After you have watched a movie, you should blog your general impressions of the movie (by 5pm on thursdays) and provide 1 example from the movie (scene, character, etc) and how it relates specifically to a theory or construct in Motivation and Emotion.
Your full analyses are due the following Tuesday turned in via eLearning (aka WebCT).
The Doctor is a movie about Dr. MacKee, a man in charge of his professional life as a heart surgeon. As Reeve (2009) would put it, Dr. MacKee “has the need for power and to have impact, control, and influence over another person, group, or the world at large.” Unfortunately for the good Doc there’s some bad road ahead of him. First we see Doc getting diagnosed with throat cancer. As he is going in for his biopsy he is put in a room with another person, which to a man of Doc’s high standards is unacceptable. He’s a first class surgeon, why is he getting put into a room with a mere mortal? Next we see Doc being instructed to fill out forms that he had previously filled out in another office. He makes the comment that his paperwork is “50 feet away” why does he have to fill out the paperwork again. The Doc’s need for status and position is further detailed in the waiting room when tells the nurse behind the counter he is a doctor and why he shouldn’t have to wait. The Doc ends up meeting a fellow patient, a woman named June, with whom he confides in as she doesn’t care about his doctor status. It is through his relationship with June that Doc slowly realizes that all of his status doesn’t matter when he is put through the same treatment that everyone else goes through. After Doc has the tumor removed from his throat by a fellow surgeon who he used to make jokes about, he understands there is a personal side to his patients and fellow doctors he must adhere to. Doc makes his interns all live in the care of the hospital for 72 hours to make them understand it is the patients that make the hospital what it is. He wants his interns to understand that power and status really mean nothing in there setting and the personal touch they can put on their careers will make all the difference.
I agree that in the beginning of the movie, Dr. Jack MacKee (and the other doctors and staff) feel that they are better than their patients - that their patients are less intelligent and don't deserve full expectations of their health because they won't understand.
Because Dr. MacKee is in a position of power, and enjoys it, I think that he displays many power symbols (Reeve, 2005, p. 191). He dresses in suits, has a beautiful, decorated, huge home, and drives an expensive convertible. He purchases these prestige possessions to exert his status and power to everyone who sees him.
In addition, he demonstrates his high need for power by his profession. According to Reeve (2005), he has chosen to be a doctor (partly) to satisfy his need for power. A medical occupation, like many other "powerful" positions, grants individuals to be in a position that allows them to be in power of their patients' behavior. For example, he could dictate to his patients when surgery would occur. Another example is shown by his ENT specialist, Dr. Abbott. After discovering that he would need to have surgery, Dr. Abbott tells him when it would work for her - despite his reservations about the time and date because of his previous appointments. She then continues to tell him that she is the doctor, and he is the patient, and so she has the power to tell him when the surgery will be done.
Furthermore, I think that the patients in the movie displayed learned helplessness (Reeve, 2005, p. 243). Although the medical process (i.e. paperwork, long waits, rescheduling, etc.) is tedious and frustrating, the majority of them knew that they were "little fish" and would have no impact if they complained. I think we all actually have some degree of learned helplessness... in class, we do the homework and take the tests, even if we disagree with all of them. We have accepted that bitching about all the busy work we're given won't do anything but piss the teacher off. We continue to pay high gas prices, because the only other alternative is to walk. We paid the $100 additional fee this year for our education, even despite an increase in tuition, because the alternative was to drop out. (These all could also be tied to extrinsic motivation, as we conform because of the outcome - the grade, the gas, education). The patients, then, cooperated and filled out the miles of repetitive paperwork, sat in the waiting room for hours, and continued to reschedule because they knew they needed the treatment.
Overall, although this movie was also depressing, it was MUCH better than the past 2 movies. In addition to being much less confusing, I enjoyed the "happy" ending and had a much easier time applying the concepts in our text to scenes and themes in the movie.
I really liked this movie. Its true, every Doctor will be a patient someday as Dr. Jack MacKee puts it. In the movie Jack who is a heart surgeon develops throat cancer which he is able to get removed. It was ironic how in the beginning of the movie the doctors are all singing and one of the ladies who never sings, Jack says " One day your going to sing to me before I die." When Jack is about to get his surgery she does sing for him, which I'm sure everyone saw coming. According to the textbook, Reeve talks about power in chapter seven. People who are high in need for power, desire to have "impact, control or influence over another person, group, or the world at large" (Reeve, 2009, p.195). Jack uses impact, control and influence to establish, maintain and restore power in this movie. In his case Jack wants power over all people under him, those who aren't as good of doctors, his patients and he even has trouble with his wife, because he can't talk to her, so he confides in June. June is the one that makes him realize he is just like everyone else who has cancer or a tumor etc... she is the one that makes him put down his guard on his need for power control and makes him realize he isn't better than everyone else. Towards the end of the movie, he has his interns undergo 72 hours to feel what it is like to be a patient, so they know how it feels when they are taking care of a patient and how it wouldn't be a hospital without all those patients.
Overall, Jack wants to restore his power among his fellow colleges when he finds out he has throat cancer, but they all want him to take off work, get better and so forth- he feels out of the group. He tried to establish power in the radiology department by telling them how he is a doctor and shouldn't have to fill out paper work over and over again and he shouldn't have to wait like all the other sick patients. He maintains some power throughout the movie, but it is more of a respectful power in seeing how others lives are affected.
I was very pleased by this movie pick.
