Answer the Following Questions As Watch the Movie

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Psychological Concepts in Elf

Answer the following questions as watch the movie.

1. Rank Buddy on each of the Big Five (1 being low ranking, 10 being high ranking). Explain your choice.

Openness (Curious, Flexible, Artistic, Unconventional)

Conscientiousness (Diligent, Disciplined, Organized, Punctual, Dependable)

Extraversion (Outgoing, Sociable, Upbeat, Friendly, Assertive)

Agreeableness (Sympathetic, Trusting, Cooperative, Modest, Straightforward)

Neuroticism (Anxious, Hostile, Self-Conscious, Insecure, Vulnerable)

1. What is one example of Buddy being dominated by his id(primitive, instinctive, pleasure principle)?

1. What is one example of Buddy being dominated by his superego (morals)?

1. Explain how at least three of the following defense mechanisms were illustrated in the movie.

Denial

Denial is the refusal to accept reality or fact, acting as if a painful event, thought or feeling did not exist.

Regression

Regression is the reversion to an earlier stage of development in the face of unacceptable thoughts or impulses.

Projection

Projection is the misattribution of a person’s undesired thoughts, feelings or impulses onto another person who does not have those thoughts, feelings or impulses.

Reaction Formation

Reaction Formation is the converting of unwanted or dangerous thoughts, feelings or impulses into their opposites.

Repression

Repression is the unconscious blocking of unacceptable thoughts, feelings and impulses.

Displacement

Displacement is the redirecting of thoughts feelings and impulses directed at one person or object, but taken out upon another person or object.

Intellectualization

Intellectualization is the overemphasis on thinking when confronted with an unacceptable impulse, situation or behavior without employing any emotions whatsoever to help mediate and place the thoughts into an emotional, human context.

Rationalization

Rationalization is putting something into a different light or offering a different explanation for one’s perceptions or behaviors in the face of a changing reality.

Sublimation

Sublimation is simply the channeling of unacceptable impulses, thoughts and emotions into more acceptable ones.

1. Identify any illustrations of fixation at the following psychosexual stages.

Oral

Anal

Phallic

1. Provide an example of someone in the movie displaying an inferiority complex/overcompensation.

1. Identify an example from the movie supporting Mischel’s theory (personality is not stable and consistent over time, but varies by situation).

1. Describe Buddy’s self-concept(his mental picture of himself).

1. Describe what reaching self-actualization(reaching one’s full potential; doing what one was put on this Earth to do) would look like for Buddy.

1. Imagine Rorschach showed Buddy the following inkblot. What might he say he sees and why?

1. Identify one example of classical conditioning in the movie. Fill in the chart below.

1. Provide one example of Skinner’s principle of reinforcement (organisms tend to repeat those responses that are followed by favorable consequences)from the movie.

1. Identify as many examples as you can of the following schedules of reinforcement in the movie.

Fixed-Interval Schedule (FI): a schedule of reinforcement in which a specific interval of time must elapse before a response will yield reinforcement

Variable-Interval Schedule (VI): a schedule of reinforcement in which a variable amount of time must elapse before a response will yield reinforcement

Fixed-Ratio Schedule (FR): a schedule of reinforcement in which reinforcement occurs only after a fixed number of responses have been performed.

Variable-Ratio Schedule (VR): a schedule of reinforcement in which reinforcement is delivered after a variable number of responses have been performed

1. Use the chart below to identify as many examples as you can of positive and negative punishment and positive and negative reinforcement from the movie.

Positive reinforcement:

Positive punishment:

Negative reinforcement:

Negative punishment:

1. Did you notice any conditioned taste aversions in the movie? If so, describe. If not, how might one have been created?

1. Describe one example of observational learningin the movie.