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Social identity theory strengths and limitations
Social identity theory strengths and limitations
Social identity theory strengths and limitations
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Think back to high school, if your high school experience was anything like North Shore High School than you could relate to the mean girls, cliques, and drama. Mean Girls is a teenage film that focuses on social cliques in high school, the damaging effects it has on teenage identity, and the way they see the world. The film is based on the novel Queen Bees and Wannabes written by Rosalind Wiseman. The movie focuses on the manners in which high school females form cliques, rely on social identity, and demonstrate patterns of aggressive teenage behavior. It also shines light on the various ways to address and diminish those behaviors in order to create an inclusive environment in high school. North Shore high school addresses problems most high …show more content…
Tajfel and Turner (1979) developed the social identity theory created to help understand conflicts within groups. Tajfel and Turner proposed that members who identity with the group experience group influence on their self-esteem and self-concepts. Social identity theory is based on the on social categorization; individuals categorize objects in order to understand them and identify them. The beginning of the movie started with Janis giving Cady a map of the cafeteria. The map explains where everyone sits and they categorized students based on their group and their group name. Some of the group names include: “cool Asians,” “unfriendly black hotties,” “desperate wannabe 's,” and the “plastics.” Each person was known to hang with a certain group of friends, and no one could hop groups or downgrade groups because of their fear of “social suicide.” This explains why Cadys friends advise her to not join the schools competitive math team. The perception of her social status should be more important than being associated with the math …show more content…
At North Shore High School, the cliques’ names are based on stereotypes: “sexually active band geeks,” “girls who eat their feelings,” “girls who don’t eat anything,” and “Asian nerds.” On the first day of school, Ms. Norbury mistakenly welcomes a black student as the new student from Africa because Cady does not fit the look or description of the “typical girl from Africa.” During Cady’s first conversation with the plastics, Gretchen asks, “If you are from Africa, why are you white?,” implying that only black people live in Africa. However, Cady also shows stereotypical actions by going to a group of black students and speaking her native language implying that all black individuals are African. In another scene, Regina, Gretchen, and Karen stand in front of the mirror and begin to criticize their body parts and then look at Cady to hear her self-criticism, reinforcing the stereotype that teenagers criticize their body parts or should criticize their body. Additionally, Janis and Damon are called weird throughout the movie because Janis is accused of being a lesbian and Damon is gay, “too gay to function,” implying that all LGBTQ’s are weird because they are not straight. Also, Regina, Gretchen, Karen, and Cady are all white students in the most popular group in school, indicating that only white people can hold high status and be admired by their peers. Lastly, Regina’s mom portrays
This movie is full of social psychology topics, such as, self presentation, agression, group behaviors, stereotypes, and conformity. To begin, when Cady tells the girls that she is from Africa, Karen blurts out something very stereotypical by saying, “If you’re from Africa, why are you white?” Here, she is representing
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
The film Mean Girls is about a young girl, Cady Heron, born and raised in Africa by her zoologist parents, who were also her homeschool teachers for sixteen years. When Cady moves to the United States, she enrolls in a public school for the first time. Here she realizes that high school students have the same hierarchy as the animals she observed in Africa. The lowest ranking group in this high school hierarchy is the outcasts, who also happen to be Cady’s first friends in the U.S. The highest on the high school food chain are the “plastics”. The “plastics”, are the most popular girls in school. The plastic’s notice Cady’s charming personality and stunning good looks and invite her to join their clique. In order to avenge her first friends,
Regina George is a junior in high school who is described as teen royalty. As the leader of her clique referred to as “The Plastics”, she rules the school with her best friends Gretchen Weiners and Karen Smith loyally at her side. The three girls feed off of tearing the other girls in the school down and diminishing them by writing awful rumors and secrets in the “Burn Book”. With her tall and skinny physique, bright blonde hair and good-looks, she uses her sex appeal and superiority to manipulate and victimize the people around her including her family. Regina easily controls her family members. Her mother worships the ground Regina walks on and desperately looks to her for acceptance. Her ability to make other girls at school feel inferior fuels her power, as queen bee Regina is seen as the “it” girl. Everyone wants to look like her, dress like her, and be just like her. She uses her sex appeal to get any guy she wants and dangles them around everyone else to make them jealous.
