This movie has concepts from Chapters 11-13. You may use concepts from other chapters, but you should make sure to include some concepts from these chapters.
Watch the movie. Take notes.
Next, write your comment. Your comment does not need to provide an overview of the movie (we have all seen it). Your comment should be an in-depth analysis of one or more principles from your text. You should use scenes and characters to provide examples of textbook concepts. Your comment should reflect that you are in an upper division, university level Motivation and Emotion course and clearly link elements from the movie to the textbook. This is a comprehensive assignment (linking course lectures, textbook, and the movie) and you cannot do that in just a few short paragraphs.
BE SPECIFIC. At the bottom of your comment, please put a list of the ME terms you used.
In Sid and Nancy, we see some pretty clear examples of the different kinds of personality characteristics found in Chapter 13. We also see a clear example of the kinds of needs both Sid and Nancy had. Nancy had a high need for affiliation. We see this in one scene when she’s on the bed, asking Sid what he cares about. He says “you.” She said “And..?” and he says “you” again. There are other scenes that are practically the same as that one. She shows herself to be very needy of love and attention. She seems to do whatever anyone wants her to do as long as they like her. Sid seems to have a high need for intimacy. He comes to truly love Nancy and refuses to leave her. He also, at one point in the movie, says he wishes the band wasn’t breaking up. He seems to genuinely care about people and want to know about them. Now, on to personality characteristics. First up is happiness. The textbook says that the happiness set point emerges mostly from extraversion and the unhappiness set point emerges mostly from neuroticism (Reeve, 2009.) Nancy seems to be an extravert; she likes being around people, she has no problem dominating a situation, and she likes stimulating sensations. Sid, on the other hand, seems to be more of an introvert. He likes to stay in his hotel room all day and I don’t think he dominated any social setting in the movie. He did like stimulating sensations however. (The moment in the movie that crystallized that was when he met Nancy crying outside the pub and told her he wanted some drugs, too. He seemed up for any kind of adventure.) Even though Nancy is an extrovert, I don’t truly think she’s happy, because she’s also a neurotic, even more so than she is an extravert. Sid is also a neurotic and also very unhappy. The movie shows several scenes where they talk about dying and making a pact to die together. This is not happy behavior, and shows their unhappiness. Another scene is when Nancy is talking with a friend of hers and she says, “Sid’s been real depressed.”
Another personality characteristic is arousal. Arousal is a “variety of processes that govern alertness, wakefulness, and activation” (Reeve, 2009.) In essence, people will either try to arouse or underarouse themselves, depending on what their current level of arousal is and what they want it to be. Both Sid and Nancy seem to be chronically underaroused, and do things such as horsing around with fake pistols on a rooftop or dangle from windows to try to arouse themselves more. converserly, there are a few scenes when they are not trying to arouse themselves, like when they stay on the bed when the fire’s burning, but that may be due more to their drug use. The last personality characteristic is control. The two kinds of control the textbook uses is perceived control and desire for control. Sid didn’t seem to have much desire for control. We can see that when the drug dealer is telling Sid he should leave Nancy because she’s always bossing him around and complaining about him. He says she doesn’t mean it and it’s okay. He obviously doesn’t need a lot of control in the relationship; nor does he in the band. He lets others make the decisions and doesn’t really care what happens. Nancy, on the other hand, does have a desire for control. She tells Sid what to do many times in the movie, and when the band breaks up, she becomes his manager and controls where he goes and what he gets paid and when he plays. It was very hard for me to tell if Sid perceived any level of control. I don’t think he did. He let everyone run over him and seemed to always go with the flow. He never really tried to stop a lot of things that he didn’t like. If he did, it was usually with children. The one scene where he seemed like he had some sense of perceived control was when he told the kids to stop beating the one boy up, even though he owed the other kids money. Otherwise, he didn’t seem to know or care that he had control over anything in his life. Nancy thought she had control over Sid and her life, or at least she acted like she did. She, too, may have a low sense of perceived control. Overall, this movie showed some good personality characteristics if you looked past the drugs that controlled much of their behavior.
Terms I used: affiliation, intimacy, personality characteristics, extravert, happiness, unhappiness, neuroticism, arousal, under-arousal, control, perceived control, desire for control
**If I can, I'd like this to be my extra credit.
I really did not like Sid and Nancy. I thought Nancy was a really annoying individual throughout the entire movie. Also, the swearing and drug usage was awful!
This movie was full of emotions and the motivation that they led to. The huge example of this in the movie was Nancy telling Sid she wanted to die. She begged him to kill her and grabbed at him and wrestled him to the ground when he tried to leave. She kept pestering him and pestering him until he became angry. He became so angry that he stabbed her in the belly. There are two arguments as to where emotions stem from; biological or cognitive. People, who believe in the biological aspects of emotion, believe that we are born with emotions. The cognitive approach says that we learn emotions through social behaviors and interactions. I believe that Sid stabbed Nancy partly because of the fight or flight response. She would not let him leave, so he had to fight in some way. She was begging him to kill her, so that is what he automatically did.
Psychologists agree that appraisal is what must occur before an emotion can occur. Appraisal is the taking in of the situation and deciding if it is good or bad. It takes in all of the characteristics of the situation or event and deciding from there. This decides whether we like or dislike what is happening. When that occurs the emotion occurs that goes along with it and, the action related to that emotion occur. There were several events of this shown throughout Sid and Nancy. When Nancy was ripped off money by the junkie in the restaurant she took in the situation, disliked it, and became scared and upset. This caused her to try to rip of Sid when he trusted she would get him drugs. When Nancy’s junkie sent her into a shop to sell drugs, he saw the cop, disliked it, became scared, threw out Nancy’s things, and left her.
