Rugrats: A Psychological Analysis

For this assignment of analyzing a television show directed towards younger viewers, I chose a show that is still occasionally aired, but more significant to me, a show I grew up watching. My favorite part of taking psychology classes is being able to take the information taught and look back to see how certain concepts and psychology findings were put into my everyday life in a discrete way, which is what will be done during this paper. The show Rugrats is an animated series that focuses on a group of toddlers and is told through a baby’s point of view. The main character Tommy, is the leader of the group who mainly comes up with the adventures the toddlers often embark on through their imagination.
The rest of the group includes Dil, Tommy’s
Within the first three minutes of the episode, Angelica goes from extreme highs to lows regarding her mood and behavior. She has a difficult temperament due to being egocentric and extroverted. Angelica sees the world through her perspective only, and any ideas that are not hers are not worth listening to. When finding out she was a finalist for the talent show she was ecstatic, until Suzie’s name was announced following hers which brought on a fit of rage. Immediately she became competitive which heightened when the girls decided to both perform dance routines. There is a scene when Angelica is in her room having a conversation aloud with herself, an example of private speech, where she says how horrible it would be for Suzie to win, since the winner gets a trip to her favorite theme park. I noticed that she acts on impulse and there is little thought put into the consequences of her actions a good majority of the time, which Freud would describe as her Id. The first example of this was when Angelica went over Tommy’s house who is Suzie’s neighbor. She dug through the toy box to find binoculars which were used to spy on Suzie. While spying she sees how beautiful Suzie’s costume is coming along, and ultimately gets caught by Suzie. Another example of Angelica acting on her Id occurred the day of the talent show when Suzie came in with sparkly new tap shoes. As soon as Suzie
She is aware of her daughter’s behavioral issues, but does nothing to correct them. Also, when she is barked at by Angelica, she gives in and does what she wants. Angelica does not have rules, hence the reason she is so wild, partial blame based parents for never telling her no. For example, after seeing Suzie’s costume, she whines to her mom about it who calls a stylist that designs a one of a kind outfit for her. Her mother seems to enable the self-entitled attitude that Angelica has, along with her father. Angelica’s parent’s style of raising her may also contribute to the bully qualities she possesses. Because her parents are at her beck and call that is how she treats everyone around her. Not only does she physically push Tommy and his friends around, but she gives them orders as if she is superior to them, using their age difference against them. In this episode in particular she takes Tommy’s hand and drags him with her to spy on Suzie, then orders him to hold the curtains so she can see. After getting caught she yells “out of my way Tommy,” dismissing him after she got what she wanted from