Neuber: What is the relationship between and among the concepts of power and

nonassertive, assertive and aggressive behavior? Give examples from the movie
Usually the relationship between power and nonassertive behavior is inverted.
Power is normally associated with assertive behavior. Examples of this are clearly
demonstrated in the film Twelve Angry Men. When Juror #8 (Jack Lemon) states his
position on whether or not he thinks the defendant is guilty, for the murder, he states it
with a nonassertive, passive voice. However, Juror #8 doesnt immediately have the
power in the room until he starts to really explain himself. While every other juror in the
room is so quick to decide that the boy is guilty, Jack Lemon demands that everyone just
hears what he has to say about the evidence. As he uses rationale and credible reasoning,
he slowly starts to shift from non-assertive to assertive behavior and thus slowly starting
to obtain the power in the room. At the same time, he is gaining the attention from all the
other jurors and you can see that Lemmon slowly starts to convince them to change their
verdicts to not guilty as well. While assertiveness can draw power, aggressive behavior
can also gain power too but in a different way. People who use aggressive behavior tend
to gain power through fear. However, this tactic sometimes backfires as it does in this
film. A good example of this from the film is Juror #3 (George C. Scott) who basically
acts as the main antagonist in the film and is the last juror to change his vote. He uses
aggressive behavior towards every other juror who thinks the defendant is not guilty.
When George C. Scott is talking to Juror #11 (Edward James Olmos) about how Olmos
decides to change his vote to not guilty, Scott raises his voice to Juror #11 demanding the
reasoning behind his decision and stating that this kid is guilty why dont you pay
attention to the facts. Juror # 3 refuses to believe that the defendant is not guilty due to
the fact that he has an estranged relationship with his own son thus most likely the reason
behind his aggressive behavior too.
Another example is when Juror #10 (Mykelti Williamson) is enraged about the
defendants kind of people because to him, he feels that they are use to killing and that
These spics they stay high on dope and they fight all the time. He is then told by Juror
#4 (Armin Mueller-Stahl) to Sit down! And dont open your filthy mouth again. Juror
#10 hurt himself more in this situation because by using profanity and racial slurs, the
others lost all the respect they had for him. These are two prime examples of how
aggressive behavior didnt work in this situation and actually lost power rather then
gaining it. Even though the twelve jurors had their own opinion on the case, each one had
the same amount of power in their own vote but throughout the movie different jurors
were able to influence the others through the use of their own behavior.
What are some of the diversity issues that we see in the court room?
The main diversity issue I see in the room that is somewhat obvious is gender
discrimination. The whole jury is comprised of men. It would be interesting if there was
at least a woman that was present during the decision process. Another diversity issue is
the use of racism to help influence Juror #10s vote. Even though this example was used
above to demonstrate his aggressive behavior, it also demonstrates that because the
defendant being accused is of Spanish or Mexican descent, he is automatically guilty. He

continues his rant calling the defendants people wild animals and that there nature is to
kill others.