Attributions are the explanations we give for why something happened to us, good or bad. What attribution is chosen leads to the emotion that the person is going to feel. In Sid and Nancy, Nancy blames herself for trusting the junkie in the restaurant which led to her losing $50,000. This led to her feeling guilty and upset. It eventually led to her feeling suicidal as well. Social interaction leads to feeling more emotions than we would if we were by ourselves. When Sid was traveling with his band, Nancy felt sad because of the distance, and missed him. This pushed her to visit him in the hospital as soon as she could after he landed. There were a variety of emotions shared between Sid and Nancy; sadness, joy, anger, and love. Through sharing these emotions they became closer and more intimate with one another.
Sid and Nancy both were considered neurotic. Nancy was constantly harboring dark thoughts of suicide, and both of them were constantly drunk or high. Neuroticism is associated with unhappiness. They therefore, encountered more stress, fear, and anxiety. This came out as irritability that they took out on each other.
Overall, this movie was dark and slightly disturbing. Yet, it did have great examples of motivational concepts from chapters 11-13. Due to Sid and Nancy being neurotic the movie was an emotional roller coaster ride with them being extremely happy for a little while then depressed and suicidal for weeks. They drowned out these emotions in drugs and alcohol.
Terms: anger, biological aspects of emotion, cognitive aspects of emotion, fight or flight, appraisal, attribution, social interaction, neurotic
I would also like this to be my extra credit if possible, thanks!
*I would like this to count towards my extra credit assignment:
The movie Sid and Nancy was definitely a downer movie. Even though the couple had passion and love for one another the story of their lives was one of despair. In my personal opinion I don’t know how any guy could put up with Nancy’s nagging voice for so long! To a point, both characters drove me crazy because they had no sanity in their lives. The only time they took to relax was after they shot themselves full of heroine. What a life!
Throughout this movie emotions are thrown around like crazy. Together Sid and Nancy display almost every emotion possible. From happiness and joy to sadness and disgust this movie mirrors a person suffering from bipolar disorder. Each day and even each minute, characters jump around from one high to the next low. One emotion that is displayed regularly throughout the movie is that of anger. Anger can be seen if a person’s plans, goals, or well-being have been affected by an outside force. Anger also stems from betrayal of one’s trust, unreasonable criticism, a lack of consideration, or a cummulation of annoyances. Nancy shows a great amount of anger during the scene in which she finds out that she is not allowed on the Sex Pistol’s tour. She became very defensive and angry during this scene because the other band members of the Sex Pistol’s were keeping Nancy and Sid apart from each other. Therefore Nancy’s goals and plans of always being with Sid were torn apart. Her well-being would also be devastated since she depended on satisfying her intimacy and affiliation needs by Sid.
Another emotion that is commonly seen in the movie Sid and Nancy is joy. While telling her mother on the phone that she just got married to Sid Vicious it is easy to see that Nancy is full of joy. She could not be happier than she was at that very moment until it was broken by her mother’s response. Joy defines the fact that a person is pleasantly pleased with an outcome. One reason Nancy was feeling joy was because she experienced personal achievement, progressed towards a goal, got what she wanted, gained respect, and was no doubt receiving love and affection through her new marriage. Her goal was to show her mom that she was doing well for herself. She married a famous musician that loved her and she loved him back. The reason her emotions flipped so abruptly was because her mother’s response took all those positive emotions away from her by negating her personal achievement and decreasing her level of respect.
Most people experience emotions in order to cope and adapt to the environment. Sid and Nancy were proof of this fact. There is a known function for each emotion. Nancy felt fear when she got hit by Sid so she curled up in a ball on the bed in order to protect herself. Anticipation’s function is that of exploration. Nancy felt anticipation when trying to book gigs for Sid because she was entering new and questionable territory.
Not only do emotions serve as coping functions but they also serve as social functions. Emotions allow people to communicate our feelings to others, to influence how others interact with us, invite and facilitate interaction, and create, maintain, and dissolve relationships. If it were not for Nancy’s public display of emotion, Sid may not have become so close to Nancy in the first place. She storms out of a bar because a man stiffed her. Her anger and disgust communicated her feelings to everyone around who saw or heard her. Her emotions also invited Sid to follow Nancy out of the bar and ask her if she was okay, which in a way was an invitation for interaction.
Terms: Anger, joy, affiliation, intimacy, fear, anticipation, coping functions, social functions
To be totally honest, “Sid and Nancy” had to be the single worst movie we were scheduled to watch for this semester. The only thing I got out of the movie is the heavy drug use between Sid and his girlfriend Nancy. The acting was good, but Nancy as a character was the most obnoxious thing I have had to encounter so far. All I really gathered from Nancy was that she constantly liked to yell and take drugs. The movie itself also didn’t make the most sense and jumped from drug use scene to drug use scene. The ending didn’t even make sense. Wasn’t Nancy supposed to be dead?! The music and band itself seemed to have been thrown in the movie as an afterthought. We get it, they like smack! What else do we need to know? Honestly, I was shocked that I was even able to stomach sitting through the entire thing.
This movie did, however, give us some decent examples of emotion. The emotion that stuck out the most was anger. We would see Sid and Nancy literally beat each other up at times and wrestle on the floor when they got into an argument. They also liked to fight with their friends and family. The scene that sticks out the most is when Sid and Nancy went to visit her grandparents. Sid and Nancy were, for a lack of a better term, kicked out and Nancy was clearly angry about it. We also see Sid display anger towards various people when he couldn’t get his drug fixation. Another clear representation of anger was when Nancy flipped out on her mother when she refused to wire money to Sid and Nancy so they could buy more drugs. Nancy ended up lashing out and breaking the phone booth. We also see anger in the other band members when they decide to quit and pursue other interests when they realize what kind of an influence Nancy has on Sid.
