Preview

The Psychological perspective of movie The Pursuit of Happiness

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1356 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Psychological perspective of movie The Pursuit of Happiness
The Psychological perspective of movie The Pursuit of Happiness

An amazing movie, The Pursuit of Happiness illustrates through the examples of Chris Gardener 's life that anyone has the opportunity to achieve their own pursuit of happiness, if they have self-motivation and determination. Happiness is not something that can be pursued. We already have all the capacity for happiness that we need. Happiness comes from within, and from being content with oneself. People can choose to be happy or choose to be miserable. But to be happy or to be sad they need to have particular motivation or self-determination for it.

Motivation is defined as a desire or need which directs towards a goal or something that someone wants. Motivation is an inherent response; it comes from inside and cannot be imposed from the outside, and comes from wanting to do something of one 's own free will. A motivating condition may be defined as an emotion, desire, physiological need, or similar impulse that acts as an animating to action and is the set of processes that moves a person towards a goal. Motivation consists of five basic theories. The last theory is called humanistic theory and this is perhaps the most important of all. According to Abraham Maslow, an inventor of humanistic psychology, humans are driven to achieve the maximum point of goal at some point of their lives regardless of any obstacles and hindrances. Maslow developed a pyramid called Maslow 's Hierarchy of Needs and it argues about five levels of needs beginning with physiological needs and ending with our need for self-actualization.

In the movie Pursuit of Happiness, the main character Chris Gardner was played by Will Smith, who had lost everything in some financial crisis. He ended up living in homeless shelter with his kid. He was jobless to support his kid and his wife, so his wife leaves him. Motivation drives him to struggle until the very end to get rid of this situation. Chris had motivation, he had to feed and



Cited: "Motivation in Psychology 101 at AllPsych Online." _Psychology Classroom at AllPsych Online_. Web. 11 Apr. 2011. <http://allpsych.com/psychology101/motivation.html>. "Literature Class Ppt." _Google_. Web. 11 Apr. 2011. <http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:UlJtVpGyu9wJ:www.wiziq.com/tutorial/50450-Literature-class-ppt>. "Motivation in Psychology." _Encyclopedia of Psychology - Psychology Websites_. Web. 11 Apr. 2011. <http://www.psychology.org/links/Environment_Behavior_Relationships/Motivation/>.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Unit 1 Gcse Biology

    • 4688 Words
    • 19 Pages

    b) Cells called receptors detect stimuli (changes in the environment). Receptors and the stimuli they detect include:…

    • 4688 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Pursuit of Happyness by Chris Gardner and Quincy Troupe entails the life story of Christopher Gardner. Like other books that movies are made from, The Pursuit of Happyness movie was very different than the book. In the movie, Gardner starts out in his late twenties; he lives with his wife, Linda, and his son Chris Gardner Jr., who was five-years-old at the beginning of the movie. The book starts out very differently; Gardner is just three-years-old and living in a foster home (Gardner and Troupe 15-16). By the end of the book, Gardner Jr. is barely four-years-old. The major difference between the book and the movie is that Gardner experiences physical, mental, and sexual abuse.…

    • 1344 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In today 's society, people spend their whole life searching for happiness. It can be argued that people will never find true happiness, because as humans, we don 't know what it means to be truly happy. Many believe that achieving true happiness can only be done by achieving the American Dream first. However, once an individual achieves the American Dream, will he or she truly be happy? Is money happiness? Through characters Jay Gatsby from the novel "The Great Gatsby", and Christopher Gardner from the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness", true happiness will be compared and contrasted as it pertains to the American Dream and the two characters.…

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    What is the purpose of initial assessment and what kind of methods could be used? Evaluate these methods with reference to the ways they can help in the overall objective of achieving learning goals. How can you ensure learners are kept motivated and working towards these goals?…

    • 1454 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Maslow’s theory has five levels of needs and they are self-actualizing, physiological, safety, ego, and social (Lombardi, 2007). “A lack of motivation without having effective motivation methods and motivation strategies…

    • 1093 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Pursuit of Happyness stars Will Smith as Chris Gardner and shows his struggle as a single father facing homelessness yet striving to create a better life for his family. While it could be described as a Black man’s struggle, the movie manages to leave that as a secondary factor rather than the main source of conflict. Both the generosity and the discrimination he experiences at the hands of whites around him are portrayed, as well as, the reality that poverty has no color boundaries. People of all ethnicities are shown in impoverished scenes: in homeless shelters and food kitchens. His cultural interaction includes Asian Americans as well and depicts the cultural misunderstandings and language barriers experienced between them.…

