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Adolescent Development in Mean Girls

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Adolescent development in Mean Girls

The movie Mean Girls is filled with characters that are easy to relate with, quotable lines, and a hilarious but realistic plot line. One other major thing that the movie has is concepts of the development that occurs during late adolescences including social, emotional, and cognitive development. Mean Girls is about a girl named Cady that is attending a public high school for the first time after being home schooled in Africa for all of her life. She knows nothing of the American teenage culture or customs or about the public school system. During her first week of school Cady becomes friends with two people in one of her classes named Janis and Damien, who unbeknownst to her are a part of the outcast crowd. They convince her to befriend “The Plastics” who are a well-known clique of girls, because it would be fun to see what their lives are like on the other side that people don’t see. She goes along with this plan and quickly her life begins to change.
On the first day of school Cady enters the cafeteria during lunch and feels as if everyone is watching her simply because she is the new girl. This feeling of having an imaginary audience is a part of adolescent egocentrism (Santrock 375). Egocentrism in adolescence varies from egocentrism of early and late childhood. The definition of egocentrism changes from being able to understand the difference of owns perspective from others to adolescent egocentrism, which is having a heightened scene of self-consciousness. Another instance that egocentrism is displayed is when Cady goes to Regina’s house, the queen bee of the plastics, and witnesses her and the other 2 members Gretchen and Karen standing in front of the mirror critiquing their appearances. One girl claims that she has “man shoulders” while another complains that their pores are huge, and that their hairline is weird.

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