Fear seemed to be another emotion that ran rampant throughout this movie. Friends of Sid and Nancy were afraid for their future. They were concerned about the future of the Sex Pistols and wanted to make sure their friends were okay. Sid and Nancy were also afraid when they found out they were running out of money. Most importantly, it seemed as though Nancy was always afraid of losing her relationship with Sid. She was afraid that she would be alone in the world and have no more friends left, as well.
One emotion that I noticed was lacking was sadness. I would have thought that Sid would have been more depressed about the death of his girlfriend, especially since he was the one accused of murdering her. Even if he had been the one to murder her, you would think he would show a great deal of sadness and remorse over all of the events that happened since they had such a great deal of history together. We do, however, se a great deal of sadness expressed in their friend Gretchen at the beginning of the movie. We clearly see her sobbing uncontrollably and trying to get the police to let Sid go.
Disgust is another emotion that clearly materializes in this movie. Nancy’s grandparents are clearly disgusted by Sid and the lifestyle Sid and Nancy chose to partake in. We see this when Nancy’s grandparents end up making them leave. They will not let Sid and Nancy stay in their house and they also will not let Sid and Nancy go with them on their trip as they don’t want the rest of their family influenced by their lifestyle. There are also facial indications that they are disgusted with the way Sid came to their house for dinner not wearing a shirt. They are clearly repulsed by him and want both Sid and Nancy to leave as soon as they possibly can.
We also see the emotion of joy in this movie. At the end, we see Sid reunite with Nancy after he gets out of jail. Based on the smile on her face and the way they greet each other, it is clear that they are happy to be together once again. We also see joy in Nancy’s face when she tells her mother that she and Sid got married. Even though the pair never did truly get married, you can tell she is happy simply to be with Sid. Nancy is also quite happy when she is able to get Sid some gigs so they can get more money.
Interest is yet another emotion that points itself out in the movie. Sid and his friend, John showed a total lack of interest in almost anything at the beginning of the movie. This is clear when they go to their friend Linda’s apartment and keep saying that everything was boring. Nothing was interesting enough to keep their interest. They would do little things that would entertain them for a little bit, like doing damage to the gorgeous Rolls Royce car and Linda’s apartment. Very quickly however, their interest would fad and they would say how incredibly boring it was. Nancy, Gretchen, Linda, and the rest of the Sex Pistol fans, however, showed a great deal of interest in the band. They would go to all the shows and even follow them around and simply hang out with them.
Sid also had a lack of interest for the music. When he went solo and had his back-up band, he didn’t even show enough interest to learn the songs! We clearly see this when his band gets aggravated at him and the only thing he does to rectify the situation is take a piece of paper and read the lyrics word for word when he was giving a concert. Sid did not even seem to care when the band broke up. All he cared about was getting to be with Nancy and the meth. It didn’t matter that he had been in the band longer than he had known Nancy. Sid’s lack of interest in the band was really disappointing to me.
Nancy displayed a great deal of interest when her friend offered her a cat. We can see in her face that she was clearly interested. Not only that, but the cat was also around for the rest of the movie. Nancy even ends up carrying the cat when they move to a different room, which shows she had some sort of interest and cared for it. She also showed a great deal of interest in helping Sid get back on top. She was clearly interested in starting a life with Sid and it didn’t matter what anyone else said as long as they were together. This could be due to Nancy’s high need for intimacy. It was clear that Nancy needed to be with Sid in order to satisfy this social need she had.
The biggest display of interest we see, however, is with the drug use. Sid and Nancy think of little else than getting their next fix. We see this in the beginning of the movie before Sid and Nancy are even together when Sid is obsessing over when he will either get his money or his drugs from Nancy. They also show a high amount of interest in drugs. However, we can probably attribute this high interest in drugs to the fact that they had a great deal of physiological dependence. They were clearly regular drug uses an, no matter how hard either one tried to be clean of drugs, they almost always ended up going back to the meth. They didn’t put anything before the drugs, not even the band. If they had a dollar in their pocket, they were going to use it to get meth. This clearly indicates a high level of interest.
In summation, even if “Sid and Nancy” was the most god-awful movie EVER, it can definitely relate to our motivation and emotion class due to the different amount of emotions representing themselves throughout the movie. Emotions are a key part of human life. Without emotion, we would lose a huge aspect of communication.
Terms: emotion, anger, fear, sadness, disgust, joy, need for intimacy, interest, physiological dependence
The movie Sid and Nancy was a movie that reminded me a lot of The Doors. It was also a movie about an individual, Sid, who was in a popular band. Sid is in a punk rock band called the Sex Pistols. Both Sid and Nancy are very heavy users and heavily addicted to drugs.
