Topical Blog 3/10 10pm

The topics that are discussed in chapters 7-9 (social needs, goal setting, and personal control beliefs) are seen quite extensively in the movie American Beauty. All four types of social needs are demonstrated by the characters that appear in this movie. The need to achieve can most clearly be witnessed in Carolyn Burnham. She is a realtor who is very success driven in her career. Her tendency to approach success can be seen when she constantly approaches and makes arrangements to meet with Buddy Kane, one of the most profitable realtors in the area where they live. At the same time it can be argued that she has a tendency to avoid failure and gets very upset when she is in a situation that could result in failure (i.e. getting very angry when her open house isn’t as successful as she’d hoped). The profession that Carolyn has chosen to pursue fits in very well with the ability to satisfy the need to achieve. Selling a house is a moderately difficult task, there is competition from other realtors, and there is a great deal of entrepreneurship involved in setting up open houses to sell a home. I think that the main character of Lester Burnham has a very low need to achieve which is in stark contrast to his wife, which is probably one of the big reasons for all of their fighting. Although it may seem like there were a lot of characters that were looking for the affiliation aspect of their social needs, I think that there was really only one. Angela has a very high need for affiliation and she uses her sexuality and stories of her sexual prowess to gain this affiliation. The book mentions that persons high in the need for affiliation were often less popular than persons low in affiliation. This is interesting because as the movie progresses we see that Angela is actually not as popular with some of the other girls at her school due to the way she describes herself. I didn’t initially notice a lot of affiliation needs in the movie because pretty much every single character has a big issue with intimacy and the need to find someone to be intimate with. After reading the definition of affiliation as a lack of social interaction I realized the characters are suffering from a lack of affiliation and intimacy. Jane and Ricky are lacking interaction with their parents and with other kids to some extent and they end up finding intimacy with each other. Lester and Carolyn are lacking intimacy and affiliation with each other so they try to find it in others. Lester fantasizes about being intimate with Angela and Carolyn starts having an affair with Buddy Kane. Ricky’s dad also has extreme affiliation and intimacy issues and tries to express them, unsuccessfully, to Lester in the scene when he kisses him in the garage. Mr. Fitts is also a perfect example of a person’s need for power and wanting the physical and social world to conform to his own image. He physically beats up his son when he behaves in a manner he doesn’t approve of. It can also be seen that he has a lot of power over his wife. Mr. Fitts also doesn’t approve of his neighbors sexuality and often ridicules and makes derogative comments about them to his son. Carolyn also has a pretty high need for power in her family life and Lester even expresses this idea when she doesn’t like that he is speaking up for himself. When she starts shooting the gun, it is a pretty direct implication of her need to feel that power that a weapon can give someone. Buddy even says that nothing makes you feel more powerful than shooting a gun, which intrigues her in the first place because she sees him as powerful and successful.

A couple characters throughout the movie engage in goal setting actions. Lester sets a pretty clear goal for himself which is to get into better physical shape. He states that his goal is to look good naked and he set this goal because he wants to impress Angela. The goal is moderately specific and difficult with feedback coming from Angela noticing that he’s been working out. He seems to have pretty good implementation intentions because as he is working out in the garage he doesn’t get distracted very easily and/or resumes his workout right away. Another long-term goal that Lester had set for himself was to own a 1970 Pontiac Firebird, which he eventually accomplishes. Jane has a goal to have breast surgery and has been saving her money for a long time to accomplish this. One of Mr. Fitts’ long-time goals would be keeping his son from doing drugs again. He tries to monitor Ricky by being very dominant and making him submit to a urine test.