As the others have mentioned, this movie definitely displays power symbols that hinder the character’s ability to relate to those individuals that he routinely cares for. The entire point of being in this influential position of power for Jack was the ability he possessed to make the physical and social world conform to his own personal image. He had a loving family, a beautiful home that was being remodeled through the entire movie, a sports car (prestige possession), and is always donning the ultimate power symbol—the “power suit” (just so others are aware of his power even when out of the hospital setting). Not only is he aware of his need for power, but he encourages his young interns to follow suit as this is what he believes the patients would want—certainly not an understanding individual who cares about how they’re feeling. When he is diagnosed with throat cancer, his domineering behaviors and desire to restore his powerful image in another part of the hospital get him into trouble. Nobody seems to care about his personal image as he is just another patient now. The leadership motive pattern becomes quite apparent after his diagnosis as the threefold pattern of needs involving high need for power, low need for intimacy and high inhibition come forth. These traits made him “effective” in his line of work, but we also see them causing trouble for Jack’s family life. He is not concerned about being liked and is always referring to his occupation when at home as if this makes up for the fact that he is never around. His wife tells him that she is lonely and his son has a difficult time with the news of his father’s condition. For him, it must be hard to understand how his father with such an important job as a surgeon could ever be weak enough to need help. Overall, Jack is very high in power and inhibition (internal control), but his low affiliation stands in the way of an effective family life and ability to relate to his patients even though these are qualities of an effective leader. Jack’s low point seems to become his high point in the storyline though as we see him completely turn around how he treats others and, at the same time, become even more effective in his profession.
I really liked this movie. I felt like this movie a lot easier for me to watch, compared to the last few movies and that made it easier to apply what we are learning to the movie.
In the beginning of the movie Jack is seems really cocky, and not very compassionate with his patients. He has a high need for power, which is shown with his possessions and the career he is in. He has a low level of intimacy in the beginning of the movie also, there is a scene in the movie when Ann (his wife) tells their son to come and say hi to Jack and their son picks up the phone. This shows his high need for power and achievement and his low levels of intimacy with his family.I really liked that at the beginning of the movie Jack is teaching the interns who are with him to be in high in power like him and to not let emotions get involved, but then at the end of the movie he has them all be patients in the hospital to understand the fear and loss of control that a patient in a hospital goes through. Once Jack is diagnosed with throat cancer he changes. But his high need for control does not change. He wants to be involved in helping with his diagnosis, does not want to give up work and does not want help from anyone. Eventually he realizes that he cant control everything and needs to let some things go. He is a patient like everyone else and that makes him realize that his power and prestige are not as important as his family and life.
The Doctor is a movie that I didn’t anticipate liking, but it ended up proving me wrong. Here we have this doctor who is at the top of his profession and seems to have everything going for him. Then, all of the sudden he finds out he has a malignant tumor in his throat and he is thrust into a role he has never really experienced-that of a patient. His philosophy as a doctor was to not get involved with the patient because being attached to a patient has the potential to cloud judgment with all that unnecessary emotion. While it is evident that Jack has a strong power need (as evidenced by his Mercedes convertible (prestige possession), and also seems to be inherent in his occupation), I was more curious about his motivation to use humor in certain situations. In his case, humor seemed to be tied to an affiliation need. I think it is affiliation (at least in the beginning) rather than intimacy because the use of humor in his case seems to be a way to actually avoid expressing his true feelings and emotions in some circumstances. In looking at the beginning surgery scene, it seems as though Jack’s affiliation need is only important once his power need has been met. For instance, the surgery is going along with a hitch and they are all singing and joking (affiliation) until something goes wrong (power in jeopardy) and Jack has to focus all of his attention on fixing it (restoring power). Once the problem is solved (power restored), Jack begins joking again because the affiliation need is once again important now that the power need has been satisfied. There are several examples of this throughout the movie, although it seems as though his need for power and affiliation start to balance out at the end with affiliation turning more into intimacy.
In The Doctor, we are introduced to the main character, Dr. Jack MacKee. He is a wealthy, powerful doctor who is very motivated by achievement and power. Dr. MacKee’s career choice represents his need for “success in competition with a standard of excellence” (McClelland, Atkinson, Clark, & Lowell, 1953, pg. 175.) Doctors need to be competitive against the other residents while going to medical school in order to stand out. In the movie, you can see that he is a successful doctor, therefore he must have stood out while competing against his peers. His career as a doctor is once again support for the argument that the need for power is a motivator is his life. Jack has the desire to have “impact, control, or influence over another person, group, or the world at large” (Winter, 1973, pg. 195) and as a doctor who has the final say in many situations such as meetings, appointments, and surgeries, this need to met. When Jack’s health takes a turn for the worse and he becomes the patient as opposed to the doctor, it is very hard for him to let the power shift into the hands of his doctors. The textbook puts it in a way that reminded me of what Jack was going through as a patient: “During negotiations, for instance, high power individuals are more likely to express anger…” (Sinaceur & Tiedens, 2006, pg. 198.) This is what happens when Jack is asked to do things that he feels are beneath him or silly such as fill out paper work required for patients. Overall, this is Jack’s journey of learning to ease up on trying to control everything in life and to value intimacy with family a little more.
As mentioned in many of the previous posts Jack had a high need of power, but I also think his wife, Ann, did also. In class we talked about how teachers are another profession in what many people with high needs of power are centered. I think because both Ann and Jack were high in needs of power their marriage worked; for example they understood the others need for long work days. As Jack was going through his radiation his need for power changed which I think is one reason the marriage started having problems. No longer could these two people relate to one another in this way. Jack’s needs started to shift to relatedness, which he fulfilled by connecting with June. His relationship with June helped him connect to another person who was going through the same process he was and who would be able to help him cope throughout radiation. I think this shift is also seen in Jack’s relationships with the other doctors. His practice partner, Dr. Murray Kaplan, also seemed to be high in need of power. Their relationship also seems to split late in the movie, which is apparent when Jack is going into his surgery. Instead of going to Murray for the surgery, he asks Dr. Blumfield to perform the surgery.
