Review of the Movie: The Breakfast Club

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In the film The Breakfast Club there are various social psychological theories and concepts that describe the inner selves of the characters. The characters in the film are initially perceived in a certain manner by each other because of knowing the way they behave in school and the type of people and environment they surround themselves with in school. However one detention on a Saturday brings these characters together and throughout the film their true personalities and behaviors start to reveal themselves by means of social psychological theories and concepts. The characters individually and as a group display their personalities through theories and concepts of social psychology. At the very start of the film, one of the concepts displayed is the acceptance type of conformity. The principal assigns the characters (students) to complete a task and because he is a figure of authority, the characters accept having to complete the task by the end of the day without any attempts to alter that. One of the students, Claire Standish, is revealed to display the concept of narcissism, which is unfortunately a dark side of herself. This is evident as Claire claims that she is popular and loved by her fellow schoolmates and seems to care and showcase her rich and beauty too much. She is, as her detention-mates discover, full of herself. In addition this also shows signs of the spotlight effect theory which can relate to Claire in that she believes that her schoolmates look at her and pay so much attention to her appearance add rich, spoiled-like behavior. Another character to show a theory of social psychology is Allison Reynolds. In the film, Allison is a character with an introvert personality, although she also displays strange and...

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...d to be a jock and rough person who is really competitive as a wrestler. However he is actually pressured to be aggressive and competitive by his father, which he does not accept or like. Brian is perceived to be a genius, confident and nerdy person. However he is in fact pressured by his parents to exceed in school and do more than what he is capable of doing. As such, he breaks down when he gets bad grades which is a disappointment to his parents. Lastly, John is perceived to be a cold, “badass”, gangster type of person who harasses people with regret or remorse. However he behaves this way because his parents are abusive to him and treat him disgustingly. To cope with this, John behaves coldly. In The Breakfast Club various social psychological theories and concepts are demonstrated by the characters through the way they reveal their behaviors and inner selves.

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