Brianna Morgan EPSY 430

Movie Case Study 7/5/11

In the movie Akeelah and the Bee, the main character, Akeelah appears to be at the

beginning of her adolescent development. Within the movie, Akeelah is dealing with many of

the contexts and topics we have discussed in class. I believe they all in some way play a part in

who she is as a person, how she interacts with others, and how she is developing as an

adolescent. These various contexts and topics affect her development process as well. In

thinking about all of the topics we discussed in class and after viewing the movie, the four

themes that stuck out to me were Akeelah’s family relationships, peer relationships, and her

identity development. It is interesting to see how all three of these topics affected, and helped

to develop her cognitive and emotional development as well. All four of these topics played a

role in Akeelah’s adolescent development in very different ways.

Akeelah’s family relationships played a large role in the movie and helped to partially explain

why Akeelah behaved the way that she did. In the Steinberg article on families, it states that

adolescents tend to have closer relationships with their mothers and the feel more comfortable

talking to their mothers versus their fathers who are not as active in their lives. Mothers are

typically more involved than fathers (Steinberg, 2005). This was not the case with Akeelah and

her mother. Although her father was not around and was not involved, in the beginning

Akeelah did not seem close to her mother or comfortable with talking to her at all. The article

also talked about how various parenting styles impact adolescent development. Parents who

are very demanding and not very responsive tend to have more of an authoritarian parenting

style (Steinberg, 2005). Authoritarian parents value obedience and conformity. They have

more forceful discipline styles and don’t encourage independence and autonomy in the child

(Steinberg, 2005). This parenting style was demonstrated in Akeelah and her mother’s

relationship. The mother was very strict and demanded that Akeelah do well in school. On the

other hand, she was not very nurturing and very engaged in Akeelah’s life or interests. She was

not interested in Akeelah’s participation and new found interest to compete in the spelling bee,

her only concern was that Akeelah follow her rules, attend school and pass her classes. Even

though Akeelah was raised in an authoritarian home, with the exception of being less self

assured in the beginning of the film, Akeelah showed more behaviors that reflected being

raised in an authoritative environment. She was responsible, creative, curious, socially skilled

and successful in school (Steinberg, 2005). Akeelah did very well in school-she was curious

about learning, she was responsible, especially in her preparation for her spelling bee. She took

initiative in her learning and was very independent. Akeelah ended up adapting well to her

peers from different backgrounds. Her mother’s authoritarian parenting did not seem to have

a negative effect on her overall.

Another important theme that was shown in the film was the impact of peer relationships on

adolescence. The article on peer groups points out that peer groups are of major significance

during this time (Steinberg, 2005). The author also goes on to explain how young people can be

a part of cliques, smaller, more intimate groups of young people who bond together as a result

of common interests or characteristics. Or they can be apart of crowds, a larger group that is

based off of an image, such as the “jocks” or the “preps”. These crowds of youth may not

necessarily all be friends with each other, or interact with each other much (Brown, 2004).

Both crowds and cliques serve to enhance social skills and provide adolescents with a sense of

self identity and self concept (Steinberg, 2005). In Akeelah’s situation, she was seen as a part of

the “brain crowd” and was bullied for it. Akeelah knew that she was smart, but did not

demonstrate it in class in an effort to fit in and to keep from getting harassed by her peers.

Both the Steinberg article (2005) and the Tatum readings (1997), discussed how African

American students don’t work up to their full potential for fear of being seen as “acting white”

or being a part of the “brain crowd.” This was the case with Akeelah when she pretended to do

badly on her spelling test when in fact, she aced it. Although Akeelah was not really a part of a

clique in the beginning of the movie, later on she became a part of one along with her spelling

bee friends and her one friend from her neighborhood school. They shared the common

interest to be successful and they just had fun together.

The next major theme observed in Akeelah and the Bee was Akeelah’s identity

development. It was interesting to see how her identity developed and changed through out

the film. Based off of her mother’s authoritarian parenting style, one may suggest that that

may be the cause of Akeelah’s feelings of low self assurance she described and displayed in the

beginning of the film. As Akeelah began to do well in her spelling bees and gain the respect of

her family, peers, and community, her sense of identity seemed to change and her self

assurance improved. The issue of race also seemed to big a big part of Akeelah’s development

of identity. According to the Tatum reading, the author states that, a positive sense of self

involves a positive racial and ethnic identity (Tatum, 1997). Akeelah had to develop this within

herself while dealing with comments from her family, peers, and others who were not black.

