The Movie I Heart Huckabees Essay

Personality is who an individual is, how one does things, manages events and situations, and how one describes other individuals. One 's personality can help guide an individual throughout one 's life, in addition to having power over the situation or task. Many, if not all of these factors of personality, traits, and genetics, make up who an individual is. One 's may believe an individual 's personality, differences, and individualities is the core of who an individual truly is.

Personality, like most core Psychology subjects, is difficult to define. Personality is essentially the science of describing and understanding people. No two people are the same; even identical twins will tell you that they are very different to their identical counterpart. There are some who are anxious and there are those who are risk-takers. There are some who are carefree while there are those who are highly-strung and there are those who are over-confident while some are just plain shy. It is this issue of differences that are fundamental to the study and examination of personality.

Personality is looked at everyday purposely and accidently. Whether you are judging how your new professor for the semester will be, or if you are studying your best friend for a project, personality is studied abundantly. While there are many ways to define personality, there is not a worldwide definition around. Personality is the unique combination of patterns that influence behavior, thought, motivation, and emotion in a human being (boundless.com). That is one of many ways of defining personality. When examining personality, there are four main approachable theories including: The Psychodynamic Approach, The Trait Approach, The Social-Cognitive Approach, and The Humanistic Approach.

Personality can be defined as patterns of a person's thoughts, feelings and behaviors in various situations. In its most basic form personality is attitude, values and interests. Personality traits can also be known as behavioral differences. Understanding and appreciating the diverse personalities of others can help people to interact and know why one person might act or respond in a certain way. This appreciation of personality diversity gives respect to the quirks and differences of individuals therefore respecting these differences as strengths.

The movie I Heart Huckabees was interesting, to say the least. The movie centered around two detectives, a husband and wife duo, who were existentialists. Existentialism is defined as “a philosophy that emphasizes individualism, freedom, and choice” (Existentialism - By Branch / Doctrine). In the film, the two detectives, Vivian and Bernard Jaffe, were sought out by a young man named Albert, who was looking for answers. He wanted to know why he kept running into this particular “African man.” He bumped into the man three times and thought that the coincidences had to have a deeper meaning, which is why he went to the office of Vivian and Bernard Jaffe. These two “existential detectives” followed Albert around (sometimes discretely, sometimes not so much) to learn his habits and get a better idea of his so-called “personality.” This brings me to the next point, does personality even exist?

Google defines existentialism as “a philosophical theory or approach that emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will ("Google", 2016). In the movie I Heart Huckabees, the viewer watches existentialism occur in each of the three clients we see, as well as the girlfriend of one client, as they explore what makes each of them who they are. Not only does this movie explore the concept of existentialism, but it explores the concept of personality as well. This movie analyzes the assessment and therapy of personalities, the validity of personality assessments, and the realness of personalities by pushing boundaries in the personal lives of the characters

“Personality is complex and shaped by many factors, including genetics, parenting, and relationships with peers (Campbell, W. K., & Twenge, J. M. p. 6).” So does personality exist? Well, of course it does. Personality psychology answer the questions about who we are. The Big Five personality traits also describe us

I cringed, stopping halfway to my desk. Almost made it. A moment ago, when I'd peeked in through the classroom door, Mr. Lockhart had been preoccupied—completely absorbed in his book, as usual. I'd thought to sneak in without him noticing, but I should have been wiser than that. Henry Lockhart never misses a beat—no matter how faraway he may seem, his mind is always ticking. He notices every-freaking-thing.

I entered high school feeling like a traveler beginning a journey toward an unknown destination along pathways shrouded in fog. I had an inkling of where I wanted to go, but my ambitions of medicine were hazy and unformed, tinged with the suspicion that a great chasm lay between dreams and reality. No amount of straining brought my road or where it could take me into focus; I needed a guide, an experienced traveler to give me confidence on my path. I needed someone who could hold my hand where the way was unclear and lead me to a place I could never reach alone. I needed more than a teacher; I needed a mentor. I am fortunate to have found that mentor in Kathleen Huckabee.

Personality simply can be defined as the character of someone. It is the set of emotional qualities, thinking, ways of behaving, feeling and so on. Personality differs from one person to another. Similarly, my personality is also quite different from others. I get a chance to know about my personality by trying a test which I have never tried before.

David O. Russell’s I Heart Huckabees is an existential, philosophical comedy about environmentalist Albert Markovski, played by actor Jason Schwartzman, who started the Open Spaces coalition. The movie’s opening monologue shows Albert asking himself a series of questions such as “What am I doing?” and “Is it hopeless to try and change things?” Clearly, he is a curious, introspective character facing a state of distress and confusion. On top of these questions, Albert has experienced a strange coincidence. In a single day, he saw the same “African man” three times. In order to understand and find meaning in this coincidence, Albert seeks help from Bernard and Vivian Jaffe, a husband and wife team of “existential detectives” who specialize in “crisis investigation and resolution.” The Jaffes plan on helping Albert by spying on him throughout the day to see what observations they can make about him as a person. They also challenge Albert to question the meaning of life and his perception of reality while sharing with him their own beliefs about the universe, like the idea of “infinity thinking.”

A personality is a person’s unique everyday behavior, thoughts and feelings. To assess personality, there are different ways it can be done: therapy, personality matching, mental disorders, projective testing and etc. In I Heart Huckabee’s, they use several different assessments on Albert and Tommy the two main characters. The number one method the existential detectives used was personality matching. You match two people with many similarities; put them together in the same environment. Personality matching could be used with online dating, group projects and for this movie it put two men together who look at things in a physiology connection.

Personality is a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that gives both consistency and individuality to a person’s behavior (Feist & Feist, 2008).

Larsen and Buss define personality as "the set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual that are organized and relitivly enduring and that influence his or her interactions with, and adaptations to, the environment (including the intrapsychic, physical and social environment)." To fully understand this defintion, it is best to break it down into

Personality takes many shapes and forms and is affected by many factors. My understanding of personality is simply a genetic and environmentally determined set of psychological traits that influence our reactions in the world around us. Genetic because our parents possess a certain set of psychological personality traits that we tend to have in common with them so therefore in my opinion there are heritable personality traits. Personality is environmental because we each have our own separate experiences in the world and these experiences help form our unique personality. Neo-Freudians such as Jung have given us a wide array of ideas of how they believe personality is developed and formatted. Jung in particular has a very interesting take on personality. It is this theory that I can most resonate with and apply to myself and even friends and family of mine.