Psychosocial And Cognitive Development In The Blind Side's Michael Oher

The world is far from a uniform system. Each and every individual is placed in a different situation depending on everything from location, race, beliefs, and economic status. Psychology looks at how individuals come out of these specific environments and how they transform into an adult through the trials and tribulations of their growth. In The Blind Side, director John Lee Hancock focuses on an athletically skilled African-American teen, Michael Oher, who is transformed from a homeless orphan from the projects into a highly sought after college football prospect through a positive change in family, school, and supportive surroundings.

The movie “The Blind Side” represents the conflict theory of sociological perspective. This movie is based on the story of Michael Oher, who was thirteen-year, homeless, African American teenager. His mother was a drug addict and he did not know his real father. He is taken by a white well to do family Touhys’ who helped him to fulfill his potential. The other hand, his presence leads Touhys’ family lives leads to some insightful self-discoveries of their own.

“Based on a book by journalist Michael Lewis chronicling the real life Oher’s experiences, “The Blind Side” manages to inspire despite its broad-strokes approach to characterization.”(VLM, 2010) The Blind Side is based on a true story, the story of Michael Oher, a homeless boy with a traumatic past until one women, Leigh Ann, took him in as her own son and changed his life for the better. Michael is now known as an American football player, that was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens. The film, “The Blind side”, produced by John Lee Hancock, demonstrates that a tragic childhood does not necessarily mean one is destined for defeat, as long as there are those who care enough about you. “The Blind Side” uses rhetorical appeals by illustrating ethos, logos, and pathos to teach the audience moral lessons on learning and coping with traumatic life experiences and defining oneself socially through personal actions.

This movie-The Blind Side talks about how Michael Oher achieved his self-esteem during his adolescent time. Between the plots of the movie, we also included some development theories such as Erik Erikson’s psychosocial cognitive theory; Maslow’s hierarchy needs theory and also the operant conditioning theory that associated with Michael’s development.

The Blind Side depicts the story of Michael Oher, a seventeen year old African American homeless boy from a broken home, taken in by Leigh Anne Tuohy, a wife and mom of two living in a well to-do neighborhood. Repeatedly running away from the group home after group home, he was placed in after he was taken from him drug addicted mother, he happens to run into the exceedingly accepting family. Only after the catholic high school football coach sees his size and agility he is accepted to the privet school, despite a 0.7 GPA and lack of a place to sleep Leigh Anne Touhy, along with only one of his teachers, take a special interest in him. The families give him

In the movie, The Blind Side, Michael Oher’s character experiences many changes. Throughout the film, he grows from a shy, uneducated boy into a young man who belongs to a family. The film begins with Oher as a homeless youth struggling to find a place to sleep. It progresses with Oher’s fortunate meeting of the Tuohy family and concludes with Oher’s ultimate transformation from a homeless boy into a successful man.

The movie The Blind Side was released in 2009. It is about a young man, named Michael Oher, who grew up in a poor environment. In the beginning of the movie, Michael was homeless and not currently attending school. All of that changed when a woman, named Leigh Anne Tuohy, offered Michael the chance to stay with her and her family. The Tuohy family was well off, unlike Michael, so it was an adjustment for both the family and him to live together. However, the family was very warm and welcoming to Michael, which differed from many of the other people Michael encountered. In the movie, Michael experienced racism, discrimination, and prejudice towards him from a variety of people.

Everyone was created for a reason. "Don't ever allow yourself to feel trapped by your choices. Take a look at yourself. You are a unique person created for a specific purpose. Your gifts matter. Your story matters. Your dreams matter. You matter." - Real Michael Oher. In the visual text 'The Blind Side' the director John Lee Hancock presented to us, how Michael Oher was a positive influence on Sean Tuohy, the football team/coach and Leigh Anne. To display this to the viewers, Hancock used the film technique of low-key lighting in the scene where Michael was sauntering solo in the crisp, drenched night, long-shot in the scene where Michael was on the field with his football team/coach and dialogue in the scene where Michael graduates to Ole Miss University. Do you believe a young teenage boy can transform someone to become a better person? Well, start believing! Hancock used these film techniques to reinforce the way Michael was a positive influence on Sean Tuohy, the football team/coach and Leigh Anne and made them exceptional people.