I thought it was an interesting comparison between this movie and the last one we watched, “The Hours”. In this movie the characters are trying to avoid death as much as possible. They are going in for treatment and surgery even knowing there are risks involved, in order to live longer. In “The Hours” the characters are almost actively seeking death out by either contemplating suicide or by actual suicide.
The movie was somewhat predictable, but very enjoyable at the same time. I had a feeling at the very beginning when Jack and his colleagues were singing, dancing, and paying the patient on the surgery table no serious attention, that at some point in the movie Jack would see it from the patients point of view. Jack displayed textbook characteristics of a man in power. Many others have already disucussed his power status so not much needs to be said there. Basically, almost every characteristic our book says about people in power, Jack possessed. He had a collection of power symbols (car, house), he had a high power job, he found ways to make himself visable to others (going to fund-raiser instead of parent-teacher conference), and he had a poor relationship with his wife.
One thing I found quite interesting is that once Jack found out about the tumor, his behaviors changed dramatically. He was no longer in control of everything, and he took a step back and withdrew himself from others. For so long he kept his wife far away from him, as he mentioned several times. Once he found out he was sick he made a new friend, June, and suddenly had the desire to be close with his wife, he just didn't know how. Our textbook explains this well on page 193-194 when it talks about fear and anxiety. Reeve states that "to reduce such anxiety and fear, humans typically adopt the strategy of seeking out others. When afraid, people desire to affiliate for emotional support and to see how others handle the emotions they feel from the fear object." Since Jack was unsure how to make ends meet with his wife, June was there to support him emotionally, and whether Jack knew it or not, he too was supporting June. After June dies, Jack is still sick and no longer in the power position he once was. Jack realizes how neglectful he was to his wife as well as his patients. Once Jack goes back to work he devotes his time to things other than building his power status, but at home and at work.
The interesting character in this movie was Jack's wife, Anne. Throughout this movie we see she is a wife of a surgeon and Jack is rarely home at night to be with her and their child, Nick. She seems fine and she seems strong, as if she is able to handle what comes at her.
Especially after finding out Jack is coughing up blood we notice more-so her need of intimacy and affiliation. She pays more attention to Jack's needs and what he wants her to be that she neglects her own needs and it leaves her feeling lonely. She becomes very vulnerable when she finds out he has cancer and then when she finds out (on the phone while Jack is with a friend) the cancer is spreading. This is one of those times when her need for intimacy especially with her husband is very strong. Reeve (2009) states "the desire, or social need, for intimacy arises from interpersonal caring and concern, warmth and commitment, emotional connectedness, reciprocal dialogue, congeniality, and love." Her needs aren't being met. All she needs is some attention and Jack to be there and tell her this is going to be okay. The last thing she needed was the knowledge that he ran away with another girl when she needed him. After their mini-fight in the hospital she gets a great deal of pent up thoughts off her chest finally, and in the end of the movie we see them resolve their issues, and Jack is now a different man after his journey. From that we could only hope that he is a better doctor and a better husband; hope that he isn't going to continue to be the scarecrow in the middle of the field.
I thought that The Doctor was a good movie, interesting and inspirational. My favorite scene was when Jack went in for surgery and his nurse sang the Jimmy Buffet song. That scene made me want to laugh and cry. In the beginning of the movie, all I could think was I hope I never have a doctor who is so cavalier with human life. He seemed proud of his ability to be above all of the human emotions that go along with having surgery. Jack's nurse may have been motivated to do something she was obviously uncomfortable with by a need for relatedness. She felt the need to show that her relationship with Jack was an exchange relationship. When he was in need of something, she wanted to be there for him.
I found the contrast between June and Anne very interesting. They both seem to be motivated by the need for relatedness. They were both looking for warm, close emotional bonds with other people. However, June's need was better satisfied because her relationship with Jack was more communal than Anne's relationship with Jack. Jack was able to share his thoughts and feelings with June and he turned to her when he needed support. Jack held Anne at a distance, so while Anne tried to create a communal relationship by attempting to be there for Jack during his time for need, but he did not reciprocate that relationship. Once Jack convinces Anne that he needs her, her need for relatedness is finally satisfied. This is because the relationship is now communal instead of one sided.
I especially enjoyed the end of the movie, where Jack fulfilled his need for power, by influencing his interns in a more positive way. He made them patients for 72 hours, so that they would better understand what it was like to be on the other side. The looks on their faces was priceless, they were shocked and a tid bit horrified. Their needs for achievement, power, and autonomy were definitely not going to be fulfilled in those 72 hours.
I thought The Doctor was a pretty alright movie. At least it was way better than The Hours! At first I really hated Dr. Mackee. I thought he was arrogant and egotistical. He was like on one those guys that tells horribly lame jokes but you just have to smile and pretend to laugh because he's the boss. I thought that was a reason that he didn't like to show emotion, he just thought of patients as a paycheck and an opportunity to show how good he was at his job. This of course all changed when he was diagnosed with cancer. He reached out to another cancer patient whom he could share his pain with, June. June became his outlet for the relatedness he needed. He couldn't talk to his doctor friend or even his wife, even though his wife was trying to reach out to him. It was hard for Dr. Mackee to get used to the lifestyle of needing people and being helped because he had such a strong need for autonomy. He wanted to do everything himself and by himself. This is showed when he refused to get in the wheelchair, even though it was procedure. In the end, Dr. Mackee ends of learning that he needs other people in his life and learns to be more caring towards his patients. He learns to see them as people, instead of another way to prove his power and achievement.
