Psychology-in-Film-Essay
Psychology-in-Film-Essay
As we have discussed throughout the semester, one of the interesting things about psychology is that its principles can be seen applied everywhere: daily life, current events, television shows, movies, etc.
Your assignment is to watch a movie and analyze it for psychological themes. I have provided a list of approved movies on campus cruiser. Please select one from the list. It can be a movie you have seen before, however, I recommend that you watch the movie again, now that you have taken this course. I also recommend that you view the film you choose at least once to familiarize yourself, and a second time while taking notes. The only sources you may use for this essay are your textbook and the movie.
Your movie analysis should contain the following sections (in the order listed below):
- Briefly describe the relevant scene (1/2 page)
- Describe in detail the psychological principle/ concept that you believe is relevant (1/2 page)
- Elaborate on how the selected scene conforms and/or fails to conform to the psychological principle/ concept that you have identified. In other words, does the movie accurately depict the concept? (1/2 page to 1 page)
- Conclude with a short discussion to tie things together (1/2 page)
Your essay should follow the formatting guidelines below:
- Title Page
- Running head in the upper left corner
- Page numbers in upper right corner
- Title of essay centered on page
- Name and class code (e.g., PSY-105-A) centered, underneath title
- References
- In-text citations (APA format) throughout the paper
- APA reference section including the movie & the textbook (last page of document)
- General
- 1†margins
- Times New Roman 12 pt font
- Double spaced
- Uploaded as a Word (.doc or .docx) document
i. If you use a different word processing program (e.g., Google docs, Open Office, Pages), please see me if you have questions about exporting to the correct file type.
Here is how your essay will be graded:
Writing (16 points)
____/4 Scene description (1/2 page)
This should be clear & organized. Someone who hasn’t seen this movie should be able to understand what you are describing. Cite the movie!
____/4 Concept description (1/2 page)
This should be written as though you are describing this to someone who has never taken a psychology course before. Emphasis should be on explaining this concept in your own words—direct quotations or making minor changes to definitions from the text/ lecture will result in a loss of points here. Cite your text!
____/4 Did the movie get it right? (1/2 page to 1 page)
Support your statements with examples/ evidence from the film and your text. For example, if the movie got it wrong, what exactly did they get wrong? What should it have looked like? How do you know? Cite the movie and your text!
____/4 Discussion (1/2 page)
This should summarize the main points from each of your previous sections.
Formatting (9 points)
____/2 Title page
____/2 In-text citations
____/2 Reference section
____/2 Margins, font, spacing, file type
____/1 Free from spelling & grammatical errors ____/25 points Total
