psy317 Chariots of Fire

 

Chariots of fire  is one of the classic inspirational movie  of the true story of two British track athletes, one a determined Jew, and the other a devout Christian who compete in the 1924 Olympics.

This movie has two main contrasting characters namely Abraham and Liddel. However, they have contrasting and similar psychological constructs where Abraham runs for self-esteem and Eric runs to glorify God. Basically, love trait is presented in the movie by both characters in the movie. The love for oneself, family and the world is portrayed in the character of Abraham in the movie. On the contrary, for Eric Liddell love for God is paramount than love for the world. This is demonstrated by his decision not to compromise his faith and love for God by refusing to run on a Sunday despite all efforts from worldly leaders including the prince.

The sacrifice Eric made for Christianity was very big for him as he had to miss a vital heat. Harold on the other hand was much more focused on running than anything else in his life. He put the activity of running first even before those that he loved including his wife and his Jewish religion. Harold became depressed whenever he lost a race and took running to a serious level where he almost did not even consider religion part of his life. Even though Harold seemed to work harder throughout the film to become a better runner Eric seemed to be the victor in every encounter the two had, this could have been because of God’s blessing to Eric for following in Christianity more than Harold. 

Besides that, different constructs in movies are used to depict different things. The construct of love for sports is used in the play for different reasons.  Abraham’s love for running is strong and he could do all he can to win the race, and he uses the love for sport to overcome prejudices against him, his family and others in the society. In contrary, Liddel is using his love for sporting competition to spread his Christian faith and promote his missionary work in China and the world in general.

Determination as a construct in the movie is portrayed by both Abraham and Liddel to encourage the society that nothing is impossible. It takes ones determination in life to fight poverty and several barriers in life. They defied tradition, friends, and world leaders to get what they wanted in life. Being principled and focused is essential for success in life as shown by the two athletes.

 

Another psychological construct is faith. Unremitting Christian faith is demonstrated by Liddel in contrast to Abraham who runs to overcome anti-Semitic prejudice. Powered by his faith for God, he pulls out of 100 meters Olympic heat which was scheduled on Sabbath day (Sunday). Self-dedication and determination is depicted in the film by the two athletes as they sacrificed their emotional relationships for the sake of success on track. Abraham left his girlfriend and Liddel defied his sister to concentrate on running.

Nevertheless, sex, drinking and smoking are shown within the movie by participants who eventually falls victim of their activities as others become pregnant and quits the competition. The use of Abraham and Liddel as role model is a lesson to be focused, determined and disciplined to be successful in life. It takes good morals to overcome challenges of life like poverty and discrimination. The spirit of competition is good and essential for ones’ survival in competitive world. Abraham and Liddel trained hard to succeed in their races.

It can be say that, this movie reflects on the ‘Two Ways We Choose To Live’ because Eric Liddell chose to put Christianity before anything else including running which was one of his passions, this is an example of what God wants us to do. Whereas Harold Abraham chose to put running before religion which is un-favoured by the lord and an example of making yourself king instead of God. 

I believe that I am half way between the two options to live. There are times when I choose to live life my own way and deliberately disobey God and there are other times where I think what God would do in a certain situation and try to do just that. 

I would say that this movie is worth to watch 🙂

psy317 Schindler’s List

“Schindler’s List is not just a biography of Oskar Schindler, but it is the story of how good can overcome evil and how charity can overcome greed”.

Schindler’s List is one of the most powerful movies of all time. It tells the powerful true story of the German businessman Oskar Schindler who comes to Nazi- captured Poland looking for economic blooming and leaves as a savior of more than 1,100 Jews. Many of our grandparents told us of the stories and we learned about it in school year after year, but to see it put to life was a totally touching experience.  

In the beginning Oskar Schindler moves to Poland in order to open a business that will bring him wealth. He begins to socialize with the Nazi party and even becomes intimate friends with them. He is an extremely sociable person and is concerned with socializing with the most powerful people around for his own benefit and welfare. Schindler wants to make sure that he has all the right connections to make his rise to wealth an easier task. He is most interested in self-satisfaction, whether it is sleeping with the next beautiful woman or wearing the best tailored shirt in town. In being so self-absorbed and materialistic, he also ignores the reality of the Jews in Poland, and in fact takes advantage of the situation to employ Jews in his factory at starvation wages.

However, as times grow, the Jews begin to see Oskar Schindler’s factory as a haven for them, giving them some sense of freedom and hope. At first Schindler denies that fact that his factory is a haven, but soon begins to realize the tremendous help he is giving to the Jewish people. He sees the misery and anguish that they suffer, and the type of beasts that his fellow Nazi friends really are. He is touched by the humbleness and suffering of the people and is overwhelmed with compassion. He now realizes how important he is to the Jewish people, and how in his hands he has the ability to save their lives. Schindler then begins to buy off hundreds of Jews from the Nazi’s, with the excuse that they are strictly for employment in his factory.

