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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY ON FILM
Introduction
Social psychology primarily focuses on understanding the different psychological factors that affect the human interaction processes about the situations they face. Social psychology is, therefore, more of a psychological scientific study compared to sociology, which does not entail the in-depth study of individuals. In a bid to offer further explanation of social psychology and the various social psychological theories, this paper will provide a review of the movie E.T. E.T (Extra Terrestrial) is an American movie which was released in 1982. The plot of the film involves a stranded alien who was helped by children, especially Elliot, to overcome his predicaments on earth.
The Social Psychological Principle
The movie E.T has offered an excellent example of social cognition as a type of social psychological principle. Most people tend to derive their social behavior by studying other people's behavior. Social cognition involves the processes people use to acquire information from others, the storage of the received information, and the interpretation of the information before it is applied to another person or situation. Human beings have the capacity to adapt to their surroundings by utilizing their social cognitive traits. Social cognition plays significant roles in shaping various social interactions. Social cognition is more often used to establish the link between an individual’s brain and the social activities that surround that particular individual (Myers and Twenge, 141).
The Relevant Scene
The relevant scene starts when Elliot calls E.T and introduces himself as a human called Elliot. In this scene, E.T was quiet and paid attention to what and how Elliot was doing. The scene continues with Elliot mentioning and explaining how the things in his room operate especially his toys, the fish in the fish bowl, the coke soda can, and candy. Elliot also explained to E.T the importance and use of money and cars. E.T was silent and curious to learn more about his surroundings. In the same scene, Elliot also discovered that the E.T was hungry as he tried to eat one of the toys. Elliot went to the kitchen and brought food from the refrigerator.
The following day Elliot had to go to school, and E.T was left in the house alone. E.T became hungry and went to the fridge to pick food. He confused a can of soda for a can of beer, which unfortunately got him drank. It was through E. T's drank state that he opened a comic book and saw how the stranded astronauts managed to call for help. E.T also learned how to kiss by watching people kissing on the television.
Elaboration
The director of the movie created a perfect setting for the introduction of scenes that portrayed social cognition as a social psychological principle. E.T used the knowledge he received from Elliot to overcome the various challenges he was facing when he was abandoned on the foreign planet. E. T’s orientation on the location of food in the fridge played a major role in explaining the theory of social cognition. He completed the whole process of social cognition theory the following day by going to get food without the aid of his human friends. Social cognition theory was also applied when E.T chose not to eat Elliot’s toys the following day as he had noticed that Elliot was not happy about him eating the toys. As earlier defined, the social cognition theory of social psychology involves acquiring information from people and using the information on other individuals or situations. E.T practiced the social cognition principle by emulating what he had seen and read in the magazine. He managed to capture an idea from the comic book and applied to in a real-life situation, and this process helped him to signal his alien friends. Elliot and E.T had synchronized thoughts and feelings which enabled them to think and act the same. It was through this that E.T was able to transfer his actions of emulating the kissing couple in television to Elliot. E.T copied what he saw in the television, stored the information, and later on practiced what he had seen. This is a pure example of social cognition theory since it entails the acquisition of information from other people and applying it to other situations.
Failure of the Scene
The scene did not fail to follow the predictions acquired from social cognition theory of social psychology. It made good use of intuitive judgments and the overall information processing processes.
The Other Social Psychological Principles
One of the main social psychological principles represented in the movie E.T is the attribution theory. The attribution theory explains the factors that induce certain events or behavior. This theory focuses on models that lead to the explanation of how certain behaviors are prevalent in different individuals. The attribution theory usually focuses on how people explain other people's behavioral traits (Myers and Twenge, 128). The direct opposite of attribution is a misattribution, which means the relation of particular behavior to wrong sources. In the movie, Elliot compels his brother to swear that he will not tell anybody about the alien life form in the house. The brothers also forced their younger sister to not tell their mother about E.T by threatening to destroy her doll. In both scenarios, the resulting behaviors were triggered by other behaviors. Elliot’s behavior can be termed as internal dispositioned as it is driven by his motive to keep E.T a secret from his mother. Elliot's sister, Gertie, had a different form of attribution known as situational attribution. Her behavior was an outcome of her environment in the form of pressure from her brothers.
The other social psychological principle that can be identified in the movie is prejudice and discrimination. Prejudice involves a negative attitude towards someone while discrimination implies a negative behavior towards someone or a group of people (Myers and Twenge, 307). In E.T the scene which shows prejudice is when Elliot’s elder brother and his friends deny Elliot the opportunity to play Dungeons and Dragons with them. The boys' attitude that leads to this was based on the fact that Elliot was very young in the eyes of the other boys. Discrimination in the movie was brought out in the scene where the elder boys rejected playing with Elliot and sent him to get the pizza. The discrimination against Elliot happened again when the boys did not believe his story about E.T, and instead, they shunned him for dropping the pizza.
Conclusion
Every day, humans interact with each other while performing their various tasks. It is through the interactions that people get to relate with one another and shape their behavior towards each other. The use of social cognition does not primarily lead to correct solutions as it can result in misunderstanding and misinterpretation of information. The movie E.T plays a major role in explaining most of the social psychological theories and principles.
Works Cited
Myers, David G and Jean M Twenge. Social Psychology. 11th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2012. Print.