As Good As It Gets Psychology Essay

PSYCHOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES OF 1997 FILM, AS GOOD AS IT GETS

Lenique Huggins 10-4

FMHS AP Psychology

Although learning about the concepts of psychology through reading material is very informative, movies provide more elaborate visual depictions of these principles. Films allow us to better connect the psychological concepts to real-life situations. In specifically analyzing the 1997 film, As Good As it Gets, several psychological principles are illustrated throughout the movie. Three of these concepts are: obsessive-compulsive disorder, the frustration-aggression principle, and the mere-exposure effect. Several scenes in the film provided illustrations of each of these principles.

The film consists of several scenes in which the main character, Melvin Udall, exhibits signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In the first scene, Melvin knocks people over while trying to avoid stepping on any cracks in the sidewalk on his walk to breakfast. In another scene, he shows signs of the disorder again when he repeatedly locks and unlocks the bolt of his apartment door five times once he gets home. He then repeats with the lock on the handle and then turns the apartment light on and off five times. In a third scene, he washes his hands with a bar of soap and throws the bar away.

The main character, Melvin, was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder and showed several signs and symptoms of the disorder. The mere-exposure effect explained the unlikely attraction between Melvin and Carol, as well as Verdell’s preference for Melvin. Finally, the frustration-aggression principle, explains why characters in the film became upset when kept from reaching their goals. Overall, the film was successful in demonstrating these psychological principles and connecting them to realistic examples found outside of a