Psychological Analysis of Mean Girls - Paper Example

The Mean Girls mainly focused on the challenges that adolescents go through as they search their identity that defines their adulthood. The immature stage plays a role in determining the route that the life of the youth takes in the future. The movie shows the different psychological stages that adolescents go through as they grow to adulthood. The adolescent stage comes with various experiences and challenges that the adolescent lack sufficient skills of managing them. The characters in the moving are undergoing different psychological experiences that define their character. The movie clearly shows that the family background of the adolescents determines their characters and how they relate to other people in the school (Cacioppo & Freberg, 2013). According to the movie, moving to a new country has some psychological effects to adolescents because they have challenges adapting to the new culture in the new country.

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In the film, Cady has problems adjusting to the new life after moving from Africa where the schools and the way of life were different as compared to the current one. At school, she is viewed as an outsider and thus faces challenges integrating with other students. Cady is the target of aggression from some of the students who are out to make a new life miserable, and this helps to make her miss her old school and friends (Waters, 2004). Aggression is used as a form of defense mechanism in the movie. Aggression towards her brings her some anxiety disorder as she is undergoing a kind of mental torture that she does not have sufficient experience on how to deal with it (Brenda, November 2, 2015). The aggression towards Cady makes her change her personality to suit that of her peers with the hope that her new character will aid her integration into the new culture. In the new school, Cady learns that there are cliques with different values and she has difficulties deciding which group meets her values and needs. This shows that there is social categorization in the movie. Prejudice and discrimination are also evident among the students as members of the different groups hate non-members of their group and are not willing to accommodate new members from other groups (Waters, 2004). The social group known as the plastics exhibit the highest form of prejudice and discrimination against the other students. For instance, they have the Burn Book which they pin pictures of students and teachers they hate and make demeaning comments about them (Brenda, 2015).

In psychology, there are different personalities. Some of the personalities are exhibited by the characters in the movie. There are four types of personalities evident in the characters of the film. The first personality is identity moratorium in which a person analyzes options (Cacioppo & Freberg, 2013). In this personality, the individual has not made a decision on matters affecting him or her. Lack experience on the issues they are experiencing for the first time in their lives hinders their judgment on the best course of action. Most of the people while at this stage don't care about what others think of them. From the movie Kevin exhibits this kind of personality because he is unique and does what pleases and does not care what others think about him. The second personality from the movie is foreclosure identity in which a person makes decisions based on opinions of others (Cacioppo & Freberg, 2013). From the film, Karen shows this kind of personality. She is influenced by others and cannot make an independent decision because she must always consider the input of others in her decisions (Juli, 2011). The third is personality identity confusion which arises as a result of experiencing crisis due to lack of proper decision-making skills (Cacioppo & Freberg, 2013). A person with this kind of personality lacks meaning of his or her life and easily influenced by others. Damien in the movie is a gay but does not come clean about it because he is afraid what others will think of him. The fourth personality is achievement character that comes after crises and gaining experience how to handle the crises (Cacioppo & Freberg, 2013). One makes decisions about what they want in their life as evidenced by Mrs. Norbury in the movie.

Some characters in the film are attention-seekers, and they lose their personality while attempting to get the attention of others. For instance, Cady is used by Janis to revenge on Regina and in the process loses her personality while trying to please Janis. Cady has a feeling of egocentrism because when she enters the cafeteria, she thinks that everyone is looking at her. Most of the characters want to have audience and followers who can do whatever they are instructed to do. Regina has an egotistic personality disorder and assumes a high social status in school as views herself as the queen of the clique known as the plastics (Juli, 2011). She chooses her followers and right-hand man. Gretchen suffers from bipolar disorder because she thinks she is the lead supporter of the queen of the plastics. Karen is easily influenced and cant make her decisions. She has the psychological disorder as she uses her boobs to predict when it will rain.

In the movie, there is the psychological challenge of identity crisis which brings stress to the characters. The identity crisis is caused by caring so much about how other people think of them and thus end up acting in a way that they think is approved by others. Cady goes through the identity crisis. She hangs out with the mean girls and is influenced by them on how to dress and act to be part and parcel of the group. The movie also shows how different parenting styles affect the adolescents (Brenda, 2015). Cady comes from an authoritative family where she is consulted on matters concerning her. The consultation means that she weighs the consequences of each decision she takes with her parents. Regina comes from a permissive family where she has the final say about her decisions and thus makes her develop the egocentrism attitude.

References

Brenda, G. (November 2, 2015). Psychological Theory Analysis in Mean Girls. Accessed from http://brendag16.edublogs.org/2015/11/02/psychological-theory-analysis-in-mean-girls/Cacioppo, J. T., & Freberg, L. (2013). Discovering Psychology: The science of mind. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Wadsworth.

Juli, S. (July 27, 2011). Understanding Mean Girls. Accessed from http://psych-your-mind.blogspot.co.ke/2011/07/understanding-mean-girls.htmlWaters, M. (2004). Mean Girls [Motion Picture]. United States: Paramount Pictures.