In retrospect, I did enjoy watching The Doctor, but nothing too particular stood out for; I thought it was pretty predictable. All in all, it did have an effect on me, mostly with regards in valuing life and relationships. As a highly prized doctor, Jack walked around the hospital with a overt swagger, making jokes at the expense of his fellow surgeons. It was great to witness his transformation throughout the movie. I couldn't imagine being in his position as a top surgeon and then get thrown into a complete opposite role as a patient. In the face of adversity and a possibility of terminal illness, he had to break down his ego barrier and adapt to a new environment, one in which is power, control, and autonomy were dismantled. At first, he had everything going for him, and as soon as that news hit him, he lost all sense of direction and stability, especially in his ability to relate well with others. Although his wife strove to be there for him, Jack had obviously become detached from his previously close emotional bond with her. The book describes ways to involve relatedness in one's life, and among them is establishing mutual concern. It wasn't until Jack met June when he was able to understand what it was really like for another person to feel the way he was feeling. They related well together because they could commiserate. The friendship with June allowed Dr. MacKee to realize how important it was for him to reach back out to his wife and embrace her emotional involvement with his situation. Finally, I would like to say that this movie demonstrated extremely important commentary for the practice of bedside manner. Jack's entire outlook on life, as a doctor and as a patient, was completely restructured during the months he spent before surgery, and that same outlook will live forever in his personality and the resident doctors whom he is advising.
Overall, "The Doctor's" was a pretty decent movie. I think it displays the changes an individual can undergo (especially psychologically and socially) when one's world is turned upside down by the death of a loved one or in this case a diagnosis of cancer.
In this movie, after Jack's medical revelation, he changes from a man who keeps his patients and even his wife at arm's length, to a man that is searching for someone to satisfy his psychological need for relatedness. This completely contradicts his earlier stance in which he is socially powerful, yet lacking intimacy (with both his wife and patients). Upon his diagnosis, however, Jack's need variables changed and his psyche was a mess. June, a similar cancer patient, became his emotional outlet, his place to let go of his controlling nature and allow other proactive interactions with his environment (both physical and social) to enhance his growth and well-being as an individual. I think this was evident in the scene in which he dances with June out in the desert. This was something he was not used to before as a doctor as essentially, every day he controlled and manipulated the health and well-being of another individuals life. He desired impact, control, and influence because he was this power-needing individual. His loss of power really forced him to analyze the world through a different lens and appreciate intimacy, relationships, and emotional freedom.
This movie definitely shows how a person can change due to situational influences. Jack, a highly revered doctor, shows a definite high need for power in the beginning of the movie. When Jack is diagnosed with cancer he remains in high need for power. He begins to yell at all of the nurses and doctors around him because things are not going the way he thinks that they should. He felt as though the nurses were at fault because he had to fill out the same paperwork three days in a row at three difference stations. And the doctors were at fault for not getting him in right away, because Jack also had patients that he needed to see. It takes about 4 doctors appointments worth of bad news for him to finally realize there are certain things he cannot control. One patient, June, has the ability to set him straight and help him realize there are more important things in his life. Jack begins to experience a shift in what he desires. Rather than recognition and power he begins to desire intimacy and personal connection. Jack gives up his place on the stand as an expert witness, because he feels as though he does not want to lie just so that he can be right. He takes a random trip to Nevada with June and begins to really let her in. Though, they were only friends. Jack made more of an emotional connection with June than he was willing to make with his own wife. Though, that broke his wife's heart, Jack felt as though he had control still. He needed to have some sort of power still. After being a patient, and having the potential to lose his voice, Jack finally realized what it was like to never be heard. Then he finally realized how important it was to have the emotional connection. Because you have no power when you are not heard. But you will always have the love from those people that you are emotionally connected to.
I definitely enjoyed watching the Doctor this week. Jack MacKee is a top-notch surgeon at the hospital in which he worked at. Although Jack had a strong need for power, which he clearly displayed through his many acts of saying "Do you know who I am?" while receiving treatment for his cancer. Jack also had a need for affiliation as well. Our textbook refers to the need for affiliation as the deprivation from social interaction, where someone could be lonely, rejected, or separated which would increase a desire to be with others. While Jack is going through the process of changing from being a doctor to being the patient, Jack meets June. It appears that through June, Jack is able to become more in tune with his desire for affiliation. It is possible that Jack feels a strong desire for affiliation with June because she is also a cancer patient, and has been through the ridiculous routines involved in receiving treatment. Jack's fear and anxiety about his tumor is the driving force for his need to affiliate with June. However Jacks high need for affiliation with June disrupts the relationship with his wife Anne.
Going back to Jack's need for power, Jack was able to overcome the misleading characteristics of this need and change them into something better. My favorite part of the movie was after Jack had been through the transformation from being the doctor to being the patient, and he realized that it is important to see what its like to be the patient in the hospital, and thus made his interns complete this task.
It was interesting to see how Jack made the transition between having the need of power being at the top of his list to the need of affiliation being at the top. My favorite part was when June actually called Jack out on his overbearing ways that demonstrated his need for power.
In the movie The Doctor, you get to see how the medical field tries to keep this boundary between medial personal and their patients. The way that they like to keep everything is to not be personal; when you become intimate with a client you lose the ability to counsel them correctly. I understand that this can be sometimes seen as being extremely cold in nature, and as a need for power.
Jake, can be seen in hospital setting as someone who takes into count no one else’s feelings for emotions, because becoming too close to their patients can lead to feeling for them when they die or have major complications. A lack of intimate relationships with a patient, and I don’t mean intimate in a sexual way, but of a way of family or a close friend. Yet, you can see in his relationships with his co-workers his need for affiliation is something that he takes pride in. His peers and he also take pride in making fun of other Doctors who are to intimate with their clients, making them seem weak and not the best. The last relationship we see him in can seen also as being cold or cruel is his family, you don’t get that his wife and him are going through some things, but that you can tell he is not home a lot, because his son doesn’t call him dad. But you see him in a loving way with them.
