The Breakfast Club - Essay Example

? The Breakfast Club The Breakfast Club is a 1990s film about five high school teenagers who come together and discover that they have a lot in common despite their earlier perceptions about one another. The two girls and three boys met on a Saturday detention class under the supervision of the schools’ vice-principle. There was john Bender, Claire Standish, Allison Reynolds, Brian Johnson and Andrew Clark. Everyone in this group had a unique personality that can be used to account for their belonging to different peer groups in the school. Bender becomes the de facto leader of the group because he is the only one who stands up to the vice-principle their antagonist. The group’s preconceived stereotype towards each other makes initial interaction within the group difficult. These stereotypes towards can be discerned from the names they refer each with; John Bender is called ‘the criminal’ or ‘the jock’, Brian Johnson is called ‘Brain’, Allison Reynolds is “the basket case’, Andrew Clark is the ‘Athlete’ and Claire Standish is ‘princess’. This paper seeks to discuss two diagnosed personality disorders/illness in two characters/personalities from the film and their stages of development. The discussion will strive to use of the developmental stages (life span) theories forwarded by Erickson, Piaget, Freud, Kohlberg, Selman and Bronfenbrenner. In the film, it can be said that John Bender is a victim of fundamental attribution error, which explains someone’s behavior by crediting the situation or the person’s disposition (Broderick & Belwit, 2009). Bender’s personality is illustrated to be that of a freeloader, aggressive and disrespectful, which can be attributed to his being treated badly at home. Bender is constantly verbally and physically abused, and he has to fend for himself since his parents do not give him much attention. In the film, everyone attributes Bender’s actions to his personal disposition, and they do not take into account the situation at home. Bender is an excellent character to study and discuss because of his role in the groups interaction and activities in the entire film. The stereotype attached to Bender is interesting to investigate and evaluate because it might help shed light on some unknown factors that predispose individuals to wayward behavior. The fundamental attribution error occurs when people overemphasize their internal explanations for the behavior of other while failing to take into account the power of the situation these individuals are experiencing (Nichols, 2000). Attribution is the process of supposing the cause of occurrences or behaviors, and it is an aspect that everyone goes through every day. It is usually without any awareness of the underlying processes and biases that lead to these inferences (Nichols, 2000). According to Nichols (2009), people attribute certain things to internal characteristics and at the same time blaming some events on external forces. Different situations are call for the application of particular attributes, and these biases play a major in influencing people’s feelings, perception, and the way they relate to others. Interpersonal attribution seeks to portray an individual in the best possible light to others and their peers. Predictive attribution is the attribution of things in a manner that allows people to make inferences about the future (Broderick & Belwit, 2009). An example of this can be parking a car at a spot where it gets vandalized. Because of this, an individual would avoid parking their car at that spot in the future to avoid further vandalism. Explanatory attribution is used in an effort to make sense about the world the people live in, and it can take on a negative/pessimistic or positive/optimistic attribute. Pessimistic explanatory attribution places positive events with external, specific and stable causes and negative events on internal, stable and global causes. Optimistic attribution places positive events on stable, internal and global factors and place negative attributes to unstable, specific, and external causes. Attribution predisposes individuals to falling victim to cognitive errors, biases because people’s perceptions are sometimes distorted by their experiences in the past, and needs. This can lead to self-serving bias that blames peoples’ success on internal attributes and failures to external attributes, which is meant to protect an individual’s self-esteem (Broderick & Belwit, 2009). Another risk of attribution is the fundamental attribution error where people suppose causes on internal factors such as personality and character. Victims of this aspect ignore or minimize the role played by external variables like in Bender’s case where his attitude and behavior is because of external home situation. Bender’s situation at school is an example of an individualistic culture that focuses on behavior that is because of situational variables that one has no control over. People at school blame Bender’s behavior on internal characteristics without paying much attention to his situation at home, which might be exacerbating his untoward behavior and attitudes. Allison Reynolds ‘the basket case’ reveals that she is detention even though there is no viable reason for her being there unlike the rest of the group who have various reasons to warrant their being at detention. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the need to belong ranks top three for every individual. Psychological needs precede safety needs, which are then followed by the need to belong and feel loved (Nichols, 2000). It is apparent that Allison has attained the first two needs in the hierarchy, and her next logical and natural step is to fulfill the need to belong and feel loved. This can be explained by her situation at home where her parents ignore her and at school, she has no friends to call her own. These factors can be used to explain why Allison is so socially inept, and this is as to why she attended a Saturday detention she did not have to as an attempt to identify with a group she deems fit. Allison confesses to the group that seeks the services of a psychiatrist because she is a compulsive liar. She explains to the group that the psychiatrist uses free association as a method of exploring the unconscious by relaxing the patient and allowing them to say whatever is in their mind. According to Abraham Maslow, people’s actions are motivated in order to achieve and attain their needs according to their priority in life. People move from one need level to a more advanced need level with lowest needs constituting the human basic needs. These are similar to instincts, and they play a significant role in motivating behavior. Psychological, esteem, social and security needs are perceived to be deficiency needs (Broderick & Belwit, 2009). These needs arise due to deprivation and satisfaction of these becomes important to an individual in order to avoid unpleasant feelings that are accompanied by failure to satisfy these needs. Allison is deprived of the feeling to belong and being loved thus, she seeks other avenues to satisfy this need as illustrated by her behavior in joining a detention group. Reference Broderick, P. C. & Belwit, P. (2009). The Life Span: Human Development for Helping Professionals. 3rd Edition. Montreal: Pearson College Division. Nichols, W. C. (2000). Handbook of family development and intervention. Illustrated Edition. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Read More