If I was to walk into a video store I would be able to choose from
Dirty dancing is a movie that defines social classes and expresses different types of social themes in the 60’s. It identifies the differences between upper class, middle class and lower class. At the same stand point it also it expresses how division in our society could be stereotypical and not accurate, as not all is as it seems. From the beginning of this movie one could see the difference between the classes. There are the waiters and the dancers and the guest. One might say there is no difference between one another, guest, waiters and dancers work for a living. Therefore they should be categorized as the working class. There also could be seen thru out the film only one couple of black dancers that always remained together.
On Saturday July 29th, 2017, I was able to catch one of the funniest movies I’ve seen in a while, Girls Trip. I was able to view the movie with four of three of friends of mines at the Regal Moorestown Mall Stadium 12 & RPX, located in Moorestown, New Jersey. My experience started with the aromas of popcorn. I am one of those type who has to have popcorn with lots of butter while enjoying a movie. After I purchased my popcorn and bottled water I was ready to enjoy this night with my friends. However, I wasn’t the one who purchased the tickets so the seats choices where horrible. They were floor level, on the very far right and third row. Still trying to make the best out of it I reclined my see as far back as possible so my neck would bother me the during the movie. The theater was packed, mostly with women.
In this film we see many typical high school behaviors such as cliques, cattiness, and popularity (or lack there of) issues. Many scenes in this movie have an array of stereotypes. Sometimes they are clearly stated and others just seen through attitudes of the actors/actresses character. Also through out we follow the main clique “the plastics” and they have this image they have to uphold. Be perfect, skinny, the best at everything, and in sync with everything they do; or they wont uphold their status. I chose this film because I think it shows a lot of what we have learned in this course and how it is in real life. Clearly the film is exaggerated but much of
The film, The Breakfast Club, introduces five students, each perceived with a different stereotype which is commonly found in American high schools.
When it came time to pick a stage of development, I chose the stage of middle childhood. The movie that best depicted this stage of development to me was the 1991 movie “My Girl”. In this movie, you see a 11-year-old girl named Vada Sultenfuss going through a lot of psychosocial and cognitive changes in her life. She has grown up without her mother due to instant death when being born and she blames herself for her mother’s passing. Her dad is very absent in the upbringing of Vada, as he focuses most of his time and energy into his work as a mortician. Vada is surrounded by death due to the fact that they live in the house where her father constructs his business which is why her view on death is demented. When her dad becomes involved
The social identity theory is a person’s sense of who they are based on their social
"Cold, shiny, hard, PLASTIC," said by Janice referring to a group of girls in the movie Mean Girls. Mean Girls is about an innocent, home-schooled girl, Cady who moves from Africa to the United States. Cady thinks she knows all about survival of the fittest. But the law of the jungle takes on a whole new meaning when she enters public high school and encounters psychological warfare and unwritten social rules that teen girls deal with today. Cady goes from a great friend of two "outcasts", Janice and Damien to a superficial friend of the "plastics", a group of girls that talks about everyone behind their back and thinks everyone loves them. Adolescent egocentrism and relationships with peers are obviously present throughout the film. I also noticed self worth in relationships, parenting styles, and juvenile delinquency throughout Mean Girls.
The Social Identity theory (SIT) was proposed by Henry Tajfel. It was then later developed by Tajfel and Turner in 1971 to help them understand inter group relations. The Social Identity theory assumes that individuals strive to improve their self-image by trying to enhance their self-esteem, through social (in and out groups) and personal identities. There are 4 main concepts within the social identity theory all of which will be discussed in the essay.
Social identity theory can be applied to many different problems and real life situations. It demonstrates the role of categorization in behaviors, and explores how being part of a group affects social interaction in everyday life.
Mean Girls sends the message to women that they should not criticize one other to feel some type of empowerment. The way women criticize each other can be very aggressive, this act make women gives them the feeling of confident that there is someone who they consider lower than they are. When the movie Mean Girls first starts the female students of the school are continually judging and gossiping about one another. Because of this, it caused friction between the female students. Throughout the movie the consist fighting between girls gets worst. This friction causes women to feel the need to fight amongst one another. For example, The Plastics owned a book called the Burn Book where they wrote terrible things about their classmates but, once the book got out, the female students being fight even more. Once they stop feeling the need to bring each other down, the atmosphere of school changed. For instance, the different cliques were able to it and talk to about ...