CHD 324 DSC Adolescent Development Mean Girls the Movie Essay

The goal of this assignment will be to apply developmental theories and concepts through a written analysis of a case study presented through Mean Girls the movie. Students will view and analyze a movie depicting adolescent development, observing the individual physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development of characters in the film as well as family, peer, and romantic relationship dynamics and social contexts. The film can be viewed at any time through any platform the student has access to. Students will then individually write a 5-page paper analyzing the developmental concepts and theories illustrated in the film, using specific content (with citations) from the textbook and supplementing with outside scholarly resources following APA (7th edition student version) formatting guidelines.

Detailed Instructions:

While watching the movie, look for examples of physical, cognitive, and social/emotional development, as well as how various relational and social contexts were illustrated in the movie. Be looking for how specific concepts, theories, and research that we learned in class were illustrated in the film. It would be a good idea to write down notes as you watch the film.

After watching the film, write a 5-page paper (not including cover page & reference page) following this outline:

Introduction: Begin your paper with an introduction to how the film depicted adolescent physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development. In other words, you should tell the reader what your take-home message will be up front and summarize what you will discuss in your essay

Developmental Concepts: (5 categories, 3 examples per category, for total of 15 examples, worth 5 points each =  In the body of your paper, give 3 examples of each of the following developmental domains/ contexts that you observed in the film. Organize your paper using headings labeled by the words in bold below:

normative or nonnormative physical development

normative or nonnormative cognitive development

normative or nonnormative social/emotional development (may include gender and/or moral development as well)

relational contexts—how were the contexts of family, peers, and/or romantic relationships associated with adolescent development and how those relationships change over adolescence

social context – for example, what are important cultural, racial, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, etc. factors that are related to the character’s experience/development (you do not have to comment on all of these, they are examples).

Describe each of your examples from the film and clearly link them to theories, concepts, and research you learned in class, citing course material such as lecture, the textbook, and other scholarly readings. Clearly state which concept or theory you are describing, give a brief definition, and describe how that concept, theory, or associated research was illustrated in the film. Think about whether what you observed in the film was consistent with what we learned in class and the possible reasons for any discrepancies.  You should be citing the textbook throughout this section anytime you draw content from that source. Do not simply cite the power point; instead, it is better to cite the actual textbook unless additional information was included on the power point that did not come from the textbook. You will need to cite the movie at least once in the beginning of the paper, but do not need to cite it each time you refer to it.

Note: You may include examples of development from any main character in the film. You do not have to restrict your examples to a single character.

Conclusion: Conclude your paper with a brief summary and a take-home message about what can be learned from this film’s depiction of adolescent development.