Sybil 1976

Sybil (1976) is a movie that thoroughly and accurately explained Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) through a female character with the name Sybil. Sybil had history of abuse since young and in order to cope with her situation, her brain's coping mechanism has divided herself into different personalities. In the movie, Dr. Wilbur made effort in helping Sybil by understanding Sybil's history and the reason for each personality to emerge. At the end of the movie, Sybil accepted her other identities and with the embracing of other personalities, Sybil accepted who she was and recovered her suppressed memory. 

1. Don't judge a book by its cover 

There are often times where we see somebody and has judgement on them, which is perfectly fine because people usually have impression on others on their first sight. Based on evolutionary psychology, this is a defense mechanism of human because by perceiving whether a person is a threat or not helps us in performing certain action that could potentially save our lives. 

In the movie, Sybil was laughed by her students when she walked into the water. Despite the fact that the children were immature to think with empathy, never did the children know that Sybil has had a history of abuse. Knowing that Sybil would behave oddly due to her abuse, people might reacted differently by showing more love instead of humiliating them.

2. Emoto's Water Experiment / Crystallization of water / The power of thought

A researcher ran a series of experiments and found out that words and thought could change the crystallization of water. In his experiment, he label water bottles and expose the water into both positive and negative condition. The result was that beautiful crystals was observed after giving good words, playing good music, and showing, playing, or offering pure prayer to water. If words and images of creativity were given, it will be contributing to the creation of a beautiful world. On the other hand, if you are giving out message of destruction, you will then contribute in destructive of the world (Emoto, 2001). 

The picture below illustrates the crystallization of water with label of the words that the water is exposed to.

Picture taken from http://highexistence.com/water-experiment/

In the picture above, the physical shape of water crystallization is refined and beautiful when the water is exposed to positive words. Once one is aware of the impact of words, one will no longer speak destructive or anger words to the people around them (Emoto, 2001). Words is the strongest weapon that one could use to hurt others. It is a choice for whether to change the world by focusing on the word that we use daily. Note that human body is made up of 60% of water, now imagine how much word and thought could impact a person.    

Relating the finding of this experiment to the movie, Sybil's mother has conducted actions that are cruel enough to impair development of a child (Sybil). Since a single phrase of sentence could impact the crystallization of water, imagine what would happen to the child when she is constantly being exposed to negative situation such as abuse, discouragement, scoldings, constraints and fears. 

With this, it is important for us to have the consciousness to treat people and see people with love and encouragement. Knowing that mere consciousness of things could cause impact, it further encourages us to treat things around with care. It is such a pity for Sybil to encounter such harsh condition during her development which caused her personality to split, but luckily for her to met with Dr. Wilbur who made the effort (love and encouragement) in helping her to regain her mental well-being and confidence.

References

Emoto, M. (2001). The hidden messages in water. New York, NY: Atria Books. 

Hunt for the Wilderpeople 2016

Ricky Baker is an orphan who has been arranged to stay with Bella and Hec. As he would usually do, at the beginning, he tried to escape. He got himself lost in the bushes. Bella, the foster Mother, did not punish or scold him for his attempt to escape, instead she teased about him being able to stay in the bushes for more than 15 minutes and reinforced him that he just needed to be back before breakfast. Bella has showered Ricky with uncondition love. Unfortunately, Bella passed away and the orphanage system led by Paula wanted to bring Ricky back. The journey of a national manhunt then begun when Ricky and Hec tried avoid being found in the bushes.

Dealing with Rebellious Kid

Bella's method of communicating with a rebellious kid like Ricky is appropriate. Instead of going against the child and asking him to do things that he obviously will not do, Bella asked him to do the things he like as long as he comes back at the end of the day. This sense of freedom that Bella allocate for Ricky has made Ricky less likely to rebel. People often rebel because they think they are being treated unfairly and want to seek for their own sense of freedom. McGregor (1944) mentioned that insecure or rebellious individual are in the process of seeking independence. They are searching for freedom, not the chance for self-growth (McGregor, 1944). In the case of this movie, since Bella has already gave Ricky his freedom, presumably different from his previous foster care, Ricky will less likely be rebellious.

On the other hand, when Ricky wants to tell Bella his "haiku". Bella listens to a few and then stops him from continuing. Based on Ricky's attitude at the beginning of the film, Ricky might be someone is forced that talk about himself, forced to change, and even brought to therapy sessions where he learnt his "haiku". However, when Bella show signs of uninterested in his "haiku", unlike others, Ricky might feel that Bella is genuine and is a "normal" person, instead of someone forcing him to change and to be the so-called "good" from the eyes of others.

