Legally Blonde Social Psychology

Elle Woods from Legally Blonde begins her journey as president of her sorority, Delta Nu. She is seen as the “happy little blonde” that always wears pink. She is given this stereotype by society. Until she is able to change stereotype, that is all that most people see her as. Her first step in changing her reputation is transferring to Harvard’s School of Law. Her initial drive to attend Harvard was to chase after someone she loved. But Elle soon realized that she enjoyed studying law more than she thought. After many hours of studying and encouragement from a professor, Elle was able to prove herself in front of her fellow students. She showed them that she is more than just pink clothes and scented pink paper. Elle even takes her change a step further, by proving herself worthy to society in a very important court case. Elle is able to take charge and evidently win her case, thus helping an innocent person. Elle finds thrill in this new person she has created within herself and is glad she did it. She feels as if she is finally more than what society had previously seen her as and is proud that she was the one who was able to make that change for herself.

This is a big night for Liss because she is making a big step in her relationship with Greg, but it doesn’t go as planned. Georgia goes to the party with Liss thinks that it is going to be all fine and dandy, until she realizes that Liss is flirting with Daniel, or at least she thinks she is; but it’s really just the pot brownies that Evelyn gave them. The girls get mad at each other and end up in a big fight all because of it. Then everyone gets drunk and make a lot of bad decisions. Greg and Georgia kiss and then Liss finds out and is furious because he is her boyfriend.

She gains some confidence and starts to speak up in class. One of her Professors, Professor Callahan is a lawyer in his own firm is offering an internship for four students for a new case he is working on because his caseload is rather large. Callahan asks for Elle's resume, which happened to be pink and scented, because of an excellent argument she debated and won in his class. The internship winners were posted an Elle was picked, along with Warner, Vivian, and a friend of Vivian's. The case that the firm is working on is another prime example of gender roles. The case is about a fitness instructor (Brooke) who is obviously beautiful but is accused of murdering her 60 year old husband. Elle knows all about Brooke and states from the beginning that she felt Brooke was innocent. Elle visits Brooke in prison to get her alibi; Elle brings Brooke a basket of "goodies" which included make-up, flowers, and a cosmopolitan magazine. Brooke wanting to tell Elle what she was doing doesn't want anyone else to know because Brooke having a fortune due to her fitness empire, was out getting liposuction, which is another gender issue for women trying to maintain the generic appearance stereotype. Elle keeps her promise and never tells anyone about Brooke's alibi. Proceeding on to other gender references in the movie Elle goes with Emmett, another lawyer working on the case in Callahan's firm, (who happens to think Elle is cute) to the dead mans ex-wife's spa

Legally Blonde follows a young woman, Elle Woods, who is initially presented as a pink-loving, high-pitched squealing, vacuous-but-pretty sorority president. When her boyfriend breaks up with her because he “need[s] to marry a Jackie, not a Marilyn,” Elle decides that she needs to set loftier and more serious goals for her education and career in order to win him back. Elle sets her sights on Harvard Law School, where Warner, her ex-boyfriend, is attending. However, law school is an entirely new beast that Elle must conquer, a far cry from the familiar sorority houses and poolside cabanas, and she must wage the battle of a lifetime to win back her man, defend her honor, and earn that law degree.

The main focus of this paper is to show the connections between aggression and peer rejection and the effects it has on an adolescent whether it be directly or indirectly. One of the most influential aspects for self-esteem in adolescence is social acceptance from peers which helps to endorse a positive sense of self-worth which is linked to effective coping (McMahan, 2009). When an adolescent is rejected by his or her peers, aggression is probable to occur. The most frequent type of aggression, especially in girls, is relational aggression. Relational aggression is trying to hurt someone by verbally attacking them or their social relations through gossip or exclusion (McMahan, 2009).

In conclusion, a person must go through a series of step/stages to reach “self-actualization.” They must achieve his/his “safety” and “physiological” needs “(basic needs).” “Esteem” and “belongingness and love” needs “(psychological needs)” to reach the stage of “self-actualization.” Psychological theories helps us better understand why a character does what he/she did. Using the psychological theory can help people reach the stage of self-actualization. Although, some may not reach this stage due to natural or un-natural

This is where Warner tells Elle he?s going to Harvard law to start his career and she wasn?t in his future plans. In turn Elle get depressed locks herself in her room for about a week then gets the revelation that she would just attend Harvard Law also. When Elle goes to her parents they don?t really support her, they fall into the gender stereotype that girls should do girly jobs, like fashion which was Elle?s major, be pretty get married and so forth. They don?t believe she should have to go out into the world and be smart. She studies hard to pass the LSAT?s and she sends in her video application to Harvard. This video Elle is mainly in a Bikini, and being very ?girly?, Harvard mainly accepts her application because they need to diversify their accepted applicants. Once at Harvard Elle goes to class unprepared and is excused from the class. Afterwards is when she meets Warner?s new girlfriend and fiancé Vivian who is also the reason Elle had to leave class. This is where the battle between Vivian and Elle .After the meeting Elle does a typical girl thing and goes and gets her nails done. She returns to school has another run-in with Vivian who invited her to a party, telling her it?s a costume party and it obviously wasn?t. As ?typical girl? Elle shows up to the party as a playboy bunny. There is nothing more gender specific then a playboy bunny. For comfort she turns to Warner but instead all Elle got a rude