In chapter fifteen it talks about the problem of evil. There is a wide variety of psychology that talks about how human nature is inherently good. It then talks about people who follow their inner guides who can be selfish and aggressive. In the movie Sid and Nancy are both individuals who follow will do whatever it takes to get their drugs. We see them constantly doings drugs and having sex without even thinking twice about it. Heroin is an evil and addicting drug, and it completely takes them over. An example from the movie is when we see Sid and Nancy high and sitting in the bed. Nancy throws one of her cigarettes on the floor and it starts a fire. They would have probably burned to death if it was not for two police officers who came running in and pulled them out to safety. It explains that evil is deliberating and voluntary with no respect. It is pretty obvious that Sid and Nancy could care less about their bodies and the consequences of their actions. They could die at any second with a heroine overdoes. They do not care and even drink heavily while on the drug. It is easy to say that drugs are what really what mattered most to them. Chapter fifteen also talks about positive psychology and its terms. This is the quality of people’s lives. Sid and Nancy do not live a quality life. They live in what looks to be a run-down apartment that is an absolute mess and looks like it probably is not too promising for smelling good either. If they did not have their drugs and sobered up they would maybe have a chance to realize how pathetic they must look. The next term of positive psychology I chose is happiness. Before the tragic ending of Nancy, we see Sid and Nancy constantly kissing and making out with each other. This is an example of what they see as something that makes them happy. They even make out with each other in public, but they are probably so stoned they don’t care what anyone thinks of them. The next term is goal setting. I think the main goal for Sid was to play with his band the Sex Pistols. Nancy’s goal was to be with Sid and do their drugs together. The next term is wisdom. I don’t think Sid or Nancy had much of this. It was horrible when Sid stabbed Nancy. The next term is self-determination. Nancy makes a desperate act and calls her mom from a phone booth. She tells her that she and Sid are married and tells her to send her a two hundred dollar wedding gift. Her mom tells her no because she will just spend it on drugs and Nancy gets angry and smashes the phone into the glass and shatters it. She then gives a shrill scream at the top of her lungs. Nancy was determined to get the money but she is not very persuading and does not succeed. The next term is empathy. There is a part where Sid kicks Nancy while they are out in the street. He then feels bad for what he did and kisses her and says it was an accident. The last term I chose is compassion. There is a problem and the band tells Nancy that they will not allow women on the tour. They do not care and tell her she is not to come. There is a problem because this means that Sid and Nancy would no longer be together every day. Nancy says they are just trying to buy Sid off of her and she yells and gives the excuse that she does not want to go on the tour anyways. She has very strong feelings for Sid and wants him to go if it will make him happy. The last term I chose is toughness. Not long before Sid is to leave he gets into a fight with Nancy when she tells him to kiss her feet. Sid freaks out and shows that he is a strong and tough man and gets up and walks away leaving Nancy screaming that she still wants her goodbye drugs and sex with him.
This movie is my extra credit.
Terms, The problem of evil, positive psychology, happiness, goal setting, wisdom, self-determination, empathy, compassion, toughness, wisdom
When looking about Sid and Nancy and their unusual lifestyles, it is at first difficult to think about their motivations because of their constant heroin abuse but I decided to look at their relationship and how they are each fighting for control.
Our text talks about a person’s “desire for control” and states that it reflects the extent to which individuals are motivated to establish control over the events in their lives. When I read about desire for control, I immediately recognized that in the beginning of the film, Sid has a very low desire for control. We see Sid kind of floating through life and his responsibilities, letting everyone else make plans for him while he just gets high and enjoys the fame. These behaviors exhibit a low desire for control as exemplified in the book as people who are content with whatever comes their way and not very particular when it comes to making decisions. However, Nancy seems to have a higher desire for control as I saw from some of her actions including leaving home to move to London, being very particular about hanging out with rock stars, and doing things for Sid like booking his gigs or getting heroin for the both of them. Each of these behaviors can somewhat reflect what the book calls a high desire for control, which is characterized by someone preferring to make her own decisions, preparing for situations in advance, and assuming leadership roles in group settings. One behavior that Nancy exhibited that did almost exactly match the high desire for control characteristic is how she acted when she was with or in front of the whole band, telling them to get their work done or telling them what will be good or bad for the band. This clearly exhibits a very strong position of assumed leadership, although she may not have had any actual authority.
After we see Sid and Nancy abuse heroin for quite some time, we can see each of them losing all control and their desire for control become much higher. As Sid becomes more of a junkie, we can see near the end that he has a higher desire for control and he talks about “getting out” and wanting to quit the drug. Nancy, on the other hand, having always had a high desire for control becomes anxious and depressed as she loses more and more control. Our book talks about in situations where people have little or no control, they will have reactions that include depression, anxiety, distress, dominance, and assertive coping. Poor Nancy does fall into a depression as we can see when the two of them are in the hotel and she is crying because she says her life is terrible and says that she’s never “been anything/anyone” and she does become much more dominant over Sid, getting angry at him for small things and trying to control his behaviors, including when and if he gets to get high. Sid also becomes slightly depressed but also begins to exhibit learned helplessness, as we can see as he gets more and more addicted and just allows Nancy to control his behaviors and does not try to stop using heroin or keep his career from crashing. This unfortunately leads both of them into a depression that is only fueled by their anger at each other for that same loss of control.
In the end each of them was trying to regain control over their situation, illustrated by when they decide to die together/going out (killing themselves) in a blaze of glory, but had spent so much time with very little control, because of their drug abuse, that it was very frustrating for them and caused a lot of problems. After watching this movie and reading chapter 13, I realize how important control and the need for control is and how abusing drugs and constantly being high can diminish that control and cause a person to feel some seriously negative effects of that loss.
Control, desire for control, Low/High desire for control, leadership, depression, anxiety, learned helplessness
Both Sid and Nancy displayed many sensation seeking behaviors. “A high sensation seeker prefers a continual external supply of brain stimulation, becomes bored with routine, and is continually in search of ways to increase arousal through exciting experiences,” (Reeve, 2009). Rockstar’s lives typically involve drugs and mayhem, but Sid Vicious sought them out in extreme ways. He was almost always angry and yelling about something, and as drug addiction took over his life, he became increasingly violent when he needed a fix. His band broke up due in part to unsustainable levels of drug use and a terrible North American tour which involved poor performances because everyone was too intoxicated.
According to the textbook, extreme sensation seekers have very low natural levels of arousal and therefore must find arousal from outside sources. It would be reasonable to assume Sid and Nancy both fit into this category. Sensation seekers are also likely to have a lot of sex with multiple people. Nancy’s goal when she met Sid was to sleep with all the members of the Sex Pistol. She is seen working with a dominatrix and offers to have sex with an agent in exchange for getting Sid a gig. At times it seemed the only things holding Sid and Nancy together were sex and drugs. They also moved around a lot, in constant search of new experiences. They lived in hotels in many different cities because they would get bored easily and needed to move around to satisfy their need for new things to do all the time.
