The Breakfast Club Analysis

In the Breakfast Club, there are many cognitive advancements that are conveyed. The biggest cognitive advancements that takes place throughout the film are abstract thought, hypothetical thought and multidimensional thought. The movie centers on the essay that the students need to write, “Who do you think you are.” This question requires the group of students to think about their experiences, formulate ideas, acknowledge their knowledge, awareness and reflect on their experiences. The film illustrates how the adolescents thinking changes from concrete thinking- judging their peers and their own lives, to abstract thinking- viewing similarities between the characters and understanding the differences in their lives while showing empathy.

Throughout the movie, Brian goes through the Identity Foreclosure, Identity Moratorium and Identity Achievement statues of James Marcia’s identity statuses theory. When Brian lives up to his obedient, “Good Citizen,” nerd image, he’s in the Identity Foreclosure status since he unquestioningly adopts his parents’ and society's visions, values and roles. He follows rules, questions rebelliousness and allows others to view him as weak for being a geek. Then, he transitions into an Identity Moratorium status where he delays his commitment to being the Brain and explores “alternative ideologies” and sides to himself when he smokes weed and connects to the troubles and philosophies of the rest of the Breakfast Club (Weiten, 457). Finally, at the end of the movie, Brian achieves the Identity Achievement status where he grows closer to a sense of identity and direction after “thinking through alternative possibilities,” or hanging out with the rest of the Breakfast Club (Weiten, 457). After being accepted by others, Brian builds his self-esteem and values his life despite his failures once and for all.

The Breakfast Club is a movie about five students from Shermer High School who gather on a Saturday to sit through eight hours of detention. These five students; Andrew Clark, Claire Standish, John Bender, Allison Reynolds and Brian Johnson, have nothing in common. The Breakfast Club zooms in on the high school social groups and cliques that are often seen in the development of peer groups during adolescents. The peer groups that are portrayed in The Breakfast Club include, John “the criminal”, Claire “the Princess”, Allison “the Basket case”, Brian “the Brain”, and Andrew “the athlete”. The movie centers around an essay that Principle Vernon wants each student to write regarding who they think they are. In the beginning of the film, the

The 1985 comedy drama movie, The Breakfast Club, included five teenagers who are in Saturday school detention for various reasons and at the end of the day must write an essay that explains how they define themselves. In Saturday school detention, each teenager learns about one another, what they have in common, and why they were assigned to be in detention. The teens all have similar problems with stereotyping of how society and especially how their parents define them. In the movie, four of the main characters: Claire, John, Andrew, and Allison experience at least one of the following theories: strain theory, social learning theory, control theory, and labeling theory.

The groups that are formed as adolescents often determine group associations as adults and define an individual within their social group that will either set them with or against other groups. This is described in an article on social groupings by Colin Allen, which mentions that our social associations as adolescents are strong indicators to future patterns of social norms as adults. Therefore, the group of students in the movie, The Breakfast Club, can also be extrapolated to adult group dynamics. However, the varying social norms between groups can present conflicts when adults are required to function within a very diverse group of individuals. In The Breakfast Club, the Jock, Geek, Prom Queen, Delinquent, and the Freak groups are brought together initially through an autocratic or directive leadership role, used to bring the group together in order to proceed to the next phase of group development. This stage is particularly important within a group of

Example 1 – Andrew displays Identity Diffusion when he conforms to peer pressure and follows the acceptable behavior of the group. When the group decides to leave the library, he also follows even though he know the teacher has strictly forbade them from leaving their chair.

Five teens, five different cliques, one eight-hour Saturday detention. These is the basics of The Breakfast Club. Through spending the day with one another Allison, Andrew, Brian, Claire and John realize there isn’t much difference between them, and the differences that are between them aren’t too important. Watching The Breakfast Club is a great way to learn about adolescents. You have five, very different -yet very similar- adolescents to observe along with what they do together. In observing them you can understand how they’re beginning to cognitively develop from children to adults

The Breakfast Club movie is about five high school students from Shemer High School with different backgrounds. It’s the story of “a brain (Brian), an athlete (Andrew), a basket case (Allison), a princess (Claire) and a criminal (Bender).” The purpose of the movie is to captive the feelings and perspectives on what other people have experienced and learned from each other. The analysis about The Breakfast Club is about the common insecurities and challenges of the teenager during high school. The Breakfast club is a movie to convey emotions, fears, and companionship that everyone can relate to. However, with new knowledge comes new perspective and emotions. This movie opens up a world of abstract thoughts because none of the five students know each other and it helps to create an interpersonal communication, they revealed to each other how their lives actually are. This movie is about Social Judgment Theory, Interpersonal conflict, self-disclosure, Social Comparison Theory and an unresolved life conflicts of a teenager life by finding their identities.