It is not until he is on the other receiving end that you can see Jake take a turn on how he should treat his patients. When he is diagnosed with a tumor and has to go as a patient through the paper work and the lack of communication, he gets extremely frustrated. He learns that it is hard to distinguish a proper treatment from a doctor and a client. It is like karma, in a way. His relationship with patients change as he realizes that the treatment he has been given is the way he use to be. He still understands becoming too attached. His relationship with his wife, gets worse then he realizes that he needs to fix it before he ends up alone.
I think he realizes that he has to change in a way to become a better doctor, and to be a better person. The lines that the hospital has drawn for him as a surgeon has hindered him from becoming personally attached to anyone but himself. He also learns the value of life and what it means to care about your own life as well as others. Seeing himself in his patients is an effective way to get everyone to understand that they actions can and are hurtful.
Dr. Jack MacKee seems to have a high desire for control. He works in a hospital which is a highly controlled environment that has a very strict set of guidelines that must followed. There are standard procedures that must occur with each patient and if there are ‘surprises’ with the patient there is a set path to follow as well. However, he does not like these guidelines and procedures when he becomes a patient and sees the view from the other side. When he finds out that he has a growth on his throat (and throughout the movie) Jack seems to favor an avoidant-emotional focused response over an approach-problem focused response. This can be seen in his not telling his wife (Anne) right away, drinking, pushing Anne away when she is trying to support him in his fight, not accepting the fact that his life is changing and he might have to give up being a surgeon, running away with June, etc. Jack seems to have a need for relatedness and he can only function with one close relationship at a time. He pushes his wife away because she cannot possibly understand what is happening to him and neither can Murray so he connects to June. Jack and Anne have a bond that is strong but it seems Jack’s fear overrides and he pushes her away. June allows Jack to be vulnerable, weak, sad, and adventurous with no questions asked such as, going on a road trip to Nevada). Additionally, Jack uses humor as a defense mechanism and a way to diffuse social situations throughout the movie.
Anne seems to have an aesthetic need but it might be a way to fill the void that her husband leaves. I only say this because of the house they live in and she is remodeling. It seems as if the project is there to occupy her time and attention so she does not focus on her husband’s lack of attentiveness.
I really enjoyed the movie "The Doctors". As previously stated in many posts it is obvious that Dr. Jack MacKee has a high need for power. There are many ways in which the doctor shows that she has this power and control. In the beginning when he is in the car with this wife and gets a call from one of his patients; he appears to be degrading when he and his wife make fun of the lawn mower idea. Another time in which he "attempts" to show power is in the waiting room before his biopsy. At this point he uses the fact that he is a doctor to try and get into the doc office faster. This method of control is also used when his radiation gets rescheduled- here the brain cancer patient in the room brings his ego back down and this is the beginning of his turn around.
The Doctor plays an important leadership role in the hospital therefore it when talking about his power and control need we can also talk about his leadership motive pattern as described in our textbook. The three components that contribute to this model are 1-the need for power, 2-low need for intimacy.affiliation, and 3-high inhibition. All of these facets are demonstrated in this movie. One can see his high need for power in his work environment. The low need for affiliation and intimacy is illustrated in his relationship with his wife and the lack of interest he shows in being considered a "cancer patient".
Overall,I really liked this movie. It was a great demonstration of the power and control aspect that motivates peoples behaviors. It highlights both the positive and negative characteristics that come with a high need for power and portrays the balance of that struggle very well.
Just for the record, I enjoyed this movie much more than the last one. However, I was really startled by how the doctors acted. I really hope that this movie wasn't meant as a rude awakening to how doctors were acting / should act.
Dr. Jack MacKee was power hungry. He was a top heart / lungs doctor with the "perfect life" - the nice job, nice house, beautiful wife, and son. He was not the only doctor who was content to go through life without a second though for the patients. He just wanted to cure then and get rid of them. However, once he found out he had cancer and was the patient, he started to see just how many flaws there were in the hospital. At the beginning of his treatments, he tried pulling strings, impressing upon people that he was a top doctor at the hospital, and yelling to get what he wanted. This just wasn't working.
This is where his new view of the world changes his need for power to relatedness and intimacy. His priorities shift - as seen when he leaves his friends to go help the man who suffered the stroke. He related to the pain and suffering of the patient and decided to help him. He also looked into the malpractice case and decided not to testify for his friend because he felt that he was wrong. This happens again when he finally lets his wife in. Before he had kept her at arm's length, but he finally surrendered by writing on the board "I NEED YOU".
All in all, I think that this was a great movie because you take a guy who is not all that likable to begin with, and he has to learn one of life's lessons the hard way and becomes a better husband and doctor because of it.
I found “The Doctor” to be a very interesting movie. Jack is a great heart surgeon who is living a great life with his wife and son. I think as everyone else has already mentioned Jack has a need for power. This can be seen throughout the entire movie especially after he finds out that he has cancer and becomes a patient in the very hospital he is a doctor at. He gets placed in a double room during his first stay, to Jack this is unacceptable and he wants his own private room. Jack is then supposed to fill out paper which he had already filled out for another department in the hospital; he finds this to be ridiculous and makes sure to point out to the nurse that he is a doctor in the hospital. There are four conditions that help to satisfy the need for power: leadership and relationships, aggressiveness, influential occupations, and prestige possessions. You can see all four of these conditions in the movie. First leadership and relationships Jack is one of the leading doctors in his practice and others come to him for advice. For aggressiveness we can take the example of Jack getting upset with the nurse for making him fill out the paper work twice. Obviously as a heart surgeon Jack has a very influential occupation. Finally, prestige possessions we can see this in Jack’s nice Mercedes convertible and his very nice house that he is having the kitchen remodeled. Through the process of Jack becoming a patient he really gets an insight into what it is like being a patient and just how frustrating and scary it can be. He also begins to interact with another patient who has brain cancer, June. June is a big reason why through the movie Jack slowly transforms away from his high need for power. By the end of the movie Jack is a transformed man who cares more for his patients.