They also were big risk takers. Nancy is seen hanging upside down from the roof looking into their hotel room window in one scene. In another scene, Sid cuts Nancy’s name into his chest. Nancy’s main source of income comes from dealing drugs, which can also be very dangerous. They are also drunk and high virtually all the time, and therefore fall down and get injured frequently. Sid seems to make it a point to make as many people as possible angry, so he gets beat up a lot too. As a general rule, any activity Sid and Nancy participate in must carry a significant risk of death or serious injury.
There does seem to be a biological basis for these types of behaviors. Researcher has shown that sensation seeking behavior results from a lack of dopamine and serotonin in the brain. This is especially evident for Nancy, because she is very depressed. Near the end of the film, she gets in a fight with Sid because they had previously made a suicide pact and she wants to fulfill it. Sid says he has changed his mind and wants to get clean. Nancy then says she can no longer live like they are, and Sid will never be able to get clean. Eventually Sid gets angry and stabs her, later causing her death. Though this would not technically constitute a suicide, she had made suicidal and depressive statements earlier in the film, and often acted depressed.
Sid died of a heroin overdose not long after Nancy’s death. Even if he had not accidently killed Nancy, she likely would have had some type of bad drug experience, because their lifestyle was just too crazy. They provide a great example of how dangerous sensation seeking behaviors can be.
Terms: sensation seeking, dopamine, serotonin, risk taking, search for new experiences
Sid and Nancy contained many examples from our chapters in the textbook on motivation and emotion. The movie contained many examples from chapter 12 on aspects of emotion. The concept of appraisal is one cognitive aspect of emotions. Appraisal is an estimate of the personal significance of an event. We appraise every situation in our daily lives. We are required to decide the type of impact something is going to have on us. The appraisal helps us to decide what type of emotion should follow. If someone is approaching with a smile, we can respond with a smile as well. In the movie, a junkie stole money from Nancy. This event was very significant to Nancy and didn’t like that it happened at all. This is where Nancy perceived the event and appraised it. Then she decided upon her emotion which was being upset. Following the emotion, action typically occurs. For Nancy her reaction was to try to steal from Sid.
Also in chapter 12 attributions are discussed. Attributions are the reason the person uses to explain an important life outcome. When something happens to us, usually bad, we seek to explain why the outcome came out the way it did. An example from the movie is when Nancy felt suicidal. She felt that way because she was used by the junkie. This event caused her to think back to the reasons why this was able to happen. Typically after the attribution stage, another new emotion occurs. For Nancy the emotion was sadness and feeling like she wanted to take her life.
Chapter 13 discussed personality characteristics which include happiness, arousal and control. Happiness consists of extraversion and neuroticism. Sid and Nancy can both be considered neurotic for many reasons. Neuroticism is defined as a predisposition to experience negative affect and to feel chronically dissatisfied and unhappy. They typically experience more stress, more negative emotions, and many mood changes in anxiety, fear, and irritability. Sid and Nancy are both neurotics because they typically spend a lot of time discussing death and dying. They both have moments when they appear happy but when bad things happen to them they have pessimistic thoughts and they loom over both of them. They have a hard time letting the negative events end and move on to the next thing.
Sid and Nancy was definitely my least favorite movie this semester. I honestly didn’t even finish the movie because I didn’t like it. The amount of drugs involved surprised me. I had never heard of this movie before this class and everyone I’ve asked about it, have never heard of it either. Now I know why- it isn’t that great of a movie.
Terms: cognitive aspects of emotion, appraisal, attributions, personality characteristics, neurotic
Sid and Nancy ties with The Doors for my least favorite movie of the semester. I really disliked this movie because of the dark theme, bad music, and Nancy’s voice among other things. All these things made watching this movie incredibly tedious because it was so long and difficult to follow. I also felt like there was not a whole lot going on because the movie wasn’t moving towards anything other than Nancy’s death which we learned about in the first scene of the movie. I will focus mostly on what I identified within the interactions between Sid and Nancy and their relationship because that is where the movie spent the most time.
The movie Sid and Nancy follows the life and tumultuous relationship of Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols and his girlfriend Nancy. I would classify both Sid and Nancy as sensation seeking individuals because of their drug use and punk rock life style. Their levels of arousal are low so they do things like drugs and performing in rock bands to try to raise their arousal threshold. Over time it will take more and more arousal to raise their thresholds causing them to do more and more extreme things. The same can be said for their physiological dependence on drugs; the need for the amount of drug to raise their arousal levels increases over time as they develop a tolerance to it, but also as their brains become flooded with dopamine from the drugs their bodies produce less of this essential neurotransmitter naturally. Because of this their bodies literally need some of the drug in their systems to operate normally. When they don’t get enough of this drug their bodies go into a physical withdrawal, which we saw on several occasions in the movie when they didn’t have enough money to buy heroin.
Their shared addiction was part of their twisted relationship that satisfied their social need of intimacy. You could see this in the way that they interacted with each other verbally, expressing their desire to be with each other, and physically. Their physical closeness represented the intimacy they share by their physical proximity to each other. In fact, except when forced apart or when one goes off to get drugs, they spent the entire movie no more than a few feet apart from each other. Whenever they were in a social situation, Nancy was either on Sid’s lap or clinging to him in some way. I don’t think either of them were very high in a need for affiliation because of the way they often went off on those around them. They didn’t seem to care what anyone thought of them, it was as if only they two existed. This physical closeness also fulfilled their physical need for sex. one of the first interactions we see between Sid and Nancy Nancy is trying to get Sid to have sex with her to fulfill her physical need for sex. She becomes frustrated when this need is not met and Sid rejects her but Sid gives in soon after that.
I think that because of their addiction and the way that they isolated themselves from others throughout the movie may have lead to an attribution error for their feelings for each other. The first time we see Sid doing heroin and honestly the first time we know for sure he did it (because of the way he got sick afterward I’m not sure that he had done the drug a lot) Nancy was literally shooting him up. It’s possible he attributed the way the drugs made him feel to Nancy because she gave him the drug and also because they ended up having sex after. This attribution error would have been reinforced later as she became the only one he ever spent time with. His outbursts of anger, potentially fueled by the drugs are what ultimately lead to her death.
