Learning Through Film: The Breakfast Club

Dear Mr. Vernon:

We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did that was wrong.

What we did was wrong.

us write an essay describing who we are.

What do you care?

You see us as you want to see us. In the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions.

But what we found out is that each one of us is a BRAIN, a BASKETCASE, a PRINCESS, an ATHLETE, and a CRIMINAL.

Does that answer your question?

Sincerely Yours,

The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club

Understanding Ourselves And Others

How would you classify the role you played in high school? Were you a jock, a criminal, a basketcase, a princess, or a brain?

How do the roles we play affect how people see us and act toward us? How do the roles we play shape the identities we present to others?

Are roles a good thing or a bad thing? Do they promote or inhibit competent communication? How can social roles and roles within a small group ease the task of communication?

Do you have any hero stories where you were able to overcome to transcend the constraints which roles can sometimes place on our communication with others?

If the Breakfast Club was a group what were their goals? Are communication goals always conscious and recognizable? What were some of the personal and group goals which emerged during the meeting of the Breakfast Club.

What are some of the pivotal behaviors which helped foster group cohesion in the Breakfast Club? When did the Breakfast Club experience "groupness"?

There often comes a point in groups where individuals decide to put the group ahead of their own personal beliefs, rules, and goals? What were some of these moments in "The Breakfast Club" At what point in the Breakfast Club did one member sacrifice

for the group?

If the goal of an encounter-CR group is to foster self-growth and development which member of the Breakfast Club occupied the leader role?

How does self-disclosure furnish the basis for relating to others on a basis other than prescribed social roles??

Why is self-awareness important in understanding how the roles we play influence our interpersonal actions?

Can an encounter-CR group threaten or damage one's identity of sense of self?

Can we ever escape the roles we play? Can we bring our own interpretation to the roles we play? What are the rewards and costs of trying to redefine social roles?

SCENES FROM THE BREAKFAST CLUB

___And these children

that you spit on

as they try to change their worlds

are immune to your consultations

They're quite aware

of what they're going through..."

David Bowie

THE CAST OF PLAYERS

THE PRINCESS (Clair)

THE BRAIN (Brian)

THE BASKETCASE (Alison)

THE CRIMINAL (John)

THE JOCK (Andy)

THE TEACHER (Mr. Vernon)

THE JANITOR (Carl)

COMMUNICATING INTERPERSONALLY

How do communication encounters with our parents shape our identities?

A person's perceptions of the impression others form about him or her are termed reflected appraisals? Parents typically provide the first significant source of personal evaluation through reflected appraisals.

How Do Parents Use Talk To Create An Identity For Their Children?

Altercasting is the use talk to place another symbolically in a particular identity. It is the attempt to alter a person's identity and/or view of self by using communication strategically to influence person's self-relevant perceptions.

Brian's Mother:

Is this the first time or the last time that you do this?

Brain

The last.

Brian's Mother

Well get in there and use the time to your advantage.

Brian

But Mom we are not supposed to study, we just have to sit their and do nothing.

Brian's Mother

Well Mister, you figure out a way to study. Well go on.

Andy's Dad

Hey Guys screw around, I screwed around. There's nothing wrong with that. Except you got caught Sport. You want to miss your match. You want to blow your ride.

Now, no school is going to give a scholarship to a discipline case.

CAN TEACHERS USE ALTERCASTING TO INFLUENCE THEIR STUDENTS IDENTITY?

Teachers beliefs about students influence their behavior toward students and consequently the students own identity and subsequent behavior, and thus, reciprocally influence the teacher's subsequent actions. What type of identity is Mr. Vernon creating for Andy and John?

Mr. Vernon I expected a little more from a varsity letterman.

To Andy

Mr. Vernon

To John

Your not fooling anyone Bender, the next screw falls out is going to be you.

John

Eat my shorts.

Mr. Vernon

What was that Bender?

John

Eat my shorts.

Mr. Vernon

You just earned yourself another Saturday.

John

Oh, I'm crushed.

Mr. Vernon

You just bought yourself one more.

John

Well, I'm free the Saturday after that, beyond that I am going to have to check my calendar.

Mr. Vernon

You want another one, you want another one. Just say the word, just say the word, instead of going to prison, you'll come here. You know Bender, you ought to spend a little more time trying to do something with your life, and a little less time trying to impress others."You might be better off.