In life people will come in contact with others, who are from a different background, culture, lifestyle or ethnicity as them, yet still every individual is equal, they’re all humans. As humans, people have the tendency to have their own unique perspectives on the world around them and everything it encounters. Psychologist Gordon Allport (1985), one of the founding fathers of personality psychology, defined social psychology as a discipline in which scientific methods are used in order “to understand and explain how the thought, feeling, and behavior of individuals are influenced by actual, imagined, or implied presence of other human beings” (Cherry).Social psychology involves

Going off of confidence, Jessica wants to be blatantly honest and holds that in the ideal self, but usually a respect for other people and thinking before acting comes into play before anything gets said. The other type of self is the ought self, which describes a characteristic that humans aspire to be based off their current position. Being a drummer, Jessica feels that it is crucial to be on time. Weather she is actually playing the drums or just showing up to events at the specified time, this characteristic is vital to keeping life in order and keeps the music from falling apart. According to the self-discrepancy theory, differences between the actual self and the ideal self will shift into awareness and this will impact how the world is viewed by experiencing different emotions. Different people are comfortable with different levels of discrepancy, making tipping points for emotions diverse. When a discrepancy reaches unbearable levels, discomfort is felt which could lead to cognitive dissonance if the ideal and actual self are contradictory to each

Kate exemplifies a better treated woman, audiences notices this by her intelligence, ability to express her thoughts, and how she is seen as valuable and deserving of care. Kate is a senior at Padua High School with goals for her future. Audiences quickly learn of her intelligence by watching her read, study, and get an acceptance letter to “Sarah Lawrence”, the college of her dreams (Junger np). Kate’s intelligence especially noticeable by the words she says. Kate is a modern-day girl with a voice, one which has the ability to speak out in class and have her father acknowledge how she feels.

At the start of the new school year, Millicent Arnold, a typical teenage girl, receives an invitation to join the elite and exclusive girls’ sorority at Lansing High School. Before she becomes an official member however, Millicent must demonstrate she is fit to join the sorority by finishing the initiation process: a series of ridiculous and rigorous tasks that pushes her to her limits. During a mission, Millicent discovers the nasty truth and reality of the “prefect” sorority at her high school, and ultimately decides that being herself is most important and rejects entering the sorority altogether.

Elle Woods was the typical sorority girl while at CULA- she loved shopping; her friends; and her boyfriend, Warner. With her father’s money on her side, Elle never prioritized her education or working. She assumed her future held a marriage to Warner and life as a trophy wife; but when Warner declares Elle a hindrance to his goals of graduating from Harvard University, she becomes determined to do the same. Realizing no amount of money could buy admission to Harvard, Elle works valiantly toward her goal and is accepted. As the movie comes to a close, the scene shifts to three years later with Elle addressing her classmates as she graduates alongside Warner. Though she does not speak excessively, Elle speaks of the passion, perseverance, and determination necessary for success. In her short, yet effective speech; Elle uses ethos and pathos to encourage her classmates to go forth in their law careers with courage and faith, and reminds them to never accept people as they appear on the surface.

The first approach to self-schema development we will evaluate is Self-Discrepancy Theory (SDT) (Higgins, 1987). In this theory self-schemas develop to drive the actual self (who somebody is now) towards the ideal self (who somebody wants to be) and the ought self (who somebody should be according to others). Reflected appraisals build a network of the actual self, and this knowledge is used to move towards the ideal and ought selves. Discrepancies between actual and ideal result in dejection, and discrepancies between actual and ought result in agitation (Higgins, Bond, Klein, &

The movie goes on to compare and contrast the “princess” and the “basketcase”, both seventeen year old girls who endeavor male attention, yet one is the cool crowd prom queen and the other is the loser, burnout crowd weirdo. Brian, the narrating brain, is a

Another factor in interpersonal attraction is Reciprocity, this is the tendency to be attracted to people who like us and tend to be less attracted to those individuals that dislike us. In a study carried out by Dittes & Kelley (1956) the findings show that participants conformed more when told ‘other group members like you’ in comparison when told ‘other group members dislike you’. People who have the tendency to have low self-esteem or are highly insecure concerning interpersonal relationships have a greater need for positive feedback from others around them, in order to form close interpersonal relationships.