Terms used: Sensation Seeking, Arousal, Physiological Dependence, Dopamine, Intimacy, Affiliation, Attribution, Attribution Error, Anger,Social Needs,Physical Needs, Sex.
I nearly turned off the movie after hearing Nancy speak. Her voice was the terrible and her ideas were even worse. After getting over the initial awfulness of her character, I enjoyed the majority of the movie.
Nancy and Sid created an emotional dependency on one another after they experimented with drugs together. Their relationship was strengthened when Sid was able to relate to Nancy. This relatedness allowed Sid to accept Nancy and desire to be intimate with her. When Nancy introduced Sid to heroine, their bond changed from an emotional interest to a psychological dependency. Both of their brains no longer produced the adequate amount of dopamine to feel happiness so they became dependent. Nancy had displayed outwards symptoms of drug use before she introduced Sid to heroine. The outward signs that were notable were her pale skin, frail figure, and periodic mood changes. Neither of the two were able to experience sensation and relied solely on heroine to fulfill their desires. This addiction result in depression, anxiety, and learned helplessness.
Having acquired a substance addiction, Sid's present state had become a time for desiring more heroine and his ideal state had turned in to a continued need to score "smack". Sid began seeking sensation through drug use and found new pleasurable experiences by using drugs. If he was unable to obtain those sensations, he would lash out and often become neurotic. His neuroticism was evident when he continually shouted at Nancy and persistently moved from place to place. He expressed anger and anxiety during the periods they were attempting to find heroine. Eventually Sid's dependencies resulted in a variety of symptoms being displayed. The physiological symptoms of his continued drug use produced frequent sweats and a lack of balance. The psychological symptoms, as discussed above, included anxiety and depression.
Learned helplessness was a crucial part leading to the death of both Sid and Nancy. They had become so deeply involved in their drug use that they had made little to no consideration to how dangerous it was. Although there were periods in the movie where they attempted to remain drug-free for an extended period, the drug use continued at an alarming rate. Succumbing to the effects of the heroine, Sid and Nancy had accepted themselves as junkies and did not seek help. In the event that one of them questioned their continued drug use, the possibility of treatment may have been discussed. This discussion could have led to preventative measures aimed at thwarting the negative effects of addiction.
One last note. Who sells kittens at a punk rock show? My deepest sympathy goes out to the kitty that had to listen to Nancy's voice in person.
Terms: relatedness, dopamine, physiological symptoms, depression, neuroticism, learned helplessness, anxiety, sensation seeking
Sid and Nancy showcases the tumultuous beginning and end to Sid Viscous’ and Nancy Spungen’s relationship. It’s a gritty portrayal of the pervasive drug use that was present during the 70’s punk scene. The film did remind me of The Doors as much of the film was directed at the habitual drug use of Sid and Nancy and showed the two high or drunk frequently. Sid is portrayed as an immature lost soul looking for someone to love and take care of him while Nancy is somewhat of an annoying, bossy, loud individual carrying a lot of emotional baggage.
There were numerous emotions present in the film mainly including; anger, sadness, and fear. The film is rather dark with few sightings of joy. There are two approaches when it comes to emotions; biological and cognitive. The biological approach states that emotions are inherent of individuals while the cognitive approach argues that emotions are learned through behavior and adapted through experience. While I believe emotions are innate I feel that emotions can be elevated or extended through experience. The anger between Sid and Nancy is escalated by drug use and constant bickering. While they both have the capacity to feel such emotions each one acts as an activator.
Anger arises from restraint, as in the interpretation that one’s plans, goals, or well-being have been interfered with by some outside force (Reeve, 2009). Anger plays a large role in the film. Annoyance from Sid’s band mates arises from his relationship with Nancy. Nancy becomes upset and distraught when Sid leaves for tour and she isn’t allowed to join. Anger arises when drug deals are disrupted or hoaxed. Sadness mainly arises from experiences of separation or failure (Reeve, 2009) As stated, the biggest example of sadness or distress was when Sid and Nancy were separated. Nancy went into depression and Sid was clashing with the other Sex Pistols. Both actually have many feelings of separation before they meet each other. They are both isolated individuals and when they met it was in essence a perfect storm…or trainwreck.
Appraisal is the main idea in a cognitive understating of an emotion (Reeve, 2009). It is an estimate of the personal significance of an event (beneficial or harmful). Arnold’s Appraisal Theory of Emotion states that; Situation -> Appraisal -> Emotion -> Action. Once an event has been appraised as good or bad an experience of liking or disliking occurs immediately and automatically (Reeve, 2009). Due to Sid and Nancy’s heavy drug use both appraised the event as acceptable. They were both emotionally distraught and loved one another enabling the continued drug use. They used each other as support systems for continued use. We see the impact of this as well as the collapse when Nancy is begging Sid to kill her in the New York City hotel when Sid says he is going to abstain from heroin and return to London. She begs, pleads, and wrestles with Sid to not go or to kill her. Out of a glimpse of rage Sid stabs Nancy in the stomach.
Perceived control refers to the belief and expectations a person holds that he or she can interact with the environment in ways that produce desired outcomes (Reeve, 2009. Nancy’s perceived control had plummeted when she had become dependent on Sid for support. When he said he was going to leave and no longer partake in the drug usage she lost all control. The only way of coping and maintaining control was having Sid by her side and without control she feared life so much that she begged for Sid to end her life. Both had low levels of perceived control when separated. Sid overdosed on tour in the U.S. and had to be taken to the hospital and Nancy was completely distressed when Sid was away. They were perfect for each other for all the wrong reasons.