COMMUNICATING IN GROUPS

Primary Goals In The Basic Types Of Groups

1. Task Groups Goals

Problem-Solving

Decision-Making

2. Encounter Group Goals

Relationship Management

Disclose Personal Feelings, Beliefs, And Values

Understand The Relationships That Exist Among Group Members

Role And Relational Change/Developing New Relationships

Identity Management

Self-Discovery Through Learning The Perceptions Of Others

Self-Development/Self-Awareness/Self-Destruction

3. Consciousness-Raising

Identity Management

Fuse Self-Identity With Group Identity

Foster New Socio-Political Identities

Foster New Professional Identities

THE BREAKFAST CLUB AS A SMALL GROUP

The Breakfast Club combines element of each of these three basic types. It is a hybrid group. It is a task group only in the sense that all group members know that if there goal is to entertain and amuse themselves for eight hours it will be necessary for them to cooperate. The Breakfast Club is primarily a hybrid encounter-CR group. It is an encounter group with no designated leader and no concrete agenda in the sense that the talk focuses heavily on how the members of the club relate to one another. It is a consciousness-raising group in the sense that an implicit of tacit goal of the group is to raise consciousness through the development of new role identities and altered pattern of relationships. In an very real sense the Breakfast Club is asking: What does it mean to be a teenager? Can we relate as individuals rather than as members of social roles.

Just as children go through development stages in learning to think and act, groups go through stages or phases in reaching their goals and objective. The Breakfast Club appears to go through three stages or phases: 1) boundary-seeking and maintenance; 2) ambivalence between old and new; and 3)actualization of a new group identity

STAGE ONE: BOUNDARY-SEEKING

The first stage is dominated by antagonism and assertiveness. In the Breakfast Club we see the initial clash of the typical roles which have tended to characterize the high school experience. Who is toughest? Who is strongest? Who is smartest? Who is prettiest? Who is weirdest?

How do the roles we play shape the identities we present to others? The word role is derived from the latin word meaning rotula, a sheet of parchment wrapped around a wooden roller that contained the part that an actor recited on stage? Roles are shared learned meanings about appropriate behavior which enables individual to enter and demonstrate stable and publicly recognizable forms of interaction with others. Roles become internalized as part of the self-concept. Roles carry perceived and expected behaviors. What were the perceived and expected behaviors of the brain, the princess, the jock, the basketcase, and the criminal.

Roles function also function to define appropriate behavior for the individual who occupies the role, specify the social rules and script an individual is to follow? What social rules do "brains" follow? What social rules do "criminals" follow? What social rules do "jocks" follow? What social rules to "basketcases" follow? What social rules to "princesses" follow?

In the initial scenes the group members engage in boundary maintenance, reinforcing traditional roles boundaries, and make clear to everyone just "who is who".

Notice how it is through talk that we present ourselves to others and create identities for those with whom we interact. How are our identities influenced or reflected in or by the actions of others? How do interactions with out peers influence our identities?

Each To Each A Looking Glass

Reflects The Other Than Doth Pass

The Looking Glass Self

Clair Why don't you just shut up. Nobody here's interested.

Andy Really, Buttface.

John Hey, Sporto, what did you do to get in here. Forget to wash your jock?

John I knew you had to be smart to be a wrestler.

Andy Who are you anyway?

Clair Really!!!

Andy You know if you disappear forever it wouldn't make any

difference. You may as well not even exist at this

school.

John Well, I'll just run right out and join the wrestling team, the Pep club, and the student council.

Andy No they wouldn't take you.

John To Brian Excuse me, what are your babbling about?

Brian What I said, was, I was in the Business club, the Latin club and the Physics club.

John to Clair Hey, Cherry to you belong to the physics club.

Clair That's an academic club.

John So?

Clair So academic clubs aren't the same as other clubs.

John Ah,but to dorks like him they are.

Andy I got a meet this Saturday, I am not going to miss it because of you boneheads.

John Wow, what a bite, missing a whole wrestling meet.

Andy You wouldn't know anything about it faggot, You never competed in anything in your life.

John Oh, I know, and I feel all empty inside, because of it I have such a deep admiration, for those who roll around on ground with other men wearing tights.

Andy Oh, you'd never miss it, you don't have any goals.