In the movie American Beauty a lot of the characters seem to change their personal control beliefs. Self-efficacy is the capacity in which an individual organizes and orchestrates his or her skills to cope with demands and circumstances he or she faces. Ricky has very high self-efficacy which is observable when he interacts with his boss and his dad. Even though he is doing something illegal (i.e. selling marijuana) he is very confident that he can do it without getting caught. It is clear that he has dealt drugs a lot in the past and his physiological state reflects that in his calm demeanor. Lester is very envious of this quality in Ricky and he too begins to increase his level of self-efficacy. Lester becomes more confident in his ability to exercise and to stand up to his wife when he needs to. He starts to approach situations more and gives a lot more effort than we had previously seen in him. Carolyn has much lower self-efficacy but tries really hard to portray herself as being much more capable than she is. We often see her giving herself positive verbal persuasion, or pep talks, but then soon afterwards she breaks down in an emotional reaction, such as crying or screaming. Her rollercoaster of emotions seems to indicate that she doesn’t have very high self-efficacy. Angela presents herself as being high in self-efficacy when it comes to being sexually experienced but by the end of the movie we know that she is lying. She says that she has been with a lot of people in the past but her physiological reactions (nervousness) with Lester proves that she has a low amount of self-efficacy. By the end of the movie many characters have also displayed empowerment that comes with having high self-efficacy. Ricky stands up to his father’s abusive threats, Jane quits putting up with her best friend Angela who allows talked down to her and Lester put an end to being controlled by his wife and got a lot of money out of his company when leaving. All of these characters use their knowledge, skills, and beliefs to exert control over their lives. The term learned helplessness can also be applied to some of the characters in this movie. Mrs. Fitts is a perfect example of someone who has succumbed to learned helplessness, or the psychological state that results when an individual expects that life’s outcomes are uncontrollable. She is always in a very catatonic, non-responsive state and continually apologizes for random things. We can examine the three components of learned helplessness in the case of Mrs. Fitts. With regard to contingency it is likely that she is not really allowed outside of the house and is not exposed to new environments. Her cognition has probably also led her believe that she really has not personal control over her husband or her actions. Finally, her behavior is very lethargic and passive which is very characteristic of someone who has learned helplessness. I think that it could also be argued that Carolyn has also learned helplessness in some aspects of her marriage. She seems to have a very low willingness to try and fix her marriage, when compared to Lester, and this is an example of a motivational deficit which is an effect of helplessness.

ME Terms: social needs, goal setting, personal control beliefs, need to achieve, tendency to approach success, tendency to avoid failure, entrepreneurship, difficult task, competition, affiliation, intimacy, need for power, goal setting actions, specific and difficult, feedback, implementation intentions, long-term goal, self-efficacy, physiological state, verbal persuasion, emotional reaction, empowerment, learned helplessness, contingency, cognition, behavior, motivational deficit

American Beauty is a movie about the life of Lester Burnham, a middle aged man who seems to be going through a mid-life crisis. He is completely burned out of his job and shows little to no effort in it, and his wife and daughter despise him. This movie is about Lester’s change of control over his life and the decisions he makes to be who he wants to be despite the views of his family.

Initially, the viewer sees Lester as being this pathetic man who has no motivation in life. Specifically in regard to his job Lester has low efficacy expectations. He narrates that he is worthless and pathetic; he even refers to himself as “sedated”. Lester’s outcome expectations seem to be low as well because he does not feel that anything he does will result in a positive outcome. He has no hope whatsoever in the beginning and has very little perceived control. He looks back and states that he has not always been this way and does not know what happened/changed. He points out that his wife has changed as well, and his daughter (Jane) is a typical rebellious teen. Jane is a young girl who has a high need for intimacy; she feels that her family is very messed up and desires a warm, secure relationship. Eventually, Jane does get this with Ricky, and she appears to be much happier at that point and even agrees to run away with him in the end. Because her family is so dysfunctional, Jane also seems to have a social need to fit in and be “normal”. However, while watching the movie, I did not feel that Lester was blaming Carolyn or Jane for his situation, but rather just pointing out the facts of contributions and aspects of his unhappy life.

