Identity Development In The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club is a film detailing a Saturday intention involving five very different students who are forced into each other’s company and share their stories. All the students are deviant in their own way and eventually are able to look past their differences and become friends. The film also offers detailed observations of social sanctions, peer pressure, control theory, and the three different sociological perspectives. The first principle seen in the film is a stigma, which is an undesirable trait or label that is used to characterize an individual. Each of the characters is associated with a stigma at the start of the film. For example, Allison is known as a basket case

The concept of adulthood represents not only the sum of one's experiences, but also the determination of one's place within society. Adulthood is formed through the experiences of the individual. These experiences catalyze the acceptance of a social role, as opposed to title or paycheck. Finally, the acceptance of an individual's social role initiates a process of social unity. In this way, the sum of a person's experience and the changes that result from said experiences present the evolution of child into adult.

Identity formation is one of the most fundamental tasks in life span development, particularly for adolescence and emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2000; Erikson, 1968). Since its conception in Erikson’s ego psychoanalytic theory, a growing literature and significant advances have been made in identity development research (Schwartz, Zamboanga, Luyckx, Meca, & Ritchie, 2013). However, as existing studies with young people were mainly conducted in the high-school and college settings, there is still a call to give attention to the special populations (Luyckx, Schwartz, Goossens, Beyers, & Missotten, 2011) and one of such groups would be the children in conflict with the law (CICL).

“Spend a little more time trying to make something of yourself and a little less time trying to impress people.” – The Breakfast Club

The film, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, follows the story of Charlie as he braves through the challenges of freshman year. Throughout his first year, Charlies experiences friendship, alienation, love, mistakes, depression, acceptance of past events and newfound motivation. With the help of his love interest Sam, her stepbrother Patrick, and other likeminded individuals, Charlie is able to gain a sense of belonging and a boost of confidence that ensures his survival for the high school years yet to come (Halfon, Chbosky, 2012). This essay will delve into an in-depth analysis of adolescence from a socio-cultural perspective, using events from the film to provide examples and further enhance arguments. Furthermore, topics highlighting what I believe to be the most crucial aspects of adolescence will be discussed. The analysis of hegemonic masculinity, age induced frustration and restrictions, and the discourse of innocence will be defined and elaborated on. Finally, a comparison between the socio-cultural and developmental lenses of youth analysis, the unique view they each offer and my personal experience using the socio-cultural lens, will be discussed.

The movie I have selected for the identity analysis assignment will be the Breakfast Club (1986). The movie is about five teenagers who are from different groups in high school cliques; the popular girl (Claire), the loner (Allison), the athlete (Andrew), the nerd Brain) and the outsider (Bender). They spend the Saturday in detention together. As they spend the day together, they begin to realize their flaws and how much alike they are. The character I will focus on is Andrew Clark. He is a jock, the athlete on the wrestling team. He seems to enjoy his status as an athlete and has a high self-esteem because of that status. Andrew seems to feel like he needs to protect everyone but is hot-tempered. He also follows rules but feels like he

are hard to control. Anna referred to this as the impulse of the id impulse. While Anna Freud

For many high school students, the movie The Breakfast Club imbues the major juxtapositions that highlight secondary education environments. These associations mark key comparisons in the social hierarchies of youth. In The Breakfast Club, the method of displaying these observations fall under its main characters. Conveniently enough, each of its main characters assume the role of a typical high school stereotype. The film defines such archetypes as the Jock, the Brain, the Basket Case, the Princess, and the Criminal. Two of these roles that stand out the most, are the Brain and the Criminal. These characters are acted out through the persons of John Bender and Brian Johnson. The similarities and opposing traits of these two

The Breakfast Club is a movie about five high school students who have to serve detention one Saturday morning. When each student arrives, the viewer gets a brief glimpse into the characters backgrounds. At the beginning of the day you can clearly see the separation among the five students. Claire is considered the princess, Andrew is the athlete, Brian is the brain, Allison is the basket case, and John Bender is the criminal. The irony in it is that as these five students serve detention together they discover over the course of the day that they actually have many similarities. They all have different backgrounds and are involved in different social groups, but discover that they

Gender roles, also known as gender stereotypes, are social and cultural norms on how females and males should conduct themselves within a society. Every culture has certain roles both genders are expected to follow. An example of this in traditional American culture is a man becoming a doctor while a female becomes a nurse or men being the hard workers and women being stay at home mothers. Gender development researchers, similar to other developmental researchers, focus on questions of change over time in gender related subjects (Ruble and Martin 1988). Research suggest that children are socialized to understand gender stereotypes at an early age. In fact, a study done in 2006 by indicated that children before 3 years of age understand concrete

After reading the articles for this week, I could not help to come to a conclusion on how important identity is for the youth of America as well as the youth around the world and what it truly represents. There is power in understanding “who you are” and “what makes you “special” as an individual? Qualities of our individual identities make themselves present when we stimulate and practice the natural gifts we have come to inherit from birth. Whether it is physicality, intelligence, creativeness, or perseverance, we all have unique qualities that make us special. It is because we have the need to feel special about our identities that many educators our testing the intersections of identity and individuality within schools. In the article we read called Queer students of color and antiracist, antiheterosexist education: Paradoxes of identity and activism, by Kevin K. Kumashiro, we learn process of analyzing “intersections” can definitely come with new issues and challenges of its own.

Adolescence is a developmental transition between childhood and adulthood and also a period of prominent change for teenagers when physical changes are happening at an accelerated rate. Adolescence is not just marked by physical changes but also cognitive, social, emotional and interpersonal changes as well. The development of a strong and stable sense of self known as identity development is widely considered to be one of the crucial tasks of adolescence. Identity development of an adolescent is influenced by external factors, such as their environment, culture, religion, school and the media.

The adolescence stage of development is a critical transition period in a child’s life because this is the stage at which the child struggles to discover their identity, as they evolve into adults. Throughout this transition, the child experiences different physical, cognitive, and social changes that cause the child to feel the need to reconsider their identity. Psychologist Eric Erikson theorizes that, “adolescents experiment with different roles while trying to integrate identities from previous stages”. This theory created by Erikson is the fifth ego crisis referred to as “identity vs. role confusion”. Identity vs. role confusion demonstrations the adolescent’s conflict between social role expectations, the need to fit in, and the ability

Through this question, Arnett tried to make a claim that adolescence is either time of storm and stress or exuberant growth. But on the base of my experience and exposure, I didn’t found any case around me. So, I could say that adolescence is a period of storm and stress. During my job or field practices, I did not have any evidence which can prove it that adolescence of exuberant growth. So, I am agree with the claim which is made by Arnett.

In this assignment, I will be focusing on Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development. There are eight stages in which only the fifth stage”identity versus role confusion” will be discussed. Aspects such as identity crises, exploration of autonomy whilst developing a sense of self, factors that may contribute to identity formation as well as the successful/unsuccessful resolution of this particular stage will be discussed thoroughly. James Marcia’s identity statuses will be highlighted. This essay will then progress into a case study based on Anna Monroe in connection to the difficulties she faced namely gender, sexuality, peer pressure, suicide and the experimentation with different identities she encountered.