The film "The Doctor" is a good example of how a brush with death (and one's own mortality) can transform a person's perspective and outlook on life. There are several motivation and emotion concepts I picked up on throughout the film. I will briefly illustrate a few of these concepts here.
I believe that the Doctor (Dr. Jack MacKee ) has a strong need for power, more specifically for prestige positions and aggressiveness. In the book, power is defined as a "desire to make the physical and social world conform to one's personal image or plan for it.... (those with high power needs) desire to impact, control, and influence over another person, group, or the world at large.”
Of all the past characters in our films, I actually believe that Dr. MacKee is among the least likeable. In the beginning we see him use positive humor with his coworkers and patients, which is good, but especially with his patients it seems to be humor for largely his own amusement, not as much for relatedness or affiliation. When in the car with his wife, he openly mocks a patient who calls him for advice. Yes, this is a film and we can laugh at how the patient's story was a little humorous, but in real life it is not too funny at all. A patient fighting with his wife about what he should or should not do at home can lead to significant stress, which can lead to further health problems. It is my argument that he viewed people more as pawns in his game than actual humans being equal to himself.
He also appeared to be extrinsically motivated by very nice things, such as his car and his home (which he was improving even further). He appeared to very much enjoy his status of power and the autonomy that came with that status. When he was diagnosed with throat cancer, he was devastated. He probably felt like he had been knocked down from his high pedestal and made to feel like a commoner at that moment. I think it is likely that it was because he was so used to feeling above everyone else that he had a hard time believing he would ever have to wait behind another person. To make it worse for him, he was made to wait in the very place where he held such high status for years. If his status could be threatened here, it could be threatened anywhere. The diminishing sense of autonomy was shown in many ways. Not only was he made to wait for others, but he was also increasingly being told what he could and could not do. Leadership decisions were being made without him, and he was made to feel marginalized. That is sometimes what happens at organizations that are trying to encourage an employee to leave the organization. Perhaps most obvious of all, the throat cancer threatened his very life and all of the plans he had for his future.
Another reason why I believe that Dr. MacKee may not be particularly likeable is not only because of how he treated some of his patients as pawns, but because of how he treated even his own wife. He made a commitment to her when they got married, and he had an obligation to be faithful to her. When things got tough, he found another woman to be there for him. It is important to mention here that I believe he was in fact cheating on his wife, maybe not physically, but most certainly emotionally. In the past I have heard of studies in which it was found that women are more okay with their partners being physically involved with someone else than they are if there was an emotional connectivity involved. Evolutionarily speaking, this has been said to possibly be because men who became emotionally attached to other women were more likely to give the other women resources. Furthermore, Dr. MacKee did not even treat his colleagues with respect. It reminded me of the show MASH, in which the main character constantly derides one of his colleagues. To me, it is not even funny when it is fictional, much less when it happens in real life. To put it in very simple terms, Dr. MacKee was a genuine, inconsiderate jerk. I don't believe his wife should have accepted his apology because it seems to me that the only reason he went back to her is because his first choice died.
Near the end of the film, I believe Dr. MacKee did develop a greater respect and understanding for his others, including his wife, his colleagues, and his patients. He still seemed to have a strong need for power, but this need for power was different in that it may have been of a less aggressive nature and more of a Leadership and Relations nature (in which he could genuinely connect with and help others.
“Call another patient terminal and that’s how you’ll describe your career!” At this moment in the movie, I knew that Jack MacKee was changing. Throughout the first half of the movie, the viewer saw Jack as a happy-go-lucky doctor, with a sarcastic attitude and a life he seemed to love. After Jack learns of his cancer, it takes him awhile to realize what is really important to him and how his life needs to change. One thing that you see changing is Jack’s need for affiliation and intimacy. Before the cancer, Jack was all about work and fun, he never stopped to think about what was important in life. You can see his lack of closeness with his family when he comes home early one night and Anne yells at their son to come say hi to dad, the son, without thinking, goes to the telephone and tries to talk into it. I found this scene very telling about how their life operates. Afterwards, he becomes very emotionally (and inappropriately) connected to a fellow patient, June. The book states that social isolation and fear-arousing situations are two variables that increase a person’s desire to affiliate with others. To avoid the feeling of “falling to pieces”, Jack allows himself to open up and let June in. Even after June dies, you can see the Jack maintains this need for affiliation with his wife, as well as at work. He is no longer a cold doctor who just gets “in and out”, he is unselfish and cooperative, apologizes to the other doctor for saying mean things about him, and stands up to his partner when he is wrong. I began this blog thinking about writing about Jack’s high need for achievement, but then I stopped and thought that actually it was never a need for achievement at all, if anything it was a need for power and dominance over others.
I liked how this movie played out from the beginning to the end. There is really two parts to this movie, the one where Dr. Jack Mackee is a joking, singing, listening to music kind of doctor, that is happy.
It shows Dr. Jack MacKee (as everyone has mentioned) is a person of need with power. It definitely shows that with his family, other doctors, and patients. The power also showed when he found out he was diagonised with throat cancer. When he was the patient he felt that he should be treated with all of respect and get the things that he wanted to get, just because he was a high well known doctor at the hospital. But that was not the case here. He definitely showed he learned some life lessons and that was to actually care for the patients and not just shove them out of the hospital once he has cured them. At the end of the movie he definitely shows some affiliation and intamcy with his wife, needing her by his side when he transitioned from a doctor to a patient. And then to his transition from a patient to knowing he needs to be a better doctor. Having him be put into the situation of a patient definitely showed him the side of the doctor that he needs to be.