From this, I learnt that at times we just have to be genuine and to learn how to accept others for who they are. Wanting someone to change is not for the benefit of the person, but more often for our own comfort and benefit. At the end of the day, who are we to judge what is right or wrong? In this movie, the child might be doing something that he strongly thinks is right for himself. Therefore, it is unreasonable for us to punish or try to change someone for what we think is wrong. It is important for us to be empathetic and think for others before making judgement and taking actions.

Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Study: Power and Abuse

In the movie, Paula, the orphanage care officer seems to be in-charge and having power. At the end of the movie, we also noticed that Paula shouted phrases that a police would usually say. Her assistant then said to her “This is only used in the states. And you are not even a police". From this scene and statement, we can tell that Paula is already assuming power that she does not have and is behaving in full authority manner. Her eagerness in capturing a child who barely does any crime reflects on her own situation and personality. It could that Paula is having a really lonely and isolated social life.

In Stanford Prison study, it is found that people who are given authority behaved in a brutal and sadistic way, some even began to harass prisoners (McLeod, 2016). With this, it is suggested that people are likely to conform into the social roles that there are given. In Zimbardo's study, no one gave instructions to the guards to perform those brutal behaviors but because of the position that they are in, they became more confident and feel as if they are in-charged when given the authority to guard the prisoners. This could also be the case of Paula, as there is no one giving her order to capture the child. During the live interview on the television (TV), it is also observed that Paula has became obsessed with her responsibility to capture the child. She did not answer the TV interviewers' questions appropriately and she keep repeating "no child left behind" with her eyes widely opened. It seems like she has been too into her own role.

In her journey to achieve her goal of taking Ricky away from Hec, she even suggested Ricky to accuse Hec for sexually assaulting him. Paula seems to be doing everything that she could to reach her goal. Her slogan "no child left behind" and the meaning that she carries is not entirely pure anymore. Her obsession in achieving her goal has made her irrational.

Through this, I realize while it is important for us to achieve our goal wholeheartedly and effortfully. It is also important to take a break from time to time and to evaluate on our ways of doing things. Sometimes, being too into something might lead us to doing things in an inappropriate manner.

References:
McGregor, D. (1944). Conditions of effective leadership in the industrial organization. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 8(2), 55-63. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0056439

McLeod, S. A. (2016). Zimbardo - Stanford prison experiment. Retrieved from www.simplypsychology.org/zimbardo.html

Grace Is Gone 2007

The movie "Grace is Gone" portrayed the grief of lost of a family member by focusing on the grief of a husband losing his wife. The father, Stanley Philip lost his military wife through a battle, and is struggling all by himself while trying to keep the truth away from his daughters. From here, the audience could observe Stanley's fatherly love. Furthermore, this movie showcased how Stanley deal with his lost through different methods that could be explained through Kübler-Ross model of stages of grief.


The Kübler-Ross model explained that there are five stages of grief (Patricelli, 2017):

Picture adopted from http://www.change-management-coach.com/kubler-ross.html

1) Denial
2) Anger
3) Bargaining
4) Depression
5) Acceptance

Stanley Phillip's struggled in handling his grief when he found out that his wife passed away in battle. He goes through the first stage of grief in Kübler-Ross model which is denial. When Stanley asked his daughters to not eat the casserole given by someone in their neighbourhood, it is a portrayal of him not wanting to accept the reality of his lost of wife by not accepting sympathy and consolation from the people around him. This is because somebody might have been told about the death of his wife and hence that person left a plate of food and a note out of sympathy.

Another scene which portrayed Stanley's denial stage of grief is when Stanley called back home to listen to his wife's pre-recorded voice message on his house phone was a way for Stanley to feel his wife's presence. It could be that one of the most functional method of coping with the of lost of a loved one is to maintain an ongoing relationship with the person who has passed away (Klass et al., 1996; Moules & Amundson, 1997; Moules et al., 2004, 2007; Rosenblatt, 1996, as cited in Bouchel, Rallison, Moules, & Sinclair, 2015). The bonds that is maintained despite the deceased of a person helps the alive person to go on in living (Moules et al., 2004, as cited in Bouchel, Rallison, Moules, & Sinclair, 2015). Through this, the audience could tell that Stanley was still in the first stage of his grief, which is denying that his wife has passed away and trying to continue his life normally by connecting to his wife through listening to her voice.

Holding on to something that connects us to the deceased person is a way to cope with grief. This could also explain the reason of some people walking around the place where he or she once used to share with the deceased person. In this movie, Stanley brought his two daughters back to Enchanted Garden, an amusement park that they have been as a family before the death of his wife. The place that Stanley have chosen to go takes on meaning to preserve a reality where his wife is still alive. And by not telling his children that their mother has gone could temporarily preserve a reality where the wife is still alive, that they are spending their last holiday as a family together.

