Mommie Dearest Psychology

Stephanie Fryberg’s research interests focus on how social representation of race, culture and social class influence psychological well-being, and educational attainment. Fryberg is currently an associate professor in American Indian Studies and Psychology. She previously worked as an associate professor of psychology and affiliate faculty member in American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona. Rebecca Covarrubias earned a Bachelor of Science and a Master's and Ph.D. in Social Psychology from The University of Arizona. Dr. Covarrubias is currently a lab director and assistant professor at for the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC).

Obsessive-compulsive disorder was the disorder most evident within Joan’s personality, throughout, the movie. This disorder demands perfection, and that’s in everything. There are often ridiculous rules within the household, and often times the home will be perfectly clean. For example, in the movie Joan blows a gasket on her daughter Christina, because, Joan finds a wire hanger in her closet. This shouldn’t be a humongous situation, but it is, and the end result Christina gets beaten with wire hangers. Another scene from the movie shows Joan eating raw steak, and trying to make Christina eat it as well. Christina thinks the raw steak is disgusting,

Psychological disorders are very real and present in many people we come in contact with daily, however, are very rarely talked about. Learning about these disorders can help us to understand others and ourselves better by telling us why we do and think the things we do. One effective way that we can observe and learn about psychological disorders is through movies. “Mommie Dearest” was directed by Frank Perry. It is centered around the actress Joan Crawford, who suffered from various psychological disorders. Joan’s daughter, Christina, wrote a book about her mother and her many problems and it was later turned into a movie. It is very effective to use movie analysis as a way of learning, especially in psychology, because it provides a great way to observe without distractions. When you’re looking at disorders, it’s difficult to find a person who has many of these disorders and will allow you to observe them. Psychological disorders can be split into two major groups, personality disorders and mood disorders. Personality disorders are patterns of traits that can get in the way of your social or work life and may interrupt the individual’s normal lifestyle. Mood disorders are inconsistent and unreliable changes in mood by the affected individual. (Rathus, 1998). With all of this being said, it brings me to my point that I will be talking about for the rest of this essay. Joan Crawford demonstrates the personality disorders of histrionic, narcissism, and OCPD. When it comes to mood disorders, Joan demonstrates bipolar disorder.

A psychological disorder can be defined as patterns of behavior or mental processes that affect a person’s capability to carry out every day routines and interactions with others. These psychological disorders can be characterized as personality disorders or mood and anxiety disorders. Many people experience these disorders and struggles within their life. Today approximately 1 in every 5 adults live with a psychological disorder in the United States alone. With that being said, even the most prestigious can have mental illness. For example, Joan Crawford, American film and television actress regularly struggled with several types of personality disorders shown in the movie Mommie Dearest. This movie, based on a book written by her daughter, Christina Crawford, depicts the several scenarios in which Joan shows signs of multiple psychological disorders. Movies similar to Mommie Dearest are a great way to help students understand disorders and the symptoms associated with them. Within this movie Joan Crawford demonstrates signs of having bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, histrionic disorder, and Narcissistic disorder.

“It takes a village to raise a child.” I never quite understood that saying when I was growing up, but my experiences teaching and working in school settings have showed me how true it really is. Obtaining a degree in school psychology will allow me to give the support that students, families and educators need to ensure that every student will thrive.

Your memory of your first day of high school would be an example of which of the following types of memory?

Psychology can be applied to everyday life in many ways. The three main ways Psychology applies to my life is through motivation and emotion, Stress and health and Psychological therapies. These topics of psychology are the ones that best describe my life. When most people think of psychology they think of therapists and psychological disorders. Psychology is much more than that and applies to everyone’s life in some form.

Many people believe that psychological disorders are unique, however they are becoming a more common, in fact around 26.2 percent of people suffer from a psychological disorder in a given year. Psychological disorders are behavior patterns or mental processes that cause serious personal problems and interferes with daily life. Disorder types expand beyond only psychological, many other disorders fall under the category of being personality disorders, which is defined by, patterns of uncompromising traits that affect and disrupt one’s ability in everyday life. When looking at disorders it is important to be able to dysgenic the difference between psychological and personality disorders. Psychological disorders are illnesses a person undergoes as an “episode,” however, personality disorders constant traits that play an important role when developing a person’s personality. One way to identify these types of disorders is through movies. For example, the film Mommie Dearest, directed by Frank Perry is a story told from the perspective of Joan Crawford’s adoptive daughter, Christina. Joan Crawford expresses many disorders shown throughout the movie, while Christina displays how these experiences affect her life. Throughout the movie Joan Crawford demonstrates psychological and personality disorders of, bipolar, obsessive compulsive disorder, narcissistic, and histrionic.

Compare and Contrast the approach to studying children’s friendships taken in the Bigelow and La Gaipa (1975) study with that taken by William Corsaro.

In psychology personalities are developed through several theorist, but from these personalities can become skewed, causing a psychological disorder on a person's personality. These personality disorders can commonly be seen in about 31 million Americans, which densely equals out to 15% of our population population (Davis, n.d.). Psychological disorders are seen as behavior patterns or mental processes that creates a difficulty for oneself or a hinder on an individual's strength to endure certain situations that take place in life everyday. Disorders are primarily discovered through psychological testing, however, it is possible to identify them through watching psychological films or thrillers. In this case, the character Joan Crawford will be analyzed for her dominant personality disorders in the movie Mommie Dearest. While watching the movie Mommie Dearest the audience can easily recognize obsessive cleaning rituals, a fantasy over one’s own success, and dramatic changes of moods that swing up and down. The main character, Joan Crawford, displays dominant characteristics of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, bipolar disorder, and a narcissistic personality disorder. As an audience we see that these disorders become very upsetting to those that are close to her, affecting her relationships with everyone and everything, specifically with her daughter Christina.

"OCD patients have a pattern of distressing and senseless thoughts or ideas- obsessions- that repeatedly well up in their minds. To quell the distressing thoughts, specific patterns of odd behaviors- compulsions- develop." (Gee & Telew, 1999)

Throughout the movie it is obvious that Christina was affect by the things her mother did to the point Christina feared her. The relationship Joan and Christina shared was that of another and daughter, but was forever damaged by the disorders in Joan Crawford’s personality. Due to the suppression Christina endured in her life from her mother she created a book this whole movie was based off of just to get the last word. Christina grew up just to defy her mother more than she ever did when she was a child because now she will not get punished and has this sense of freedom, but the freedom is not the same as others. Plus no matter what Christina does she will always be haunted by what her mother did when she was a child.

* Predict: Offering predictions (or hypotheses) about how a given condition or set of conditions will affect

Differentiate between Freud and Erikson's approach to psychoanalytic theory in this lesson. You will examine and compare developmental stages side by side and have the opportunity to test your knowledge with a quiz at the end.

perfection, rules, and organization, which leads to routines and rules for ways of doing things.