Theories In The Film Tuesdays With Morrie

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Throughout the movie I noticed that Mitch and Morrie fell under many of the theories that we have discussed in class. In particular they covered Marcia’s role confusion theory, Kübler-Ross’s denial and acceptance theory, and lastly Erikson’s identity achievement theory. The characters Mitch and Morrie fall under these three theories which I will explain below. Marcia developed four categories to describe people who have not yet achieved their identity. The first one being role confusion, after that is foreclosure, then moratorium, and the finally identity achievement(Sánchez). The one that came to my mind when watching Tuesdays with Morrie was role confusion. This category is the opposite of identity achievement, it is characterized by the lack of commitment to any goals or values. Those in this stage also procrastinate and avoid issues and actions. In the movie Mitch …show more content…

Which is why he falls under Erikson’s theory of identity achievement. Identity achievement is when a person understands who he or she is as a unique individual, in accord with past experiences(Berger pg 356). Morrie understands who he is completely so he decides to give advice on life issues that most people go through while Mitch records him. During one session Mitch asked Morrie what his perfect last day would be and he gave it in complete detail from start to finish, it started off having a lovely breakfast, then going for a swim, have some lunch with friends, sit around and tell each other how much they meant to one another, go to dinner and have pasta and duck, then dance until he was exhausted, then go home and fall asleep. He had lived his life too the fullest and he knew exactly how he would want to spend his last day. The movie Tuesdays with Morrie has shown me various examples of the theories discussed above. It showed me how Eirkson’s identity achievement theory and Marcia’s acceptance theory were very similar by sharing Morrie’s

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