Social Psychology

The principles and theories of Social Psychology are important and useful in assessing behaviors in situations. These social psychological principles and their applications can be seen in fictional films which can also be attributed to everyday life. One such film that holds certain social psychological perspectives is Will Gluck’s 2010 production of Easy A. A film about high school student Olive Penderghast and how a sudden change in popularity and financial status, after an unintentional rumor about how she supposedly lost her virginity to a college guy spread through the entire her school. The film draws on the behavioral connections of pronounced hussy Olive Penderghast and her English class’s assigned reading of The Scarlet Letter. Easy A depicts how Olive’s choice to handle the rumor by modeling the harlot in her reading and embroidering an A on her wardrobe lead her to be preserved as one. The reactions of townspeople in the Scarlet Letter are similar to those of her high school class mates. Through such actions, reactions, and behaviors of the film is able to addresses numerous social psychological perspectives. Some of these social perspectives include the Actor-Observer Difference in Casual Attribution, Self-fulfilling prophecy and Operant Conditioning.

One social psychological perspective depicted throughout Easy A is the attribution of the Actor-Observer Difference. This social concept states that the actor of a particular situation is more apt to acknowledge a behavior to situational attributions, while the observer is more likely to contribute the behavior to the actor. The Actor-Observer Difference is a unique case that can only be applied under certain conditions. These conditions include that assumptions vary f...

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...erms of how life actually works. In one of the scenes of the film Olive is illustrated as a harlot by the way she dresses in tight fitting clothes, in her goal to try to adhere to peoples’ expectations of her. This realistic scene can be attributed to how life actually works because it establishes the Self- fulfilling prophecy and provides a prediction of how some people similar to Olive actually behave in real life to other’s expectations. Furthermore, social psychological principles such as Operant conditioning can be used in everyday life to prompt a person to learn and produce a wanted behavior through rewards. This is what happened to Olive in the film when she gained monetary rewards for her services. As depicted in these examples and through the realism of Easy A it is clear that through social psychology it is possible to evaluate how life actually works.