Mean Girls Movie Review/ Personality Psychology
Movie Review- Mean Girls
Brooke Millett
Sheridan College
Personality and how we behave have been of much interest to psychologists for a long time now and because of this there have been many theories and theorists that have been developed. Personality is defined as consistent behavior patterns and intrapersonal processes originating within and individual (Fritzley, 2012, p. 10). There are six main approaches to personality psychology they include: biological approach, humanistic approach, behaviorist approach, trait approach, psychoanalytic approach and cognitive approach. Each approach shines a little light onto why we behave the way we do and how our personalities are formed, the approaches contain many different theories from very famous theorists. Now, there is something we do have to remember and it is that no one approach is better than the other, in fact they all help; they each just have different focuses. To use all this knowledge on personality, a good way to understand is to relate theories and ideas to media and movies. In this paper it will be analyzing the movie “Mean Girls”, written by Tina Fey and directed by Mark Waters, using Freud’s psychoanalytic approach. Raised in African bush by her zoologist parents, Cady Heron (Lindsey Lohan) thinks she knows all about survival of the fittest, but little does she know all the rules change when she finally enters a public high school. Being home schooled and from a totally different country Cady learns quickly that she is not in Africa anymore. The 16 year old encounters psychological warfare and unwritten social rules that teenage girls face today (Varma, 2004, para. 1) Freud had many different theories and to completely go through everything he would say about this movie is unrealistic. Instead the paper will mostly be focusing on his defense mechanisms and how they relate to the movie with mentioning of both his topographical model and his structural model. Freud developed psychological
Brooke Millett
Sheridan College
Personality and how we behave have been of much interest to psychologists for a long time now and because of this there have been many theories and theorists that have been developed. Personality is defined as consistent behavior patterns and intrapersonal processes originating within and individual (Fritzley, 2012, p. 10). There are six main approaches to personality psychology they include: biological approach, humanistic approach, behaviorist approach, trait approach, psychoanalytic approach and cognitive approach. Each approach shines a little light onto why we behave the way we do and how our personalities are formed, the approaches contain many different theories from very famous theorists. Now, there is something we do have to remember and it is that no one approach is better than the other, in fact they all help; they each just have different focuses. To use all this knowledge on personality, a good way to understand is to relate theories and ideas to media and movies. In this paper it will be analyzing the movie “Mean Girls”, written by Tina Fey and directed by Mark Waters, using Freud’s psychoanalytic approach. Raised in African bush by her zoologist parents, Cady Heron (Lindsey Lohan) thinks she knows all about survival of the fittest, but little does she know all the rules change when she finally enters a public high school. Being home schooled and from a totally different country Cady learns quickly that she is not in Africa anymore. The 16 year old encounters psychological warfare and unwritten social rules that teenage girls face today (Varma, 2004, para. 1) Freud had many different theories and to completely go through everything he would say about this movie is unrealistic. Instead the paper will mostly be focusing on his defense mechanisms and how they relate to the movie with mentioning of both his topographical model and his structural model. Freud developed psychological