Sid and Nancy was centered around the brief relationship between Sid and Nancy and was a dark and ominous tale. Although I didn’t particularly enjoy the film and found it somewhat hard to relate it still has its value and place concerning motivation and emotion.
Terms used: Biological and Emotional approaches to emotion, Anger, Sadness, Fear. Appraisal, Perceived Control
This movie was definitely not my favorite. It made very little sense and I kept thinking "what junkies" the whole time. Even though they cared about each other, their relationship was a total wreck. However while this movie may not of had a great plot, it did illustrate emotion and personality characteristics really well.
Many emotions were displayed and it was easy to see how the four dimensions of emotion were expressed. For example when Johnny and Sid were fighting at the recording studio, Sid evaluates his feelings about the argument. His body seems to be aroused because it looked like he was ready to fight. He also felt he had a sense of purpose to protect Nancy from what Johnny was saying about her. It shows in his facial expressions and gestures that he his going to stand up for Nancy and he doesn’t care what Johnny thinks of her. This is how he expressed the social –expressive component.
Another scene that shows interesting reactions is when Nancy is angry that her family will not send her any money. She loses it and cries. She tells Sid they wouldn’t send money because they would spend it on drugs, she obviously expected him to be upset but instead Sid evaluates the situation and says “yea we probably would have.” This surprises Nancy greatly and stops her ranting and her behavior. The reason Nancy was so angry was because she saw not having money as a threat to continuing her drug addiction.
An example of Sid appraising a situation is when he first met Nancy people told him not to get involved and said she was a junkie. But once he realized she was not bad person just lonely. He decided that the event was a good one and liked the event. His emotion after deciding she was alright was acceptance. He approached Nancy warmly. This fulfilled Nancy’s need for affiliation.
However it was Nancy’s strong need for affiliation that ended up causing so many problems for him. Nancy probably became more affiliation striven since she didn’t have relatedness and wanted to make it up someway. She also felt uncomfortable in situations so she wanted to know if she was fitting in.
Nancy has to constantly ask him if he cares about her and if others care about her. She worries Johnny doesn’t like her but Sid assures her he doesn’t like anybody. Sid seems to tolerate it either because he really does love her or just does not care, but it gets to the point he is just so sick her behavior. This is illustrated in the final scene where he stabs her after she constantly taunts him to kill her. He has an explosion of emotion. He is really angry and disgusted with her suggestion as well as her behavior. He is fed up with the fighting more then anything. They both were really high on drugs at the time and I think he thought he didn’t really do it,it was not until he was in jail and having withdrawal symptoms that it really hit him what probably happened.
Something that was really sad to see is that while Sid had some talent and did have fans he was not able to perform self regulation so he was not able to improve his performance. The main reason this happened was because the drugs were affecting him so badly that he did not self reflect or had any implementation intentions so he could improve.
Something that was interesting and subtlety shown was the stress both incurred and how it affected them. In the beginning of their relationship they didn’t fight as much as towards the end of their relationship the reason was because they were not as stressed out by things at the beginning of their relationship. Sid was still in the band and it seemed like his career was going towards the right path. Nevertheless his relationship with Nancy and his growing addiction contributed to the band separating. He was really sad by this because he had become really attached to them. Once losing his spot in the band he becomes stressed from not being with his friends, worrying about money and his turbulent relationship with Nancy. Because he was unable to escape this by starting over he had negative affect. He solved this problem by using more drugs and made no effort to change. This is also were I realized that his ability to think clearly had diminished greatly since the beginning. This stress and Nancy’s constant need for attention is what really drove their fight to escalate so badly in my opinion.
This movie had really great examples of the material covered over in class. When I was first watching it I just found it completely annoying but once I started to put things together I realized it did have the material used in class and provided good examples. It also reminded me it’s not worth it to stay in a relationship where emotions are so extreme.
ME Terms: emotion, feelings, bodily arousal, sense of purpose, social-expressive, appraisal, situation, action, self-regulation, self reflection, implementation intentions, affiliation, stress, negative affect,addiction
The relationship between Sid and Nancy is flawed to begin with, and I am not really surprised where how it all ended up.
With all the drugs in his system. It his hard to seperate if he acutally loves Nancy or if it all just part of the drug use. She becomes just as addicting as the drugs. It makes sense since the drugs and Nancy came into Sid's life hand and hand.All their interactions (atleast those shown in the film) have to do with drugs. I think that is why see is so upset when he wants to get clean. Because being on drugs and being with her are the same. No drugs and he may leave her which I will address later on the subject of affiliation.
They both seem to be neurotic since they experience negative affect and suffer emotionally. This may be why they are both using drugs so strongly. Neurotics have a more sensitive Behavioral Inhibition System which signals more punishment. Drugs effect dopamine which is the neurotransmitter responsible for positive reward experiences. The use of drugs in a way balances out their lack of being able to experience things positively.
Sid and Nancy are both Sensation seeking individuals. People who are sensation seeking are stated as being bored with routine. During the opening few scenes of the film, Sid is constantly shouting about how things are boring. He also asks Nancy to get him drugs and he gateways into other drugs including heroine. This speaks for his arousal/risk taking. They are both always seeking new experiences such as when Sid goes solo, Nancy works to get Sid his own gigs, and when they go to Paris.
The other side to being sensation seeking is affect intensity. For me, it was most apparent in Nancy. She seems to just flip out at the slightest things. Almost everything she says is yelling and swearing and telling someone off. This is first apparent in her tempertantrum when her momther won't send her money and ends when she basically asks sid to kill her. And on the other had her love for Sid is so intense as well. She really does feel she cannot live without him.
Another characteristic they both have in common is Control.When the band is not going the way he wants,Sid leave and starts to make his own music. I am sure they both believe,like most addicts do, they are in control of their drug addiction-illusion of control. They are both high Desire for control. They both speak loudly and rapidly; interrupting others. By this verbal characteristic, Nancy comes off as being higher DC than Sid. There seems to be a constant pull back and forth to see who is going to be incontrol in their relationship- although I do think that it is Nancy overall. They both react the same when they feel they are losing control with emotions of distress and anxiety and depression. Again I feel(as stated above) that Nancy has a more intense reaction to things than Sid.