The movie did not focus much on anger, bargain, and depressed stages of Kübler-Ross model, instead the movie emphasized on the denial of the father and ended with the acceptance stage of Kübler-Ross model by the family members. This can be seen from the scene where Heidi read out her report on her mom during the mom's funeral in the church.

Through this movie, I have realized that life is short and we should celebrate life together and appreciate it before it is too late. Life could be very fragile and we should treat every day as our last presence by living in the moment and doing what you want to do. Once things happened, we could not run away from reality, though we could temporarily just like how Stanley did in the movie. But the truth is, we cannot run away forever. Anyhow, we will have to face it one day.


References:
Bouchal, S. R., Rallison, L., Moules, N. J., & Sinclair, S. (2015). Holding on and letting go. Omega: Journal Of Death & Dying, 72(1), 42-68. doi:10.1177/0030222815574700

Patricelli, K. (2017). Stage of grief models: Kubler-Ross. Retrieved from http://www.amhc.org/58-grief-bereavement-issues/article/8444-stage-of-grief-models-kubler-ross

Experimenter 2015

'Experimenter' is a biopic that showcases the life of the famous Stanley Milgram and his effort in studying the behavior of obedience.

The Effort of an Early Social Science Experimenter in Obtaining His Result
In this movie, we could see Milgram's effort in proving his findings. As a social science student, I have many acquaintances that are conducting their own study for undergraduate dissertation. However, based on my observation, student nowadays are more relaxed in conducting researches when compared to Stanley Milgram. Students are also afraid to do what they want to do and merely adhering to the rigid rules and guidelines set by the faculty.

What is the reason behind modern student being more relax in terms of conducting study?
1. There is a saying in Chinese: 前人种树，后人乘凉 (qian ren zhong shu, hou ren cheng liang), which means ancestors make the effort and descendants enjoys outcome. Many conclusions have been made by previous studies, therefore some students might think that their effort will not contribute to the field of study. Also, living in the enjoyment from the outcome of ancestors' hard work, some modern students might not see the need to come out with new findings.

2. The experiment guidelines are different as compared to how it was used to be. There are various ethical guidelines that students are oblige to adhere to when it comes to running experiment. Without the tension of needing to run a research that might cause discrepancy, students are in their safe zone when they are conducting their study. This indirectly will result in student being more relaxed as it is noted that there will not be many ethical criticism.

The Appearance of Elephant in the Background
There is no explicit explanation in the movie regarding the elephant that appears at the back of Milgram when he is talking to the audience while walking in the corridor. The appearance of the elephant might be a metaphor of Milgram's worldview. The appearance of elephant in an indoor corridor is rather unrealistic, therefore the meaning that director wants to portray might be that Milgram is starting to be unrealistic in his procedures in running his study. It is also mentioned in New York Times movie review by Dargis (2015) that the appearance of the elephant in the background seems to be raising a question: Did his experiments finally turn Milgram into a kind of accomplice? Through this, it makes the audience wonder whether is Milgram still doing research based on reality or is he living in his own perception/fantasy of human behavior.

In addition to the movie, if time, money and ethics in not an issue, I would come out with a psychology experiment which study the effect of forceful blaming on rebelling behavior. This study will require an experimenter to vigorously put a false blame on the participants. The blame could be accusing the participants for stealing. Participants will be asked to react naturally as how they would react in a real life situation. This aim of this experiment is to study how likely will a person defend himself in the case of false forceful blaming. This is because in Asian context, the Asian values promote one to be polite by not talking back to others, especially to elderly and/or to authority. However, this is often the reason for a falsely accused person to admit mistakes that he/she did not make. I believe this study would result in an interesting finding in understanding the impact of certain Asian values.

References:
Dargis, M. (2015). Review: In "Experimenter", are they following orders or instincts? Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/16/movies/review-in-experimenter-are-they-following-orders-or-instincts.html?_r=0

Amadeus 1984

This movie illustrated the cruel of mediocrity through Antonio Salieri. Given the longing to be the town's best musician, Salieri is not the most talented musician. He blamed God for giving him the longing to be the best musician but not talent. When it comes to the best musician in town, most people will recall of the name Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Salieri, living in hatred towards God and his one and only competitor in the music industry, decided to take his revenge one day by not allowing Mozart to be successful by setting him up in various methods. These methods including not helping him in regards of financial and suggesting to the emperor ideas that are contradicting to Mozart's goal.

