Psychology Final Project - Jamie Steinman

Psychology - the scientific study of behavior that is tested through scientific

research. Through understanding why or how we do something, we can better

understand ourselves all because of the study of psychology. In this essay, I will be

discussing how psychology is used everywhere! Even in hit television shows, or in a

galaxy far, far away, or mass produced, adored superhero comics.

The Psychology of The Simpsons

To start off this paper, I will be discussing “The Psychology of the Simpsons,”

edited by Alan Brown, PhD with Chris Logan. In this completely unauthorized take on

the Simpsons and psychology, it discusses how the extremely popular television show

involves psychology. The Simpsons first aired on television back in 1989, the Simpsons

have since created a vast army followers and supporters from all around the globe.

Since it first started, the Simpsons have aired 620 episodes, 29 seasons, and has

become the longest running television series in history.

The first chapter in the Simpsons book I will be discussing is the chapter called,

“Alcohol—The Cause of, and Solution to, All Life’s Problems,” written by Denis M.

McCarthy. I chose this chapter to talk about because we had just finished talking about

different altered states of consciousness, and alcohol is the number 1 abused drug in

the United States. This is very relatable to the Simpsons because alcohol is a very

prominent subject in many episodes. At least three characters on the Simpsons have

determined some type of problem with alcohol—Barney, Ned and Homer. All three

characters are on a different scale of the spectrum as to how bad their condition with

alcohol really is. Barney’s drinking is so problematic that everyone, including himself,
agrees that he has a bad problem with drinking. Ned’s drinking, and all problems

because of his drinking, are so minor that only he thinks that he has a problem. The

main character, Homer, is somewhere in the middle of this spectrum. He is not an

extreme on either end. Both he and his family seem undecided about his alcohol abuse

—is it too much, or just normal or average? The book then goes on to talk about the

possibility of Homer’s children, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie, becoming alcohol dependent like

their father. Because the Simpson children are not only biologically related to someone

with alcohol problems, but they are also raised someone with alcohol problems, causing

their risk of repeating the process when they are older much greater than a child who

was raised in a household where alcohol was not involved often. Many people would

say that Bart is more likely to become a substance abuser than Lisa is, and those

people would be right. Males are statistically almost twice as likely to develop some

spectrum of alcohol dependency. That, with Bart’s IQ, personality characteristics, and

parental treatment, he has a much more likely chance that he will become more like his

father than Lisa will. As seen in the show, Bart is always causing trouble, whether it be

with his father, his teachers, or with law enforcement. While Lisa is very different. Lisa is

very smart and cares about her life and education. She tries to better Bart as much as

she can, but at the end of the day, she tends to think Bart is a lost cause. This relates to

the book because on page 197, it discusses drugs and states of consciousness. Alcohol

is known to be a depressant. It relaxes, relieves inhibitions, and impairs memory and

judgement, which you can see Homer, Barney, and Ned sometimes display. Despite the

comical reasons for having drunken characters on the show, there are a few episodes
where their alcoholism is acknowledged, and they are directed towards alcohol abuse

treatments.

The second chapter of the Simpsons book I will be discussing is called “Can Bart

or Homer Learn?” In this chapter, it states that if an organism can not learn, it is doomed

to repeat the same mistakes over and over again. And, even as a casual fan of the TV

show, anyone can make the assumption that Bart and Homer seem to make mistakes

more than once. There were four episodes of the Simpsons that focused on how

different types of learning was a struggle for Bart, including “Bart the Daredevil,” “One

Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish,” “Bart’s Dog Gets and F,” and “There’s No Disgrace

Like Home.” It may be very obvious, but Bart more than likely can blame his destructive

behavior on seeing his father do similar things all his life. This is called observational

learning. Because Bart has witnessed his father doing rather idiotic this throughout the

course of his life, Bart is more likely to follow in Homer’s footsteps. Another example

listed in the Simpsons book is classical conditioning. In the episode “One Fish, Two

Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish,” Lisa asks to eat dinner at a new sushi restaurant called “The

Happy Sumo.” At first, he shows neophobia (the fear of new foods), but he quickly gets

over his sudden fear and orders literally everything from the menu. He orders fugu,

blowfish, which if prepared incorrectly can be fatal if eaten. Only after he has eaten

every bit of fugu is he told of the consequences, and the town’s doctor tells Homer he

may only have 24 hours to live. This is where Homer’s actions deviate from the normal

patterns of classical conditioning. Typically, a normal person should become very ill and

terrified, and if they survived the ordeal, would completely avoid fish for the rest of their

lives because of their near death experience. Yet, Homer’s gluttonous ways never seam
to waiver. In only three episodes later, Homer is seen ordering a seafood burrito from

the Kwik-E-Mart on main street. Also because of his constant battle with alcoholism,

Homer should possibly want to have a break between drinks, but that never phases him

either. By our textbook’s definition, classical conditioning is “a learning procedure in

which associations are made between a natural stimulus and a neutral stimulus,” a

definition that Homer Simpson apparently does not follow.

