Examples Of Social Psychology In The Breakfast Club

There are many scenes throughout The Breakfast Club which depict concepts of social psychology. From the very first interaction between the members of the group there is an immediate aggression between Bender, Claire, and Andy. This initial aggression likely stems from the group encountering the “frustrating and aversive circumstances” of having to spend their weekend in detention and confinement to the library with each other. Each of the group members possess a unique social identity, and some of these groups demonstrate prejudice against other groups. An example of such prejudice would be when Claire says to Bender that academic clubs and “social” clubs are “different” in order to distance her social identity from that of the unpopular groups and by extension from Brian. As the film continues, Bender compels himself to remove a screw in the door, that was opened by Vernon to monitor the group, which causes the door to slam shut. …show more content…
The group collectively decided to cover Bender’s actions to maintain harmony despite putting themselves in jeopardy of more detention. However, Vernon proceeds to antagonize Bender anyway, and Bender’s reactance to this was to become blatantly disobedient to Vernon. When Vernon exits, the group begins to converse again. Soon after, aggression between Bender and Andy reach a boiling point after Bender antagonizes Clair. This eventually leads to a confrontation between Bender and Andy. A possible contributor to the aggression between the two can be inferred from the fact that Bender was armed a concealed switchblade, inducing the “weapons effect”. Later, it is also revealed that Bender’s father is abusive and that Bender has a very poor home life. Consequentially, part of Bender’s aggressive tendencies likely stems from observational learning from his abusive father at