The Main Components of Sigmund Freud’s Theory Using the Example of the Movie “The Grinch who Stole Christmas”

This assignment was required to watch the documentary “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas”, and to explain the theoretical perspective that was assigned to us. The two theoretical perspective that will be talked about more in depth in this essay is psychoanalytic theory and trait theory. Sigmund Freud was a neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis and created a new approach to the understanding of human mind and personality. Freud’s theory suggests that our personality is made up of three components that consisted of: the id, ego, and superego. Ego helps develop the young child response to the real world.

Id’s unconscious energy that is constantly strives a type of satisfaction to basic sexual and aggressive drives. Superego is a part of the personality that, represents internalized ideals and provides types of judgement standards. Our conscious awareness is like the part of an iceberg that floats above the surface. Beneath our awareness is like the larger unconscious mind, with its thoughts, wishes, feelings and memories. Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory proposed that childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality. Trait theories examine characteristic patterns of behavior.

Summary of Behavior The personality of the Grinch is defined as a mean and cold-hearted wicked character who lives far away from the Whoville on a top of a high mountain in a cave with his dog Max. The Grinch is known very well for hating Christmas and plans on ruining Christmas by stealing presents and vandalizing the Whoville’s houses. In the beginning of the documentary the Grinch is an unpleasant “who-hating” with a bad temper and bad attitude, as well as a heart that’s two sizes too small beating in him. When he meets a little girl named Cindy Lou Who one night, she takes part of interest in him and wants to bring him back to Whoville redeem himself. The Grinch stole all the presents and tress and Christmas decorations from the houses and puts them in a bag to throw over a cliff. When the Whoville awoken with no presents, they continued to celebrate the holiday of Christmas instead of being sad they gathered in a circle and continued to sing. The Grinch grew this feeling of happiness inside him that he had never felt before and gets into the Christmas spirit. He feels guilty for what he had did and stops the presents from falling over the cliff.

The day of Christmas that the Grinch had ruined, he then vowed to ruin their Christmas by stealing the Who’s presents. He goes from someone who hated Christmas to actually loving Christmas at the end of the movie. How Theory Explains Personality One other perspective different from the one that was assigned to me is Social-cognitive theory. Its different from the other ones that were assigned to me because it explores the interaction between people’s traits and their social content. Albert’s Bandura’s theory believed that we learn many of our behavior either through conditioning or by observing and imitating others. Social-cognitive is similar with trait theory by Sigmund Freud because they both involve patterns of behavior influenced by others around you. Standards of Assessment and Evaluation A good test defines three important properties of any good psychological test are validity, reliability, and standardization. The number of questions you answer correctly, on an intelligence test would reveal almost nothing.

To know how well you performed, you would need some basis for comparison. The scores help the next testing group by helping future groups compare different results throughout the year or month. If you take the test following the same procedures, your score will be meaningful when compared with others. This process is called standardization. Knowing your score in comparison to the stadardization group still won’t tell you much unless the test has reliability. A reliable test gives consist scores, no matter who takes the test or when they take it. To check a test’s reliability, researchers test people many times. The higher the correlation, the higher the tests reliability. High reliability does not ensure a test’s validity the extent to which the test actually measure’s or predicts what it promises. Using a miscalibrated measure can cause bad results. Your results can be very reliable depending in the score you get. Testing the Grinch The test I would use in my office with my client would have to be the IQ test. Not only is it for children but its also for adults and scores individual’s intelligence and verbal comprehension, memory and processing speed.

The Humanistic theory focuses on our inner capacities for growth and self-fulfillment. The Grinch strongly disliked the Whos but they decided to accept the Grinch for who he is towards the end of the movie even after he stole their presents. The Grinch regained his self-esteem and regained the trust of the Whovilles. Information that was gathered throughout the movie consisted of kindness, acceptance, and forgiveness. The Grinch experiences this at the end of the movie and changes his perspective on Christmas due to the kindness of one special person that helped him change his mind. 

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