Star Wars Psychology - The Dark Side of the Mind

The Star Wars saga is one of the most iconic and popular movies sagas ever

created. “In a galaxy far, far away,” there is a whole new race and realm of humans and

creatures living among the planets. I grew up knowing a lot about Star Wars, as my dad

was a huge fan when the movies first came out. Because of my dads obsession, my

brother and I both went in to a huge Star Wars phase, Jake did more than I did. From

being around Star Wars my whole life, I never paid attention to how “real” the characters

are, as in they are just like us. In this seemingly ongoing series, we see many things

relating to psychology. (Psychology is everywhere!)

The first topic I will talk about is obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD. When I

think of OCD, I think of someone who needs to have everything in line and in order no

matter what the circumstance. By the book, the definition of obsessive compulsive

disorder is, “an anxiety disorder consisting of obsessions and compulsions.” Based on

the Star Wars book on page 105 through 107, they clearly describe two very famous

characters from the series and compare them; the two characters being Han Solo and

C-3PO. They describe a scene where C-3PO is offering Han Solo and Chewbacca so

many details when trying to help at once, that Han Solo snaps and says, “Never tell me
the odds!” Han is so attentive to details that he sometimes may miss the big picture.

Chewbacca cannot speak Han Solo and C-3PO’s language in order to communicate,

but his famous roar following C-3PO’s “helpful” comments really help display his

disinterest and dislike for what he just said. C-3PO, however, may be one of the worst

cases of OCD in the Star Wars franchise. The one who is struggling with the personality

disorder is overconscientious, rigid, and inflexible. Gordon Willard Allport (November

11th, 1897 - October 8th 1967) was one of the first psychologists to focus on the study

of personality, and he is often referred to as one of the founding fathers of personality

psychology. According to Allport’s theories, your personality is made up of the traits you

possess. Even though he is a robot, these quirks programmed into him make him the

lovable character he is, giving him his personality. Without his OCD tendencies, C-3PO

would not be himself. Changing that part of C-3PO would make him C-3PO no more. As

when dealing with a human, his meticulousness gets the job done when it’s the right job

under the right circumstances.

The second topic I will be discussing is cognitive development. By definition,

cognitive means “having to do with an organism’s thinking and understanding.”

Cognitive development is someone or something’s intellectual ability. A very young

Anakin Skywalker builds a pod racer, builds C-P3O, and completely masterminds the

Jedi’s escape from Tattooine. This shows that Anakin developed fairly early in his

intellectual aspects. He was a very smart young boy, and he could comprehend things

much quicker than a normal child would. Psychologists like Albert Bandura placed the

foundation for the development of understanding of cognitive learning and development.

Albert Bandura born on December 4th, 1925 in Mundare, Alberta, Canada, (for over 6
decades) has been responsible for contributions to the field of education and to the

many fields of psychology, including social cognitive theory, therapy, and personality

psychology. He was also influential in the transition between behaviorism and cognitive

psychology. His main theory on cognitive development was that humans are active

information process and think about the relationship between their behavior and its

consequences. Because of this, he helped plant the foundation of what cognitive

development has now become to be. On page 101 of our textbook, it talks about

cognitive development during adolescence. From about the age of 11 or 12, most

people’s thinking becomes more abstract. An example used is that those aged children

could answer the question “What would the world be like if people lived to be 200?”

Their answers would be much different than the answers of young children. Older

children can entertain the hypothetical question in a way that a young child cannot. The

comprehension of the hypothetical parts of the universe are what helps develop the

young child into thinking more like an adult.

The third topic I will be discussing is phobias. With the world of Star Wars being

so extreme with their creatures and events that occur, it is fairly understood that there

would be some characters with phobias throughout. Based on our book’s definition, a

phobia is when a person has an intense and irrational fear of a particular object or

situation. Phobias may be classified as specific phobias, social phobias, and

agoraphobia. Specific phobias can focus on almost anything, like enclosed spaces

(claustrophobia) and darkness (nyctophobia.) People suffering with social phobias

constantly fear that they will embarrass themselves in a public place of a social setting.

Agoraphobia is when a person severely fears being in a public place. Phobias can
range from extremely mild, to crippling and life threatening. Most people just end up

avoiding what they are afraid of, but in some cases the person will go to a professional

and be exposed to what they fear in order to try to overcome that fear. On page 69 of

the Star Wars book, it makes a list of a lot of phobias present throughout the Star Wars

franchise.

