Mean Girls Psychological Analysis

Conformity is present in every group situation with adolescents. Adolescents are always looking to be a part of a group, usually conforming to the standards of the group. Adolescents often conform because they want to have the approval of the peers that are well liked or “popular”. A great example of adolescents and conformity is in the chick flick ‘Mean Girls’ through the different cliques in high school and how it affects the peers themselves. Caty, the main character, is faced with several difficult situations where she decides to conform with her high school peers getting her in trouble that becomes hard for her to escape. Caty begins the movie with a real genuine friendship with Janis and Damien, two individuals who struggled with popularity because they were considered the “outside” group. However, the popular girls, infamously called the “Plastics” try to recruit Caty into their popular group, but only because she is considered one of the prettier girls in the school. The ring leader, Regina George, of the Plastics is the most popular girl in school who is really hated by alot of peers because of her horrible attitude and how she

SOC 306I March 12, 2016 Film Analysis: Mean Girls SUMMARY The movie that I have chosen to write a Film Analysis on is Mean Girls, which stars Lindsay Lohan and Tina Fey. The film tells the story of a girl named Cady Heron (who is played by Lindsay Lohan) and her family whom just moved from Africa to the U.S. Cady was homeschooled for nearly all of her life until she came upon her first public school; Northshore High School. As she starts her first days of schools, she finds herself with two, who can be seen as, outcast friends named Janice and Damien. They both take Cady into their group and become friends. They guide her around the school and and inform her about the “groups” and “cliques” in the school ranging from jocks to mathletes, she especially points out one group in particular, “The Plastics”.

The film Mean Girls, produced by Lorne Michaels and directed by Mark Waters in 2004 focuses on a teenage girl, Cady Heron, who experiences the drastic change of living and being home schooled in Africa to moving to America and attending a regular high school. While attempting to sabotage the plastics, the girls who hold the most popularity in the school, Cady unknowingly turns into one of them, leaving aspects of her old personality behind. By analyzing the film through sociological perspectives, the deeper meaning of the film can be revealed. Socialization Socialization is the process of connecting individuals to their community allowing individuals to experience new attitudes and perspectives.

The film Mean Girls is an American comedy movie for teens that illustrates the mainstream high school experience in the west. The main character, Cady Heron is a sixteen-year-old girl who is a new student at bob school in Illinois. Cady moved from being home-schooled in Africa, and therefore is unaware of the environment and lifestyle at a public high school. Cady then meets Daemon and Janis, who are part of an outcast group. Janis and Damien expose Cady to the norms of their school, talking her through cliques, and most importantly introducing her to “the plastics”, a group that Janis and Damian hated.

There is no doubt that the film Mean Girls is full of conflict. Director Mark Waters did an excellent job at presenting how conflict can transpire and spread between females. The conflict that occurs in Mean Girls can easily be seen through the main characters Cady and Regina, however, conflict does not only takes place between the two of them but the entire school as well. Conflicts that arise throughout this film can be explained through power and power currencies, conflict styles and tactics, assumptions and triggering events, and forgiveness and reconciliation. Each conflict allows there to be understanding as to why the conflict took place and how it got as destructive as it did.

They feel as if they have to fake their personality to fit into their societal norms. Another example of conformity is the line,”They all have pretty children and they all go to school”. This is mocking the fact of how many families in the suburban areas all have the perfect life. Their kids do what they are expected to do. If not, then they might be rejected from their community.

It centers on females and how they act at that certain age. The four mean girls, Regina George, Gretchen Wieners, Karen Smith and Cady Heron represent the stereotypes of the popular girls of high school. The role of gender plays an important role in the movie. The movie discusses the aspects of how a “typical” teenage girl should be, in order for her to fit in.

Movie Summary: In the movie Mean Girls, Cady Heron is experiencing her first year in school despite being 16 because her parents are research zoologists and homeschooled all her life since they were in Africa on an assignment. Consequently, she had very little contact with people her age let alone western culture and was not aware of the dealings of high school or adolescence in general. As can be expected it was hard for her to adjust to this new life where adults don’t trust her and she is restricted by unfamiliar rules. She feels lonely until she becomes friends with Janis and Damian, who guide her and teach her about all the cliques in the school.

Youth culture can pertain to interests in styles, music, clothes and sports. It also pertains to behaviours, beliefs, and vocabulary; this refers to the ways that teenagers conduct their lives. The concept behind youth culture is that adolescents are a subculture with norms, morals, behaviours and values that differ from the main culture of older generations within society. For instance, young men and women, teenagers in this case, are mostly represented as unpredictable and not easy to understand. In the film, Mean Girls directed by Mark Waters (2004), adolescents are represented as bullies, who use manipulation to achieve what they want and are two-faced with the people around them; they are constantly stereotyped as a high social group like the plastics and a low social group like the mathletes; also they are presented as young people that fall under peer pressure, and are overly concerned about their appearance and about being socially accepted.

Now conformity is said to be “the world’s most common but dangerous psychological disorder”. To be a conformist, you listen to society, you follow society’s demands, and you crave society’s attention. But to be a nonconformist, you do the opposite. You are an independent individual: “To be human is to be an individual human, with individual tastes, talents, values, and dreams” (Feys 1). Society takes all this away from you even though you want to be your unique self.

Mean Girls, set in Illinois, depicts the socio-political climate of an American high school, with it’s protagonist, Cady Heron moving from Africa and homeschooling to be socialised in her new society. The antagonist throughout the film, Regina George, is portrayed as an authoritarian woman who has total control of the school (Mean Girls 2004). Regina is shown to engage with numerous sexual partners at the same time and promotes her liberation through wearing a tee-shirt with her bra protruding out the front when she finds two holes cut at her breasts; motivating a new fashion trend throughout the cohort (Mean Girls 2004, Robinson-Cseke 2009, p. 45). This depiction of a strong, independent woman aligns with ‘Post-feminist texts-films, books, magazines and television programs characterised by a model of young womanhood that is empowered, successful, entitled, independent, socially mobile and free to choose her destiny’ (Toffoletti 2008, p. 72). Post feminism is further reflected in the film through the power change which occurs, transferring from Regina to Cady, mirroring the transfer of power from second wave feminism to post feminism.

The movie I chose to write my psychology review was on Girl Interrupted. The movie was based on the writer Susanna Kaysen’s and her eighteen month stay at a mental hospital, but the movie was directed by James Mangold. My reasoning’s for choosing this movie was due to the fact that it carried many psychological concepts to it. The movies main script revolved around Susana’s and with the crazy women in a mental institution. This movie had two main characters and they were Susanna (Winona Ryder) and Lisa (Angelina Jolie).

In today’s society the general attitude towards an individual is conform or be an outcast. It is seen in schools where people who do not fit into specific cliques become outcasts, the weird people. It is seen in the work place as well. People have conformed to standards set by society simply because society has said to do so. Society asks people to change themselves to fit in.

Psychoanalysts’ understand human personality through behaviors by looking into experiences, including the origin of emotions, thoughts and behaviors. Through the analysis of the movie Girl, Interrupted, many of the characters behave in all sorts of manners, ranging from being unreasonable, frightened, happy, sad, or disturbed due to their varieties of behaviors. All the characters include different ailments that affect the way they act, respond, and interpret situations. In accordance with personality theories, the movie Girl, Interrupted explores the memoir of a young woman through personality disorders, traits, and humanism during her stay in a McLean psychiatric institution during the 1960’s.

This has been shown through the prison research where the participants changed their behavior drastically due to the environment and in the conformity experiment where the individual changed their behavior in accordance to the larger group due to their belief that they had to fit in. However, both factors could work simultaneously as causes of one’s