John Oh, but I do, I want to be just like you. I figure all I need is a lobotomy and some tights.

Brain To You wear tights?

Andy

Andy No I don't wear tights, I wear the required uniform.

Brian Tights.

Andy Shut up.

John to Brian Dork, you are a parents wetdream.

Brian Well, that's the problem

John Look, I can see you getting all bunched up for making you ware these kind of clothes, But face it, your a "neo-maxi, zoomed, dweebie", What would you be doing if you were not out making yourself a better citizen?

Andy Why do you have to insult everybody?

John I am being honest, I would expect you to know the difference?

STAGE TWO: AMBIVALENCE

As boundary-seeking gives way to ambivalence the Breakfast Club begins to realize that they are free to form their own role structure and possibility discover the persons behind the role. It is a time of ambivalence because group members may not know how to talk with persons who do not share the "miniature culture" associated with social roles. At this stage the group members begin to tentatively explore the possibility that there are people just like themselves existing behind their social role, people who are teenagers just like themselves. Instead of your a brain and I am criminal talk, they being to explore the possibility that "hey I'm like you, I'm a teenager too". In the ambivalence state you being to see encounter moments characterized by relational talk, talk which is aimed at fostering self-discovery and self-awareness. However, the talk is tentative. Interacting with and disclosing to another outside one's social group involves risk. It is difficult to predict. It is

difficult to anticipate. Without shared knowledge it is possible to know whether one's disclosure will be accepted, and thus, whether one's self will be accepted. This phase is characterized by:

ENCOUNTER MOMENTS are characterized by talk where the primary goal is to search for the true identity of each individual group member.

CR MOMENTS are characterized by talk where the primary goal is to search for common group, shared beliefs, and shared experiences which bind the group together.

WE-THEY MOMENTS are a special type of CR moment in which group identity is build through dramatizing the conflict between hero's and villains, between teenagers and parents, between students and teachers, between managers

and employees and so forth.

ENCOUNTER MOMENTS

(Talk Which Fosters Self-Discovery And Self-Awareness)

How do our interpersonal interactions with others help us achieve self-awareness and help us discover who we are?

Andy to Allison Is that why you are here? Why are you here

Allison Why are you here?

Andy I here today because my coach and father don't want to blow my ride. So I get treated differently because coach thinks I am a winner. So does my old man. I am not a winner because I want to be a winner. I am winner because I have strength and speed. Kind of like a Racehorse. That's about how involved I am in what's happening to me.

Allison Yeah, that's very interesting. Now why don't you tell me why your really in here.

Andy Forget it.

ENCOUNTER MOMENTS

John Were you or were you not motioning at Clair.

Brian Yeah, but it was only because I didn't want her to know I was a virgin, OK. Excuse me for being a virgin, Ok.

Clair Why didn't you want me to know you were a virgin?

Brian Because it's personal business, it's my personal, private

business.

John Well Brian, It doesn't sound like your doing any business.

Clair I thinks it's ok for a guy to be a virgin.

Brian You do?

Clair Sure (Smiles)

ENCOUNTER MOMENTS

WE-THEY TALK

Brian Allison says she want to run away because her come life is unsatisfying.

Andy Well everyone's home life is unsatisfying or and if it wasn't you would live with your parents forever.

Brian Yeah, Yeah but I think that her's goes beyond what guys like you and me think is normal unsatisfying.

Allison Never mind, forget it, leave me alone.

Andy What's the deal.

Allison There's no deal Sporto, forget it leave me alone.

Andy Is it bad, real bad??Parents?

Allison Yeah.

Andy What do they do?

Allison They ignore me.

Andy Yeah, Yeah, (softly, shaking head)

STAGE THREE: ACTUALIZATION

The breakdown of social roles and the development of new role identities does not come easily, the roles we play are an enormously important part of our self-concept, particularly in high school. Why would we want to give up part of ourselves? We invest heavily in, aspire too, and work hard to assume a particular role, and to be accepted by others who share common role expectations and role behaviors.

In any communication encounter there is always the possibility for innovation and change. There is always the possibility to create something new. Something that did not exist before the participants came together. For example, Bender initially puts Carl the janitor down until Carl reveals that "he is eye and ears of the school", which seems to appeal to John who seems, at least nonverbally to find this appealing, another outsider like himself, looking in.

