AP Psychology - Final Paper

2015-2016

The Assignment

  • You will pick a movie or a TV drama or sitcom to watch.
  • Pick two characters from that movie, etc. to analyze.
  • For both of these two characters you will be required to write about their behavior, motivations, actions, etc., and the reasons for that behavior, motivations, etc. from the psychoanalytical approach, as well as one additional psychological perspective of your choosing.

Criteria

  • You can choose a series of movie (Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, etc.) if you wish.
  • The movie, TV program, etc. must be approved by your parents/guardian. I do not need proof of this approval; I will rest assured that any of the movies, TV programs, etc. that you are choosing to watch for this assignment are ones that your parents have approved of and would not object to you watching.
  • You do not need to tell me ahead of time what movie you are watching.
  • As I will not keeping track of what movie each of you is watching, it is possible that more than one person might be watching the same movie for this assignment.
  • It is fine, however, each person must have an original paper that is not copied, cut, or pasted.
  • Some ideas will be the same; however, there should be no inclination that this was a group activity or written collectively.
  • I would recommend strongly against watching a movie together with another classmate, especially if you are both doing the same movie.
  • If it is in my opinion that more than one paper is similar in a manner that suggests more than coincidence - all papers will receive a zero. I will be the final say in determining academic dishonesty (please see the course syllabus for more on this topic; or talk to me if you are unsure).
  • You may not watch any of the same movies we will be watching in class. We will not get to all of these movies, but these are the movies I have scheduled, time permitting.

The Aviator / 2004 / The King’s Speech / 2010
A Beautiful Mind / 2001 / Inception / 2010
The Dark Knight / 2008 / The Prestige / 2006
Experimenter / 2015 / Inside Out / 2015
Stanford Prison Experiment / 2015 / Matchstick Men / 2003

Due Dates

  • This assignment is due onThursday, May 26th - “A” days/ Friday, May 27th – “B” days.
  • Please keep in mind that none of these assignments will be accepted late. The assignment is due the day it is due, the time it is due.
  • This assignment must be turned in at the beginning of the block, printed out, with your name on it, stapled, etc.
  • Have your paper printed out and ready to turn in. You will not be allowed to print it out in class and do not email it to me. Please make sure you leave yourself plenty of time to print out the paper before class.

Mechanics/Grade breakdown

  • Typed, 12 font, double spaced, Times New Roman
  • Formal writing style (third person only, no contractions, etc.). If you do not know what formal writing style is, find out.
  • MLA style. If you don’t know how to cite something in APA, find out.
  • If something needs to be cited, make sure to cite it. If you don’t know what to cite, or how to cite it, find out. I do not necessarily anticipate there will be much need to cite anything, other than direct quotes from the movie.
  • There is no page requirement; it can be any length, as long as all requirements/criteria have been met.
  • Grade breakdown
  • 10 points: Mechanics (correct format [typed, font, etc.], APA format, is everything that should be cited cited?, etc.)
  • 10 points: Grammar, spelling, etc.
  • 30 points: Character #1 (Have all of the requirements been met as listed below?)
  • 30 points: Character #2 (Have all of the requirements been met as listed below?)
  • 20 points other perspective

Requirements for Psychoanalytical Perspective (for both characters)

  • Id, Ego, Superego
  • For both characters, describe an example of each of the three parts at work.
  • Make sure to explain/describe thoroughly how/why it is an example of that part.
  • Conscious, Preconscious, Subconscious, Unconscious
  • For both characters, give an example that shows each of the four levels of consciousness.
  • Make sure to explain/describe each example thoroughly how/why it is an example of that level.
  • Parental Styles(Permissive, Authoritarian, Authoritative, Neglectful)
  • What parental style did each of the characters have growing up
  • Theorize if not mentioned/shown in the film based on each character’s actions, etc.
  • Psychosexual Stages (Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latent, Genital)
  • For each character, describe two fixations.
  • Defense Mechanisms (Repression, Displacement, Regression, Reaction Formation, Rationalization, Intellectualization, etc.)
  • For each character, describe and explain four different defense mechanisms.
  • You can use the same defense mechanism for each character; but not two of the same defense mechanism for one character. For example, you can use an example of repression for Character A and another example of repression for Character B, but you cannot use two examples of repression for Character A.

Requirements for other perspective (for only one character)

  • For either one of the two characters above, pick another perspective that we spoke about this year.
  • Apply at least ten terms related to that perspective to the character you have chosen.
  • Make sure to use example(s) to show how the term applies to the character/situation.
  • Make sure to explain as thoroughly as possible how each term relates to the character or his/her action.
  • Make sure to be as specific as possible. For example, if you are using the biological perspective, don’t just write that he is lacking a certain neurotransmitter, indicate with neurotransmitter it would be.