The breakfast club allison psychology analysis

THE BREAKFAST CLUB

Xiaoyi Yin

Jins 329

James Cianciola

20-April-2017

Film Response1

The Breakfast Club is basically a movie about five random high school students who are forced to spend their Saturday together serving detention. However, each of the five students has a different reason for detention. The five students are: Brian, Andy, Claire, Allison and also John. They all have different characters something that makes Brian to give each person a defining name, i.e., the jock, the brain, the criminal, the princess and also the criminal. However, despite their differences, they all decide to put their differences aside so as to survive that 8 hour long detention with their so rash principle Mr. Vernon. They are also expected to write a thousand words about what they are actually are. Also, throughout the day, they get to mingle and get to learn about each and everyone’s home lives and cliques. The entire movie is really entertaining, however, despite its entertaining aspect, there are a lot of things that we can learn from the movie ranging from: psychological perspective, interactionist theory, peer pressure, functionalist perspective, stereotyping, reciprocal determinism, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, not to mention the functional attribution error. These are just among the few theories, ideas, practices, issues and also concepts that I did observe from this movie.

To begin with, we are going to study the various psychological perspective related to this movie. However, so as to capture this topic in the right way, we are going to conduct a psychological analysis of each and every character in this movie. To begin with is Brian who is also known as the brain. This character is subjected to a number of stereotypes in this film. For example, Bender tries to associate his balanced nutritional lunch to him being a nerdy child who is still under the custody of a very caring mum who still packs lunch for him. The group also assumes that since he is the brightest guy around, “the brain” that he has to write the essay for the rest of the lot. This character is also subjected to peer pressure where he decides to join the rest of the group in smoking marijuana.

Secondly, we have Claire who is also known as the princess. Her personality can be simply be explained by reciprocal determinism of which is a term that tries to explain the interacting influences of environment and behavior. Her parents are divorced and they usually see her as a weapon of getting back to each other. As a result, this situation of being treated as a weapon by her parents affects not only her thoughts but also her feelings about her self-worth something that makes her to constantly seek approval from others. In this film, Brian describes her generally as conceited due to the fact that she is not only popular but also because she looks down upon those who are below her in the social hierarchy. Just from her behavior, one can with no doubt conclude that both her environment and internal thoughts really affect her behavior.

Thirdly, we have Bender also known as the criminal. The fundamental attribution theory can be used to clearly describe this guy. This is a theory that uses a person’s disposition or situation in describing his/her behavior. His personality can be described as not only disrespectful but also aggressive and freeloading. However, at home, he is usually treated badly where he is constantly both physically and verbally abused; furthermore, he is forced to fend for himself.

Fourthly, we have Allison who is also known as the Basket Case; in fact it is true to say that she was in detention for no solid reason. She was actually there since she had nothing better to do. In relation to the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it is clear that she has already met the first two needs, psychological and safety needs but she is still yet to attain the need to belong and feel loved. In fact, back at home her parents ignore her while at school she barely has a friend. This in turn explains to us about her weird social acts and also why she had to serve a detention in the 1st place she did not deserve. She also admits of seeing a shrink who uses free association during her sessions.

Lastly we do have Andrew who is also known as the Athlete. Through him, we get to experience the principle of frustration-aggression which tries to show frustration creates anger which can in turn generate aggression. This is well observed where Bender disrespects Claire which as a result frustrates Andrew who in becomes aggressive and pins him to the ground and later on pulls a knife out of his jacket after Bender gets up.

On taking another turn, we can look this movie at an interactionist perspective. This is clearly seen as the lot heads to the library, everyone is isolates him/herself to own table apart from Claire and Andrew, their case is understandable since they come from the same social class. Mr. Vernon of whom is the principles goes on to describe to them on the various rules they are supposed to adhere on during the detention period, they are not supposed to talk and they also have to maintain their seats. Bender who is stereotyped in the film as a rebel is the first to break the rule when he begins to talk and later on leaves his seat. The rest of the characters emulate his example and also begin talking and then leave their seats. Bender also tries to stir an argument between the other of the students being the rebel he is. He also feels superior and also tries to discredit the rest of the characters way of living simply just because their life is not similar to his. The other students or rather characters chip into this debate on their social statuses with time. Claire and Andrew of which are popular students in the school argue that if you are not a big tough prep or jock, then you are not anything. Claire goes to an extent of saying that she could not say hi to the rest of the three characters in the halls. For Brian, Bender and Allison who were actually being stereotyped as unimportant felt some dislike for these two fellows for not accepting them. However, as the film continues, the social barriers are broken and they actually begin forming bonds over a number of instances. For example, they all ran together down the halls all trying to make sure that the principal does not spot them. At one instance, they are almost caught but Bender sacrifices himself for the whole team by using himself as a distraction. These guys even smoke together. They also relax together and later on get to know each other. With time, they get to know each other better and even get to realize that they have even more similarities than they think. Actually, as the film ends, possible relationships sprout between Andrew and Allison and also between Claire and Bender. All this is achieved after they realize that coming from different groups doesn’t really mean that they are different

We can also look at this film from a functionalist perspective whereby the society is viewed as a system and that each part of the society has a function and where one part fails to work well, dysfunction occurs. The Saturday detention serves this perspective very well. This is because, as much as the detention is supposed to discipline these students because of their unruly behavior, it ends up to be a bonding session since the principle refuses to play his part of looking after them, in this case, the act of disciplining the students of which is the system, fails miserably because one of the parts, of which is the principle does not work properly. In this school, we see that each student has his or her own function. For example, we have the basket cases of whom are loners, the brains of whom are nerds, the criminals of whom are rebels, the athletes who handle sports not to mention the princesses who actually rule the school and that if one group misses here in, then the school will not the same. The movie also discusses issues that are relatable to the current adolescent’s lives such as home life, academics, social standing not to mention clubs

There are a number of theories, principles and even laws that I did mention as I was conducting a psychological analysis on the characters and I would love to expound them here. To begin with is the fundamental attribution error. In accordance to this theory, it is the environment and situations that we face that impact more on our behaviors as compared to one’s personality. Many people tend to think that people behave in a certain way just because of their personality a notion that is completely wrong. For example, if a person steps on your foot, one will be quick to conclude that he did so just because he/she is arrogant and fails to consider the situation which led to that. We also have Maslow’s hierarchy of needs just as discussed before. In this case, I am going to apply this law on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in relation to the principles management position. I do believe that the detention would have been more effective had the principle considered to handle the troubled student’s needs, for example, helping Allison to meet her need of belonging by simply suggesting for her appropriate clubs she could . Reciprocal determinism is another idea we encounter in this film. It is an idea that tries to explain how behavior is influenced by both environment and the though process. A god example is shown by Bender’s character. He is disrespectful and abusive something that has been inflicted by him by his environment, his parents often abuse him both verbally and physically when he is at home. Peer pressure is another concept that we encounter in this film. All the five characters are victims of peer pressure since they all fall for smoking marijuana. Peer pressure tends to make adolescents to value the opinions of their fellow peers than those of their parents or even guardians, even if the opinions of their peers seem to pose a big danger or even cost their life just as we see these teens do. Stereotyping is also featured in this film. Actually, it tries to give us a picture of how stereotyping is in a high school setting with each character gaining a nickname based on what he/she is stereotyped on.