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Adolescent Relationships in Film
Final Paper: Adolescent Relationships Film
Cara Olson
Middle Childhood and Adolescence
With emotional, physical and cognitive changes going on through
adolescence teens are especially susceptible to peer influence and the influence
plays a significant role in the development and behaviors of the adolescent. In the
film John Tucker Must Die, the new girl in town, Kate, is lured in to the popular
clique-something new and exciting for her. Throughout the entire film the
importance of peer relationships and the effect of peers on adolescents can be seen
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as this group conceives a plan to destroy the reputation of the most popular boy in
school. After several weeks of setting John Tucker up for embarrassing situations,
the girls make their final move at his birthday party where they begin to expose a
video explaining how Kate was faking her relationship and feelings for John all
along. Kate intervenes and stops the film and gives John and the school an
explanation of what happen and the plan that had conceived. The film is full of peer
influences, formal groups, the importance of cliques and groups, crowds and status,
conformity, the importance of popularity and how it can alter and influence the
behavior of adolescents.
Accustomed to moving as her mother is constantly in different, unstable
relationships Kate is used to being the new girl in school. The frequency of her and
her mothers moving has kept her from developing close friendships leading her into
being a quite, reserved teen. In Kate’s eyes three girls had it all-they were smart,
popular, involved and most of all-unknowingly all dating the king of the schoolcaptain of the basketball team-John Tucker. According to Feldman’s textbook,
Adolescence, teens in formal groups have a higher level of self-confidence and selfimage as they have a sense of membership (Feldman). This idea of high selfconfidence and self-image can be seen in these four teens, John, Carrie, Heather and
Beth as they felt they ruled the school. They saw themselves on top of the social
status ladder given their leadership and roles within their formal groups. Being on
the outside looking in, Kate was mesmerized by their status and belonging-thinking
it was the key to happiness as it was something she had never experienced or been
apart of.
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During adolescence teens begin to break off into exclusive circles called
cliques. These small, close-knit groups range from 2 to 12 members who have
frequent interactions with one another and have lots of similarities (Feldman). After
being placed on a gym class volleyball team with “THE clique” she got first hand
experience of drama within the clique as each of the three girls discovered the other
was dating John Tucker. Being an innocent outsider Kate tried to mediate the
situation-which caught the attention of the clique. After causing a scene in gym class
the four girls-Kate and the clique-were assigned detention where the formation of
the new clique began to come in tact as Kate proposed an idea of how to get back at
the heartbreaking John Tucker. Although it was a little out of her comfort zone as
she had never been the “popular girl” in school-Kate was enticed by the idea of being
apart of such an exclusive group, especially considering the high status of this clique.
The four girls came up with a plan to make John “un-dateable”-Kate being the
mastermind of the plan in order to earn her spot in the clique. Overall, the formation
of this clique fit the guidelines and descriptors of a clique as they have similarities
and a common interest and behavior, taking down John-however one of the most
common clique indicators isn’t present in this film. Cliques frequently have
members with a similar social status as them (Feldman). In this film, social status
and family income was completely irrelevant-in no part of the film was money
influential on the development of the clique or present within the clique. Whether
they be beneficial or not, cliques are especially importance within adolescence as
they have a sense of membership and belonging giving the exclusivity of it.
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Going along with the idealization of belonging to an exclusive clique;
adolescents find themselves as apart of crowds and the importance of status within
those crowds. Crowds are relatively similar to cliques as they are comprised of a
group of adolescents with similar interests and characteristics, however they are
significantly larger than cliques don’t interact with all members of the crowd
(Feldman). In John Tucker Must Die, the characters belonged to two specific crowds,
John being with the jocks and the three girls, Carrie, Heather and BDKSK, were the
cheerleaders. In most high schools, these two crowds are expected to be associated
with one another. In order to carry out their precise plan of breaking John’s heart
they had to make sure Kate caught his attention-as she was the one that was
supposed to make him “fall for her” then embarrass him with the truth of it being a
joke at his birthday party. In order to do so, Kate had to be apart of the similar
crowd meaning she had to become a cheerleader and had to be at the highest status
within that crowd-the top of the cheerleading pyramid. With strategic planning their
plan immediately became effective. John suddenly showed all sorts of interest in the
“new girl”, Kate, and asked her out, justifying it by saying, “You’re a cheerleader, I’m
the basketball captain-we’re supposed to be together” (Thomas). According to the
text jocks have the highest self esteem-which is fitting seeing as John’s selfconfidence was extremely high (Feldman). Overall, crowds played a significant role
in the socialization of this high school.
As the weeks went on Kate began to lose track of her once innocent, quiet
self-as she was all of the sudden ruling the school with her three accomplices.
Instead of being the kind, reserved individual she was, she conformed to the ways of
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her clique by being heartless and not letting anything or anyone get in the way of
what she wanted-breaking John Tuckers heart. Her behavior and attitudes began to
adapt to the ways of her new friend group and instead of holding herself to her own
personal standards, she began to fall to the standards of her new clique. Kate in this
movie can be an example of a victim of normative social influence, pressure that
reflects group norms, the expectations regarding appropriate behavior by those
belonging to groups (Feldman). Even though she sometimes second guessed her
actions as she felt a sense of guilt in what they were doing-she still continued go
along with the plan as she was meeting the behavioral expectations of the clique.
