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understand ourselves all because of the study of psychology. In this essay, I will be
To start off this paper, I will be discussing “The Psychology of the Simpsons,”
edited by Alan Brown, PhD with Chris Logan. In this completely unauthorized take on
the Simpsons and psychology, it discusses how the extremely popular television show
involves psychology. The Simpsons first aired on television back in 1989, the Simpsons
have since created a vast army followers and supporters from all around the globe.
Since it first started, the Simpsons have aired 620 episodes, 29 seasons, and has
The first chapter in the Simpsons book I will be discussing is the chapter called,
“Alcohol—The Cause of, and Solution to, All Life’s Problems,” written by Denis M.
McCarthy. I chose this chapter to talk about because we had just finished talking about
different altered states of consciousness, and alcohol is the number 1 abused drug in
the United States. This is very relatable to the Simpsons because alcohol is a very
prominent subject in many episodes. At least three characters on the Simpsons have
determined some type of problem with alcohol—Barney, Ned and Homer. All three
characters are on a different scale of the spectrum as to how bad their condition with
alcohol really is. Barney’s drinking is so problematic that everyone, including himself,
agrees that he has a bad problem with drinking. Ned’s drinking, and all problems
because of his drinking, are so minor that only he thinks that he has a problem. The
extreme on either end. Both he and his family seem undecided about his alcohol abuse
—is it too much, or just normal or average? The book then goes on to talk about the
possibility of Homer’s children, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie, becoming alcohol dependent like
their father. Because the Simpson children are not only biologically related to someone
with alcohol problems, but they are also raised someone with alcohol problems, causing
their risk of repeating the process when they are older much greater than a child who
was raised in a household where alcohol was not involved often. Many people would
say that Bart is more likely to become a substance abuser than Lisa is, and those
people would be right. Males are statistically almost twice as likely to develop some
spectrum of alcohol dependency. That, with Bart’s IQ, personality characteristics, and
parental treatment, he has a much more likely chance that he will become more like his
father than Lisa will. As seen in the show, Bart is always causing trouble, whether it be
with his father, his teachers, or with law enforcement. While Lisa is very different. Lisa is
very smart and cares about her life and education. She tries to better Bart as much as
she can, but at the end of the day, she tends to think Bart is a lost cause. This relates to
the book because on page 197, it discusses drugs and states of consciousness. Alcohol
judgement, which you can see Homer, Barney, and Ned sometimes display. Despite the
comical reasons for having drunken characters on the show, there are a few episodes
where their alcoholism is acknowledged, and they are directed towards alcohol abuse
treatments.
The second chapter of the Simpsons book I will be discussing is called “Can Bart
or Homer Learn?” In this chapter, it states that if an organism can not learn, it is doomed
to repeat the same mistakes over and over again. And, even as a casual fan of the TV
show, anyone can make the assumption that Bart and Homer seem to make mistakes
more than once. There were four episodes of the Simpsons that focused on how
different types of learning was a struggle for Bart, including “Bart the Daredevil,” “One
Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish,” “Bart’s Dog Gets and F,” and “There’s No Disgrace
Like Home.” It may be very obvious, but Bart more than likely can blame his destructive
behavior on seeing his father do similar things all his life. This is called observational
learning. Because Bart has witnessed his father doing rather idiotic this throughout the
course of his life, Bart is more likely to follow in Homer’s footsteps. Another example
listed in the Simpsons book is classical conditioning. In the episode “One Fish, Two
Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish,” Lisa asks to eat dinner at a new sushi restaurant called “The
Happy Sumo.” At first, he shows neophobia (the fear of new foods), but he quickly gets
over his sudden fear and orders literally everything from the menu. He orders fugu,
blowfish, which if prepared incorrectly can be fatal if eaten. Only after he has eaten
every bit of fugu is he told of the consequences, and the town’s doctor tells Homer he
may only have 24 hours to live. This is where Homer’s actions deviate from the normal
patterns of classical conditioning. Typically, a normal person should become very ill and
terrified, and if they survived the ordeal, would completely avoid fish for the rest of their