Nevertheless, Schindler’s List is a magnificent film that clearly represents the time of the Holocaust. Beginning with the reason the film is in black and white, the viewer is given more of the effect of the era. The symbolism behind the film being in black probably gives strength and effect to the historic situations, giving the viewer a powerful sense of history and of the era that so much changes it. In this film it is shown how arrogant and indifferent many people are during the Holocaust. The majority of the people during WWII give the cold shoulder to reality and choose to go on with their lives unaffected by what is going on around them. Though these feelings are prevalent throughout the Holocaust, the Jews never lose their spirit or their hope to live.

Schindler’s List has effectively shaped the meaning of aggression”. There are many forms of aggression portrayed in this film: physical, psychological, abuse of power, and passive aggression. Physical aggression is, for the most part, equal to physical abuse. This can have serious effects upon a person’s life. For example, it could leave their appearance significantly altered, thereby affecting the way they view themselves probably in a negative way. An example of physical aggression in Schindler’s List would be the scene in which the women’s hair is cut off at the Auschwitz camp. In this scene, the Jewish women are stripped of even their most basic feminine possession, a dehumanizing act.

In our community, there are many couples existing where one partner physically abuses the other. That person can be cut, burned, or simply abused and hurt so badly that their physical appearance can be altered. This can leave a person with absolutely no self-esteem, making them feel worthless and unwanted. The form of physical aggression is definitely the most detrimental to a person’s body and can even result in the extreme of the victim’s death. Schindler’s List showed this form of aggression many times: each scene putting into perspective how much physical aggression can seriously break an individual’s spirit.

It is also an interesting movie because it portrays the Evil Psychology. It shows how people, especially the Nazi people in the film, led by the leader that applied authoritarian style of leader, Amon Golf (Ralph Fiennes) who is stand under Adolf Hitler’s command, could be seen like they lose the sense of humanity within themselves and moreover, they start to dehumanize other people, which are the refugees.

Besides that this film contained many disturbing images that provoke sadness and anger. The scene in where families are being torn apart is really hurtful. It is difficult enough having to go through a situation like the Holocaust, but even more if you are separated from your loved ones and then having to deal with it alone. It is an unimaginable pain that families suffer in being separated and not knowing what each member is destined to. Having to live with the anguish of not knowing whether your loved ones are still alive or not, is enough to kill a person emotionally.

Schindler’s List is a remarkable piece of work. It clearly portrays the truth behind the Holocaust and the reality of it. A movie that should never be forgotten, and should be taken as lesson. It educates us in the sense that we must understand and realize that this can happen once again, therefore we must be prepared.

psy317 Good Will Hunting

Good Will Hunting is a story about Will Hunting who works as a janitor at MIT cleaning classrooms. Will is an orphan who grew up in various foster homes and was physically abused as a child. Will is also an extraordinary mathematical genius with a photographic memory, who enjoys solving math problems. Will blames himself for his unhappy upbringing and turns this self-loathing into a form of self-sabotage in both his professional and emotional lives. Because Will blames himself he is unable to maintain a steady job or a steady relationship. Will must learn to overcome his fear of abandonment in order to learn how to trust and love people who care about him.

The movie Good Will Hunting offered many examples that predict and explain human social behavior  Will is a young man that is struggling with the coming of age, his realization that he is different from his peers, and his search for guidance in life.

One of the psychological aspect that can be applied in this movie is cognitive dissonance.

Definition: Cognitive dissonance is uncomfortable tension that may results of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.

The most interesting thing about Will is the cognitive dissonance he goes through throughout the film. He is torn between these two cognitions, both of which contradict each other. One of these cognitions is the fact that he is an orphan from South Boston, meaning he should only have a low pay job and live there for the rest of his life. It would be wrong of him to forget about his roots and try to become something of himself, which would be unfair to his friends who aren’t as blessed as Will. On the other hand, he is a profoundly smart individually; to such a degree that Prof. Gerald Lambeau compares him to Einstein. He knows he has potential to get out of South Boston and possibly do many great things with his superior intelligence, but he makes himself believe he doesn’t want to because of this other cognition. This cognitive dissonance he bares is the one main thing that keeps him from making a concrete decision of moving on to be something better.

Furthermore, throughout most of the film Will lacks empathy which acts as a barrier to his communication with Sean. Will constantly attacks Sean with questions about his deceased wife, although he knows it is a sore subject for Sean. This lack of empathy eventually escalates to its fullest in a scene when Sean kicks Will out for bringing up the topic again. Will’s inability to see things from Sean’s point of view only hinders his progress towards becoming a better communicator.