Salieri's action of blaming God for giving him the will to be a great musician but not the talent showed a contradicting worldview in religion. He believed of the presence of God only when something good occurs. However, when something undesirable happened, he stopped believing in God and swore to be the one to laugh at God and Mozart.

Towards the end of the movie, Salieri and Mozart both worked together in completing an orchestra. Despite Salieri's previous hatred towards Mozart, it is observable that Salieri also admires Mozart as a most talented musician. Salieri have dual attitudes towards Mozart. On one hand, Salieri wants to hinder Mozart from becoming the most successful musician in town. On the other hand, Salieri deeply admires Mozart's music production.

It is also observed from the movie that Mozart's attitude is different from normal person. His thought processes are not matured and he tend to perform inappropriate action in a formal occasion. For instance, Mozart occasionally laughed in a high pitch tone in the front of the emperor. His abnormal behavior signals that he might be having certain mental illness.

Whale Rider 2002

Do you believe in destiny?

I believe that everyone has something planned for them, this is known as 'destiny'. In the movie, Paikea is a determined girl who struggles to fulfill her destiny in which her grandfather, Koro denies. Paikea is a Maori; Maori has a strong culture, such as greeting with the touch of nose and forehead, yet also includes strong gender stereotype culture as the practice masculine preference in Maori tribe. It is portrayed in the movie that girls and women should not perform the sacred moves and could not be the chief of Maori. However, the males who were given opportunity to lead in the movie does not seem to be interested in becoming the chief. The only one who feels and understand Koro's idea the most is Paikea, but she was not given the chance.

Due to the fact that Paikea is a girl, Koro has a love-hate relationship towards her. In social psychology, this love-hate relationship is also known as dual attitude. Dual attitudes are explained as dissimilar interpretation of a subject with the same characteristic: it as an implicit attitude versus an explicit attitude (Wilson, Lindsey, & Schooler, 2000). In layman term, it is observed that on one hand A loves B, but on the other hand A do not. More often than not, parents are resentful towards their children despite loving them. This is because even though the children brought happiness to the family, the children are also the ones who caused the lost of freedom to the parents.

There are four types of dual attitudes: 1) repression, 2) independent systems, 3) motivated overriding, and 4) automatic overriding (Wilson, Lindsey, & Schooler, 2000).

1) Repression is the type of dual attitude that results from holding it down, where an attitude is controlled to be out of consciousness because it is could cause anxiety.
2)  Independent system is another type of dual attitude where a person have an unconscious implicit attitude and an conscious explicit attitude towards a subject.
3) Motivated overriding is the next type of dual attitude in which people are totally conscious of their implicit attitude and take it as something that they do not want and are encouraged to replace it with a different attitude.
4) Automatic overriding is when the replace of attitude process is automatic.
(Wilson, Lindsey, & Schooler, 2000)

Examples of dual attitudes from the movie:

1. The occurrence of dual attitudes is obvious in Koro because on one hand he hates her for being a female in the family in which she could not pass down the generation and culture line but on the other hand he loves Paikea as his granddaughter. This can be seen from the line "My grandfather wished I was never born, but he changed his mind". Paikea is so precious to Koro, but sometimes his resentment comes out (automatic overriding). It is portrayed in the movie that the way Koro shows his love to Paikea is by fetching her back from school everyday and by taking her on a bicycle ride.
   
2. Porourangi loves his father, Koro. He even feels the weight of his father's burden, but he needs to get away from the expectation and shadow of his father. Here is where his dual attitudes towards his father can be seen. He is using avoidance coping mechanism to get away from the situation. At the same time, he tries to help Maori tribe by showcasing to the world Maori's arts, crafts, and culture. Koro, on the other hand, does not see his effort and insulted Porourangi for being an artist by saying "This is not work, this is souvenirs".

In Dual Attitudes Model, it is predicted that an individual will first adopt an implicit attitude before explicit ones (Wilson, Lindsey, & Schooler, 2000). In this movie, Koro's implicit attitude towards Paikea is resentful as he thinks she is not capable and not worth as becoming the chief. Only later Koro has an explicit attitude towards Paikea since she is the light of the family and a good accompany/granddaughter to Koro. 

The movie ends with Koro's realization of Paikea having the quality of a chief when she could retrieve his whale tooth from the underwater and when she could move the whale back to the sea. Through this movie, we understand that pre-exisiting thoughts might not be necessarily true. When there is dual attitudes towards a subject, carefully evaluate the underlying reasons for such attitudes. This will not only help improve the situation, but could also positively impact on ourselves. 

