Bandura & Rotter, Molly Ringwald Character from Breakfast Club

The reinforcement for Clair’s behavior was mainly dependent on the approval she received from her popular peer group. She has a notion that she needs to be “popular” or approved in order to be seen as better in her school. Reinforcement would also be abiding by her parents so she is able to shop with her families wealth. After she had bought something materialistic, it makes her feel good. There was a battle of the reinforcement values in this movie. One was, as stated above, to seek approval of her older known peers known to be stuck-up, condescending, and popular. The other is reinforcement of a more positive virtue. This virtue is as stated, thinking independently and making choices in one’s life for oneself instead of seeking approval from her snobbish peer group. This would help he correct her choices of behavior so they do not become repetitive. At the beginning of the film Clair wasn’t to open to the later reinforcement but then discovered it via introspection through group discussion. They discussed peer groups, virginity, suicide attempts, and assaults. Although many of the ways they talked about each other had been derogatory in some way. Clair still introspected.

When Clair was confronted about negative evaluations and opinions about herself, she became upset. Her expectancies had been almost the same throughout the movie until her introspection. She would either get upset, denial, switches the blame to person discussing the problem, or rationalized her behavior. An example of rationalizing would be her assuming that Andrew would say “Hi.” To Brain in the halls, then Andrew would bash Brian in front of his sporty peers. This means possibility of being categorized as a defensive external. If Clair is a defensive external, then the Social Cognitive Learning Theory would be in hot water. This is because the theory states that people who indicate that they are controlled by the outside are not suppose to be competitive. This is a hypocritical theory...