Social Psychology In The Movie Crash Film Studies Essay

Social Psychology In The Movie Crash Film Studies stressIn sprightliness people will come in contact with others, who are from a different background, culture, lifestyle or ethnicity as them, yet dumb every individual is equal, theyre all humans. As humans, people have the tendency to have their own unique perspectives on the world just about them and everything it encounters. Psychologist Gordon Allport (1985), one of the establishment fathers of personality psychology, defined fond psychology as a discipline in which scientific methods are used in order to understand and rationalise how the thought, feeling, and behavior of individuals are influenced by actual, imagined, or implied presence of other human universes (Cherry).Social psychology involves social cognition, how someones attitude can bear on their behavior towards others as healthy as society, and intergroup relations. The academy award winning film Crash, directed by Paul Higgins, accurately con diversitys to ho w the aspects of social psychology, such as racism, person perception, attitudes, and discrimination, can affect ones everyday lives.Crash takes place in the streets of Los Angeles over a two day time period. Each character plays a role in being the accuser as well as the victim in different racial scenarios. Grahman Waters (Don Cheadle) who is a prejudice detective against people of his own extend and is having an social function with his Port Rican partner Ria (Jennifer Esposito). Anthony (Chris Ludacris Bridges) and tool (Larenz Tate) are two African-American who steals cars as steal them as a way to get money. Peter is Grahmans new-fashioneder brother. Anthony thinks that everything and everyone around him is racist against the African-American culture. Jean Cabot (Sandra Bullock) is the wife of a district attorney Rick (Brendan Fraser). Jean is the type of woman who is prejudice against everyone outside her ethnicity. Daniel (Michael Pea) a young Mexican that works as a loc k-smith and is very devoted towards to his family. A Persian immigrant Farhad (Shaun Toub) owns a store in L.A. keister (Matt Dilion) a racist practice of law officer discriminates against African-Americans only if precisely against the women of African-American descent. Christine Thayer (Thandie Newton) is an African-American woman married to a famous television director Cameron Thayer (Terrance Howard) who works highly amongst the presence of Caucasians.The personation of social psychology in this movie is viewed as being accurate. Person perception, as defined by King (2010), is the processes by which we use social stimuli to form impressions of others (p.377). Some forms of person perceptions include stereotypes, self-fulfulling prophecy, and first impressions. While go to her vehicle with her husband one night after dinner, Jean noticed Peter and Anthony walking in the opposite direction towards them. Jean made a first impression of the men by stereotyping them as being ha rmful. To stereotype someone direction to label them an individual as part of a particular group. Jean responded to her feelings by clinching to her husband for safety. Anthony who caught on to her reaction took offense to it. He was curious as to why Jean immediately felt blind fear once she saw him and Peter. They didnt look like a threat anyone so why were they viewed as being that way? When the expectations cause individuals to act in ways that serve to make the expectations come true is known self-fulfilling prophecy (King, 2010, p. 378). To prove Jeans expectation of them right, Peter and Anthony held the Cabots at gunpoint and stole their vehicle. To better secure their surroundings the Cabots decided to get their locks changed by Daniel. Once Jean realized the man changing their locks was a Mexican her prejudice ways was acted one on again by verbally abusing Daniel. She figured that because of the type of culture he came from Daniel was a gangbanger and feared he would swo p their keys to one of his friends. To her surprise Daniel left both keys on the counter leaving Jean feeling guilty, proving to her that he was the man she accused him of being. After having his store incessantly being robbed Farhad started to become furious. The problem that Farhad had wasnt that he needed his locks changed but yet he needed to invest in a brand new entrestep and thats exactly what Daniel tried to explain to him. Instead of taking Daniels helpful advice Farhad thought Daniel was trying to cheat him because he was an immigrant. Altruism is having an unselfish interest in lot another person (King, 2010, p. 386). Daniels displaced altruism in the act of being considerate and trying to explain to Farhad that he needed to buy a new door to protect his store. Ones attitude, our feelings or opinions about people, objects and ideas (King, 2010, p. 381), can affect their behavior. Throughout the movie the attitudes the characters developed towards one another played a significant role in the decisions they made. After being denied medical assistance for his father by an African-American woman, John changed his views for all African-American women. While on duty with his partner Hansen (Ryan Phillippe), John pulled over the Thayers for performing sexual intercourse while operating a motor vehicle. Discrimination is an unjustified negative or harmful action toward a member of a group simply because the person belongs to that group (King, 2010, p. 403). Since his views of African-American women were changed by one woman out of the entire population John took his ill will and frustration out on Christine by sexually harassing her in front of his partner and her husband. Obedience is the behavior that complies with the explicit demands of the individual in authority (King, 2010, p. 394). stock-still though Cameron knew Johns actions towards his wife was wrong he chose to be cooperative and advocate him into letting them go because he was a police of ficer.Don Cheadle set the tune of the movie right from the beginning. He made the statement, Its the sense of touch. In any real city you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you but in L.A., nobody touches you were always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much that we CRASH into each other, just so we can feel something. Despite each characters personal ideals and beliefs about life in the end they all reconnected with each other in some way. The traumatic, life or death, events forced them to look past their stereotypes and attitudes towards one another and learn to develop some level of practice and compassion for others. Christine and John crashed together when he had to rescue her from a dangerous car accident in which she was stuck in the vehicle. His actions didnt he showed her in the beginning made Christine fear him saving her but she had to trust him. Cameron in the mist of getting robbed by Anthony and Peter crashed into Hanso n who pulled the over, along with other police officers, let him go. Hanson felt sympathy for Cameron because of what John did to his wife. Anthony and Jean both overcame ethnocentrism at the end of the movie. When Jean fell down the stairs and her housekeeper Maria, a Mexican, was the only one there to help her she realized that end people outside of her race have a good heart. Anthony looked past his racial views by freeing a trunk full of Chinese families as oppose to selling them for money. Aspects of social psychology can affect ones everyday life. Ella Taylor, from L.A. Weekly, stated her reaction of the movie as one of the finest portrayals (LGE, 2005).