LABELLING THEORY – Term Paper

Girlfriend is the famous American show that premiered on the 11^th of September. The show hit the public and this resulted to millions of viewers who were interested in watching the show. The main characters of the show were Joan Carol, Maya, Lynn, Antonito and William. The main aim of this paper is to apply the social psychological theory to the show by explaining how to understand the character of an individual. In this case, it will be the use of labelling theory to analyze the character of the person.

Labelling theory is the theory about self-identity and also explains how the people`s behavior can be determined by the terms that are applied in describing such people. It is believed that once an individual is labelled for a certain role, he/she become a hooligan believing that it is his/her real character and ends up focusing on the criminal acts.  An individual start acting in the manner that they have been labelled. For instance, in the show, Joan Carol (Tracee Ellis Ross) is labelled as the den mother meaning that she is someone who is unofficial and she relies a lot on her friends when it comes to dealing with her problems.  Apart from using her friends to deal with her problems, she also remains a leader in everything that occurs in the series.

In the whole series, everything she does is running to her friends during hard times with the problems that she had. She is a person who cannot stand on her won and deal with her own problem, but rather believe in relying on people. At the same time, she is so much involved in the lives of others trying to provide solutions to their problems. Labeling her the den other may be regarded as the main aim she commits different things throughout the series. Firstly, she is constantly in fight with Toni, reconciling and then come together again. She does this knowing that since her friends are always with her, the chances of forgiving her are also high.  The frequency of using her friends at the expense of solving her problems also emerges when she escaped from Fresho and meet Toni. This is the real meaning of the den mother implying how she could not deal with her own problems without involving other friends. Further, when she was having her marital problems to Greg the moment Greg realized she was cheating on him, Carol failed to deal with the problems as an adult, and preferred escaping to her friends for help, the moment she realized nothing will be solved, she ran away renting her apartment to Lynn.

 It can therefore be proven from the character of Joan and that the label an individual is given in life pose profound effects on their characters. This becomes the master of their lives making individuals to end up behaving in a certain manner because they have been given the label. The label becomes part of us and starts controlling both our inner and our outer personalities. For the case of Joan, the fact that she was labelled the den mother makes her think she can solve the problems of other people. She remains protective of other friends as she looks for favors to solve her problems. In these series, she is the leader  in every part and also provides guidance to the rest of the group. This is where the impact of label theory emerges in the story.