Besides that, an area of communication competence in which Will was lacking was his constant self-monitoring. Throughout the film, Will attempts to use a “tough guy” façade to hide the true pain and fear he is feeling inside. However, once Sean has gained his trust, Will breaks down after being repeatedly told “It’s not your fault,” by Sean, in regards to the beatings he endured during childhood. It is only then that Will stops self-monitoring and explores what has really been plaguing him. We can also see him self-monitoring when he fears taking a high paying mathematical job over his current construction job. He fears the rejection of his peers for his success and therefore, does not seize the opportunity.

His intelligence is also something spectacular to look at, especially from a psychological approach. Although he has a much higher intelligence than others, the intelligence he has is concentrated on only one aspect of intelligence. His componential intelligence is so over developed that it possibly caused the underdevelopment of his contextual intelligence and emotional intelligence. His Componential intelligence is obviously much higher than others, which is seen when he works these complex math equations with such ease. His lack of contextual intelligence is made very clear by Sean Maguire

All in all, “Good Will Hunting” was a very effective movie about communication. When searching the movie for instances of communication in relationships, one can learn a lot about a real world application of textbook concepts. The movie has taught me about sharing, ineffective communication, and the role communication plays in our relationships.

“Good Will Hunting” is a good production 🙂

psy317 When a Man Loves a Woman

Alcoholism has been called a disease of denial. It is not an easy thing to deal with especially when combined with depression and/or some bipolar or manic aspects. Those around the alcoholic often deny it, too, and grow accustomed to their relationship with a drunk. When the drunk gets sober, he or she becomes a fuller and more competent person, and that can threaten the old relationship. It’s a hard concept to understand, but movie tittle “When a Man Loves a Woman’ will definitely help ones to understand the consequences of being an alcoholism.   

Alice Green is the main character in this movie and the person that the movie revolves around quite literally. With her, everyone is happy (even when they aren’t) and without her the situation is miserable and the family unit falls apart even further. Alice is typical of a white female alcoholic in many ways, but in other ways, she breaks the mould. Alice drinks both inside the home and outside. She is almost as likely to go out for a drink after work with friends as she also had many bottles hidden all over the house. She reveals that she started drinking in high school and never quit. She is almost rather manic in her actions and moods, but the diagnosis is not bipolar disorder; instead alcoholism.

Alice is married to Michael who works as a pilot. During the father’s absence, the children’s’ are left at home with their mother which lead them to witness many events when their mother is under the influence of alcoholism.  There is one particularly disturbing scene in the movie when Jess is supposed to finish her homework, and Alice is at her wit’s end. Jess watches her mother took aspirin with Vodka then attempt to shower and fall through the shower door. The full ramifications of seeing this horrifying event will never fully be able to be measured. Children of alcoholics often display a host of effects, like unwillingness to commit, abandonment issues, or alcoholism or drug abuse themselves in adulthood. These children are alternately showered with attention and then neglected by Alice. She has even committed some rather abusive offenses, like slapping Jess really hard in the face and driving her kids around drunk and forgot where she had left them.

Alice finally does admit her problem after she falls out of a canoe, and agreed to go for treatment. Her withdrawal symptoms, irritability, sweating, vomiting, etc. are typical of an alcoholic detoxing. And as Alice begins to get better little by little, Michael seems to get worse. He is unprepared for his wife behaving like a grown-up for one thing. He is also unprepared for her selfishness as she recovers. She must be selfish in order to aid her own recovery. She is smart enough to consider a halfway house because she knows she can’t just jump back into her life as it existed before. Success involves finding new ways to cope with her stresses. She is lost coming back home to try to fill her old spot. She feels empty without her alcohol as she has always existed with it. Moreover she feels that her husband is ruling everything at home and cause her to feel worthless. This leads them to a separation. I believe that communication plays a vital role in a relationship. Both partners should understand the situation rather than just act as a master and control the whole thing. One of the important things that help in a relationship is “listening” which has been revealed towards the end of the movie.   

Besides that, this movie could be described as a journey of healing for this entire household. Alice learns to kick her addiction but most learn all over again what it is to be a wife and a mother. It is certainly not an easy journey for her. I would say there is a possibility of her developing some kind of adjustment disorder since this change is so huge in her life. Her children learn what it is to lose their mother for a short time. They will have to re-learn how not to be so sensitive to her moods. They must learn to live and grow as their own people, not as extensions of their mother. With Alice no longer being the center of attention, these children will begin to thrive. I feel confident that she and Michael will, in fact, find their way back to each other with some counseling. They both need to learn their roles in the relationship. They need some counseling in specific communication skills that would improve their marriage. They need to work on conflict resolution and forgiveness. They have said and done some terrible things to each other but not without love.

Overall, this movie is certainly not completely accurate, but it does portray, for the common man, what alcoholism really looks like in a family. Sadly, Alice is probably a better mom than most women who are alcoholics. And Michael, while he relishes his role of protector, is willing to stand by his wife no matter what.