References:
Wilson, T. D., Lindsey, S., & Schooler, T. Y. (2000). A model of dual attitudes. Psychological Review, 107(1), 101-126. doi: 10.1037//0033-295X.107.1.101

Forget Paris 1995

Film Presentation Style:

This is a movie which showcase the entire story based on narration and conversation. This is an interesting way of portraying a story as more often than not, we hear stories through the word of mouth. This is relatable to the audience as we could know a story from another person's perspective. However, the word of mouth is not always true and usually it will be altered when it is passed around. The actual story might be amplified or condensed depending on the individual. Towards the end of the movie, the main characters, Ellen and Mickey appeared in the dining restaurant. The scene showed that the couple reminisce about their relationship to the group of friends. This made me realized that we could always listen to what other people say but do not believe everything that one says. In order to know the most accurate version of the story, it is best to always go back to the original source and clarify from the original source (note: sometimes original source might not be entirely accurate too as memory is amendable). This made me realize that we should not blindly believe what is shown to us, instead we have to do our own research and homework to ensure the reliability of the information.

Compromising is the key in couplehood:

Love requires the willingness to sacrifice and compromise for one another. When two person got together, it means two lives have merged and certain adjustments need to be made in order for two person to live together harmoniously. Of course, there will be many discrepancies in the beginning, but this does not mean that it is a bad relationship. Nevertheless, the act of compromising which comprise of adapting and sacrificing, might cause anxiety and depression (Lin, Lin, & Chen, 2016). Thus, it is important to manage adaptability in romantic relationship properly in order to secure a healthy affinity.

When Ellen gave up her job in Paris and went to Mickey's place to be with him, they made a brief deal regarding minor issues in life. For example, they decided on the way to squeeze toothpaste out of the tube and to open or shut the window in their bedroom. By agreeing with each other's way of living, a quick deal was made and they decided to get married. This decision is made very quickly and simply with only considering the basic aspects of life. In this part of the movie, the couple, Ellen and Mickey, seems to be focusing on the wrong aspects in making decision to live together. Living together does not only requires adaptation and compromising to one another's daily lifestyle, it is also to compromise on major life decisions such as religion, living with family, number of children, and location to settle down.

Conflict will always exist in interpersonal relationships (Lin, Lin, & Chen, 2016), hence it is important to be equipped with skills to handle conflict effectively. As mentioned in 'A Lecture on Couplehood' by Dr. Goh, one of the key of being together as a couple is to communicate, communicate, and communicate. This is because the enemy of all partnership is assumption. Don't assume that your partner's thought will be the same as yours. When in doubt, clarify.

Having conflict in a relationship will not only affect the person's productivity and performance in work, but also disturbs the quality of the relationship (Lin, Lin, & Chen, 2016). The examples as shown in the movie are 1) when Ellen gave up her high position job in Paris for Mickey, she was not happy and was living under stress from work; this affected her job and well-being. Moreover, 2) when Mickey sacrificed his referee job for Ellen and work as a automobile retailer, he loses passion in life and was living meaninglessly every day. When compromises are made, the best way is for it to be an adjustment made by the both parties but not merely single-sided sacrifices. This way, it is foreseen that one party will be over the moon while the other will be all depressed and demotivated.
It is shown in prior researches that one of the most useful method to resolve conflicts is by compromising (Lin, Lin, & Chen, 2016). In a compromising conflict management style, both sides will have to acknowledge and select a reasonable method for each other (Rahim, 2002; van de Vliert & Hordijk, 1989, as cited in Lin, Lin, & Chen, 2016.

There are two simple dimensions which is applicable to handle different types of conflicts (Lin, Lin, & Chen, 2016):
1. Concern for the self
2. Concern for others

With these dimensions, it is also understood that in managing conflicts with partner, it is important to consider both the factors regarding self and others. It does not work when one only thinks for themselves, this is a selfish behavior. A relationship that is egocentric and self-centered is an unhappy connection. This is because both parties want to excel in their own field without thinking about another; analogically, it is if wings are hitting one another instead of flapping together to fly.

Low quality relationships will indeed affect the well-being of an individual. The outcome of being in an dissatisfying relationship is too heavy to bear. Therefore, it is important for couples to be supportive and collaborative in all aspects of life in order to ensure a high quality relationship.

Remember this line from the movie? (giggles)
Andy: "Marriages don't work when one partner is happy and the other is miserable. Marriage is about both people being equally miserable."

Well, jokes aside, let's correct the last word from the sentence above to be 'joyful'.

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References:
Lin, W., Lin, Y., Huang, C., & Chen, L. (2016). We can make it better: 'We' moderates the relationship between a compromising style in interpersonal conflict and well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 17(1), 41-57.