It is also clear that he has a helpless motivational orientation because he views himself in this negative way and feels that he cannot change or control that. He is extremely unhappy and seems to portray learned helplessness. This is seen in that he has worked for the same company for 14 years and is basically feeling that he is going to get “let go”. His past experiences in the company have led him to believe that he is unappreciated by his management, and therefore it is their fault for his current predicament. Lester shows an emotion focused problem-solving technique which is shown by the insulting letter that he gives his management. Additionally, Lester’s personal history effects how he sees his life outside of his work as well. In a scene where he is talking with Ricky he reminisced about a summer where he was young and flipping burgers and partying all the time, this seems to give him a little more drive in the things he wants to achieve (his new goals.

While he acknowledges that he is a “pathetic” person (and clearly depressed), he never states that his job performance is bad because of anything he has done. In this stage of the movie, Lester portrays a very low level of mastery belief; this is seen by the way he is sarcastic on the phone and showing little effort or care for what he is doing. This can also be characterized as a pessimistic explanatory style because his job performance has been impaired due to a variety of things such as the new guy (Brad), an efficiency expert who is there to “cut corners” for budget reasons. One part of Chapter 9 talks about the link between perceived control and depression. As stated, Lester appears to be very depressed throughout a portion of the film. The chapter indicates that depressed people better recognize the things they can and cannot control better than those that are not depressed. I thought this was interesting when I read the chapter and I think it does connect to Lester. He acknowledges that he is not going to be able to control his fate with his company and therefore makes a decision to quit his job so that he can gain more control over his life.

Lester does portray through his behaviors that he does have some quasi-needs such as paying the bills, help support his family, etc. However, after meeting Angela, he decides to give up on them to pursue his own ambitions (which are not exactly difficult). He thrives off goals that are not challenging in any way because he knows he can succeed at them (outcome expectations are that he will be happy and do what he wants. He also suspects that people will not be happy with his behavior but chooses to ignore it). His ideal state becomes attainable and becomes his present state in that he is doing whatever he wants. I think it is also important to note that Lester’s ideal state seems to stay pretty constant throughout the movie; after he changes though his present state becomes much closer to his ideal state. Even at the end when you see Lester die, he has a look on his face that looks like he was happy.

Reactance theory describes how Lester changes after he meets Angela. Angela is someone who is full of ambition and aspires to be a model. It is her goal in life to not be ordinary. Angela appears to have a very high need for affiliation, which is seen in her constant lying about the number of people she has slept with, and a high need for intimacy which is also seen in the way she is lying so that people will like her, and the way she begs for attention from Lester. Reactance theory shows how Lester changed after meeting Angela. For example, when Lester is supposed to write a job description to show the value of his work he decides to write an insulting letter to his management and the organization. This is Lester’s way of showing that he does have control and won’t succumb to what everyone else wants from him. He states “I’m just an ordinary guy, with nothing to lose”. It is also clear that Lester feels intrinsic motivation to his new goals. He wants to live his life the way he wants, be more fit, and have more fun; clearly he accomplishes these things.

He transitions from an avoidance style of behavior to an approach style after meeting Angela. This is shown in his behavior of quitting his job, buying a new car, exercising, and getting a job that is easy that therefore allows him to be successful in it. Lester’s goal becomes to do whatever he wants and to have as little responsibility as possible. He feels good when he reaches goal-attainment, however it should be noted that all of Lester’s goals appear to be short-term goals. They are all to be happy in the moment. I would even go as far to say that Lester experiences a level of empowerment after he attains his goals of being more satisfied. He tells his wife and daughter off, and stands up for himself, and seems to be overall, proud of what he is doing because he is finally doing what he wants.

