Personality Analysis on ‘The Breakfast Club’ Essay

Released in 1985 and directed by canful Hughes The Breakfast unify is a movie theatre ab unwrap teenagers that betm varied on the sur fountain but hang to discover otherwise . When five students from different high inform cliques be forced to spend their Saturday in custody, the mindset, athlete, basket case, princess and the criminal to sireher argon faced with the question of who they think they ar. The five characters put aside the ir dissimilarities in aid to survive the painful eight hour detention and in the process they discover they arent as unalike afterwards all.The Breakfast Club is a n all time authoritative conduct that portrays a number of individual and complex individualalities. It is visible in the film that each teenager has their own traits and characteristics due to various fate such as environmental and parental influences .The character focus exit be John curved shape, the so-called the criminal of the five teenager s . Upon first glance, ben der seems to be the average high schooltime ill boy getting his position in this particular(prenominal) detention for displace a false fire alarm . This gives viewers th e idea that his character does whatever he can for attention. Bender too has a tendency to say and do things that will get a detrimental reaction out of a person, by insul ting and antagoni gabble every character at some point in the film . By applying Maslows hierarchy of needs and B. F. mule drivers opening of nature you ge t a more intellectual psychological understanding of Benders nature.Abraham Maslow developed his power structure of Needs guess in 1954 to help himself and other humanistic theorists to better understand what motivates bulk. Maslow retrieved that people are motivated to satisfy specific needs, in saying this he created a five stage pyramid that depicts the order of importance of these specific needs. Maslow has suggested that o nce one need or category is satisfied and complete by person they can then move on to fulfilling the future(a) need . (McLeod 2007)Figure 1 (Maslows Hierarchy of Needs diagram- 1954) thence according to Maslow if a person does not fulfil their basic physiological needs they lose motivation to satisfy belonging and esteem needs. When this occurs the person feels a disinterest to socialise and make friends, typically leading in said person to be spot disrespectful and inconsiderate of the feelings of others and their opinion. (NetMBA 2010)Bender is intelligibly portrayed end-to-end the film as a person who has failed to carry out the first 2 basic needs of the hierarchy table associate to figure 1 . In the film, when dejeuner break is commenced it is showed that Bender has come with no food for lunch, whilst the other characters have all got substantial packed lunches. This could be classified as a sign that shows that Benders physiological needs are not being fulfilled. When Bender pulls out a pocket knife during a heated d iscussion you get the idea that Bender clearly doesnt feel safe and that he needs a weapon as form of protection, showing that Bender is clearly lacking a sense of security and galosh . get along construction of the idea that Bender does not have substantive or rewarding home animateness takes course when Bender shows the group a scar on his fore arm, given to him by father as mere punishment for accidentally spilling paint in the garage.That being said, it is seen throughout the film that Bender is failing to adequately satisfy his physiological and safety needs, leaving him disinterested in fulfilling social needs and lacking in self-esteem and respect. Benders lack of motivation in enculturation and making friends is the most dominant aspect of his bad boy spirit, he constantly displeases the other characters in the film about things that genuinely hard put them -evidently pushing them away. Bender too suffers from low self-esteem which is why he compensates by putting on a tough, bad boy front. You see this through the way in which he dresses, disobeys the Principals orders, constantly challenge s another male character and also in the way that disrespects the school and its property.In behavioural theorist B. F. Skinners perspective an individuals personality development is heavily influenced by their environment and prior experiences (Sincero 2012) , he wrote that A person does not act upon theworld, the work acts upon him (Skinner 1971) . Skinner proposed that the development of an individuals personality is largely dependant on the way in which significant adults in their lives would reward or punish then throughout the course of their childhood. (Carter Grivas 2005, p. 407-408) Therefore, children and adolescents elevated by abusive and aggressive parents are more inclined to also be come aggressive and hostile towards peers. (Hellesvig-Gaskell n.d)Throughout The Breakfast Club (Hughes 1985) there are multiple scenes that express the negative h ome life in which Bender is being raised and how it is influencing his personality.In a specific scene Bender imitates a previous heated discussion between him and his father and according to Bender his father called him stupid, worthless, no good, goddamn, freeloading son of a bitch. Retarded, big mouth, know-it-all, asshole, jerk then Bender pantomimes getting punched in the face by his father as a result of Bender retaliating. In a behaviourists perspective this would justifyBenders aggressive personality and tendency to lash-out and insult the other characters.When comparing Bender to Brian Johnson the character portrayed as the brain or the nerd of the group, it is visible that as result of polar reversal home environments that Brian and Bender have e qually opposite personalities. Brians family are shown as very over supportive and pushy in his school work, yet still compassionate. T his is well symbolised again in the lunch scene of the film when Brian unpacks his nutritious , home-made lunch , whilst Bender has been sent to school with cryptograph to eat.Brians personality comes off as very timid and anxious, and not once throughout the film does Brian retaliate towards Bender when he acts in a hostile or cruel manner- although if the roles were reversed and Brian was acting in a similar fashion toward Bender he w ould lash-out violently or show signs of aggression in return , just as father would to him. By comparing Brians personality with Bender s you come to understand the impact an abusivehome environment and negative parental influences has on Benders personality.Al t hough two Maslows and Skinners theories o f personality serve in better understanding Benders character the two theorists have are entirely opposite perspectives on personality and how it is developed. Behaviourists believe that personality is determined by environment and the way an individual reacts to different stimuli (Sternburg 1995, p.589), whilst Humanistic theories state that personality is a conscious and free excerption for the individual to control. (Coon 1998, p.543) Behaviourist s also state that personality is motivated by all kinds of drives, whilst Humanists think that personality is motivated by the destiny to fulfil self-actualisation.In conclusion, the application of Maslows humanistic perspective and Skinners behaviour ist viewshelp to understand Benders personality efficiently. Discarding the point that twain theorists completely contradict one another they both give a deeper explanation into why Bender chooses to be overbearing and why he lacks interest in making friends, along with justifying Benders rage and aggression struggles. Overall humanist and behaviourist theories on personality assist in the process of understanding and evaluating the personality that makes John Bender of The Breakfast Club. 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