Mean Girls Social Psychology Essay

Social Psychology Concepts in Mean Girls ‘Mean Girls’ is a classic romantic comedy amongst young women, and some young men, in America today. The main character, Cady, is a new student who transferred from Africa. Because she was home schooled until her junior year of high school, she experiences great shifts in her social influences as well as some shifts in her social thinking throughout the movie. Because the film is set in an American high school, it provides an ample amount of social interaction examples that enable psychologists to relate and discuss concepts in social psychology curriculum. Also, because many of these interactions are informal, the concepts can be more relatable and easily understand able to people who may have encountered similar social environments. On Cady’s first day at school she meets Janice and Damian. During homeroom Janice and Damian volunteer to show Cady to her next class, however, Cady knows they actually plan to skip class. Despite her prior knowledge that skipping class is wrong, she narrates how she is “in no position to pass up friends” and decides to miss her first day of health class to …show more content…
31). Through out the entirety of the film there are examples of social comparisons being made between the characters. At the beginning of Cady’s friendship with the plastics her physical appearance was more casual and less girly. However, once she began to hang out and become more emotionally connected to them everything about her appearance started to mirror theirs. After she realized their popularity and praise was associated with their looks, Cady evaluated her own and realized she was below the standard the plastics were at. Her choice to conform to their ideas of beauty show her comparison between her self and Regina, the head plastic, and the desire to become more beautiful in the eyes of her new American