Cady Erikson's Influences On Lifespan Development In Mean Girls

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Mean Girls is a comedy film aired in 2004 this film captures the influences on lifespan development during adolescence. The main character Cady Heron was home schooled in Africa and now she must transition into high school where she is tested in different areas of her development. Throughout the film she becomes known as the new girl who is trying to figure out her self-identity. Cady integrates herself into a clique of girls known as the Plastics, soon enough Cady understands why they are known for their name. The Plastics run the school by the norms they have created and must always be followed otherwise it will lead into exclusion from the group. In order to be socially accepted social norms determining attitude, behavior, and status must …show more content…

Erikson’s psychosocial theory in which social interactions cause growth and change. Cady’s social interactions with others cause change with her autonomy. Cady loses herself by changing her values and character in the beginning of the film and towards the end of the film she finds self-recognition. Adolescence is a critical time during development because internal and external sources have a strong influence. Piaget defines schemes as determining how we consider information from the world into our lifespan development. Killen (2007), better explains how social constructions have influences on existing schemes “children justify acts as right or wrong first on the basis of consequences to the self (preconventional), then in terms of group norms (conventional), and finally in terms of a justice perspective in which individual principles of how to treat one another are understood (postconventional). This approach involved assessing an individual 's general scheme (organizing principle) for evaluating social problems and dilemmas across a range of contexts”. In the beginning of the film we see preconventional when Cady is faced with deciding what group she will integrate herself in order to fit in. The group she chooses whether it’s Damian and …show more content…

Klimstra et al. (2009), explains how certain traits may hinder or benefit lifespan development “Extraversion refers to dominance and activity in interpersonal situations; Agreeableness refers to the willingness to maintain positive and reciprocal relationships with others; Conscientiousness refers to organizational and motivational aspects of a person’s behavior; Emotional Stability indicates the ability to deal effectively with negative emotions; and Openness to Experience refers to how a person deals with new information at a personal and experiential level”. Extraversion is seen in the beginning; Cady is a very introvert person when she eats lunch by herself. Agreeableness is portrayed when she begins to agree to do anything to fit in and gain acceptance. Conscientiousness, she had a very good conscientious from starting off as a good daughter, student, and friend but she begins to lose sight of it all. However, gains recognition of her conscientiousness, self-identity, and overall self-worth in the end. Her emotional stability is weak because she gives in to her social norms that change her character. Cady’s openness to experience is high because she is not shy to new experiences out of the ordinary. Her experiences throughout the film hindered and benefited her moral character and her development. However, she gained a whole new perspective from her experience with

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