The Breakfast Club as an Encounter-CR group has the possibility of creating a new vision, a new group structure, a realignment of existing roles, a new way of relating to one another. This is accomplished through both through engaging in common behaviors and through talk. In order to crete a new vision the Breakfast Club engages in a number of pivotal behaviors which help to foster a shared or common group identity: they exchange names, they refuse to reveal to Mr. Vernon who removed the screws from the library door so it would not stay open, when they jointly whistle the Bridge Over The River Kwi", when they jointly break the rules by walking in the hall to Bender's locker, when Bender leads Mr. Vernon to the gym to that others can get back to the library, when the group converse for Bender when he is under the desk, when the group smokes marijuana together.

The development of new personal role identities does not come without emotional costs. Feelings are energized. When the role we play is questioned, our personal selves are questions and threatened and when are selves are questioned we can easily become upset and angry. The actualization phase is characterized is often characterized by the push and pull between old identities and new emergent identities and pattern of relationships. Fostering a new group identity forces one to give up some of one's "cherished beliefs" and often induces inconsistency. Thus, this phase is often characterized by IDENTITY moments where the possibilities of a new way or thinking and relating are considered, and juxtaposed against REALITY moments where the conflict between the old and the new, the preferred and the ideal is often brutally pointed out.

The movement from role-to-role to person-to-person communication both in life and in groups is a developmental accomplishment which requires a progressively greater level of communication knowledge and skill. One must come to understand people in more complex ways and adjust and adapt communication to fit the demands of different persons and different situations. If our interpersonal histories tell us anything, this is not an easy task.

This phase is characterized by Encounter Moments, CR Moments, We-They Moments, Reality Moments, And Bridge Moments.

REALITY MOMENTS are characterized by talk which test the fabric of the new group identity. They juxtapose the conflict between old and new, they test the waters, and wonder how the group will hold up when it's meets the established order, the status quo, the "real world".

BRIDGE MOMENTS are pivotal moments in the period of actualization which are characterized by talk where the primary goal if to bridge the conflict between old and new, to salve, buffer, or salve the emotional raw edges which emerge when social roles collide and identities are at risk.

CR/IDENTITY MOMENT

Clair That's bizarre.

Andy What's bizarre. I mean we are all pretty bizarre. Some or us are just better at hiding it?

ENCOUNTER MOMENTS

Andy Begins To Recognize How His Behavior Makes Others Think And Feel-An Important Developmental Accomplishment

Clair How are you bizarre?

Allison He can't think for himself.

Andy

She's right. You know what I did to get in here? I taped Larry Lester's bun's together. And the bizarre thing is, that I did it for my old man. I tortured this poor kid because I wanted im to think I was cool. He's always going off about when he was in school, all the wild things he used to do. I got the feelings he was disappointed, that I never cut loose on anyone, right, I’m sitting in the locker room and I'm tapping up my knee, and he's undressing a couple of lockers down from me. and he's kind of skinny, weak, and I started things about my father and his attitude about weakness, and the next thing I knew I jumped on top of him and started wailing on him. And my friends just cheered me on. And afterwards, when I'm sitting in Vernon's office. All I could think about was Larry's father and Larry having to go home and explain what happened to him. And the humiliation, the fucking humiliation he must have felt. It must of been unreal. I mean how do you apologize for something like that? There's no way. It's all because of me and my old man. God I fucking hate him. He's like this mindless machine, that I can't even relate to any more. "Andrew you have got to be number 1. I won't tolerate any losers in this family. Your attention is for shit. Win. Win. Win. You son of a bitch. You know sometimes I wish my knee would give out, and I couldn't wrestle anymore. Than he could forget all about me.

CR IDENTITY MOMENT

WE-THEY MOMENT

John I think that your old man and my old man should get together and go bowling.

Brian You know, it's like me with my grades. Like, when I when,I you try to step outside myself, and kind of look it at myself, you know. And I see me, I don't like what I see. I really don’t

Clair. What's wrong with you? Why don't you like yourself?

Brian It may sound stupid but, cause I'm failing shop. We had this assignment to make this ceramic Elephant. We had eight weeks to do it Anyway it was like a lamp, and when, you know, you pulled the trunk, the light was supposed to go on. My light didn't go on. I got a F on it. I never got an F in my life. When I signed up, you know, the course I mean, I thought I was playing it smart, because I thought take shop such an easy way to maintain my grade point average.

