Running head: I AM SAM ANALYSIS 1

Analyzing Social Psychology in “I am Sam”

Maraiah Jaramillo

Pasadena City College

Psychology 23, Professor Lamb

July 29, 2018

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There are many characteristics that are involved when describing a parent. He/she must

possess certain skills and be able to give enough emotional support so that the child comes out

healthy. In the movie I am Sam directed by Jessie Nelson, it makes people double think about

what the bare minimum skill is to raise a child. The movie I am Sam takes us through a struggle

about a mentally challenged father who is trying to raise a seven-year-old by himself. When

child services find out about the incident, they immediately try and take Sam’s child Lucy away.

According to the social worker and lawyer against Sam in the movie, Sam is unable to fulfill the

basic tasks based on the ordinary gender roles. In the textbook called Social Psychology by

David G. Myers, gender roles are a “set of behavior expectations for males and females”,

meaning that these are norms that typical males and females should be able to do (Myers, 2011).

Due to all the issues caused by the fact that Sam has an intellectual disability, he must find a

lawyer to represent him in court and help him get Lucy’s custody. Fortunately, Sam ends up

going to a prestigious lawyer in town who is known to not do pro bono, but due to evaluation

apprehension, she ends up voluntarily helping Sam because of all the social pressure her

coworkers transmitted. After multiple trials, it seems as if Sam will have no luck in achieving his

dream of Lucy’s custody. In the end though, although it is unclear whether he got full custody,

the viewer can assume he at least got joint custody. This movie mainly talks about the

intellectual disabilities that Sam has, but I will provide an insight on all the social psychology

involved in the movie.

People don’t like change and it does not matter what aspect in their life change takes

place. If something does not seem right to them, they resist it. In the case of Sam, the lawyers,

social workings, and officers are all one big group in cohesion. This means that most of the

members involved and against Sam taking custody of Lucy are involved and attracted to what
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they are fighting against (Myers, 2011). Sam is not the usual parent who can get an everyday job

and care for a younger individual, therefore he is stigmatized by the social worker and leads to

multiple mental breakdowns for Sam. According to a journal article about the social effects

society has on intellectually handicapped people, stigmatizing these individuals can cause

“reduced self-esteem and feelings of isolation” (Kuntz, Burge, Brown, & Arsenault, 2010). This

is exactly what happened in the movie, for when Sam felt attacked by the opposing lawyer, he

cried and disappeared for days until his defending lawyer literally kicked his house door down to

find him. Sam in the movie is a very humble and nice person which makes him likeable. What he

does not posses in intellectual ability, he possesses in the ability to love others. Therefore, in the

end of the movie, Sam is able to win some custody since his attitude and show of love persuaded

people through the peripheral route which uses emotional cues rather than facts (Myers, 2011).

In conclusion, the main character Sam goes through many hardships due to the social

norms and beliefs that exist in the world. This paper was not about the biopsychology involving

Sam’s illness, but more about how things led to the movie’s ending. All the interactions involved

ideas such as social norms, peripheral versus central route persuasion, peer pressure, and

emotions. Analyzing the movie further, if this scenario happened in real life, I believe Sam might

not have been so lucky. Visitation rights might have been granted, but I think partial custody

would’ve been harder to achieve due to the reason that Sam only had the thought process of a

second grader. Eventually his daughter Lucy would get older and be more conscious than Sam,

leading towards a scenario where she would take care of Sam. Overall the movie was great, I

was satisfied with the ending as a couple tears slid off my cheek. I would recommend anyone to

watch this movie and think about the social psychology involved since it is a subject that can be

related to almost anything.

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References

Myers, D. G. (2011). Social psychology (10th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Ouellette-Kuntz, H., Burge, P., Brown, H. K., & Arsenault, E. (2010). Public Attitudes Towards

Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities as Measured by the Concept of Social

Distance. Journal Of Applied Research In Intellectual Disabilities, 23(2), 132-142.