Psychology of Adolescence: Analyzing Characters in the Film Juno

This essay offers a psychological analysis of the film 'Juno,' exploring its portrayal of teenage pregnancy and adolescent experiences. The essay delves into character analysis, focusing on Juno, Paulie Bleeker, Venessa Loring, and Mark Loring, examining their interactions and roles within the narrative. It discusses the film's accuracy in depicting developmental stages, cultural values, and conflicts faced during emerging adulthood, while also considering potential positive and negative impacts on adolescents' perceptions. The essay further examines the influence of such films on adolescent experiences over the past few decades, considering factors like cognitive development and the ability to understand moral principles, while also acknowledging potential social consequences related to the portrayal of sensitive topics. The essay references relevant research to support its analysis.

Running head: PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Analysis of the characters, interaction, and plot
The film Juno is about teenage pregnancy and according to majority of the film critics the
movie has well written script, strong direction and rare talent. The film possesses a unique plot.
Where majority of the teen pregnancy relate movies are associated with dysfunctional tales of
avoidance, impulsivity and interpersonal conflict, the plot of Juno is more subtle and
physiologically gratifying in nature. The plot revolves around a teenage girl who had taken an
ineffective decision, resulting in adversity –induced stress and existential uncertainty. The movie
was about how a pregnant teenager gets through her pregnancy with a mile in her face. The
character of Paulie Bleeker, the biological father of Juno’s child, is found to be extremely
sensitive, gentle, genuinely caring, but timid soul. In spite of being a deeply emotional person,
unlike Juno, Paulie is quiet and introspective. Another mention worthy character is Venessa
Loring, the adoptive mother who had been selected by juno for her unborn child. She is
portrayed as a generally ambitious, domineering yuppie-type who has clear priorities and high
standards. The third most crucial character of the film is Mark Loring, Venessa’s husband. This
character worked from their home creating commercial jingles, but secretly longs for his glory
days as a rock musician. The character of Mark is found to be likable and charming, but suffers
from a Peter Pan complex, and is dishonest to his wife about his desires (Chen, 2017).
Aspects of the movie which were most accurate to the true experience of adolescence and
what would you change to better capture and represent the experience?
The mentioned movie has depicts the developmental stages, restrictions as well as
conflicts that an individual needs to go through during their emerging adulthood. The move has
accurately referred to the diversity of the cultural. In the society, issues like pregnancy was

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acceptable than issues like drug abuse by teenagers (Bakar et al., 2017). This fact reflects the
cultural value of being open to the act of loosing virginity in the adolescence. This is partly true
and the acceptance of early adulthood pregnancy varies from family to family and race to race.
When it comes to changing the plot slightly for better capture I would like to point out
the necessity of more effective sex education in schools. Students need to be made aware of the
possible physical hazards that can result from pre-adulthood pregnancy. However, I really
admire the openness and support that had been provided to Juno by her parents during her tough
phase.
How might the movie positively or negatively impact an adolescent's perception of his or
her own experiences?
The major positive aspects of the movie, Juno, are as follows:
1. The film has demonstrated a strong girl who possesses the power to fight in adverse
situation. This will encourage adolescents not to get depressed and afraid in similar
situation.
2. The openness of the parents towards the pregnancy of Juno should impose positive
impact on the teenagers. Teenagers will be able to develop the courage of sharing the
issue with their parents.
3. The movie has shown how Juno has handled the subsequent as well as inevitable
obstacles and thus can be considered to provide an inspiring perspective to the teenagers.
The possible negative impact of Juno on adolescents’ perception includes:

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The openness shown in the movie towards early adulthood pregnancy may impose the notion in
adolescents’ mind that early pregnancy is normal and can be handled easily.
What impact do you feel movies of this genre have on the adolescent experience in the last
few decades and why?
Movie like Juno does impose high impact on the psychology off the adolescents. Several
factors affects the decision making skills of the adolescents and some of the major factors
includes cognitive development, the ability to generalize as well as conceptualize moral rules and
principles which eventually provides them the capability of understanding an adverse situation.
According to researchers, in the middle period of adolescence, an individual learns how to
control impulsivity and develop the ability to properly accept opposite sex (Harrison et al. 2016).
Movies like Juno, helps the teenagers in this process and enhance their awareness of the possible
consequences they might have to face in case of any wrong decision making. However Watson
& Hugo, (2015) argued that, sex related movies with an adolescent as a central character may
result in wrong interpretation of pregnancy. Adolescents may get inclined to sexual activities
which can eventually bring about a social breakdown.

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Reference List
Bakar, M. S. A., Ayob, R. N. A. R., & Rosli, H. (2017). Hypotheses of Relationships Between
Elements in Movie Trailers with Purchase Intention of Movie Tickets. Advanced Science
Letters, 23(11), 10640-10642.
Chen, F. J. (2017). Adoption, cynical detachment, and new age beliefs in Juno and Kung Fu
Panda. CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, 19(2), 3.
Harrison, M. E., Clarkin, C., Worth, K., Norris, M. L., & Rohde, K. (2016). But we’re not like
the people on TV: A qualitative examination of how media messages are perceived by
pregnant and parenting youth. Maternal and child health journal, 20(3), 684-692.
Watson, A. P., & Hugo, W. (2015). Adolescent literacies: Chatting and learning across different
planes of composition. Education as Change, 19(1), 120-147.