Social Theories In The Movie : The Social Penetration Theory

One does not necessarily have to cluck in disapproval to admit that entertainment is all the things its detractors say it is: fun, effortless, sensational, mindless, formulaic, predictable, and subversive. In fact, one might argue that those are the very reasons so many people love it. At the same time, it is not hard to see why cultural aristocrats in the nineteenth century and intellectuals in the twentieth hated entertainment and why they predicted, as one typical nineteenth century critic railed, that its eventual effect would be to over turn all morality, to poison the springs of domestic happiness, to dissolve the ties of our social order, and to involved our country in ruin." said Neal Gabler, the author of Life in the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality. I agree with this quote, that entertainment is mind numbing and lessen the values of our society. Back in the nineteenth century, entertainment was something that actually stimulated their minds,

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 Social Penetration Theory is an explanation by two communication theorists, Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor. This theory attempts to explain how relational closeness develops. Since we all have hundreds of different relationships, with thousands of different people during our lifetime, it is an important theory to study and understand.

The iconic coming-of-age movie The Breakfast Club, focuses on the development of five, seemingly very different high school students. In the movie we are presented with the five main characters all with stereotypes that they identify with. Claire is the princess or the beauty queen, John, often referred to by his last name “Bender,” is the criminal, Brian is the brain or the nerd, Andrew, is the athlete, a wrestler , and finally Allison is the basket case or the weirdo. The story is set in saturday detention where they are forced to spend eight hours with people from other cliques that they would normally never interact with. The day progresses and the characters interact with one another, smoke, dance, break rules, and reveal very personal parts of themselves with the others. The story ends with some of the characters making an attempt to change their identity with the realization that even with the boxes they have been put into they are not that different from one another.

In the movie, The Breakfast Club, there are five characters that are to go to school on a Saturday, to serve a detention. While getting to know one another, each student has a different personality. Also, they discover that each and every one of them belong to “classified” group. For example, like the personalities in the movie, there might be athletic, girly, smart, odd, or trouble-making cliques that go through a school. As time passes by in detention, they manage to accept each other's’ differences, and become decent friends. This movie accurately depicts the type of isolation and separation that occurs in high school.

Compared to concrete thinking in childhood, adolescents’ thinking becomes much more abstract. This enables them to partake in self-conception; differentiating between who they are and who they may become in the future (Arnett, 2013). This developmental milestone is presented in The Breakfast Club when the five teens are sitting on the floor, discussing their insecurities. Andrew asks the group, with a horrified expression, if they are going to be like their parents. Claire answers with certainty that she will not (Hughes, et al., 1985). As they imagine their future selves like their parents, they are conceptualizing their feared selves (Arnett, 2013). Andrew also speaks of the false self he presents to make his father proud. This is shown as he admits that the physical pain and humiliation he caused a peer was not something he wanted to do, though he knew it was an action for which his father would praise him (Hughes et al., 1985). According to Arnett (2013), it is during the period of adolescence that teenagers recognize the false selves they present and that their false selves are contrary to their actual feelings and thoughts.

First of all, with the use of plot and character as dramatic elements, MacLeod is able to depict the main characteristics of the nature of adolescence, mainly the search for identity and the quest for independence. Among the scientific community, adolescence is believed to be the most crucial period in human development. It is a period of “rapid biological, social and psychological change” (Soto, et al. 330). There are the transformations that define puberty, there are changes in the relationships and attitudes towards adults and peers, and many teenagers struggle to form a coherent identity (331). In the process of discovering their identities, most adolescents become self-centered. Having not yet

A concept of a stereotypical teenager in the 20th century was to grow up through childhood but not surpass the values, beliefs and attitudes of a typical adult. In the 1998 film, the audience is shown a great selection of characters, symbolism and setting which reinforces the idea of a teenage role that shows a new perspective that affects society.

Social Penetration theory attempts to explain the differences in communication in relation to the depth of interpersonal relationships. “Irwin Altman and Dallas Taylor, the theory states that relationships begin and deepen through self-disclosure. In the beginning, people establish

The Social Penetration Theory, adapted by Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor, is based on the idea that people are layered like onions, (Griffin 133). These layers are made up by different things that hide an individual’s true self. One’s true self can include his or her hopes, fears, likes, dislikes, aspirations and other things that one thinks about. For individuals to become close, they must get past all of the facades and disclose their true selves to one another. In the movie The Breakfast Club, each of the main characters exemplifies this theory. At the beginning of the movie, characters Claire, John, Andrew, Allison, and Brian are each individuals who separate themselves from one

In other words Social Penetration Theory is a process in which a person reveals themselves to another person. The theory is that people reveal themselves in layers of bits of information. Disclosing things such as; layer one- age, job, hometown; layer two- musical interest, hobbies, religion; layer three- fears, values, self-esteem. The speed at which people do this depends on a variety of factors including your attachment style (pg. 61). The attachment test tells me I'm dismissive, I agree. I am often told I have no emotions. It doesn't bother me to hear that because it is somewhat true. I am not the type to be very forward or lay all my cards on the table. People have to pull off a lot of layers to get to know the real me. I put up a guard because I was hurt once. In the time it took to get over it I believe I lost all feelings towards emotional relationships. I do have feelings I'm just not willing to open up to people and let them see. I hardly ever cry (ever) and if I do

This group of teenagers were clearly obsessed with themselves and constantly worried about other’s views towards them. The group consisted of four boys and four girls who were obviously interested in each other romantically and sexually. The girls were frequently staring up at me because they immediately noticed that I was looking at them and taking notes. The girls would look up at me and then fix their hair and turn to one of the other girl’s and make a comment. This is an example of egocentrism because the girls thought very highly of themselves and what others think of them. This can be very common amongst teenagers who are anxious, deal with depression or are put into new situation (Berger, 2014, p.430). Watching the group of eight teenagers interact with each other, it was clear that they were trying to figure out who they are in life and what they like in a person. Erikson’s term for the 5th stage of development describes the feeling of not understanding who they are as a teenager. Erikson called this stage the identity versus role confusion stage in which teenagers ask themselves who they are as a person and what they mean in life (Berger, 2014, p. 459). The best part about observing this group of teenagers was when one of the girls spotted me observing them and she decided to comment towards me. I was looking at the group of girls and commented to a friend

Through Social Penetration theory, Taylor and I started out as strangers which lated turned in becoming my best friend. Taylor and I’s relationship developed through the depth and breadth of self-disclosure. The four observations of breadth and depth are peripheral, self-disclosure, penetration and depenetration. The first observation is peripheral items are exchanged sooner and more frequently than private information. As Taylor and I first started to to develop our friendship, we played it safe by making small talk. Taylor

Who are you? This question could be exceedingly intricate to answer if you were to ask an adolescent. Teens are experiencing countless changes in their development, which is why it is such a significant time for them. During this time teenagers develop their sense of self. Film has helped portray some of the changes that occur during this evolving developmental period. For this paper, I will be describing the differences between two adolescent films to depict differences in developing the self. Some differences I will cover include types of self, Erickson’s Identity Crisis, Marcia’s Identity Status Interview theory, and culture over time.(Arnett, 2013)

Two big pieces of this social penetration theory puzzle are depth and breadth of self-disclosure. The depth of self-disclosure is how deep someone can penetrate the layers of the onion or how deep your self-disclosure goes. The more intimate someone is in the relationship the more depth of self-disclosure that relationship will have. Where-as the breadth of self-disclosure is the range of topics in which disclosure takes place within a relationship. Younger people tend to have more breadth where-as the older generation tends to take part