Kate’s mother, who overall has a very permissive parenting style-very relaxed and
having few rules in the household-became aware of Kate’s change in behavior and
tried to intervene. She felt Kate was playing in a game that was over her head, and
that this new “hobby” of destroying a boy was something that goes against Kate’s
normal behavior. Kate snapped back saying that “this was the new her and that
relationship advice is the last thing she would take from her mother”-a significant
change in behavior and attitude based on her conformity to her group and
specifically her clique.
Popularity became something that Kate began to value as she had never
experienced being the popular one before. When she started at her new school, she
formed light friendships with a few students in her biology class. Both Kate and
these first friends were extremely academically focused, however as Kate began to
conform to and become apart of the “popular clique” she became less academically
focused-which aligns with a study on Science Direct, “Peer Influence and adolescent’
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school engagement” (You). The study was preformed by having 25 eighth graders at
1,250 high schools in the United States (totaling 17 thousand students) complete a
questionnaire about school work and relationships. The same questionnaire was
conducted with 15 of the 17 thousand students when they were juniors/seniors in
high school. The study concluded in a direct connection between peer influences on
academics. “Among the paths, the path from peer academic value to school
engagement had the largest path coefficient, followed by the indirect path from peer
academic value ->locus of control -> school engagement” which matches up with
Kate’s academics. (You). Her peers had a lower academic value than she did, causing
her to lose her locus of control, lowering her level of engagement with her studies as
she spent more time focused on the clique and being apart of the cheerleading
crowd.
Kate’s change in academic focus led her to becoming a controversial
adolescent. Her newfound group of friends liked her and liked what she “brought to
the table” as far as conspiracy to their plan, but the first friends she had from
biology class began to dislike her as she began to value popularity and attention
more than academics and their friendships. Kate’s behavior in John Tucker Must Die
is consistent with the findings in a study from The University of Alabama at
Birmingham, Popularity and adolescent friendship networks: Selection and
influence dynamics, which examined how friendships were chosen based on
popularity. The results concluded that “Adolescents were more likely to select peers
as friends who were similar or higher in popularity than those who were less
popular” (Borch). Popularity is extremely important in high schools as it allowed
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membership into higher-status, more popular cliques and crowds. According to the
text, boys found the way to achieve popularity was through sports, grades and
academics while girls saw it as being physical attractiveness, socialbility and school
achievement (Feldman). Both the male and female perspectives on what determines
popularity go along with the determinants of popularity within this high school:
John was granted his popularity by being the basketball captain while Kate, Heather,
Cassie and Beth were popular based on their physical attractiveness and social
skills-giving them the ability to charm and date John Tucker. The text also addresses
Activity-Based Popularity-which is also applicable to the popular status of these
adolescents. John, the star athlete tends to “have little trouble being a part of a highstatus popular crowd. Their achievements are sufficient to bring about acceptance
and popularity, even if in other regards they do not have the personal qualities that
are associated with popularity” (Feldman). Kate’s increase in popularity based on
the friendships she developed goes along with “The popularity-influence effect
(average alter effect) indicates that adolescents were more likely to increase in popularity and become more similar in popularity to their friends than not to change” (Borch).
Although in the eyes of adolescents popularity and the social status that
comes along with it seems to be all that matters, they often neglect to see the
negative aspects of popularity. As said before, Kate was a quiet, reserved, kind
individual that made friends much like herself; before conforming to her new clique,
but as she became popular her ability to make new friends decreased. Because these
girls were so exclusive and only interactive with there selected members they were
labeled as cold and mean by their peers (Feldman). In addition to having negative
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characteristics attached to them; popular girls seem to have a harder time making
new friends as those with a less popular status are afraid of being rejected, so they
don’t reach out to the girls deemed popular (Feldman). Kate began to see the
negative sides of being popular as their plan came to an end, all of the sudden the
clique didn’t have a common interest. At this point she had already achieved her
popularity so reinitiating previous friendships with less popular peers was a bit of a
challenge.
In John Tucker Must Die, Kate seemed to experience each part of peer
relationships. She had the experience of being an outsider and when given a chance
to be apart of a high-status, popular clique she conformed to the ways of her new
friends. She had significant changes in her behavior in order to meet the
expectations of the group. She also became popular and apart of groups and crowds
she never thought she would be able to. Although in the moment Kate was happy
and excited with her new self and friends, she later came to the realization that she
wasn’t being her true self. The four girls made amends with John and apologized for
their conspiracy to break his heart. Kate stepped down from her newfound role and
spot within the clique and returned back to being her kind, reserved self. She
experienced both the highs and the lows of popularity-she was ruling the school, but
when that was no longer all she thought it would be, she found it challenging to
rekindle old friendships with less popular students. Overall peers have an extreme
influence on one another and are able to significantly alter the behavior and actions
of peers.
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Adolescent Relationships in Film
References
Borch, C. (2012, September 17). Popularity and adolescent friendship networks:
Selection and influence dynamics. In American Psychological Association.
Retrieved November 29, 2013, from ProQuest.
Feldman, R.S. (2008). Adolescence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall
Thomas, B. (Director). Metcalfe, J., & Snow, B. (Actor). (2006). John Tucker Must Die
[Online video]. United States: 20th Century Fox Film Corporation. Retrieved
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November 30, 2013
You, S. (2011, November 30). Peer influence and adolescents' school engagement. In
Science Direct-Social and Behavioral sciences. Retrieved December 1, 2013