Her family intimidated her by saying the white students were going to beat her in the bee. She

had to adjust to being around other races of students and competing with them, and she even

had to deal with prejudice from a parent of one of her peers. This may have been even harder

for Akeelah to handle if she did not a strong sense of who she was as an individual and as a

black girl. Through out the movie, Akeelah’s racial identity development, which also helped to

shape her overall identity, was somewhat formed by the various stages of William Cross’

Psychology of Nigrescence, becoming black (Tatum, 1997). As Akeelah becomes more involved

the spelling bee preparations and competitions she also moved through the various stages of

racial identity development. In the Pre-Encounter stage Akeelah’s values seem to match those

of the dominant culture (Tatum, 1997). She seems to really value her education and take it

seriously. Although it does not start out this way, Akeelah’s peer group changes to include

students of other races and not just Black students. This also creates tension between her

neighborhood friends. Akeelah then moves into the Encounter phase where she becomes

aware of racism when she over hears Dylan’s father make the comment about how he can’t

lose to a Black girl (Tatum, 1997). The next phase Akeelah experiences is the Internalization-

Commitment phase, Akeelah is secure in who she is as a black person but created unity with

other oppressed groups of people (Tatum, 1997). This was shown in how she befriended the

Latino student Javier and the Asian student Dylan. She also helped Dylan out during the

national bee and showed concern for him during the whole experience. As a result of Akeelah’s

experiences she was able to navigate through the stages of Nigrescene and develop a strong

sense of racial identity. She then felt comfortable in her own skin and could work well with

peers from other races, as well as work to her full potential because she was confidant in who

she was.

The last theme to be explored is the theme of Cognitive/Emotional development and

how the three other factors fit in and affected Akeelah’s development. As it was stated in

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development (Piaget, 1972), and the information discussed in the Cognitive

Foundations article, adolescents reach the stage in cognitive development that is called Formal

Operations. The author states that at this stage a young person is able to think more in depth about

complex tasks and issues that involve many different variables (Arnett, 2007) . Young people are able to

think in more abstract ways and not in such concrete ways like in childhood (Arnett,2007). Akeelah’s

cognitive development was encouraged and strengthened by both her family and her peers. Her

mother did stress the importance of education and her siblings and others helped her to succeed as the

film went on. Her work with her peers in preparation for the spelling bee, for example with Javier, also

helped to enhance her cognitive development. Akeelah’s strong sense of identity and strong sense of

racial identity also helped her to perform so well cognitively. During this time young people also

develop and mature more emotionally. It is during this time that young people’s ability to be

empathetic is either developed or enhanced (Rosenblum & Lewis, 2006). Adolescents are able to think

beyond themselves and put themselves in other people’s shoes. Akeelah showed strong emotional

development when she was able to humble herself and initiate a friendship with Dylan even though he

had been mean to her and she knew how his father felt about her. Her ability to do this also required

Akeelah to have the cognitive and emotional development skills to be able to do what is called

Emotional Dissemblance. Emotional Dissemblance is the ability to be able to separate what you are

experiencing emotionally from your emotional expression (Rosenblum & Lewis, 2006). Although

Akeelah may have felt one way emotionally, she expressed her emotions in a more positive way and

changed the outcomes and interactions between her and Dylan. Akeelah also showed Emotional

Dissemblance in her interactions with her family as well. Although her mother was not very nurturing to

her and Akeelah was hurt by this, she did not let it break her and she still persevered. Akeelah was also

teased by her brother and she still managed to be successful.

In conclusion, all three factors, family, peers, and identity development all played a part in

Akeelah’s cognitive and/or emotional development. All three factors had both positive and negative

impacts on Akeelah’s development. They all helped to shape her over all. Although Akeelah had

various issues going on with her family and peers, she was still able to be successful and she seemed to

adjust exceptionally well to her environment. In terms of her place within adolescent development,

Akeelah seemed to be on track.