This assignment provides an opportunity to apply psychological theory in the exploration of a book or film. You will choose a film or book of special interest. The book or film should have content that can be meaningfully explored through application of psychological theory and research. You may want to look at some of the later sections in the course that deal with emotion, motivation, personality, the development of the individual over the life span, health and stress, and psychological disorders and treatment, so that you have a more complete idea of different concepts that might apply.
Here are a few example topics to help you explore how to approach this task:
First, you can pick a movie or book in which the main character suffers from a psychological disorder or is merely trying to cope with the everyday stress of life. In doing so, you can discuss defense mechanisms or refer to developmental stages in the person’s life that might have been important, or consider the effects of abuse, alcoholism and addiction, etc.
Second, you can approach the subject matter from different perspectives—psychoanalytical, biological, behavioral, cognitive, and/or sociocultural.
Third, you can opt to discuss the role emotion, memory, or motivation plays in the character’s development, or the importance of the environment, and influences such as racism and sexism.
Requirements:
Submit a single document 1) that is research based and for which the film or book provides only the backdrop for the research on a psychological topic; and 2) addresses the requirements listed here.
Within the document…
- Introduction. Briefly introduce your topic and state the purpose of your paper. Your thesis statement should be something like, “In this paper, I will explore the symptoms, lifestyle impact, and treatments of X psychological disorder through character Y in movie Z. To accomplish this, I will briefly summarize the movie, explore X disorder, and then describe how Y character experiences X disorder.”
- Three-section Body. Following the introduction, develop three body sections consisting of the movie/character summary, the research on the disorder, and then describing the disorder through the character. [An acceptable alternative approach to the body is to address three psychological concepts so that each concept is a covered in a dedicated body section. Within each section, a focused discussion applies the concept to the character before moving on to the next concept.]
- Conclusion. The fifth, and last section, is the conclusion paragraph where you present conclusions and restate the purpose of your paper (how you achieved your purpose) to close out the paper.
- Make connections as you write. Support arguments made. Share related ideas in a meaningful, logical manner.
- Include scholarly research to support points made. Incorporate two (2) peer-reviewed professional sources from our UMGC Library. You may also include the textbook (Saylor, 2015), but it does not count towards the two peer-reviewed articles requirement.
- Express in your words. Discuss materials in your own words and in your own writing style and structure. Avoid excessive use of direct quotes.
- Formatting and Length. Neatly present a document containing
- Title page
- Introduction
- Three section body
- Conclusions
- References page
- APA formatted in-text citations and references (to include for the book or film used)
- 1,200 to 1,500 words, about 5 double-spaced pages (not including Title and Reference pages)
- Good writing mechanics – pay attention to spelling, grammar, and syntax.
- Integrated feedback received on your outline for this paper
Suggested fonts include Times Roman 12-point; Arial 11-point; Calibri 11-point
No movies that are common like “The Joker”. I would recommend American Sniper if possible
(sample paper)
