Personality theories: social and cognitive, trait and biological perspective through Home Alone Film - Essay Example

Home Alone film analysis Abstract The proponent chooses the movie film “Home Alone” in order to illustrate the significant concepts of the three important personality theories: social and cognitive, trait and biological perspective. It is found that, there could be appropriate personality theories that could significantly explain the individual’s characters or personalities at a given situation. Thus, all personality theories could potentially be used in order to explain the complex personality of humans. Keywords: personality theories, characters, personalities Introduction There are different theories concerning the personality of an individual. They all have varying assumptions. However, at some certain situations all of them have corresponding applications. Just like in the case of social and cognitive, trait and biological perspective, all of which find their applications in the movie film in 1990, Home Alone. With his parents out of the way for a Christmas vacation, left behind, Kevin comes out to play Home Alone. This is a movie which depicts remarkable information about the human’s complex personality. The proponent tries to integrate the concept of the above personality theories with some highlighted scenes of the film Home Alone that potentially show the emotions, motivations, or behaviors of a character. Film analysis and personality theories Social cognitive perspective From the point of view of social cognitive approaches to personality, Albert Bandura points out that the outcomes of a certain behavior in a specific setting can be determined without actually carrying them out (Feldman, 2010). He further argued that everything about this takes place through observational learning mechanism, which substantially illustrates about viewing others’ actions and their consequences. This particularly points the thought that people are what they actually learned from the point of view of learning approaches in understanding the concept of personality. This theory can be depicted in the first scene of the movie “home alone.” With his back on the camera, the traffic cop in the hallway as ignored by the passing girls, felt highly exasperated as his authority was rejected. This actually generated humor on the part of the audience simply because one may be able to find the facial expression and countenance which shows the emotion of a frustrated police officer. In other words, there was a repressed feeling of resentment on the part of the policeman which could be expressed in laughter from the point of view of the audience. There are at least two important perspectives at this point which could actually relate to the theory of cognitive approaches to personality. This could be the perspective coming from the policeman and from the audience. The policeman, in a specific setting in the hallway just simply wants to keep everything organized, but he actually observes how exactly the passing girls behave and reject his authority. Based on the observational learning mechanism, the police officer clearly takes a clear view of the actual rejection of his authority. This created resentment on his part as he was probably expecting to implement his authority. The failure of his expectation and that is to implement his authority leads to his actual resentment. However, this has been entirely influenced by the environment which specifically triggers the policeman’s cognition, most probably his thoughts, feelings and expectations. After all, the social cognitive approaches in determining personality particularly give important focus on the person’s cognitive ability through thoughts, feelings, expectations and even values (Stankov, 2011; Waldman, Balthazard, & Peterson, 2011). Thus, the development of anger on the part of the police officer for instance is due to having certain expectation which failed to be achieved. From the point of view of the audience, the policeman actually develops a hilarious personality simply because the rejection of his authority is set to be something beyond the norm, and which is particularly a significant point showing his cognitive ability or response creating his character in the film. Trait perspective Another personality theory depicted in the movie is about placing labels on personality. Allport’s trait theory can significantly address this concern. This theory suggests three basic categories of traits: cardinal, central and secondary (Feldman, 2010). Feldman explains that the cardinal trait is responsible for directing the person’s activities, central trait on the core of personality and secondary trait as the characteristic that affects an individual’s behaviors. Let us take a closer look on the scene in which Uncle Frank did not allow Kevin to watch a movie but allowed the big kids (Scripts on Screen, 1990). As response to the said situation, Kevin bursts out with a child-like comprehension on the situation at his parents’ bedroom, “Mom, Uncle Frank won’t let me watch the movie. But the big kids can. Why can’t I.” After receiving a response from his mom who is on the phone, Kevin added to his argument, “It’s not even rated R. He’s just being a jerk.” Based on Allport’s trait theory, Kevin’s self-centered view of the situation defines his cardinal trait. It is a single characteristic that directs him to enter into his parents’ room, hoping to gain their sympathy regarding Uncle Frank’s hesitation to let him watch a specific movie. Furthermore, Kevin at the point of his desperation is honest about what he felt about Uncle Frank leading him to speak bad words against him in front of his mom, “He’s just being a jerk.” In addition, Kevin’s lack of discerning capability, interrupting while his mother is talking with someone on the phone is another point of view depicting his child-like personality. Based on Allport’s trait theory, all of these, being honest with his feeling, and lack of discerning capability are the central traits of Kevin, which are his major characteristics as a child. On the other hand, Kevin’s reluctance to argue with his Uncle Frank right at the moment of his desperation is a specific behavior that is simply influenced by his secondary trait. According to Allport’s trait theory, secondary traits are characteristics affecting individual’s behavior in only some situations and are not so influential compared to central and cardinal traits. In fact, in the entire film, Kevin does not actually argue with his Uncle Frank based only on the issue of not allowing him to watch a movie. Thus, the secondary traits are characteristics that will only come out in some instance where there is a need to highly emphasize influential traits just like in the case of Kevin. Biological perspective Finally, another important theory explaining the concept about personality is the biological or evolutionary approach, which substantially assumes that individuals inherit their personalities from their parents through particular combination of genes (Feldman, 2010). Behavioral geneticists have many important arguments to prove their claims regarding this and one of them is the concept of temperament which explores the possibility that it is the basic, innate disposition of a person that comes out early in life. For instance, Kevin’s temperament regarding his frustration of not being gratified in his want to watch a movie with the big kids is an illustration of how a normal child reacts to situation concerning with not meeting their needs or delaying gratification on something. Behavioral geneticists point out that this simply is the same trend like with the natural response of an infant to cry, as a natural biological reaction to whatever innate physical needs of the human body. Conclusion If life is like a movie akin to Home Alone, then one would be able to clearly distinguish the appropriate personality theories that could be potentially applied in every scene of it. Just like with the above discussion, there could be appropriate personality theories that could significantly explain the individual’s characters or personalities at a given situation. Therefore, all personality theories could potentially be used in order to explain the human’s complex personality. References Feldman, R. S. (2010). Essentials of Understanding Psychology (9th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies. Scripts on Screen. (1990). Tag Archives: home alone script. Home Alone Scripts. Retrieved from http://scripts-onscreen.com/tag/home-alone-script/ Stankov, L. (2011). Individual, country and societal cluster differences on measures of personality, attitudes, values, and social norms [Abstract]. Learning and Individual Differences, 21(1), 54-58. Waldman, D. A., Balthazard, P. A., & Peterson, S. J. (2011). Social cognitive neuroscience and leadership [Abstract]. The Leadership Quarterly, 22(6), 1092-1106. Read More