Psychological Aspects of Remember the Titans
Quinn
Psych 100
November 13, 2012
Psychology in Movies
Psychology is the study of or science of how individuals and groups behave and their mental processes. Characteristics of these behaviors and mental processes are portrayed in many different ways within the movies that we create. Within the movie, Remember the Titans, many social psychology concepts are present. Remember the Titans is a movie set in Virginia 1971, its about a high school football team and how they come together in order to try and win the state championship. Unfortunately it is not that simple, this is a high school that has just been forced to integrate in a time of racial segregation, in a town where football is everything and is most of the boys’ ticket out of town and onto college. The three concepts that are evident in the movie are foot-in-the-door phenomenon, groupthink, and ingroup bias and outgroup.
The first concept is foot-in-the-door phenomenon. There is a scene where the teams newly appointed African American head coach, Coach Boone, forces all the boys off the two busses taking them to their two week camp. Then he separates the team into two groups, offense and defense, and then pairs each player with a teammate of a different race. Coach Boone goes on to explain to them that this is also the person with whom they will be sharing a room with; this is his initial small request. As camp continues on the team gets to know each other and slowly the race lines between them fade and they become close to each other. So Coach Boone’s initial request helped the team to later comply with his request of them to play together as a strong bonded team. This later request would not have been possible if asked originally, he had to start with a smaller request and work his way up to the larger request.
Groupthink is the second psychology concept within Remember the Titans. After the team returns from the football camp, where they united together, they win a couple of games but the hatred
Psych 100
November 13, 2012
Psychology in Movies
Psychology is the study of or science of how individuals and groups behave and their mental processes. Characteristics of these behaviors and mental processes are portrayed in many different ways within the movies that we create. Within the movie, Remember the Titans, many social psychology concepts are present. Remember the Titans is a movie set in Virginia 1971, its about a high school football team and how they come together in order to try and win the state championship. Unfortunately it is not that simple, this is a high school that has just been forced to integrate in a time of racial segregation, in a town where football is everything and is most of the boys’ ticket out of town and onto college. The three concepts that are evident in the movie are foot-in-the-door phenomenon, groupthink, and ingroup bias and outgroup.
The first concept is foot-in-the-door phenomenon. There is a scene where the teams newly appointed African American head coach, Coach Boone, forces all the boys off the two busses taking them to their two week camp. Then he separates the team into two groups, offense and defense, and then pairs each player with a teammate of a different race. Coach Boone goes on to explain to them that this is also the person with whom they will be sharing a room with; this is his initial small request. As camp continues on the team gets to know each other and slowly the race lines between them fade and they become close to each other. So Coach Boone’s initial request helped the team to later comply with his request of them to play together as a strong bonded team. This later request would not have been possible if asked originally, he had to start with a smaller request and work his way up to the larger request.
Groupthink is the second psychology concept within Remember the Titans. After the team returns from the football camp, where they united together, they win a couple of games but the hatred