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Mean Girls Psychology Essay

529 Words3 Pages

The movie Mean Girls shows many of the psychological themes that have been discussed throughout the course. Two prominent themes within the movie are bullying and cliques. Bullying is described by the book as being “verbal or physical behavior intended to disturb someone less powerful” (Santrock, 2016, p. 351). Bullying is extremely prominent in schools, which is the setting of the movie, with one in three students claiming that they have experienced bullying at some point whether as the victim or the bully (Santrock, 2016, p. 351). In the movie, bullying is a prominent plot point with most of the background characters stating that they, at some point, had been bullied by Regina George. A more thorough example of this can be seen when Regina …show more content…

313). The cliques within Mean Girls play an important role in the movie as the movie centers around the clique known as “The Plastics.” The plastics are a group that are generally seen by others in the school to be rude and pretty, but are nonetheless the most popular group in the school. The movie also shows many other cliques such as JV jocks, preps, Asian nerds, cool Asians, varsity jocks, unfriendly black hotties, etc. Throughout the movie, Cady is shown to be attempting to gain favor with the plastics and eventually works her way up to leading the group, through this time though it is shown how much of an effect cliques have on their members as Cady’s personality changes so much that she becomes the definition of a “mean girl,” whom earlier in the movie she had despised. All in all, cliques played a major role in the movie and without them the movie would not have a plot considering that the movie revolves around the

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