The Blind Side is based on a true story about a homeless boy named Michael Oher (Big Mike) who has been living with different people until the Tuohys take him in. Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy eventually become his legal guardians and the story is about how his life improves while playing football at Wingate high school in Tennesee. It shows his struggles with grades, and how the family and Michael are affected by the other. Because of his giant size he goes on to get a football scholarship for the University of Mississippi. The story is about his journey.

Two characters that I choose for this assignment are John Bender and Brian Johnson. In reference to Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, I categorized Bender and Brian in formal operational stage because of their age. Besides, both of them also shows characteristic of adolescent egocentrism. As for Bender, we can see that he had developed the sense of invulnerability because he had taken many physical risks and do not think about the negative consequences of his actions. Brian shows personal fable when he overestimate his own abilities, he believes that he can “handle” the subject, but when he failed, this personal fable had lead him to depression and had attempted suicide as a solution for his problem.

John Lee Hancock’s “The Blind Side” explores a diverse range of aspects and notions of belonging through the techniques presented in the text. The characterization of the central character Michael Ohers being a big illiterate black African American teenager coming from a broken home and family sets the context for the rest of the film where he is faced with many barriers restricting his comfort and pushing him towards his total disengagement from the “White” Society. After the Touhy’s accept Michael into their home, he begins his long path transitioning from the old “Big Mike” to the new Michael Ohers. The barriers that Michael is faced with include the school he goes to and the environment he is residing in being a new experience to him

As they grow, all of the life choices and parenting styles the parent commits to interfere with how the child will develop as a person. With that being said, the father of the child might abuse the mother in front of the child every night when he comes home drunk. Consequently, the child might grow up believing it was okay to hit women. On the other hand, the parents could be raising the child perfectly but what they experience at school could abolish every life lesson that the parents had put before them. As the African proverb states, “It takes a village to raise a child”. No matter who enters the child’s life for any given time, it will affect who the child will become. In the book The Other Wes Moore, both Moore boys grew up in a town filled with violence and drugs. Even though both boys’ mothers raised them properly and gave them every care in the world, the environment that they grew up in paid its toll on both boys. As the other Wes Moore’s mother found out about his dealing with drugs, the first thing she asked herself was, “Who is to blame for this” (74). All of the people that influenced Wes; Tony, the neighborhood, the school system, and Wes’s friends flooded through his mother’s mind at that very moment. “She put them all on trial in her mind,” Moore writes (75). It is not just the mother or the parents who are raising the child, it is the entire village.

The movie The Blind Side is based on a true story about Michael Oher, first round draft pick for the Baltimore Ravens in 2009. Oher grew up in the projects in Memphis to a drug-addicted mother and an absent father. Michael was eventually taken by family services and was placed in a number of different foster homes. He ran away from each home placement and eventually became homeless. Michael is taken in by Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy who helped him to attend a private Catholic school, which is where their children as well received their education. Prior to school here Michael had little education or skills to be successful in life. While attending Wingate Christian School, Michael began to play football. The Tuohy family provide the nurturing environment that Michael needed to show his true potential. Leigh Anne and Sean eventually become Oher’s legal guardians and help him become successful in school as well as excel with his interest in football. This movie story into Oher’s life display social issues, obstacles, and triumph was overcome by Oher in order for him to achieve his dream with the guidance and stability provided from the Tuohy family.

“Yesterday is a history, tomorrow is a mystery” ― Bill Keane; American cartoonist .As individuals that live their lives, everyone has or is going to encounter significant experiences that will change their identity forever. In the 2009, American biographical sports drama film The Blind Side directed by John Lee Hancock, the main character Michael Oher, a black teenage boy goes through many ups and downs through his life to finally become a successful NFL football left tackle player. The director of this film chose this story because it exhibits the importance of the experiences we encounter in our lives and how they can be life changing. Momentous experiences and exposure to various situations in life impact an individual to transform because

“The Blind Side” is a movie based on a true-life story of how Michael Oher goes through the difficulties in his life before he becomes one of the best defensive players of the NFL football team. Growing up in a broken family; where he had a drug-addicted mother, the father being in the prison and he, himself was always going in and out of the foster homes, as the audience, we all probably have already expected what will happen to this young man.