REALITY MOMENT

John Why did you think it would be easy?

Brain Have you seen some of the dolts who take shop?

John. I take shop. You must be a fucking idiot.

Brain I am fucking idiot because I can't make a lamp?

John No, your a genius because you can't make a lamp

Brian What do you know about trigonometry?

John I could care less about trigonometry

Brian Do you know without trigonometry there would be no engineering?

John Without lamps there would be no light.

BRIDGE MOMENTS

Clair. So neither one of you is better than the other.

REALITY MOMENTS

Clair Performs The Trick She Learned At Camp In Seventh Grade

John That was great Clair. My image of you is totally blown

Allison Your a shit. Don't do that to her. You swore to God

you wouldn't laugh.

John Whose laughing.

Andy You fucking prick

John What do you care anyway. I don't even count, right. I could disappear forever and it wouldn't make any difference. I might as well not even be at this school

I may as well not even exit at this school, remember. And you don't like anyway.

Clair You know I have just as many feelings as you do, and it hurts just as much when somebod steps all over them.

John God, your so pathetic, don't you ever, ever compare yourself to me. Ok? You got everything and I got shit. Fucking Repunzel, right? The school would probably fucking shutdown if you didn't show up. Queenie isn't here. I like those earrings, Clair.

Clair Shut up.

John Are those real diamonds, Clair

Clair Shut up.

John I bet they are. Did you work for the money, for those earning?

Clair Shut your mouth.

John Or did your Daddy buy them for you. I bet he bought them for you. I bet they were a Christmas gift. right. You know what I got for Christmas. It was a banner fuckingyear at the Bender family. I got a carton of cigarettes. My father grabbed me and said 'hey smoke up Johnny. So go home and cry to your Daddy, don't cry here.

CR/IDENTITY MOMENTS

WE-THEY MOMENT

Andy My God, are we going to be like our parents?

Clair Not me, ever

Alison It's unavoidable. It just happens. When you grow up your heart dies

John Who cares?

Allison I care.

Can we ever escape or redefine the roles we play? Can be bring our own unique interpretations to the roles we play? Can we ever escape the definition of the situation imposed upon us by social roles? What are the rewards and costs of trying to escape one's social position?

Does how we perceive and define situations influence our actions??? Defining the situation is a process by which the individual explores and feels out through behaviors and thought the possibilities of the situation. People are constantly involved in reevaluating themselves in relation to others, others serve as the mirrors through which we look at ourselves. In any interpersonal

encounter there is always the possibility of creating something new.

CR/IDENTITY MOMENTS

The Possibility Of A New Vision/A New Way Of Relating

Will Our Social Roles Will Let Them Be Friends???

Brian I was just thinking, I mean,it was kind of a weird thought, but I was thinking what's going to happen to us on Monday when we are all together again. I mean I consider you guys my friends. I am not wrong am I.

Andy No

Brian So on Monday, what happens?

Clair Are we still friends you mean, if we are friends now that is. You want the truth?

REALITY MOMENT

Brian Yeah, I want the truth.

Clair I don't think so.

Allison With all of us, or with just John.

Clair With all of you.

Andy That's a nice attitude Clair.

Clair. Oh be honest Andy, if Brian came walking up to you in the hall on Monday what would you do? I mean, picture this, your there with all the "sports" I know exactly what you would do, you say Hi, to him, and when he left you would cut him up so your friends wouldn't think you really liked him. then you would cut him up so your friends wouldn't think you really liked him.

Andy No way

Allison What if I came up to you?

To Clair

Clair Same exact thing.

John You are a bitch.

Clair Why because, I'm telling the truth, that makes me a bitch.

John No because you know how shitty that is to do to someone, and you don't have the balls to stand up to your friends, and tell them your going to like who you want to like.

Clair Ok, what about you, you hypocrite. Why don't you take Allison to one of your heavy metal vomit parties? Or take Brian out to the parking lot and lunch and get high. What about Andy for that matter? What about me? What if we were walking down the hall together. They would laugh their asses off. And you would probably tell them you were doing it with me, so they would forgive you for being seen with me.

