Crash: Social Psychology
Social Psychology In The Movie Crash Film Studies Essay
In life people will come in contact with others, who are from a different background, culture, lifestyle or ethnicity as them, yet still every individual is equal, they’re all humans. As humans, people have the tendency to have their own unique perspectives on the world around them and everything it encounters. Psychologist Gordon Allport (1985), one of the founding fathers of personality psychology, defined social psychology as a discipline in which scientific methods are used in order “to understand and explain how the thought, feeling, and behavior of individuals are influenced by actual, imagined, or implied presence of other human beings” (Cherry).Social psychology involves social cognition, how someone’s attitude can affect their behavior towards others as well as society, and intergroup relations. The academy award winning film Crash, directed by Paul Higgins, accurately conforms to how the aspects of social psychology, such as racism, person perception, attitudes, and discrimination, can affect ones everyday lives.
Crash takes place in the streets of Los Angeles over a two day time period. Each character plays a role in being the accuser as well as the victim in different racial scenarios. Grahman Waters (Don Cheadle) who is a prejudice detective against people of his own race and is having an affair with his Port Rican partner Ria (Jennifer Esposito). Anthony (Chris “Ludacris” Bridges) and Peter (Larenz Tate) are two African-American who steals cars as steal them as a way to get money. Peter is Grahman’s younger brother. Anthony thinks that everything and everyone around him is racist against the African-American culture. Jean Cabot (Sandra Bullock) is the wife of a district attorney Rick (Brendan Fraser). Jean is the type of woman who is prejudice against everyone outside her ethnicity. Daniel (Michael Peña) a young Mexican that works as a lock-smith and is very devoted towards to his family. A
In life people will come in contact with others, who are from a different background, culture, lifestyle or ethnicity as them, yet still every individual is equal, they’re all humans. As humans, people have the tendency to have their own unique perspectives on the world around them and everything it encounters. Psychologist Gordon Allport (1985), one of the founding fathers of personality psychology, defined social psychology as a discipline in which scientific methods are used in order “to understand and explain how the thought, feeling, and behavior of individuals are influenced by actual, imagined, or implied presence of other human beings” (Cherry).Social psychology involves social cognition, how someone’s attitude can affect their behavior towards others as well as society, and intergroup relations. The academy award winning film Crash, directed by Paul Higgins, accurately conforms to how the aspects of social psychology, such as racism, person perception, attitudes, and discrimination, can affect ones everyday lives.
Crash takes place in the streets of Los Angeles over a two day time period. Each character plays a role in being the accuser as well as the victim in different racial scenarios. Grahman Waters (Don Cheadle) who is a prejudice detective against people of his own race and is having an affair with his Port Rican partner Ria (Jennifer Esposito). Anthony (Chris “Ludacris” Bridges) and Peter (Larenz Tate) are two African-American who steals cars as steal them as a way to get money. Peter is Grahman’s younger brother. Anthony thinks that everything and everyone around him is racist against the African-American culture. Jean Cabot (Sandra Bullock) is the wife of a district attorney Rick (Brendan Fraser). Jean is the type of woman who is prejudice against everyone outside her ethnicity. Daniel (Michael Peña) a young Mexican that works as a lock-smith and is very devoted towards to his family. A