The Kid Movie Review

Movie Review: The Kid
Based on the movie The Kid, there are a few theories that could be used to describe the behaviour of Russ. Firstly, one of the personality theories that can be used to describe Russ’s behaviour would be the Big Five Personality. Russ has a low degree of openness as he is not open to new ideas and would only use his ways to get things done. Russ likes to get things done only in his ways. He orders his assistant, Janet, constantly to get things done and if things are not done as the way it should be, he would get frustrated and annoyed. In addition, Russ has a low degree of agreeableness. According to Ciccarelli (2009), a person with a low score of agreeableness tends to be grumpy, crabby, and hard to get along with. It can be seen that Russ is grumpy most of the time and he does not have many friends around him. On the plane, he was trapped next to a TV anchorwoman; he tries to ignore her when she first initiated a conversation with him. Then, he delivers a devastating critique of her hair, eyebrows, makeup, clothes, voice and the horse she rode in on. This shows that he is not easy to get along with although someone approached him.
Another theory that could be used to describe Russ behavior would be Carl Rogers’s humanistic perspective. There is a mismatch between Russ’s ideal self and real self which causes him to be anxious and being neurotic at times. His ideal self was to be able to fly jets, have a dog and a family when he grows up. Unfortunately, he ended up working as an image consultant without a family and a dog. Also, Russ’s self-efficacy is low in relation to Bandura’s theory. Russ has always been called as a loser since he was 8. Also, Russ was scolded by his father when he was involved in a fight at a playground. He was told by his father that his mother was about to die and if he continues to misbehave, she would die faster. Thus, Russ started to accept the fact the he is indeed a loser and tend to avoid challenges.
In accordance to Erikson, Rusty who was a reflection of Russ when he was young, shows that the industry vs. inferiority stage failed to meet its demand. During this stage, one learns to meet the demands imposed by school and home responsibilities; or comes to believe that he or she is inferior to others (Lahey, 2009). He tries to please his father by doing the right thing but he was hit by his father and was told that his mother was about to die if he continues misbehave. Thus, he developed a sense of inferior towards his father since then. Psychoanalytic theory explains that Rusty represents Russ’s unconscious mind. The unconscious mind stores the primitive instinctual motives. In addition, the unconscious mind contains memories and emotions that are so threatening to the conscious mind that they have been pushed to the unconscious mind through the process of repression. The contents of the unconscious mind are usually hard to retrieve. It is apparent in the movie that Russ forgot his childhood until he met Rusty, which brought him back to his childhood. Russ also started to understand why he was cold to his father all this while. In addition, by applying Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, Russ’s mind is dominated by the id. This part of the mind operates according to pleasure principle. This part of the mind only wants to obtain pleasure and avoid pain, regardless of how harmful it might be to others. Russ enjoys criticizing his clients without taking their feelings into account. If I were to be Russ’s father, I would spend time talking to him about his mother’s condition so that Russ would not feel he was to be blame for his mother’s death. Also, by telling Russ about his mother sickness would make Russ feel that he is part of the family and he will feel a sense of belonging. As a teacher, I would also check on Russ’s behavior from time to time. Also, check if there are any bully cases happening among the students as well.

References
Ciccarelli, S.K. & White, J.N. (2009). Psychology. United States: Pearson.
Lahey, B.B. (2009). Psychology: An Introduction. Chicago: McGrawHill.

References: Ciccarelli, S.K. & White, J.N. (2009). Psychology. United States: Pearson. Lahey, B.B. (2009). Psychology: An Introduction. Chicago: McGrawHill.