    • 628 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Maslow came up with a theory that motivates people. The hierarchy of needs is what he called it, and he analyzed how the needs influence people in general. The needs are self-actualization motives, esteem needs, belongingness and love needs, safety needs, and physiological needs. Each need serves its own purpose.…

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Pursuit of Happyness, based on a true story, is about a middle aged man who has invested into a device known as the Bone Density Scanner that does not make money for him. Will Smith, plays Chris Gardner, who is struggling to build a future for himself and his son. This movie portrays the American Dream by showing that hard work is key to success. “The important thing about that freedom train, is it's got to climb mountains. We all have to climb mountains, you know. Mountains that go way up high, and mountains that go deep and low” (Pursuit Of Happyness). One needs to fail before they can succeed. A person must climb all the way up and fall, then get back up and try again. Even when a person or business man turns down an offer on selling the Bone Density Scanner, Gardner always knows there are brighter days in the future. At the end of the film, Gardner achieves his goals and secured a stable job and went on to become a multi-millionaire stockbroker. With all the frustration Gardner has in his life, his hard work gets him to the American Dream. In addition to working hard, another key factor to achieving the American Dream is…

    • 928 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the main theories relating to motivation is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. People have needs. A need is a lack of something- something we want. This produces the drive and desire which motivates us to satisfy that need. Satisfying this need, or getting the thing we want or lack is the goal. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology proposed by the American psychologist Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation”. This is a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-actualization.…

    • 688 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Brent Strawn, a religion professor, believes that many people in modern day see the pursuit of happiness as “‘[having] to do with ‘seeking it’ or ‘going after it’ somehow.’” However, in the 1700s, the pursuit of happiness was not seen as just practicing how to be happy, but actually obtaining it. Marcus Tullius Cicero once said, “‘What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.’” The Founding Fathers believed that everyone had the right to be truly happy not just attempting to be. Happiness was not about self-satisfaction or stupefied pleasure, but more of living life to its full potential; it was a choice. Sadly, in today’s society happiness is not a choice for all. Those in poverty, or facing discrimination in one form or another, do not always have the choice to be happy. Mankind has created such a culture that it is almost impossible to truly be one’s self without being persecuted for it. Moreover, the Founding Fathers viewed Great Britain as denying them the right to choose happiness, once again taking away their “unalienable…

    • 1178 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Happiness is clinically “defined as a person’s cognitive and affective evaluations of his or her life.” The cognitive…

    • 982 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Happiness as a goal may seem unrealistic and unobtainable because of the nature of life.…

    • 323 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Workplace Ethnography

    • 1790 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Ryan, R., & Deci, E. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions.Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25(1), 54--67.…

    • 1790 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Utilitarian’s always have the goal to produce happiness and pleasure from their actions, and consequently, this suggests that happiness is the most important goal in life for them; this is a consequencialist approach. Utilitarianism consists of two more parts, motivation and the principle of utility. Bentham argues that human beings are motivated by pleasure and pain, meaning they are more likely to move towards pleasure (happiness) and more away from pain. He…

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pursuit of happiness is a movie based on a true story about a man that is Christopher Gardner. In this movie, Christopher Gardner was played by Will Smith. For me, this story is very emotional and a lot of thing that we can learned from Gardner. Gardner has invested a lot of his family money in a device that is known as the Bone Density Scanner. Gardner feels that the device would be some sophisticated device that every medical practice would use it and he would be rich from selling it. However, those device did not sell as he thinks it would be because that device is almost as the same as the current technology but with a higher price. As day goes by for Gardner in his quest trying to sell the device, his wife leaves him, he loses his house, his bank account and his assets. This has force him to live out in the streets with his son. At this stage, Gardner is very desperate to find a job. Gardner has to get through the roughest time of his live. For me personally, this part of the movie is very sad but Gardner did not give up and really committed with his son. One day, Gardner sees the chance to for a stockbroker internship position at Dean Witter, but before he can receive pay he needs to go through six months of training with other twenty candidates. At the climax of the story, Gardner get a call from the heads of Dean Witter and they tell him that he has been excellent with his training and tomorrow will be his first day as a broker. Gardner rushes to his son day care and hug his son knowing that after everything that he had been through with his son, things would be all right. For me this movie has teaches me that needs to live be the motivation factor for someone to change his or her life. People like me love to be in my comfort zone. We tend to ignore problems until it is become worse. That is why we are not thinking out of the box. We tend to let things go by and not to promote invention. This movie teach me that it is…

    • 530 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics