The Breakfast Club Personality Analysis
Cory Herbst

The character of John Bender can be described basically as someone who has the mindset of a criminal. He is constantly needing attention, and is consistently seen being lazy and sloppy in general. He is an extremely good arguer, however, he is easy to anger, seen many times during the film having explosive attacks at the other characters. He is also dynamic and complex, in the sense that he is willing to help others by using himself as a distraction, yet he loves to insult others, pointing out their flaws.

When attempting to analyze the personality of John Bender from a Psychoanalytic perspective, it can be seen that his underlying unconscious forces help to influence his thoughts and actions. For example, when he sees Claire put lipstick on in a salacious way, he becomes upset. There is no reason to suggest, at the present time, why he is angry or why his outburst is so extreme. However, his unconscious mind could have some objection to this and therefore would be affecting his current feelings and thoughts towards this.

If one were to analyze John Bender from a Humanistic Perspective, it may be concluded that he is using his internal experiences and feelings to interpret his feeling of self worth. For example, when John is explaining his home life (in a comical mannjavascript:void(0)er), he shows how he bosses people around and how he feels all-important. This would allow one to conclude that John's feelings of his self worth is very high, contributing to his outgoing personality and his almost cocky attitude. The internal feelings of his high value of self worth would also explain how he is constantly outgoing and attention seeking, as if he desires the attention.

When attempting to analyze the personality of John Bender from a Cognitive/Social perspective, it becomes clear that he is using his past experiences as a means of interpreting the world. When explaining what he got for Christmas, he seems to have a downward look upon his life and uses that to interpret others. He begins to judge Claire for basically being spoiled and well-off, basing her life off of his because he is interpreting that she is receiving more than what is common (in his mind). This could be the probable explanation for why he is constantly judging others based off of what he feels to be the norm, but what is actually his own personal experience of life.

If one were to analyze John Bender's personality from a Trait Perspective, they would most likely conclude that he is a basic rebel type. He is constantly disobeying authority and attempting to impress others with his comical nature. These would suggest that he has a very stable a consistent personality of being the rebel and not really caring to much about it either.

When attempting to analyze the personality of John Bender from a Biological perspective, it can be assumed that his personality is derived from the personality of his father, biologically. When making fun of Bryan for his home life, John transfers into his own, where he unintentionally describes how his father is someone aggressive and strong headed. One would then use this to conclude that John Bender's personality of being a cocky rebel is derived from his father's aggressive personality, all to do with the inherited biological factors.