Lester’s wife Carolyn also portrays many of the concepts from the book. She seems to behave in such a way that shows her drive and desire for control. A good representation of this is seen when she continues to tell herself that she will sell the house today. This represents verbal persuasion and a clear motivation toward her work. However, once she does not accomplish it she starts to cry which demonstrates her reaction to failure or negative feedback. Carolyn also appears to have a high need for achievement and I think a need for intimacy. This is only really seen after Lester catches her cheating on him and then the real estate guy ends it with her in order to preserve his career and image. At the end, she is giving herself a pep talk on her drive home in which she appears to want to kill Lester. Because Carolyn does this a couple of times throughout the movie, I assume that this is an important coping mechanism for her, and is something that she needs in order to accomplish a goal.

Overall, American Beauty encompasses many aspects of perceived control and goal-setting/attainment through different views of several characters with very different personalities, and portrays how they handle the difficulties and failures in their lives.

ME Terms: Efficacy expectation, outcome expectations, perceived control, goal-setting, goal-attainment, difficulty, empowerment, present state, ideal state, mastery belief, pessimistic explanatory style, intrinsic motivation, need for intimacy, need for affiliation, need for achievement, verbal persuasion, negative feedback, failure, reactance theory, social need, depression, helpless motivational orientation, quasi-need, learned helplessness, approach/avoidance, emotion focused problem-solving, coping mechanism, short-term goals, long-term goals.

The movie American Beauty starts out portraying Kevin Spacey’s character, Lester Burnham, as a depressed father and husband going through a mid-life crisis or something that resembles it. The first thing that stands out in the beginning for Lester is that he doesn’t appear to have a plan and for that matter any goals at all. Goal setting is something that could benefit Lester as well as striving to achieve those goals. Another thing that stands out as well is his low self-efficacy and learned helpless motivational orientation. His lack of fulfillment of his social need of intimacy is also apparent. However, as the movie progresses Lester begins to change.
During the first third of the movie, Lester seems to be on the downward slide of life. He has no plan for the future or even the present. A plan is defined as the means of organizing our behavior toward the pursuit of the ideal state. This becomes even more evident when he goes to work and has a discussion with his boss how he has been with the company so long and hasn’t moved up at all. If Lester had implemented a plan when he first started with the company he could’ve set specific goals such as moving up the company ladder or someday opening his own business with his expertise. Another plan that Lester could have developed, is one that helped him stay closer to his wife and daughter. The family’s relationship doesn’t appear to be very good at the beginning and gets worse as the movie progresses. If about a decade before the movie Lester had made a plan to keep his family’s relationship closer than a lot of the problems that came up in the movie could have been avoided. As the movie progresses, Lester finally does develop a plan. His plan is to work out on a regular basis so he can look good naked to get his daughter’s friend Angela to sleep with him. This plan stems from him overhearing his daughter and Angela’s conversation about how he would be sexy and she would be likely to sleep with him if he worked out. At the end of the movie, Lester has a chance to sleep with Angela but before he does he changes his mind. This is very strange because he has been working towards this goal and following the plan but doesn’t go through with it. My opinion is that his true goal wasn’t to sleep with Angela but to become a person who was desirable by her standards. This would fulfill his need for competence in relation sex appeal. Competence is defined as the psychological need to be effective in interactions with the environment, and it reflects the desire to exercise one’s capacities and skills and, in doing so to seek out and master optimal challenges. The optimal challenge that Lester masters by seducing but not sleeping with Angela is that he has proven that he has the sex appeal to attract a girl he finds to be extraordinary. If Lester would have set specific goals he could have achieved his plan much earlier in the movie.
A goal is defined as whatever an individual is striving to accomplish. Lester was striving to accomplish multiple goals after he got out of his depressed state. The first goal that he strived to achieve was autonomy. Autonomy is defined as the psychological need to experience self-direction and personal endorsement in the initiation and regulation of one’s behavior. Lester begins to achieve autonomy by writing a racy letter to his boss at work and then threatening to black mail him with a sexual harassment charge. The next step he takes in achieving his goal of autonomy is telling his wife he is going to do whatever he wants and isn’t going to listen to her anymore. A scene that I found entertaining was when he told his wife at dinner time that they were going to alternate the music from now on cause everyone was sick of hearing her selection of boring music. Lester didn’t set down and write autonomy as a goal he wished to achieve and the steps to get there. If he would have set goals that were challenging as well as specific he would have accomplished them and fulfilled his need for autonomy much sooner. Another aspect that increased as the movie progressed was Lester’s self-efficacy.
Self-efficacy is defined as one’s judgment of how well one will cope with a situation, given the skills one possesses and the circumstances one faces. Lester’s self-efficacy starts out very low in the movie and progresses to not reacting in the slightest too finding out his wife has been cheating on him. In the beginning, Lester throws a fit after being questioned by his new boss about his effectiveness and his job being questioned. He then progresses to quitting his job and applying at a burger joint with a smile on his face. It is very remarkable how much his self-efficacy progresses throughout the movie. Another example is when he goes to the party with his wife towards the beginning he reacts rather childishly to how poorly she treats him, where later in the movie he just smiles, shrugs, and tells her off. Another transition that Lester makes is his transition out of learned helplessness. Instead of just sitting back and blaming the world for miserable he is Lester decides to do something about it. As stated before, he quits his job, blackmails his boss, tells his wife off, begins exercising in his attempt to look good naked, and starts a job at a burger joint where he actually enjoys working. Instead of being stuck in learned helplessness it appears Lester has approached a masterful motivation orientation. Lester also had deficits in the socials need of intimacy.
Intimacy is defined as a willingness to experience a warm, close, and communicative exchange with another person. During the beginning of American Beauty, Lester’s need for intimacy is not being fulfilled in any way, shape, or form. He has no intimate relationship with his wife because she apparently loathes him. His daughter despises him because of their lack of communication. A scene that really underlines this is when she is riding in the front seat on the way to school and he is sitting in the back passed out. However, as the movie progresses Lester’s relationship with his daughter and wife continue to deteriorate. He does however seem to establish a slightly intimate relationship with the neighbor boy, Ricky Fitts. The end of the movie also shows Lester establishing a caring and possibly intimate relationship with Angela right before he dies. The way he treats Ricky and Angela it is quite apparent that he has a high need for intimacy that isn’t being fulfilled by his current situation. It is disappointing that Lester didn’t live long enough to completely fulfill this need.
ME Terms – plan, goal, goal setting, self-efficacy, intimacy, learned helpless, competence, autonomy, masterful motivation orientation