Arithmophobia - the fear of numbers

Automatonophobia - the fear of automatons or objects that represent human beings

Cyberphobia or Logizmomechanophobia - the fear of computers

Electrophobia - the fear of electricity

Hellenologophobia - the fear of complex scientific terms

Gnosiophobia - the fear of knowledge or information

Kinetophobia - the fear of movement

Mechanophobia - the fear of machines

Metallophobia - the fear of metal

Prosophobia - the fear of progress

Pupaphobia - the fear of puppets

Robophobia - the fear of robots or androids

Technophobia - the fear of technology

Captain America vs. Iron Man: Freedom, Security, Psychology

Freedom vs. security: that is the dilemma explored in this book. And the two

iconic superheroes of Captain America and Iron Man come to completely opposite

conclusions. Captain America first made his appearance back in March of 1941. During

the time period that Captain America came out, the United States was fighting in World
War II. Nationalism was on the rise, so Captain America was often seeing fighting the

Axis Powers. When he’s not defending our nation’s honor, Captain America is Steve

Rogers. Steve Rogers is a small and shy young man who is experimented on by the

government. He is enhanced to the peak of human perfection, and is used to aid the

United States in their battle against the enemies during WWII. During the next war, the

popularity of superheroes went away and the Captain America comic books were

discontinued in 1950 and were nearly forgotten. But in 1964, Marvel revamped and

revived the character of Captain America and he has been popular ever since. Iron

Man’s comic books were first published in 1863, created by writer and editor Stan Lee.

Tony Stark, Iron Man’s true identity, suffers a severe chest injury when he was

kidnapped, and forced to build a weapon of mass destruction by his captors. Instead,

Tony Stark created a powered suit of armor that saves his life and helps him escape his

captors. Eventually, he revamped his suit to have weapons and he became the famous

superhero, Iron Man. Throughout both of their stories, psychology is present throughout.

In “freedom, security, psychology,” the writers discuss how they are related.

The first topic I will talk about for this book is anxiety. Our textbook says that the

definition of anxiety is “a vague, generalized apprehension or feeling of danger.” Anxiety

is the most common response to a sudden and powerful stressor. On pages 38-45 in

the Captain America vs. Iron Man book, it talks about the three steps that Steve Rogers

and Tony Stark take to become heroes. Step 1: Listen to your anxiety. For Steve

Rogers, this happens right before he enlists into the United States army. He feels

useless because his size and feels guilty because he knows there are men and women

overseas fighting when he isn’t. He takes that leap and joins anyway. Even though he
felt she shouldn’t, his anxiety tells him it would be the best thing for him. Step 2:

Connect With a Feeling of Transcendence. Transcendence is when you turn your

attention outward, away from actions that will lead to personal gain. Tony Stark

experiences this when he is first captured. Before his capture, Tony Stark was a rich

business owner who thought the world belonged to him. His capturing humbled him,

and made him think more of others and not just himself, which in turn created the

superhero Iron Man. Step 3: Fight the Bystander Effect. This is when something

happens and people are so in shock or out of fear, they don’t do anything. Being a

bystander is when you watch a situation happen and you do nothing to stop it. Both

Steve Rogers and Tony Stark have taken this rule very seriously. If a villain is about to

attack a city, or there is a damsel in distress, both superheroes immediately jump at the

situation to help.

The second topic I will be discussing is motivation. A superhero doesn’t just stop

a villain because he’s bored. Every superhero has some sort of motivation in order for

them to keep going and want to help others. In the Captain America vs. Iron Man book,

it talks about how during the preschool years, children begin to branch out more and

develop morality. They begin to start seeking approval and avoiding punishments at all

costs. Erik Erikson attributed it to the fact that they are beginning to care what others

think of them, and start seeking social approval. This ties back in to the “motivation”

topic because from a very young age, we all start to seek approval and rewards. With

approval and rewards being what we get in return for a good action, this would motivate

the young child to do better things in the future. Captain America’s sole purpose was to

fight for the United States’ honor. His motivation from the citizens of America, and the
motivations to defeat those who go against America, help drive him forward and give

him a fighting cause. Without the motivation to do something, why would the superhero

put their lives on the line? Because of the want/need for approval starting at a very

young age, this motivates anyone, even superheroes, to want to do the right thing for

all.

Conclusion

All in all, psychology is (clearly) everywhere. From the Simpsons, to Star Wars, to

Captain America and Iron Man, there is always something deeper to look at. Using

psychology, we can dissect someone or something’s actions. Why are they doing

something? What steps could be taken to prevent these actions? How can we help

someone in need? We can learn all the things we need to answer these questions by

studying psychology. Through studying the mind, we can determine why we act a

certain way. I’m very glad I was able to take psychology this year. I thought it was all

very interesting to learn about! 


Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Simpsons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars
study.com/academy/lesson/gordon-allports-personality-theory.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Allport
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Bandura
https://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_America
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Man