1. Baumrind's Parenting Styles: Authoritarian
1.1. Authoritarian parenting style is when parents impose rules and expect obedience without explanations.
1.1.1. "I won't tolerate any losers in this family...Your intensity is for s***!"
1.1.1.1. Andrew's father exemplifies an authoritarian parenting style because he has unrealistic and cruel expectations of Andrew and does not justify his expectations. When Andrew was mimicking something his father would say, he showed anger and declared that his father forces Andrew to be a winner because losing is just not an option.
2. Personality Concepts: Psychoanalytic Perspective
2.1. Defense Mechanism: Displacement
2.1.1. Defense mechanisms are ways of dealing with stress through unconsciously distorting one’s perception of reality. Displacement is expressing feelings that would be threatening if directed at the real target onto a less threatening substitute target.
2.1.1.1. "And Larry's undressing a couple lockers down from me. Yeah...he's kinda...he's kinda skinny, weak. And I started thinking about my father, and his attitude about weakness. And the next thing I knew, I uh, I jumped on top of him and started wailing on him..."
2.1.1.1.1. Andrew uses displacement to handle his stress and anxiety towards his father. Since Andrew's father used an authoritarian parenting style and was accepting, Andrew was always nervous and frustrating about trying to do things to please his father. As a result of this anxiety towards his fathers disappointment, Andrew dealt with his stress by taking his threatening anxiety out on Larry, a skinny and nerdy individual, who is least threatening than his father, which is evident when he bullied and tortured Larry.
3. Personality Concepts: Social-Emotional Development
3.1. Marcia's Identity: Foreclosure
3.1.1. Foreclosure is an identity status in which a person has adopted a ready-made identity provided by others, usually the parents, without seriously considering alternatives.
3.1.1.1. "'Andrew, you've got to be number one! I won't tolerate any losers in this family...Your intensity is for s...! Win. Win! WIN!!!' You son of a b....! You know, sometimes, I wish my knee would give...and I wouldn't be able to wrestle anymore. And he could forget all about me."
3.1.1.1.1. Andrew has his identity of being an athlete already predetermined by his father. No matter if Andrew wanted to be an athlete or not, this choice was already made by his dad, and it was adopted as soon as he was able to begin being a wrestler. By his dad yelling at him to always win and be number one, he is forcing him to be the best athlete, whether he wants to or not. Andrew was never able to consider an alternative identity due to his dad's constant yelling about being the best, which is why he foreclosed on being an athlete.
4. Personality Concepts: Humanistic Perspective
4.1. Growth Promoting Environment
4.1.1. Genuineness is being honest, direct, not using a façade, your real self equals your ideal self. Acceptance, otherwise known as unconditional positive regard, is acknowledging feelings, even problems, without passing judgment; honoring, not devaluing. Empathy is tuning into the feelings of others, showing your efforts to understand, listening well.
4.1.1.1. "And I started thinking about my father, and his attitude about weakness. And the next thing I knew, I uh, I jumped on top of him and started wailing on him...And my friends, they just laughed and cheered me on. And afterwards, when I was sittin' in Vernon's office, all I could think about was Larry's father."
4.1.1.1.1. In the film, Andrew lacks genuineness because his idea self does not equal is real self. His real self partakes in wrestling, acts cool and bullies others. This is not how Andrew wishes to be in life so he is not genuine. In addition, Andrew's father is not accepting. He has a conditional positive regard because as stated in the quote, his father does not accept weakness and wants Andrew to prove himself as a winner. Andrew acts out and bullied Larry because he wanted his father's acceptance and the only way he could earn it was to bully weak classmates. Lastly, Andrew shows sympathy when he said he could not stop thinking about the disappointment that Larry's father had in his son when he heard about the incident. Andrew knows his father is easily disappointed in him so he could not imagine the disappointment Larry's father had in Larry for being weak.
5. Personality Concepts: Social Cognitive Perspective
5.1. Personal Control
5.1.1. An external locus of control is we picture that a force outside of ourselves controls our fate. An internal locus of control is when we feel that we are in charge of ourselves and our circumstances. Learned helplessness is the declining to help oneself after repeated attempts to do so have failed.
5.1.1.1. "I'm not a winner because I wanna be one... I'm a winner because I got strength and speed. Kinda like a race horse. That's about how involved I am in what's happening to me."
5.1.1.1.1. In the film, we learn that Andrew has no choice but to be an athlete. From the day he was born, Andrew's father forced him to become an athlete. Because Andrew was born with the physical abilities necessary to be a winning athlete, such as speed and strength, he was forced into being an athlete by his dad, even though he had no desire to be one.
6. Social Psychology
6.1. Normative Social Influence
6.1.1. It is the change in attitudes and behavior to fit with the group because of the desire to belong
6.1.1.1. "The bizarre thing is, is that I did it for my old man...I tortured this poor kid, because I wanted him to think that I was cool. He's always going off about, you know, when he was in school...all the wild things he used to do. And I got the feeling that he was disappointed that I never cut loose on anyone, right..."
6.1.1.1.1. Andrew experienced the normative social influence when he bulled Larry. Andrew said that the only reason he tortured Larry was so his father would accept him and think he is cool. When he picked on Larry, Andrew's typical behavior of being kind changed to picking on others and bullying just so he would fit in, especially in his father's eyes.
7. Social Psychology
7.1. Frustration-Aggression Principle
7.1.1. After repeated frustrating events, anger can build, and find a target, and then: aggression can erupt, possibly against someone who was not the initial cause of the frustration.
7.1.1.1. At the beginning of the film, Bender (the criminal) was disrespecting Claire (the princess) by calling her names and accusing her of stereotypes. These actions angered Andrew (the athlete) which led to Andrew's action of pinning Bender to the ground.
7.1.1.1.1. Bender's name-calling to Claire frustrated Andrew and this frustration led to his aggressive actions of applying physical contact onto Bender.
8. Social Psychology
8.1. Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
8.1.1. One person's belief about others leads one to act in ways that induce the others to appear to confirm the belief.
8.1.1.1. "Um, I'm here today... because uh, because my coach and my father don't want me to blow my ride. See I get treated differently because uh, Coach thinks I'm a winner. So does my old man."
8.1.1.1.1. Andrew's self fulfilling prophecy is to be a winning athlete. His coach and father put a lot of pressure on him to be the best and always win. As a result of this, Andrew constantly thinks he deserves to be treated differently than others to confirm his father and coach's belief that he is the best.