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Positive Psychology in Movie In Pursuit of Happiness

Positive Psychology in Movie In Pursuit of Happiness essay

Table of contents

Relationship between the movie and positive psychology.

  • Definition of Success: From the very beginning, this movie shows that every individual defines and perceives success in a different manner. Linda believes that one’s success is determined by the amount of wealth one possesses. Perhaps, this perception is shaped by the circumstances that she faced as she was suffering from severe financial crisis even after doing double job shifts. Hence, she associated wealth with success and believed that Life satisfaction is heavily linked with wealth. On the other hand, Chris also suffered from poverty but he associated Happiness with positive relationships. Therefore, he tried his best to sustain his marriage but when it seemed impossible, he kept his son with himself. He himself had been separated from his father at a very young age so he knew the importance of relationships and tried his level best to provide for his son. Despite the harsh circumstances, he was always there for his son and believed that he was successful as a father.
  • Resilience: Resilience is defined as one’s ability to bounce back from setbacks. This phenomenon is heavily evident in Chris’ personality as he had to endure multiple hardships but he remained headstrong and never gave up. Chris had invested all his life savings on making high density bone scanners but this business plan didn’t work out. Even after numerous rejections, he got up every morning, arranged meetings with the clients and tried hard to sell his scanners. Some of the scanners got stolen but he tried hard to find them. His wife left him, he was kicked out of his house, had to spend a night in jail, listen to multiple taunts, give the job interview in dirty clothes with paint splashes on them, go to the office without shoes and run hard to find shelter every night. To make the matters worse, he had a young son to look after but even after all these hardships, he never gave up. After every difficulty, he used to bounce back quickly and continue his routine as normal. Hence, the amount of resilience he exhibited was exceptional since he quickly bounced back even after enduring the most challenging hurdles of life.
  • Positive and Negative Affect: Emotions are displayed in a vivid manner in this movie. Chris displays all sorts of positive and negative emotions like anger, frustration, happiness, joy etc. Some of the negative emotions, like fear of letting his son go to bed on an empty stomach, motivates him to work harder every day and hence contributes towards his success. In contrast, certain negative emotions, like the ones that he experienced when his wife left him breaks him apart from inside but he disguises these emotions really well and doesn’t share them with anyone. Even in the saddest of the moments, positive affect comes into play, like Chris celebrates his son’s birthday by gifting him a football, and they share a great joyful moment together. All in all, both positive and negative affect appear side by side in this movie, reflecting its resemblance to real life where such affects can also be experienced in a similar manner.
  • Self-Regulation and Self-Control: Chris possessed a high degree of self-regulation and self-control since he was able to control his desires and redirect his actions so that he could achieve his desired goals. When he was unable to sell the high density scanners, he redirected his actions and applied for an internship as a stockbroker so that he could achieve his goal of earning a handsome amount of money in the future and provide a secure future to his son. Similarly, when he had to achieve the target of attracting the maximum number of clients towards the company, he also monitored his actions multiple times where he screened out the high potential clients so that he could achieve his future goal. It is also worth noting that Chris was able to regulate his emotions efficiently as well since he didn’t let the feelings of sadness or despair create a hindrance in his future goals.

Linkage of the Movie with the Theories of Positive Psychology

  • Control Theory
  • Self-Discrepancy Theory

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Home / Essay Samples / Entertainment / In Pursuit of Happiness / Representation Of The American Dream In The Film Pursuit Of Happiness

Representation Of The American Dream In The Film Pursuit Of Happiness

  • Category: Sociology , Entertainment
  • Topic: American Dream , In Pursuit of Happiness

Pages: 2 (975 words)

Views: 2773

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Works Cited

  • Alvianty, Nur, Nierma Yuniar, and M. Muamaroh. An Analysis Subtitling Strategy of Interrogative Sentence Used in The Pursuit of Happyness Movie. Diss. Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, 2017.
  • Graham, Carol. Happiness for all? Unequal hopes and lives in pursuit of the American Dream. Princeton University Press, 2017.
  • Mukherjee, Aparajita. 'The American Dream of The Godfather: The Life and Times of Don Vito Corleone.' Cultural Spaces (2018): 103.
  • Ruo-jun, B. A. O. 'On Chris’s Unyielding Spirits Against Fate in The Pursuit of Happyness.' Journal of Literature and Art Studies 6.8 (2016): 905-910.

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