In the film The Breakfast Club, five teens, who never socialized with each other before, are stuck in Saturday detention together and are assigned to write an essay about who they are. As detention goes on they open up and learn a lot about each other. They tell each other things that not even their closest friends know about. Surprisingly, they find out they have way more things in common than they originally thought. This film is a perfect representation of how a person's socialization is developed and affected by the experiences they go through.
One character, Claire, is perceived as the preppy, popular girl. She comes from a rich family who are able to afford anything she wants which leads to her being seen as spoiled. Her parents are constantly fighting and use their daughter to get back at each other. She probably has a low self worth because of this and wants to feel wanted and approved by others. Claire is popular at school so she is put up on a pedestal and admired by everyone. Due to this, she comes off as conceited and only cares about herself. She even admits to the others that she probably wouldn't be friends with them when they get out of detention. Therefore, two social agents that affect Claire a lot are family and peers.
Claire is a good representation of the looking glass self theory. This theory, developed by Charles Horton Cooley, is the way someone perceives them self based off how they feel others view them. This means our sense of self depends on what we think others think about us and is typically not who we actually are. Claire acts how she acts because of what her friends expect. Since she is put up on a pedestal by her peers she thinks she is better than everyone. In reality, she hates what people think of her and doesn't want to be popular. When she gets high she states to the group, "I'm so popular, everybody loves me so much at this school. Do you have any idea how completely gross that is?". This quote demonstrates how...