The Breakfast Club: Impact of the Environment on the Behaviour

Today I watched a movie called ‘The Breakfast Club’. It was a movie about 5 problem children going to school on a Saturday for detention. Their names were Brian Johnson, Andrew Clark, Allison Reynolds, Claire Standish, and John Bender stereotyped as “the brain, the athlete, the basket case, the princess and the criminal, respectively. The supervising teacher gave the students a task and left, presenting the beginning of teen drama with Bender bothering Claire with inappropriate sexual jokes, which also sets off Andrew and Brian. 

I continued watching the movie for an hour and that’s where things started to change. They began to open up to each other and instead of viewing each other as their stereotype, they listened to each other’s problems. Bender first revealed himself being abused at home and his dad not caring about him, Allison’s parents completely ignore her, Andrew bullied a kid and Brian is suicidal due to his parents pressuring him into his studies. I began to see these characters differently and remembered something I learnt the other day. Stereotypes and prejudice begin from social categorization – categorizing people into groups based on their characteristics or traits. 

Once these categories become established, they are difficult to change and will occasionally influence our performance around them. The main characters are identified as the brain (Brian), the athlete (Andrew), the basket case (Allison), the princess (Claire) and the criminal (John). These characters are categorized in certain groups due to a variety of factors like their actions, clothes, food and physical appearance. According to the Social Learning Theory, human behaviour is influenced based on the community’s behaviour, attitude and emotional reactions of others. During the movie, John Bender (the criminal) offers the others marijuana, and although they are hesitant at first, they all end up taking it. 

The Social Learning Theory tells us that the environment a person is in influences their behaviour, altering the out-group effect to an in-group one. Another example of this in The Breakfast Club is shown in Bender’s family life situation as he is always disregarded and violated. “When you grow up, your heart dies.” The Breakfast Club presents an engaging and relatable story. The theme of the movie teaches us to break down these stereotypes and change the way we identify those around us.

It was a lovely Saturday morning today. I got out of bed and made myself breakfast. A few hours later, I was asked to do some shopping for dinner so I got dressed and left the house. As I was walking to a nearby shopping centre, I noticed an aboriginal being discriminated for his skin colour and race. It was a group of Australians threatening him with no cause. “We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it I offered as part of the healing of the nation. We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians. A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility. 

A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equals stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.” 10 years since Kevin Rudd’s speech on 13 February 2008, on behalf of the Indigenous Australians’ “Stolen Generation” and its coming back to haunt us a decade later. A decade after Kevin Rudd’s speech in 2008 with laws changing and official apologies, Aboriginals, again suffering the same discrimination. The Indigenous Australians have suffered both mentally and physically, experiencing profound grief, suffering and loss. 

The psychological theory, Authoritarian personality, describes and explains an individual’s personality type. The creator, Adorno et al. proposed in 1950 that an individual’s personality type reflects the given prejudice. By developing and analysing a questionnaire (F-scale), the Authoritarian personality theory suggested that some individuals were more highly sensitive to authoritarian ideas, therefore more highly prejudicial. Those with an authoritarian personality tended to be obedient to those of higher status, but prejudiced to those weaker, and harsh to their opinions and beliefs. In other words, those with a strict upbringing from harsh environments were most likely to develop an authoritarian personality. 

This is because the individual was unable to express hostility towards their parents and misplaced their aggression on the minority group. “Prejudice has a powerful and harmful effect. The higher one’s level of prejudice, the more likely one is to have poorer measures of mental, social and physical well-being.” Many studies and research have shown that those who feel discriminated will often feel confused and broken due to a number of mental health problems caused in the process. Prejudice is bad for its victims, negatively affecting a person/group's quality of life.