The first concept I chose to discuss was related to Lester and his social needs. He quit his job that was highly demanding and took a job at a fast food restaurant, one that would be a lot less demanding. In the same aspect, his wife is very controlling and throughout the movie we see him pushing her away. The idea of him “escaping” what is controlling him shows the viewers Lester is high in the need for power, he wants control over things in his life. But I am somewhat hesitant to say Lester is high in the need for power in all aspects of his life because he still lives with his wife even thought they seem estranged and not extremely fond of each other. It is almost like he realizes his needs late in his life and is having a mid-life crisis.
Another big concept brought up in the movie is about goals. Once Lester’s daughter’s friend, Angela, starts coming around the house more, Lester seems a “changed man.” He sees that she is a beautiful woman that gives him the time of a day, which his wife does not. After Lester overheard Angela tell Jane her father would be a hunk if he just worked out a little and gained some muscle, he had a new goal. He made a plan to start working out more and to gain more muscle. In this sense, we are looking at Lester’s present state (lacking muscles) and Lester’s ideal state (muscular) and it currently holds a discrepancy because these two are not the same. For Lester, this is a discrepancy creation because the ideal state is for him and his benefit. Even though Angela mentioned it, she is not giving him direct feedback, he is only gaining that from himself throughout the movie.
As mentioned, Lester has set the goal of losing weight and gaining muscle. This is a goal that has some difficulty for him but he keeps trying. At one point, his wife simply asks what he is doing and he simply replies, “Lifting.” This shows that it wasn’t a goal he shared with her, it is personal for him. It seems, to me at least, his motivator is Angela’s attention and approval. Yet, I also feel it is approval he knows he may never get directly, seeing how it is somewhat forbidden or looked down upon. I didn’t feel he had overcome any obstacles so his implementation intentions were simply getting started and sticking to the plan, which seem to occur without hassle.
Finally, I would say Lester overcame the concept of learned helplessness. It was as if he accepted, at his age, that he was stuck in his marriage, stuck with his job and stuck with his unhappiness. But once Lester heard Angela say he had potential, his attitude changed. This is important for Lester though because he needed to hear feedback from someone that he had this potential. It did seem his helplessness was correlated with his depression but luckily it looked as if he was escaping theses feelings towards the end of the movie.
ME: Social needs, achievement, power, goal pursuit, plans, goal setting, goal difficulty, feedback, implementation intentions, learned helplessness, discrepancy.