In the movie, The Doctor, I felt the main character (Dr Jack MacKee) had a lot of power issues. In the beginning, he was a well respected doctor and started having the attitude of one too. He was very cocky and knew he did a good job. He respected his fellow doctors (except the doctor who eventually did his throat surgery). When Dr MacKee was diagnosed, it kind of flipped his power upside down. Although he still had the respect as a well known doctor in his section of the hospital, he lost all of his power elsewhere-- in the departments of the hospital that he went to for his throat surgery. In ch 7 of the text, it states "people with high need for power seek recognition in groups and find ways for making themselves visible to others'... I believe this explains Dr MacKee's need to bring attention that he was a well known doctor from a few floors up. He wanted to sustain that image and leadership level for himself.. and hopefully have the people recognize this and help him more (or give him the special treatment). Unfortuneately, as everyone knows, this didnt work and he was treated as any other cancer patient.
I believe Dr MacKee used the other cancer patient as someone to ease his stress- he had accepted his cancer and began affliating himself to the other patient. In ch 7 of the text, it says 'social isolation and fear-arousing conditions are two situations that increase a person's desire to affliate with others'. I believe this is true, because in Dr MacKee's situation, he may have felt turning to his wife for support was somewhat useless, because she didnt know what exactly he was going through, whereas the other cancer patient did.
I think that this movie made a great point of realizing that you should never judge anyone or anything until you are actually put in their situation. This was the case for Jack and his fellow doctors. Jack always said not to become attached to the patient, you go in, you make a cut, and you come out, and it's over with. Although he was an amzing doctor that was well known,he never took the time to get to know his patients or care about what they were actually going through. This all changed, though, when he became a patient himself. He received a rude awakening, and even became frustrated at times on how he was treated. This changed his entire outlook on not only his job, but also his own life.
We see Jack as a doctor who demands power and control. He is one of the most well known doctors in his hospital, he's wealthy, successful, and has a family that loves and supports him, although he's not alwasy there for them. I think that jack has a high need for achievement, as well. He constantly tries to keep at the top of the game in his field of work, and never fail. We also see this when he finds out about his tumor and goes through treatment. He strives to overcome the illness, and feels as though it would be a failure of him if he is unable to beat the cancer. Also, we see power and achievement issues when he refuses to take time off work and still wants to do everything that he was doing before he started his treatments. He becomes weaker because of the treatments, but still tries to fight through it to do his job, and so people don't think less of him. I think he's also trying to keep the power that he had of always being the "super doctor" that was amazing at what he did.
A lot of this changes, though, after he gets to know another one of the cancer patients that's pretty much dying. He gets another prospective on life and becomes less selfish and more caring. He realizes that his patients are people too and tries to do the right things more often, like when he refuses to testify as a witness for his friend. He also realizes that he does need his wife, but I think it was hard for him to let people get close to him because he was affraid of losing his power and control. In his eyes, I think that he felt it would make him seem weak by accepting help or support from anyone, including his own wife.
This movie had a lot of different issues in it that related to power and control struggles and emotion. Overall, I thought it was a great movie, better than I had expected it to be.
It has clearly been stated that Jack’s initial need for power defines the film. He is a very successful surgeon and lives with his wife and child very comfortably. He displays the impact, control and influence the book says are common to high-power need individuals. His dominance and reputation in his field as a surgeon, and status both in the hospital and socially are all tied to this. His fancy car, house, suit, and emotional detachment from his family and patients is a little disturbing. It was not until he was returning home from dinner party with his wife and began to cough up blood did his world get turned upside down, and his needs began to change.
After getting his throat checked out and learning he needs a biopsy, his need for power becomes even more apparent. Every situation he runs into from the very first visit of the doctor who check out this throat was met with hostility and a clear sense of discomfort. When he learns the growth is positive for cancer things really get bad for Jack and his power need. When he has to become a patient himself and he does not have control of the situation, he often reacts aggressively and with a forceful take-charge attitude. This still does him no good which continues to frustrate him.
As his experiences evolve, his needs shift from a power orientation to affiliation/intimacy needs. Like most high-power need males, his marriage was not faring so well. His constant frustrations were almost called out by a fellow cancer patient June. Who over time he began to relate with, speak freely about his condition, and really have the listening, and self-disclosure filled relationship that supports the need for intimacy.
As the movie grew towards the end, he not only acquired a much more sensitive view to his profession, but a better understanding of how to communicate and relate with his wife. I thought it was especially interesting when he made his new in-terns don the hospital gown and get all the usual quick fix solution tests done to them that most doctors just throw at patients. His need for power I think was still evident by doing this, especially in his attitude, but his intrinsic motivation had increased to make and keep meaningful relationships, not superficial status based ones.
Though Jack's need for power was a strong motivator in lots of ways throughout the movie, I thought Jack's wife was also a very interesting character with several different motivators in her life. Her behaviors of enduring patience with her husband being there for him even when he was trying to shut her out would imply some strong underlying motivators. Her enduring patience was quite impressive and must have come from her need for relatedness and having a connection with her husband. Her behavior showed patience past what many people could deal with after being treated the way she was by her husband. I think because she was motivated by relatedness, she could persist in being patient and loving her husband even when he showed no love for her in return.
She was also present in his life when he should have needed her. She was the one taking all of the initiative to seek out when his appointments were scheduled and was there to support him, despite the fact that he rarely communicated with her and showed no gratitude for her faithfulness until the end of the movie. She is a woman motivated strongly by the connection she sought to have with her husband.
