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Mean Girls Essay

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Mean Girls is a film about an adolescent foreign student, Cady, who moves from Africa to a suburban area in Illinois (Lorne, Shimkin, & Waters, 2004). Consequently, she had to give up homeschooling. Cady is introduced to a typical, public high school full of cliques, which makes her question her individuality in terms of popularity. After befriending two outcasts, she ironically is drawn to the “plastics” – a group of domineering, popular girls. Cady is persuaded by her two unpopular friends to falsify a friendship with the plastics in order to reveal their deepest secrets and ultimately destroy their clique. Unfortunately, Cady ends up becoming one of the plastics herself, which causes her to lose connections with both cliques. Cady …show more content…
I enjoyed the transformation that Cady went through in order to achieve her identity and sense of morality. The bigger picture behind the clichéd dialogue is not only satirical, but it exceedingly encapsulates the true essence of the social-clique dynamics during adolescence. This movie relates to developmental psychology because the main character endures an identity crisis, deals with peer pressure, experiences abstract thought, and gains a sense of morality, all of which coincide with the developmental topics that are covered in class (Lorne, Shimkin, & Waters, 2004). The main character matures according to psychological several theories that we discuss. These theories include Erikson’s theory, Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, and Kohlberg’s moral development theory (Berk, 2014). As Cady progresses within the film, it is easy to see the role that peers and society in general has on the developmental process of an adolescent (Lorne, Shimkin, & Waters, 2004). One of the main debates in developmental psychology – nature versus nurture - is also touched on within the film. Cady is constantly being shaped by her environment and the context in which she grows up in, thus suggesting that the nurture side of the debate plays a massive role in development. Overall, this film accurately depicts the emotional and social development found within an average adolescent girl (Berk,

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