John Don't you ever talk about my friends. You don't know any of my friends. You don't look at any of my friends. And you certainly wouldn't even condescend to talk with my friends. So you just stick to the things you know, shopping, nail polish, your father's BMW, and your poor rich drunk mother in the Caribbean.

Clair Shut up.

John And as far as being concerned about what is going to happens to you and I walk down the halls at school, you can forget it, cause it's never gonna happen. Just bury your head in the sand and wait for your fucking Prom.

Clair I hate you!!!

John Yeah, good.

BRIDGE MOMENTS

Brian Then I assume Allison, and I are better people than you guys, huh? Us weirdos. Would ya do that do me?

Allison I don't have any friends

Brian But if you did, would you?

Allison No, I don't think the kind of friends I would have, wouldn't mind.

Brian I just want to tell each of you, that I wouldn't do that. and I will not. Cause I think that's really shitty.

Clair Your friends wouldn't mind because they look up to us.

Brian Your so conceited, Clair. You so conceited. Your so full of yourself. Why are you like that?

Clair I not saying it to be conceited. I hate it. I hate having to go along with everything my friends say.

Brian Why do you do it.

Clair I don't know. You don't understand. Your not friends with the kind of people Andy and I are friends with. You just don't understand the kind of pressure they can put on you.

ENCOUNTER MOMENT

Brain I don't understand what. You think I don't understand pressure, Clair. Well fuck you, fuck you (tearing up).

You know why I am here today. Mr. Ryan found a gun in my locker.

Andy Why did you have a gun in your locker?

Brian I tried. You pull the fucking trunk, and the light is supposed to go on.

Andy What did you have a gun in you locker?

Brian I tried pulling it, it's supposed to go on, it wouldn't go on.

Andy What's the gun for, Brian?.

Brian Forget it, just forget it.

Andy You brought it up.

Brian I can't have an "F". I can't have it. I know my parents can't have it. Even if I ace the rest of the semester, that's only a "B'". Everything ruined for me. I didn't see any other option, you know.

Clair No, killing yourself is not an option.

Brian Well I didn't do it, no I don't think so.

BRIDGE MOMENTS

Allison It was a handgun?

Brian No it was a flare gun, it went off in my locker.

It's not funny. Yes it is. The fucking elephant was

destroyed. (Group Laughter)

Allison: You want to know what I did to get in here....nothing, I didn't have anything better to do. (Laughter)

CR/IDENTITY MOMENT

John To Clair Remember how you said your parents use you do get back at one another? Wouldn't I be outstanding in that capacity?

WILL THE BREAKFAST CLUB BE SUCCESSFUL IN SUSTAINING THEIR NEW

DEFINITION OF THE SITUATION?

Are We Prisoners Of Our Biographies???Are We Prisoners Of Our Biologies?

Are We Prisoners Of Our Social Roles? Can We Change Our Social Worlds?

Dear Mr. Vernon:

We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did

wrong. What we did was wrong.

But we think you are crazy for making us write an essay describing who we arrowhead do you care?

You see us as you want to see us.

In the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions.

But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, a basketcase, a princess, an athlete, and a criminal.

Does that answer your question?

Sincerely Yours,

The Breakfast Club

UNDERSTANDING OURSELVES AND OTHERS: THE BREAKFAST CLUB

Social identity is our representation of how we believe we are viewed and evaluated in our social relationships. It is the way we are defined and regarded in our interpersonal interactions with others. Identity, or what some have called face, is something that is emotionally invested, something that can we lost, maintained, or enhanced, and is constantly attended to in our encounters with others.

Our identities we have of ourselves shape and are shaped by our social interaction with others. Others serve as the mirrors through which we look at ourselves. We come to have impressions of ourselves in large part by taking our behavior and comparing it with others. We look for information about what we are like in relation to others.

Identities define who we are, they shape and are shaped by our self-concepts, how we define the roles we play and how we enact these roles, other people, and the different types of interpersonal encounters within which we find ourselves.

Thus, just as the diamond if multifaceted, so is the self-multidimensional. In our interpersonal encounters with others we are not bound to a narrow range of ways of behaving and presenting ourselves, instead we have a range of "facets" any or which might be turned toward a particular interpersonal situation.

Because one of the fundamental motivations in interpersonal life is to be viewed positively by others, and to maintain a positive identity, all interpersonal actions can be viewed on the basis of their potential consequences for influencing a person's identity.