lives because of their near death experience. Yet, Homer’s gluttonous ways never seam
to waiver. In only three episodes later, Homer is seen ordering a seafood burrito from
the Kwik-E-Mart on main street. Also because of his constant battle with alcoholism,
Homer should possibly want to have a break between drinks, but that never phases him
which associations are made between a natural stimulus and a neutral stimulus,” a
The Star Wars saga is one of the most iconic and popular movies sagas ever
created. “In a galaxy far, far away,” there is a whole new race and realm of humans and
creatures living among the planets. I grew up knowing a lot about Star Wars, as my dad
was a huge fan when the movies first came out. Because of my dads obsession, my
brother and I both went in to a huge Star Wars phase, Jake did more than I did. From
being around Star Wars my whole life, I never paid attention to how “real” the characters
are, as in they are just like us. In this seemingly ongoing series, we see many things
The first topic I will talk about is obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD. When I
think of OCD, I think of someone who needs to have everything in line and in order no
matter what the circumstance. By the book, the definition of obsessive compulsive
disorder is, “an anxiety disorder consisting of obsessions and compulsions.” Based on
the Star Wars book on page 105 through 107, they clearly describe two very famous
characters from the series and compare them; the two characters being Han Solo and
C-3PO. They describe a scene where C-3PO is offering Han Solo and Chewbacca so
many details when trying to help at once, that Han Solo snaps and says, “Never tell me
the odds!” Han is so attentive to details that he sometimes may miss the big picture.
Chewbacca cannot speak Han Solo and C-3PO’s language in order to communicate,
but his famous roar following C-3PO’s “helpful” comments really help display his
disinterest and dislike for what he just said. C-3PO, however, may be one of the worst
cases of OCD in the Star Wars franchise. The one who is struggling with the personality
11th, 1897 - October 8th 1967) was one of the first psychologists to focus on the study
psychology. According to Allport’s theories, your personality is made up of the traits you
possess. Even though he is a robot, these quirks programmed into him make him the
lovable character he is, giving him his personality. Without his OCD tendencies, C-3PO
would not be himself. Changing that part of C-3PO would make him C-3PO no more. As
when dealing with a human, his meticulousness gets the job done when it’s the right job
Anakin Skywalker builds a pod racer, builds C-P3O, and completely masterminds the
Jedi’s escape from Tattooine. This shows that Anakin developed fairly early in his
intellectual aspects. He was a very smart young boy, and he could comprehend things
much quicker than a normal child would. Psychologists like Albert Bandura placed the
Albert Bandura born on December 4th, 1925 in Mundare, Alberta, Canada, (for over 6
decades) has been responsible for contributions to the field of education and to the
many fields of psychology, including social cognitive theory, therapy, and personality
psychology. He was also influential in the transition between behaviorism and cognitive
psychology. His main theory on cognitive development was that humans are active
information process and think about the relationship between their behavior and its
development has now become to be. On page 101 of our textbook, it talks about
cognitive development during adolescence. From about the age of 11 or 12, most
people’s thinking becomes more abstract. An example used is that those aged children
could answer the question “What would the world be like if people lived to be 200?”
Their answers would be much different than the answers of young children. Older
children can entertain the hypothetical question in a way that a young child cannot. The
comprehension of the hypothetical parts of the universe are what helps develop the
The third topic I will be discussing is phobias. With the world of Star Wars being
so extreme with their creatures and events that occur, it is fairly understood that there
would be some characters with phobias throughout. Based on our book’s definition, a
phobia is when a person has an intense and irrational fear of a particular object or
agoraphobia. Specific phobias can focus on almost anything, like enclosed spaces
constantly fear that they will embarrass themselves in a public place of a social setting.
Agoraphobia is when a person severely fears being in a public place. Phobias can
range from extremely mild, to crippling and life threatening. Most people just end up
avoiding what they are afraid of, but in some cases the person will go to a professional
and be exposed to what they fear in order to try to overcome that fear. On page 69 of
the Star Wars book, it makes a list of a lot of phobias present throughout the Star Wars
franchise.