The movie The Breakfast Club was released in 1985, and is based on a group of five high school students from stereotypical cliques; the popular, jock, nerd and the outcasts, who all wind up stuck together for Saturday detention. Throughout the movie many themes present themselves such as teenage rebellion, peer pressure and family issues as the students get to know each other. The most prominent theme throughout the movie is the student’s placement in the social structure of the school. From the very different reasons why they are in detention to the way that they are all treated differently by the principle, their social placement is evident.

Brian Johnson, or the “Brain,” in the movie The Breakfast Club, possess thought processes evident in Piaget’s Formal Operational Period stage in his theory of cognitive development. During Piaget’s Formal Operational Period, people begin to “apply their mental operations to abstract concepts in addition to concrete objects;” their thinking is hypothetical, systematic, reflective and logical (Weiten, 448). Brian asks himself existential questions like “Who do I think I am? Who are you? Who are you?” as he brainstorms Mr. Vernon’s assignment for the students in detention; these thoughts are abstract. His thought processes are also logical since he’s extremely intelligent; being part of the math, Latin and physics club requires some advanced thinking skills. Additionally, he understands how concrete applications like engineering stem from abstract concepts like Trigonometry. He also reasoned that if he took a class like Shop that “dopes” take, he could pass that class easily to maintain his GPA; such reasoning requires complex thinking. Finally, his thinking is reflective, especially when he ponders the permanence of the Breakfast Club’s friendship and describes how he steps outside himself to analyze what he sees. Unfortunately, when he observes himself, he’s highly critical and despises his “true” self; he possess a highly negative view of himself, labeling himself a failure, eventually leading to suicidal thoughts and actions.

In the beginning of the movie we learn that Brian, Andrew, Claire, John, and Allison attend Shermer High School in Shermer, Illinois, but are worlds apart due to the social cliques developed by peers and society. These social stereotypes have dictated the following labels for each individual: Brian is the reserved brain, Andrew is the typical athlete, Claire is the spoiled princess, John is the criminal/bully, and Allison is the artsy basket case. Each individual comes from a unique yet damaged background, but in some way similarities exist. These various backgrounds play a key role in the plot development later in the film and set forward the bond the adolescents will form before detention is dismissed.

Released in 1985, The Breakfast Club depicts five high school students from Illinois as they spend a Saturday together in detention. Prior to their arrival, John Bender, Claire Standish, Andy Clark, Brian Johnson, and Allison Reynolds had not met, nor would they have associated with one another on a typical day in high school. After spending nine hours together, however, the group of vastly different adolescents break down emotional barriers, manage to build a sense of intimacy, and some establish dating relationships by the day’s end (Hughes et al., 1985). The film illustrated a rather realistic portrait of adolescence in several topical domains.

The Breakfast Club was an extraordinary film that dealt with teenagers in detention. Although it looked like a regular movie, it had deep meanings involved with it. The movie showcases a circle of teens who are completely different from each other. At first they didn’t interact with one another, but as the movie goes on they begin to become close friends. The Breakfast Club does a great job at exemplifying the dynamics of a group in society because there are so many associations of people who interact with each other even if the interests are completely different. The characters in the movie move from an out group to an in group because they all felt like outsiders towards each other, but as time was going on in detention they were starting to really like each other. They became an in group towards the end of the movie because they made their own grouping, which they referred to it as “The Breakfast Club”.

The movie The Breakfast Club takes viewers on a comedic tour of the ups and downs of adolescence. The Breakfast Club, directed by John Hughes, focuses on the events that unfold between five very different high school students during a Saturday detention. Even though the movie was shot in the 1980 's the characters portrayal is still relatable in a way to a lot of people today. Director John Hughes takes us on a comedic ride with what seems like another typical "teen movie" while still portraying a few life lessons along the way and exposing some truths behind stereotyping.

John Hughes's The Breakfast Club is one of film history’s most iconic and renowned movies and is a cornerstone of 1980’s pop-culture. The Breakfast Club showcases five unique high school students who all unfortunately find themselves imprisoned in an all-day Saturday detention. The students go as following: Claire (a pretty girl), Brian (the nerd), John (the bad boy), Andrew (an athlete), and Allison (the strange, goth girl). These students come from very different backgrounds and social settings which proves to spark many conflicts between them as well as with their supervisor Mr. Vernon. But through this conflict they find similarities between themselves, and after spending nine hours locked up together, they find resolution within themselves and with their new friends. Psychology can explain why this happened as well as what caused other events to occur. This paper will examine four different psychological phenomena: stereotypes, conformity/normative social influence, ingroup versus outgroup/superordinate goals, and the various causes of attraction.