The breakfast club

The Breakfast Club: Exploring Interpersonal Contact Values

The 1985 film The Breakfast Club, directed by John Hughes, contains many examples of interpersonal contact values. Allison, John, Brian, Claire, and Andrew, five high school students, are forced to spend a day in detention on Saturday, and at the end of the day, they know they have a universal problem. The film incorporates several traditional psychological ideas and principles that describe the character’s inner self. The players are originally viewed in a certain manner by each other because they are familiar with their attitudes, the kind of fellows, and the world in which they lived back at school. However, the detention brings all of them together, and their dispositions disclosed throughout the film, and the behaviors and personalities begin to reveal themselves through the concepts and the psychological theories both in a group and individually.

The Acceptance Type of Conformity

At the commencement of the film, one of the concepts displayed is the acceptance type of conformity where the principal assigns the student to complete a given work, and because he is the symbol of authority, they accepted to complete the work before the end of the day without changing. We also see Brian taking marijuana. He is a guy subjected to stereotypes all through the film. A stereotype is just a generalized belief about a person or a group. For example, he has a well-balanced dietary, and bender terms him as an ideal nerd kid who has a caring mom to pack a meal for him. Also, it was assumed that being the brain used to write everyone’s essay; he was subject to peer pressure. Such force is social and forces one to be involved or take part in a given action to conform for acceptance.

Peer Pressure on Brian

Brian was a subject of peer pressure when he accepted to smoke with the rest of the team. He was unsure and skeptical when bender offered him marijuana, the rest of the individuals had already agreed since they were peer-pressured too, and this made Brian accept. In the case that he said no, he could have been considered an outcast which he feared and decided to avoid it by smoking. At the end of the movie, all character accepts themselves plus their detention mates.

Claire’s Narcissism and the Attention Effect Theory

From the beginning, Claire is portrayed as a loaded and favorite daughter after he was seen in her dad’s BMW. Following detention, her father laments, and this makes Claire think that she can get away with the breaking of rules. Her Standish revealed with the concept of narcissism, unfortunately, is her dark side. Narcissism is the extreme self-centered experience with an exaggerated view of a person’s talent as well as a craving for admiration as characterizing a type of personality.

It’s evident when Claire claims that she is famous and loved by her schoolmates and she seems to care and display her beauty and riches too often. That claim made Brian reply to her by saying “you’re so conceded Claire… you’re so full of yourself, why are you like that?” As discovered by her detention mates, she is full of herself. Moreover, this also shows the signs of the attention effect theory related to Claire in that; she believes that her schoolmate pays much attention to her looks and the rich spoiled like behaviors. It’s better for Claire if she humbles even though her problems have emanated from the parent’s lack of enforcing laws against her adverse reactions.

Bender’s Criminality and Fundamental Attribution Errors

Bender’s parents care less about him; it’s revealed at the beginning where we see that he is the only student to have never been dropped at school. Lack of care has resulted in hardening him and have a don’t care character seen when he rips Claire and finds more comfort in tearing her even when she is crying. Bender reveals a concept of criminality where he places his drugs down Brian’s pants and escapes before getting caught. However, this is also a stereotype since the teacher wouldn’t suppose the nerd to carry drugs with him.

The guy falls a victim of fundamental attribution errors which is a theory explaining someone’s behaviors by either crediting the person’s character or the position. Bender has an aggressive, freeloading, and disrespectful nature. At home, he is poorly handled and has to feed himself, he is also in constant verbal and physical abuse, and now in the detention, no one took the situation he has at home before attributing him to his disposition.

The Unveiling of True Personalities and Nature vs. Nurture

By the end of the film, the five students come out of their school society roles when comfortable to each other since the shared day had an equalizing aftermath on the team’s social structure. They were able to find common ground which was in shape to their complicated family life. Each person’s behavior can be attributed to the psychological concepts which varied indicating differences between people and the home environment towards their actions. The way they were all raised creates a debate of nurture vs. nature. Sometimes we tend to see people and label them in our minds in ways different to which they are, and we may end up giving them nicknames.