Mean Girls Movie Psychology Essay

The Stage of Adolescence High school is a critical stage in the development of humans, more specifically, adolescence. The movie Mean Girls sets the scene for this specific life stage by portraying a character and the effects that she goes through during it (Waters, 2004). Regina George is an average high school mean girl who faces troubles that result entirely from this stage of development. Using Erikson’s psychosocial theory, Skinner’s operant conditioning theory, Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, and Bandura’s social cognitive theory, the stage of adolescence can be portrayed through the life of Regina George.

Psychosocial Theory The neo-Freudian psychoanalytic theorist, Erik Erikson, devised his thinking about life-span development

Skinner devised the theory of operant conditioning. Operant Conditioning is defined as an important form of learning “in which a learner’s behavior becomes either more or less predictable depending on the consequences it produces” (Singleman & Rider, 2018, p. 42). To better explain, this theory plays out when a learner behaves in a certain way and associates that behavior with either the positive or negative consequences that follow. The idea is that humans tend to continue behaviors that have positive consequences and extinguish those that have negative consequences. Regina George shows exactly how this theory plays out by using positive and negative reinforcement within her friend group to condition them in behaving how she wants them

Bandura emphasizes observational learning as the key to which human behavior changes. Observational learning is essentially learning by observing others’ behavior. One specific aspect of this mechanism is vicarious reinforcement, a process in which learners become more or less likely to display a behavior based on whether the consequences from who they observe are reinforcing or punishing. Regina George in this case, is the individual who is observed by her high school peers. Bandura also emphasizes the role that self-efficacy plays in the ability to control one's self, environment, and life. Self-efficacy is the belief that one can effectively produce a specific desired outcome and in this case, Regina George shows a high sense of