Adolescent Developmental Stage
Thought Paper
Amy Lacuesta
Imperial Valley Community College

Adolescent Developmental Stage
Thought Paper
Social relationships are a big part of adolescents, especially when they are trying to find out their identity. Erik Erikson said that as we enter our adolescent stage in life, we go through what he calls identity vs. role confusion. This stage is very much shown in the movie many people love, “The Breakfast Club.” This movie includes a group of students who would typically be seen in high school including the brain, an athlete, a jock, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. Each of them is going through this identity stage of trying to find out who they are. The movie’s setting is in a high school library where a group of students are spending their Saturday in detention together. None of the students really know each other, but as the day goes on they start to learn more about each other. They mention how others stereotype them and they feel the need to live up to what they are stereotyped as. For example, the brain, Brian Johnson, is in this awkward stage of puberty and feels he has to live up to his parents’ expectations, which is by doing well in school and keeping up with his grades. Before getting into trouble he thought he knew who he was, and his dad was not happy about him needing to go to Saturday detention. Brian also feels disappointed in himself because he also felt the need to always impress his parents, which did not include getting in trouble for having a flare gun in his locker. As the day goes on, Brian admits that the person he sees in the mirror is someone he is not happy to be. He does not feel comfortable and is solely living to his parents’ standards because that’s who he thinks he has to be. This identity confusion Brian is facing is referred to as Erikson’s stage of adolescence. The same also goes for the rest of the characters because as they have spent more time together on