In the 1985 comedy the Breakfast Club, the Juddy Nelson plays the character, John Bender. John is physically well built with a tough look. John’s physical appearance stereotypes a criminal character. His mode of dressing, talking, attitude and looks resemble those a juvenile criminal. However, despite his physical looks, John’s way of thinking and reasoning is focused on positive aspects of himself and others. He bullies other but not with intent to annoy or harm them but create a relationship with them. John constantly used to mistreat Claire to create a relationship with her. John has sympathy for himself and others and uses bullying, fun, and jokes to reach others. He is also socially but misunderstood by peers as a bully.
John has a sense of humor and great team leadership skills. He socializes other peer detainees both positively and negatively. John told his peers his story that leads to the understanding of each other’s story while he also led them to smoke drugs. John Bender character is influenced by his family multicultural setting. He acts aggressively due to his experience with his father who physically abuses him at home. In the movie set, John Bender appreciates multiple peer culture and becomes a protagonist of understanding each other at the detention. John Bender was placed in detention for acting in a violent manner including pulling the firearm.
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Physical Development
During adolescence, children undergo different milestones characterized by physical, cognitive and emotional changes. This stage can also be very challenging to teenagers specifically if they do not get the necessary support from parents and peers. Adolescence is a transition stage to adulthood hence can be overwhelming (Graber, Brooks-Gunn & Petersen, 2018). On the physical growth milestone, the teen increase in body size and reach puberty when they start being sexually active.
It is also an adolescent when teen develops and understand and appreciate body image. The female becomes more concerned over their image as compared to men. In the movie, John has a well-developed physique that has often been stereotyped a criminal. He also had a great masculine tough look. Masculinity features indicate john’s attainment of the physical milestones at adolescence (Colten, 2017). At adolescence, teenagers get sexually active, and this is exhibited by Johns’ sexual jokes towards Clare. John in one instance asked a colleague to close the door to impregnate Clare, indicating that he was sexually active and attracted to Clare. On image development and understanding, John appreciated Claire’s fatty image and made some jock that Claire is a name to some fatty and sweet girls. Although the joke was annoying, it indicated that John was aware of different female images and Clare’s image was for the sweet but fat girls.
Cognitive Development
Teenagers undergo many different cognitive development milestones at the adolescent stage. According to Piaget, at adolescence, teens develop critical and logical thinking ability and can see a situation in a more rational rather than abstract (Meeus, 2016). In this stage teens also develop brainstorming and reasoning skills, understand abstract concepts, and Metacognition. It is also at adolescence when teens become self-conscious about themselves and others (Ozer, 2017). They also develop social responsibility and awareness skill while some may be noted to develop reckless behaviors.
In the movie, John is noted to developed logical thinking ability and used his jokes as a mean of expressing sympathy to Clare and develops a relationship. John also develops a Metacognition skill and seeks to share his story to others who also share their stories and finally come to realize that they are all victims of a similar situation. Through the sharing of their stories, all detainees developed a new way of thinking about themselves an indication of new cognitive realization and awareness of themselves. John Bender adopted reckless behaviors and was involved in violence, bullying, and sharing of annoying jokes. The crime like behavior John adopts is an indication of normal attainment of the cognitive development milestones.
Social Development
Social development at teenage includes seeking for own identity, the creation of commitments with individuals and groups, seeking autonomy, privacy, and distance from parents. It is also at this stage of development when intimacy is developed between teenagers (Noller & Callan, 2015). In the movie, John is developing a new commitment with Claire that is meant to be intimate till the day they separate he is given a diamond earring as a keep token of their friendship while in detention. He also develops a friendship with all other detainees and freely shares his story with them who in turn share their individual stories with him too. The creation of commitment with either an individual or groups of people is a normal adolescence social development milestone (Colten, 2017). It is also noted that John did not like his father due to his constant abuse on him hence distanced himself from him and the family terming his family as worthless, stupid, ugly, lazy and disrespectful. He used bad and nasty terminologies to describe his family an indication of distancing himself from his family and seeking autonomy. This is also a normal social development milestone at teenage. Intimacy is also clearly portrayed in Johns character when they engage in kissing with Clare and eventually Clare gave him a diamond earring keep token on their release from the detention.
Identity Development
Identity development is one of the main developmental milestones in teenage. Adolescents usually establish their significance, role, and position in the environment they live in. At young ages, children establish their belongings at the family level while at teenage, they start establishing their role in the world and not at the family level (Fuhrmann, Knoll & Blakemore, 2015). The most important question they tend to ask themselves is who they are outside of their family. But before the adolescent stage, the children’s moral perception, preference, and behavior are influenced by their parents and family setting.
In the movie, John’s aggressive behavior is influenced by the fathers’ aggressive and abusive behavior towards him. John one time showed Andrew a scar where his father burned him with a cigar for spilling paint on the garage floor. This lead to his aggressive behavior at teenage which is a normal identity development milestone towards adolescence (Colten, 2017). In the movie, when the detained share their individual stories, they all established that they all have a similar plight. This realization made them identify the new identity that they are not supposed to stereotype but can all be brains, athletes, a basket case, criminals and princess. John and the other teenagers understood their situation in a non-academic but shared the joy of learning to understand their identity. The realization of their new identity was a normal identity development at teenage.
