movie The Breakfast Club is a perfect example of peer relationships in the adolescent society. It shows the viewer some of the main stereotypes of students in high school you have a jock, a nerd, the weirdo, a rebel, and a prep. Over the course of a Saturday detention the different types of peers learn a lot about one another by hearing what each one has done to get into Saturday detention as well as why they chose to do it.
The famous the note that was left by the teens in detention at the end of the movie shows the social connection between each of their roles in society and how those are tie to society. The teens use the stereotypical names to tell Mr. Vernon who they think they are; the brain, the athlete, the basket case, the princess, and the criminal, they use the names that society has given them because of their reputations, hobbies and looks. They each realize throughout the movie that there is something that connects them to one another which makes them all realize that no matter the stereotypical separation between them, they all have some things in common and can work together for a common goal.
The 1985 film, The Breakfast Club, takes place during a Saturday detention in a Chicago high school. Five students, all from very different backgrounds, must serve this detention together for a nine-hour period. Everyone is at the detention for diverse reasons but throughout the course of the day, they soon discover they are not as different as they thought they were. The Breakfast Club analyzes how social interactions between students and their social contexts lead to the prevalence of discrimination and prejudice within the high school environment. Demonstrating how it is contrary to other films of the era, The Breakfast Club particularly examines these social issues through the establishment of cliques which were founded based on the hierarchy
Five teenagers who don't' know each other spend a Saturday in detention at the suburban school library. At first they squirm, fret and pick on each other. Then after sampling some marijuana, a real encounter session gets underway. The stresses and strains of adolescence have turned their inner lives into a minefield of disappointment, anger and despair.
	At the start of the movie, Allison was a person off in a corner by herself. She didn’t talk to anyone, she knew that she had a "place" in the society of school. This society of school, also know as clique groups, takes place at many schools, the one in the movie and most of all Richland High School. Like our school, this one has very many clique groups. In fact in the group of students in Saturday school, each clique group had a representative if you will. Allison knew that in the minds of others she was a loser because she was not popular and not pretty. So, we have here a girl who doesn’t think that she is pretty, and rates herself lower because of that. They don’t look at her personality or her inner being, but her outward appearance. She thinks that she is ugly because of what everyone else thinks. She has a low self-image and self-esteem simply because of what others think. In order to overcome this, she has to not let the opinions of others interfere with her thinking. This is very much easier said than done. In the middle of the movie, Andrew began to notice th...
The purpose of this paper is to analyze a movie and list five sociological concepts outlined in our textbook, Sociology A Down-To-Earth Approach, 6th edition by James M. Henslin, which was published by Pearson Education, Inc in 2015, 2013, and 2011. I have chosen the movie, “The Breakfast Club.” This is a 1985 movie directed by John Hughes. It is about five high school students that have detention on a Saturday for nine hours. The five students are played by, Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, and Anthony Michael Hall. These five students are deviant in their own particular ways and have different stereotypes. Eventually the students share personal information about their
The 1985 film, The Breakfast Club, directed by John Hughes shows how a person’s identity can be influenced by conflict he or she has experienced in life. First, John Bender is in the library telling everyone how he got a cigar burn on his arm from his dad. For example, his mother and father don’t treat with the most respect or any respect at all. They call him names and say he can’t do anything right. One day him and his dad got into a really bad argument and his dad burnt him with is cigar that he had. Because his parents treat him that way, he treats everyone he’s around very badly.
The Breakfast Club is about 5 high school students enduring detention on a Saturday. You first see the in groups and outgroups. An in group are people who belong to the same group as you, while the out group are people who belong to a different group as you. This was shown right off the bat in
The film, The Breakfast Club, introduces five students, each perceived with a different stereotype which is commonly found in American high schools.
Steve Jobs once said, during a commencement speech at Stanford, “Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice” (Goodreads). Every single person on earth is a unique individual with their own thoughts and actions. In life every person goes through a stage of growth and development, both mentally and physically, where they are striving to become a more complete human being not constrained by their youth. This stage usually develops during adolescence, happening in the teenage years of one’s life. It also happens that this is occurring during the time of school when children are starting to study harder material and deal with more complex social situations.
...a nymphomaniac and that she’s had sex with her married psychiatrist on various occasions. She doesn’t assess this as a high-risk self-disclosure because, as she says later, she is a compulsive liar. The only reason she is saying all of these things is for attention. Claire notes her disgust in Allison’s comments, saying, “Do you have any idea how completely gross that is?” and telling her she is crazy. Allison isn’t very surprised by the group’s reaction to her disclosure, since she only said it for the reaction she knew she would get.