Nancy is high on affliation. She always accuses Sid of hating her and asking if he does love her. Despite all the yelling at him she is always afraid to be left behind and rejected. Her family has already rejected her as presented in the scene where they visit and her family makes up a lie about going out of town the next day. During her emotional rants she always says something along the lines of "just leave me," or "I'm your best friend." She is always begging him not to leave her and to help her.
Terms: affiliation, control, sensation seeking, affect intensity, dopamine, behavioral inhibition system, Neuroticism, illusion of control, loss of control,seeking new experiences, addiction, arousal
Sid and Nancy
Chapter Thirteen
Individual Differences in Happiness, Arousal and Control
Motivational principles that relate to personality characteristics are happiness, arousal, and control. Depending on the amount of each motivation each person can have is how their personality will come out a few examples would be like extraversion, neuroticism, sensation seeking, affect intensity, perceived control and desire for control. Seventy percent of people are found to have average amounts of motivational principles, only fifteen percent of people have an uneven balance, they either are sensation seeks or avoidant seekers. In Sid and Nancy, both Sid and Nancy were sensation seekers. Both would do extremes to get away and fulfill their lives of what they fell is the correct and fulfilling way to live.
Excessive Stimulation and Arousal
Sid and Nancy constantly put themselves voluntarily in extremely stressful situations. They were always taking come kind of psychoactive drugs anything just to give them a form of thrill. Over stimulating events disrupt the cognitive activity in the mind, which was obviously going on with both Sid and Nancy. Cognitive disruption causes confusion, forgetfulness, and impaired concentration. In Sid and Nancy they were living in a hotel and Nancy then flicked a lit cigarrett and fire started to get bigger and bigger, neither of them both did anything about it except just sit and stare about it. Emotional disruption causes anxiety, irritability and anger. Sid and Nancy continuously argued not only with each other but with everyone around them, Nancy even told off her grandmother for tell her not to fib. Physiological disruption causes hyperactivity which explains why they are always bored.
Sensation Seeking
People like Sid and Nancy endlessly supplied themselves with drugs, especially smack, which I think is either cocaine or crack. They always felt the need that they had to keep increasing their arousal. They also participated in criminal behavior such as breaking windshields on cars, destroying motel rooms, fist fighting and party after party after party.
Terms: emotion, physiology, cognitive, sensation, seek, extraversion, neuroticism, motivation, stimulating and anxiety.
*Emailed you about this being late- recieved the movie yesterday from Netflix.
One emotion that was seen was anger. Anger comes from restraint, the feeling that an outside force is interfering with one's plans, goals, or well being. It can also come from a betrayal of trust, being rebuffed, recieveing unwarranted criticism, and a lack of consideration. Sid and Nancy were constantly fighting and showing anger towards eachoter. Nancy became extremely mad when she found out Sid had done drugs when they were supposed to try staying sober. Then she was angry that he didn't save her any. When she found this out she had just got Sid 3 gigs for $3000. He blew her off and did not share her excitement. Sid would also get mad at Nancy when she was mad at him. One time he slapped her and had abused her several other times in the movie. The anger they felt gave them a sense of control over the other. Anger leads to destructin and injury. Sid and Nancy both destroyed things in their apartment when they got mad at eachother.
Disgust is getting rid of or getting away from a contaminated, deteriorated, or spoiled object. Nancy's parents showed disgust when they came to visit. They tried to get them out of there as soon as possible and told Nancy that they were going on vacation so she had to leave and she couldnt come with. They had her coat ready for her to leave and called a taxi to take them to a motel because they didn't want Sid and Nancy staying with them. Disgust is shown through rejection. Nancy's parents showed rejection toward her and Sid.
Sadness comes from experiencing failure or loss. Sid and Nancy felt sadness when they seperated. One scene shows Sid cutting Nancy into his chest. He ends up going to New York and finding her. In their phone conversation they tell eachohter they loved and missed them and how bad they wanted to see eachother.
They apologized for how they had left eachoter and made an attempt to mend things.
Extraversion is a personality characteristic that is made up of sociability, assertiveness, and venturesomeness. Nancy was an extravert. She like to be around people and enjoyed being in social situations. She was assertive and dominant in social situations by being very loud and voicing her opinion. She always bossed Sid around and whined at him. She showed venturesomeness, the tendency to seek out and enjoy exciting stimulations through her drug use and party lifestyle. She seemed to be in a relatively good mood most of the time.
Sid seemed to be more of an introvert. Sid liked being in smaller groups or alone. He wasn't as vocal as Nancy and wasn't using drugs until he met her. He had experienced more anxiety, fear, and irritability, signs of neuroticism.
Sid and Nancy were both sensation seekers. They had a high need for arousal and reactivity. They became bored easily and looked for new experiences. They took risks to experience this arousal. They did hard drugs, shared needles, and drank heavily. They took financial risks to support their habits.
A need is any condition within the person that is essential and necessary for life, growth, and well being. Sid and Nancy had a need for drugs. They could not function properly without them. It was hard for them both physically and psychologically to go even a day without them. Sid eventually died from a heroine overdose. His need for the drug led to his death.
The movie also shows the need for relatedness, the psychological need to establish close emotional bonds and attatchments with other people. Sid and Nancy formed a close and emotional bond with each other. When they weren't fighting they were very loving towards one another and cared about the other. They believed the other liked them and cared about their well being.
Sid and Nancy had a communal relationship, because they cared about the welfare of eachother without expecting anything in return.
Terms: Anger, disgust, sadness, extraversion, introversion, relatedness, communal relationship