Psychology Discussion Responses

1.  Psychology is defined as the scientific study of behavior. (the psychology majors handbook). Though I feel most TV shows and or movies have some form of a psychological based plot, because its so broad. However I want to focus on a TV show called “The Good Doctor”. This is a series about a doctor who is on the Autism spectrum. Autism refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication… Autism is a spectrum disorder each person with autism has a distinct set of strengths and challenges. (what is autism). this show was my top pick because, taking a look more into psychology as stated in the text topics of psychology study includes relationships, the brain and the chemicals that influence it, visual and auditory perception, human development, the causes of normative and atypical behavior, and much more. In the show they focus on the main character who has autism but is so smart and they show his strengths analyze the body and research in a different, more in depth way that the typical doctors do. They show how he is socially awkward and how the typical doctors may accept him and how some don’t because they feel he has a disorder and doesn’t belong in the medical field. the show touches base on his difficulty fitting into the culture but also show how he fits in in his own unique way.

2.  The TV show that comes to mind when I think of a TV show in which psychology played an important role is a show, I am currently watching called Blindspot. Psychology is a big factor in this show because a woman had her memory erased and had herself dropped in the middle of Times Square. When found, she had tattoos all over her body, which helped the FBI save many lives. It turns out that she was a part of a terrorist organization that wanted to bring the country down. With all of that being said, when she first got to the FBI, they had a psychologist talk to her to try and help her understand her feelings and help her engage with the man she had grown to like. In the end, the psychologist was also a part of the terrorist organization and was manipulating the woman during her sessions to make her think she liked the man so she could get close to him because they needed him to be a part of their plan to bring down the country. Psychology was also a big factor because growing closer to the man she liked, who was the assistant director of the FBI and a good person, he helped her be a better person. With all of her memory gone he also made her think she was his best friend who had gone missing when he was a child, when if fact she was not this little girl at all.

3.  When I think of psychology in relation to a tv show or movie, I think of a Netflix series that I recently watched titled “YOU.” I feel that psychology definitely played a major part in the way the main character Joe interacted with everyone that he encountered or had some type of relationship with. The main character is basically a sociopath that is willing to kill anyone that he feels is toxic to whoever his girlfriend is at that time, even going as far as killing his own girlfriends at times. Joe lives in a distorted reality as he has rationale for everything that he does even if it’s going as far as killing someone, in which he justifies it within himself as ridding his significant other of someone that was not good for her. This series allows you to see how Joe comes off as being very charming but the real him is very dark and violent but most people never even believe that he can be anything other than his charming self. This is a great show to watch and I highly recommend that you all watch it when you have time as I feel that it can open our eyes to realize that many people live double lives and are involved with things that we can’t even imagine.

4.  A great movie that comes to mind when it comes to psychology is The Stanford Prison Experiment. In this movie a college professor placed an ad in the paper asking for volunteers, mainly men of a certain age group, to participate in an experiment that would have some of them pretend to be prisoners and some of them prison guards. The experiment was taped and showed how the participants adapted and reacted to their roles. During the course of I believe a week, the participants became 100% into their roles, with one participant having to be removed. The participants playing guards became abusive and the prisoners submissive. After a week the experiment was stopped. Psychology was a big factor in this experiment because it showed how each person became the role they were given and created rules and regulations to associate with them.