Freedom vs. security: that is the dilemma explored in this book. And the two
iconic superheroes of Captain America and Iron Man come to completely opposite
conclusions. Captain America first made his appearance back in March of 1941. During
the time period that Captain America came out, the United States was fighting in World
War II. Nationalism was on the rise, so Captain America was often seeing fighting the
Axis Powers. When he’s not defending our nation’s honor, Captain America is Steve
Rogers. Steve Rogers is a small and shy young man who is experimented on by the
government. He is enhanced to the peak of human perfection, and is used to aid the
United States in their battle against the enemies during WWII. During the next war, the
popularity of superheroes went away and the Captain America comic books were
discontinued in 1950 and were nearly forgotten. But in 1964, Marvel revamped and
revived the character of Captain America and he has been popular ever since. Iron
Man’s comic books were first published in 1863, created by writer and editor Stan Lee.
Tony Stark, Iron Man’s true identity, suffers a severe chest injury when he was
kidnapped, and forced to build a weapon of mass destruction by his captors. Instead,
Tony Stark created a powered suit of armor that saves his life and helps him escape his
captors. Eventually, he revamped his suit to have weapons and he became the famous
superhero, Iron Man. Throughout both of their stories, psychology is present throughout.
In “freedom, security, psychology,” the writers discuss how they are related.
The first topic I will talk about for this book is anxiety. Our textbook says that the
is the most common response to a sudden and powerful stressor. On pages 38-45 in
the Captain America vs. Iron Man book, it talks about the three steps that Steve Rogers
and Tony Stark take to become heroes. Step 1: Listen to your anxiety. For Steve
Rogers, this happens right before he enlists into the United States army. He feels
useless because his size and feels guilty because he knows there are men and women
overseas fighting when he isn’t. He takes that leap and joins anyway. Even though he
felt she shouldn’t, his anxiety tells him it would be the best thing for him. Step 2:
attention outward, away from actions that will lead to personal gain. Tony Stark
experiences this when he is first captured. Before his capture, Tony Stark was a rich
business owner who thought the world belonged to him. His capturing humbled him,
and made him think more of others and not just himself, which in turn created the
superhero Iron Man. Step 3: Fight the Bystander Effect. This is when something
happens and people are so in shock or out of fear, they don’t do anything. Being a
bystander is when you watch a situation happen and you do nothing to stop it. Both
Steve Rogers and Tony Stark have taken this rule very seriously. If a villain is about to
attack a city, or there is a damsel in distress, both superheroes immediately jump at the
situation to help.
The second topic I will be discussing is motivation. A superhero doesn’t just stop
a villain because he’s bored. Every superhero has some sort of motivation in order for
them to keep going and want to help others. In the Captain America vs. Iron Man book,
it talks about how during the preschool years, children begin to branch out more and
develop morality. They begin to start seeking approval and avoiding punishments at all
costs. Erik Erikson attributed it to the fact that they are beginning to care what others
think of them, and start seeking social approval. This ties back in to the “motivation”
topic because from a very young age, we all start to seek approval and rewards. With
approval and rewards being what we get in return for a good action, this would motivate
the young child to do better things in the future. Captain America’s sole purpose was to
fight for the United States’ honor. His motivation from the citizens of America, and the
motivations to defeat those who go against America, help drive him forward and give
him a fighting cause. Without the motivation to do something, why would the superhero
put their lives on the line? Because of the want/need for approval starting at a very
young age, this motivates anyone, even superheroes, to want to do the right thing for
all.
Conclusion
All in all, psychology is (clearly) everywhere. From the Simpsons, to Star Wars, to
Captain America and Iron Man, there is always something deeper to look at. Using
psychology, we can dissect someone or something’s actions. Why are they doing
something? What steps could be taken to prevent these actions? How can we help
someone in need? We can learn all the things we need to answer these questions by
studying psychology. Through studying the mind, we can determine why we act a
certain way. I’m very glad I was able to take psychology this year. I thought it was all