Easy A social psychology final paper
Easy A
12/6/13
SOPS 101
Professor Wight
The movie I chose was Easy A because there are many psychological concepts this movie that relate to real-life events and it covers many theories we learned about in this class. Easy A was released in 2010 and directed by Will Gluck. It’s about a teenage girl named Olive who accidentally admits to her friend Rhi that she was having sexual relations with boys. She felt pressured into lying since her friend had already engaged in sexual acts with her boyfriend. A rumor then spread and many people in the school then ignored Olive because they thought what she did was an immoral act, but the guys started giving her more attention. I feel that this applies to many people in the world today and it is not just in this movie. Many social psychological concepts come up in this movie like: conformity, looking glass self, self-presentation/impression management, cognitive dissonance, situational constraint, majority influence, self discrepancy, and social comparison theory to name a few.
In the beginning of the movie, Olive lies while talking to her best friend, Rhi and accidentally said that she had slept with someone when in fact she was still a virgin. Rhi was not a virgin anymore so Olive felt that she had to lie to conform to the norms of her friend. The Social Comparison Theory says that to interpret whether our performances are successes or failures, we must often compare them with our own goals and expectations or with the performances of others. (DeLamater, 85) This theory helps us have conformity with others just as Olive compared her views to her friend’s views and then ended up lying to receive positive reinforcement from her friend. Olive was using this theory when she looked at one of her peer’s actions and saw her own behavior as in opposition to the norm. Then because she probably felt inferior to Rhi, she changed her behavior. Had she not gone along and followed what her friend
12/6/13
SOPS 101
Professor Wight
The movie I chose was Easy A because there are many psychological concepts this movie that relate to real-life events and it covers many theories we learned about in this class. Easy A was released in 2010 and directed by Will Gluck. It’s about a teenage girl named Olive who accidentally admits to her friend Rhi that she was having sexual relations with boys. She felt pressured into lying since her friend had already engaged in sexual acts with her boyfriend. A rumor then spread and many people in the school then ignored Olive because they thought what she did was an immoral act, but the guys started giving her more attention. I feel that this applies to many people in the world today and it is not just in this movie. Many social psychological concepts come up in this movie like: conformity, looking glass self, self-presentation/impression management, cognitive dissonance, situational constraint, majority influence, self discrepancy, and social comparison theory to name a few.
In the beginning of the movie, Olive lies while talking to her best friend, Rhi and accidentally said that she had slept with someone when in fact she was still a virgin. Rhi was not a virgin anymore so Olive felt that she had to lie to conform to the norms of her friend. The Social Comparison Theory says that to interpret whether our performances are successes or failures, we must often compare them with our own goals and expectations or with the performances of others. (DeLamater, 85) This theory helps us have conformity with others just as Olive compared her views to her friend’s views and then ended up lying to receive positive reinforcement from her friend. Olive was using this theory when she looked at one of her peer’s actions and saw her own behavior as in opposition to the norm. Then because she probably felt inferior to Rhi, she changed her behavior. Had she not gone along and followed what her friend
References: DeLamater, John D., and Daniel J. Meyers. Social Psychology. 7th ed. N.p.: Cengage Learning, May 20, 2010. Print. Devine, Z., Gluck, W., Emmrich, A., Johnson, M.B. (producers) & Gluck, W. (director). (2010). Easy A [motion picture]. United States: Sony Pictures.