Psychosocial Development Case Study Analysis for the Movie Little Miss Sunshine

Baby’s choice of friends is not often those of her own age. When in school though, she manages to find people who she can get along with. These people however, are not often

The Hoover family of 6 travel in a yellow Volkswagen bus to California for their youngest daughter to compete in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant which is her dream. There is a husband, his wife, his daughter, his son, his brother in law, and his own father who are all traveling with each other for 2 days. Each family member in the movie is trying to accomplish some dream throughout the film. Olive the daughter is trying to win the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. The father is trying to becoming a motivational speaker. The wife is trying to reunite her family together as one. The son is attempting to take vow of silence and become an airforce pilot. The uncle is attempting to live a better

The movie begins with Tracy, the main character, as a normal teenager whose life seems from the outside “ok”. However, even at this point in the movie, there are hints of Tracy’s inner pain and discomfort or distress with her world. Tracy lives a tough life. Her parents are separated, and do not have a good relationship. Tracy lives with her mom and brother in a suburban low to middle class neighborhood. Her mom, Mel, is a recovered addict, who works as a hair dresser. Her dad, Travis, is a somewhat rich executive, who works all the time and barely

The Younger Family all have very different ambitions, when it comes to their “ideal” American dream. Though, in reality during the rough times everyone must find a way to make

Throughout American history, poverty has overwhelmed the inner cities, causing families to face everyday issues such as finances with regards to food, schooling, and extra activities or utilities. However, these circumstances can also test a family and push them to their breaking point. The topic of poverty is evident in Loraine Hansberry’s play that takes place in the late 1950s. As the play A Raisin in the Sun progresses, the characters develop as a whole, enhancing symbolism- specifically Mama’s plant- that represent the family.

Hello, my name is Valerie Faris, and I am one of the co-directors (along with Jonathan Dayton) of the film, 'Little Miss Sunshine'. When making this film, my co-director and I heavily aimed to portray the different ways we as human beings search to find our place in the world. We focused on the conception of building relationships and trust within the concept of a family. We wanted to convey the concept that when it comes to family, its never too late to re-connect and belong.

Every family functions in their own unique way, even if they attempt to model themselves after the social norms of what a family “should be”. Little Miss Sunshine gives insight into how individuals with their own variety of dysfunction manage to function within the family. The purpose of this paper is to analyze Little Miss Sunshine in the context of four different ways of communicating as explained in the textbook, Family Communication: Cohesion and Change. The following paragraphs, organized into sections by theme will explore the Hoover family’s system, the degree of adaptability and cohesion within the family, the productive or destructive ways they manage conflict, and their use of power or decision making processes. Each section will contain a brief review of each of the aforementioned topics that apply, concepts that exist within those topics that appeared in the movie, and examples taken from the movie.

After the death of her husband, Mother struggles to keep her family together by providing the support and guidance they need, and encouraging them to use good judgment and think of the family as a whole before making their decisions. As the family faces various obstacles, each seemingly more severe than the last, Mother begins

The family structure is made up of individuals living together in intimate groups with the purpose of caring and supporting each other. Rules and boundaries, spoken and unspoken, are developed by the family members. Family rules and boundaries change and shift over time in order to evolve and grow as a family unit. Some changes are subtle, but some events force major change within the family system. This paper applies the concepts of systems theory to the family system in the movie Sweet Home Alabama. Reese Witherspoon (Melanie Smooter) and Josh Lucas (Jake Perry) star in this heart-warming film telling a story of a young woman who flees from Alabama to reinvent herself in New York City as a high fashion designer. She leaves behind

The importance of wealth is equally reflected in moments of Little Miss Sunshine. Plane tickets are unaffordable, so the entire Hoover family is forced to drive to California for the daughter Olive’s competition because “they cannot in good conscious leave behind any of their number, however much they’d like to separate” (Klawans, p.42). When they make a stop at a restaurant each of the family members must order something from the menu under four dollars, another testament to the realism of their financial means. While wealth is not the central point of Dayton and Faris’ film, the moments that are shaped by wealth resonate with the primary ideology of success in Little Miss Sunshine. To be

William Damon is an educator/researcher on psychology and education. In William Damon’s work, he has proposed that children’s friendships are developed in three specific stages. In Level 1, children are about 4-7 years old. During this level children see each other as momentary playmates. During this stage children are all about having fun, with limited perspectives. Children want things their way and do not wish to hear different opinions other than their own. As the child gets older, at the age of 8-10 years old a more profound friendship is formed, this is called Level 2. During this time a child start to build trust and start to think of other rather than just themselves. Children learn the value of sharing and learn how to compromise. Lastly, Level 3 is during the approximate age of 11- 15 years old. During this time, friends are valued the most to a child. This is a more mature stage where children build trustful relationships and a high level of emotional closeness is built. Regardless of age cliques and crowds always develop among children and adults. A clique is a group of member that share common interests, often are of the same gender. The members of the group are often labeled or stereotyped. Crowds are very similar to cliques, both shape the minds of children on how they should act or how they should be. Both add pressure to adolescents under peer pressure such as drinking, smoking, skipping school, or sex in order to fit it. Cliques and crowds develop as a way

A little girl trusts her mom, a young adolescent has self- concept, a girl listens patiently as her friend expresses his feelings, and two twins share their dolls. This is all an example of the development of positive relationships over time and across any situation to help achieve personal goals in social interaction. The purpose of this paper will explain what a competent adolescent looks like by giving eight socially competent examples, will explain how young children show maturity or immaturity relating to social competence, and give a real life application to this information

The 2006 film, Little miss sunshine, is about a dysfunctional family that struggles to overcome numerous setbacks on an 800-mile road trip from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Redondo Beach, CA in their yellow VW Microbus to get their seven-year-old daughter to the finals of the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant. The directors Valerie fairs and Jonathan Dayton use characters and various situations to satirize aspects of American society. This essay will look at how the film explores and makes comedy out of the concept of winners and losers through the characters of Richard, olive and the pageant scene at the end of the film.

Little Miss Sunshine directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, is about a family whose cross country journey to the Little Miss Sunshine child beauty pageant teaches them, and the viewer, that real life is about relationships and that these are more important than simplistic notions of winning or losing. Richard Hoover is the character who most exemplifies this message as he eventually recognises that his family and life cannot be defined by his ‘Refuse to Lose’ motivational programme.

Olive Hoover is a seven year old that is afforded an opportunity to compete in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant by chance. Little Miss Sunshine is the story of a family who, in the face of many physical, emotional, and social obstacles, band together to support the dreams of Olive. The following discussion is a theoretical analysis of Olive Hoover applying concepts from four theories, and a critical analysis of each theory.