Its interesting to see how Dr. MacKee's power shifts from powerful doctor to powerless patient. You see Jack's battle with the other staff memebers to keep his power as much as possible (such as when he gets upset with the radiology department in the begining of the movie), although there are times when Jack seems clueless and scared while going through his procedures. It seems as though he gets to put himself in his patient's shoes for the first time. He sees how scary and intimidating these situations can be, and how the doctors at this hospital don't seem to ease the stress. It is also interesting to see Jack's reaction to everyone's sympathy towards him, even his wife's. He rejects even his partner when his parter recommends that he stays home for a few days, as well as when he tries to walk with him down the hall. Jack attempts to maintain a strong and independent stature, even though he has been placed in a very voulnerable state.
It was most interesting to see how Dr. MacKee begain to impliment changes through out the middle of the movie. Once he saw and realized how his patients were being treated, be began to take small steps to improve his practice. I'm sure that in his mind, he has set goals to improve his practice. The first clear step that he took was when he corrected a doctor when he refered to a patient as "a terminal." This was the first sign that we saw Jack acutally changing his ways and correcting the way his doctors treated the patients. At the same time, he is changing his own life and way that he looks at the world. These corrections are both examples of correctiv motivations, as discussed in the text book. Although the plan may not be set in stone or written out, it is clear that Dr. MacKee is following the general guidelines of this model when thinking about both his practice, his life, and his family.
Like in most other movies and television shows I have seen, doctors usually seem egotistical and in need for power. Jack was no different in this sense. He had a high need for power, and what goes along with power according to the book, have a high need for influential occupations, leadership and relationships, aggressiveness, and prestige possessions. Jack wasn’t lacking in any of these areas, from deciding to be a doctor to having nice things. The need for power motivates these things, and doesn’t start out with the fact that he is a doctor so he needs to have power in this position, but the fact that he chose being a doctor because of his need for power. The book says that high power and taking action go together (Galinsky, Gruenfeld, and Magee, 2003). This shows when he is then diagnosed with cancer and still wants to be in charge of what is going on, even though he is now the patient. I thought it was good to see the 180 done when he becomes the patient and starts to realize things that he could do to become a better doctor. I think that experiences can also be a powerful motivator in changing behaviors, like the saying “you never know what another person is going through until you walk in their shoes.” He learned this lesson by becoming the patient, instead of just being the doctor.
This movie was a perfect example of power. The Doctor, Jack MacKee, was very into achieving at his job and status. One thing that Reeve's says is how power is having an impact on others, as a doctor Jack has an impact on others everyday of his life, their life is literally in his hands. His high need for achievement is shown simply by his decision to become a doctor. It also is shown because compared to some of the other doctors there, he is one of the best. Others ask for his input and opinions for their patients making sure they are doing the right thing. Although he has a great job, Jack is not very connected with his wife. He constantly pushes her away even in his time of need (after they find a tumor by his vocal box). However he shows that he needs that emotional attachment after becoming friends with June. He talks to her and tells her what's going on with his life and his cancer, when his wife is begging to know what's going on. I was surprised to find him so disconnected from his son, usually I feel as though parents try harder to communicate with children. At one point in the movie Anne makes it clear how disconnected he really is when she says, "We get a special live appearance." She was talking about how Jack was actually home for dinner for a night. I really enjoyed watching this movie although for awhile I felt really bad for Anne and I almost thought she would leave him or give him an ultimatum.
I found myself to really enjoy The Doctor. It was a change of paste from the last movie we watched, The Hours. Because in this movie we see a motivation to survive and a drive to continue living. We see this when the main character. Dr. Jack Mackee, a wealthy and powerful and very successful doctor discovers that he has a tumor and finds himself going from the doctor and then becoming the patient. Jack seems to have a very high need for power (Reeve, 2009). One example to me that stood out was just by seeing the kind of really nice expensive and flashy car he drove. I also was thinking throughout the movie how much motivation and drive it must take just to get to the top of a profession the way Jack Mackee did. In order to be a doctor you must already possess very high drives and motivation to succeed. I think he must have a very strong mastery of beliefs (Reeve, 2009). Anybody to be in this kind of profession must have a very good self-efficacy and strive to succeed. As the movie continued we saw Jack's need for power and success turn to more of a need for affiliation and intimacy. At the beginning we saw how is marriage struggled and how he seemed to put his need and desire for power and success over his marriage and wife. We saw his power needs turn to a social need as he learned how to communicate and talk to his wife. I thought this movie was very ironic in that he being a doctor all of a sudden became the patient and he had to learn a whole new way to think about things and deal with things and had to adjust his needs and desires accordingly.
In the film The Doctor, the main character, who is a surgeon, is a very successful man with a wife and son. They live in a nice home that they are in the process of updating. He seems to have his life in order and things going well, until he is diagnosed with cancer in his throat. He attempts to keep this from his wife, as if she didn’t need or have the right to know that he was sick. He didn’t tell her until she came to him and asked him what was wrong; he also attempted to keep her out of his treatment plan as well. Within this movie you can see the he has a fair amount of power already. You can see this though the way he works and through the way he interacts with his co-workers in and outside of the operating room. It as well seemed as though he was in control of his life, his own destiny, you could say he had autonomy. However after being diagnosed with cancer I feel like he lost a sense of his power and autonomy. And in an effort to get those back in the only way he knew how, he kept things from his wife. If he wasn’t able to control his body from being sick, he could control who knew about it and who he let get close to him.
Never judge a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes. While the movie had its highs and lows, I love the message we get from it. It is very clear that the primary idea this movie show is Jack's need for power. He is clearly one of the more respected doctors and seems to have a lot of control in the OR. He plays the music he wants to play, treats the patient how he wants to treat the patient, etc. When he himself falls ill, he is thrown into a world where he has no power. No one cares that he is a doctor, no one cares what standing he has outside their office. He realizes how awful it feels to have no power. When he gets better, he uses his power to influence his students by forcing them to feel what it's like to be a patient. This shows that, while maintaining his power, he has recognized that patients show have power as well.