Implications for Practice
Human development is characterized by distinct changes at various stage of life. These changes are explained in developmental theory. Research has shown that there are many developmental changes during adolescence (Fuhrmann, Knoll & Blakemore, 2015). However, these changes are categorized into physical, socio-emotional, cognitive and the quest for an identity. There is a considerable qualitative difference in behavioral change that is normal at adolescence (Criss, 2016). For the case of John in the movie, the physical changes in body size and looks during his teenage is a normal manifestation of the developmental theory which is supported by evidence-based research.
As a professional counselor, I cite most of John's characteristics being in line with the developmental theory where teenagers undergo cognitive, physical and socio-emotional changes at adolescence. In the counseling room, the counselor will research and evaluate Johns characteristic and behavior and then establish its correlation with the expected physical and behavioral changes at the adolescence level of development. In the counseling room, the application of this theory will enable the counselors to understand Johns physique and behavior in explaining adolescents physical, socio-emotional, cognitive development.
Resilience
Resilience is the ability to get back to normalcy after a crisis. In psychology, resilience involves coping after difficult. It is a mental process that promotes the protection one from the negative impacts of a stressor (Batubara, 2016). A situation where one remains calm despite the effect of negative consequence is also referred to as resilience. Resilience can be of low level, medium and high level depending on the persons subjected to negative consequences. John’s case portrays a high level of resilience since he easily realizes himself and the others that they are victims of similar situation hence no stereotypes (Fuhrmann, Knoll & Blakemore, 2015). On realization of their plight, John and the others develop a new perspective of viewing themselves. During the moment they are released from the detention, John triumphantly pumped his fist on the air a sign of accomplishment. The accomplishment is possible the realization of new identity and sign of high levels of coping.
However, for John to be more resilient to his existing emotional crisis that also shaped his behavior, he can adopt good habits like avoiding drug smoking, avoid bullying others who stereotypically tag him as a criminal. Indulging in teamwork activities with peers can also assist John to establish his true identity in the world. John can also indulge in changing his image and physique to appeal to peers and stop the existing stereotype he is branded.
Resilience for Minorities
Imagining that among the teens in the movie the breakfast club featured Tyrel Jackson William an American born black teen actor, the movie would have depicted some elements of diversity. The movie would offer research base on teen resilience among minorities. It would have raised the question on the levels if resilience between people of color and the white. It would also have provided a case study to establish various ways to improve resilience among the white and the colored. However, from psychology literature, blacks are exposed to more social crisis than their white counterparts (McLean & Syed, 2015). Other than family issues that affect black teens, they often face color discrimination that leads to aggressive behavior and crime.
Black teens behavior is shaped by the environment, and they assume a defiant and hash behavior for their self-defense. Research suggests that black teenagers can develop better resilience by developing positive traits and attitudes like self-respect, being team players and socializing, developing self-organizational skills and positive thinking habits (Colten, 2017). Developing the traits or kindness, empathy, fairness cooperation and honesty also greatly assist minority teenagers to develop resilience. There is no common difference between the factors that can be used to build resilience among minority teens and those that assist the white teens in developing resilience. The only difference is that the minority teens are exposed to a greater extent of crisis risks that need the development of resilience more than white teens.
Personal Reflection on Adolescence
Adolescence as a developmental stage is characterized by cognitive, physical, identity and socio-emotional changes. These changes cause different physical and socio-behavioral changes to a teenager but account for the normal life development of a human. At adolescence, teen experience body growth spurt which is an indication of maturity. They also experience primary and secondary sex characteristics. Primary sex characteristics include a change in sexual organs while secondary characterizes include bodily sexual involvement (Steinbeis & Crone, 2016). Teens also experience intellectual and cognitive changes and can think more logically over concrete issues. Through increased cognitive reasoning, teens display egocentric attitudes and behavior. Among the most significant and important social-emotional change at teenage is the search for identity (Colten, 2017). Adolescents often need to identify their place in the community, society and the world other than at family level. Both parents and adolescents often struggle with the changes and end up in a conflict that creates a crisis between the two.
Conclusion
Adolescence is a transitional stage to adulthood and entails a lot of physical, cognitive and socio-emotional changes. It is important for the teen to be guided by parents and teens so that there is no crisis that negatively shapes the teens' attitudes and behavior. Parents and environment play a big role in shaping teens in the best way possible and ensuring they explore their full potential at adulthood. Teens develop different resilience levels against crisis they encounter. However, it is the responsibility of the parents to give their teen’s undivided attention by listening and speaking to them when they need their help. Parents are also supposed to understand the teens' feelings and emotions to avoid humiliating them and causing the crisis. The teens can also develop resilience to a crisis by not viewing parents as enemies and being open-minded and ever seeking guidance from parents in various situations. By sharing their feelings with their parents, teens can be well understood by their parents.
References
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Ozer, E. J. (2017). Youth ‐ led participatory action research: Overview and potential for enhancing adolescent development. Child Development Perspectives , 11 (3), 173-177.
Steinbeis, N., & Crone, E. A. (2016). The link between cognitive control and decision-making across child and adolescent development. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences , 10 , 28-32.
