Little Miss Sunshine Free Response

In class we watched Little Miss Sunshine and now its time to apply AP psych terms! Note: definition without application will receive a score of 0 and Do Not Score bulleted information. Alright, so first, Dwayne faces color blindness in this movie. According to the Young Helmholtz trichromatic theory, people have three different color photoreceptors in their eyes that allow color vision. Therefore, Dwayne is colorblind because he lacks these photoreceptors. Next, throughout the film, Olive goes through rehearsal. Olive rehearses her routine whenever she can in order to produce greater neural connections and know it better. Next, when the Hoover's minibus breaks down, the family must fix it thereby creating a superordinate goal. The family stops their bickering because they have a bigger goal to reach, which is to get Olive to the pageant, and they need the bus to get there. Next, the grandfather in this movie took depressants. He actually snorted heroin. This heroin slowed down his heartbeat and his breathing leading to his in-sleep death. Next, at the end of the film, the father completely loses his sense of Kohlberg's post-conventional morality. This stage is characterized by making judgements on deeper morals and doing what is proper for society. He drove in a park illegally in order to make his daughter happy. He could have hit a pedestrian or crashed the car. This was not a judgement made to benefit society. Next, Dwayne is in the Identity vs. Role Confusion stage of Erik Erikson's stages of psychological development. Dwayne takes a vow of silence and acts the way he does because he is trying to figure out his identity and who he really is. Next, when Frank jumps out of the car to run as fast as he can to register Olive in the pageant, his body has released norepinephrine. This norepinephrine acts to aid the sympathetic nervous system which allows Frank to run very fast. The norepinephrine is the stress hormone that directly increased Frank's heat rate. Next, when the mother heard that her husband had not gotten the deal, she told him to work harder, therefore making the fundamental attribution error. Mrs. Hoover blamed her husband's failure on his inability to work hard. She did not even consider his environmental and situational factors. Next, when Dwayne talks to Frank outside of the pageant, he displays his internal locus of control. Dwayne says that society has no control over him and that he'll do whatever he wants. He believes that he alone controls his future life. Finally, the family oversteps safety on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and they hit love and belonging, when they take the trip. The family clearly cannot afford to take this trip and by taking it, they are jeopardizing their ability to pay for their home. But the Hoover's take the trip anyway because they are on the love stage. The love Olive and want to see her happy therefore taking the possibly bankrupting trip.