The movie American Beauty is centered around a man named Lester Burnham. At the bringing of the movie Lester seems to be an unhappy person, it’s obvious that he does not like his job, is in an unhappy marriage and doesn’t have a close bond with is daughter, Jane. This shows that his social needs are low. His lack of communication with his daughter and the fights with his wife bring him down. It’s not until Lester meets on of Jane’s friends, Angela Hayes to turn his life around.
It’s as though Lester had found a new power. He was able to take his life and turn it around. He “quit” his job by telling his boss what he really thinks, and started to work out, only to impress Angela that is. He also straightens his social needs by making friends with the neighbor boy, Ricky. He gained a relationship with Ricky that he didn’t have with his daughter, even though the relationship they had was more like a client to seller type of relationship. Let’s not forget about Lester wife Carolyn, also seemed to be unhappy at the bringing of the movie with her failing marriage found a way to make herself happy as well, by having an affair with The Real Estate King, Buddy King.
In this movie, it showed that Angela has the most power. She had men obsessing over her, and she was the pretty popular girl. She had a goal in mind, a goal to become a model. Jane was kind of Angela’s puppet, Jane would tell her everything she needed to hear, in a way it was all positive feedback. Angela also had high self-efficacy, and she’s a little bit conceded too. She is always bragging about guys she has been with and that she is oh so pretty! To me, I think this is way Angela become aggressive with Jane. Jane started dating Ricky, and I believe Angela became jealous. The part where Angela starts to become the most aggressive is when Jane is almost begging her not to sleep with her dad. That’s when the fighting starts and Angela storms out of the room. Angela is the type of person that has a high need for affiliation and intimacy, and that’s one reason why I think she goes to Lester, because she knows that he has a crush on her and she is able to get what she wants from him, and he tells her actually what she wants to hear.
Carolyn is the other character in the movie that I believe has a higher self-efficacy, the best example from the movie that reflects this is when she is “going to sell this house today”. This is also the best example for goal striving as well. This house is run down, broken, and not in the best of shape. She puts the effort to make the house look clean for the potential buyers. When she is unable to sell the house she has a little break down. I think that this works well with self-efficacy effects on behavior. She was up to the task of selling that house, she put the effort in preparing it, she took all the right actions of a real estate agent, but due to the failure of the sell, I believe she went through a little bit of helplessness. Carolyn suffered from some stress and anxiety from all the work she did to get nowhere.
Saving Lester for last, as I motioned earlier, he seems to be a pretty unhappy man that turns around but going through his mid-life crisis. After watching Ricky quit his job Lester decided it was time for a new job as well. When in the office with the man that would either fire him are keep him on, he made it quite clear that was really to leave. During this scene in the movie it seems like Lester has all the power in the world, and that he had control over everything that was going on, all due to black mail. After quitting his job and finding a new one he seemed less depressed and much happier. At the bringing of the movie he seemed to be the definition of helplessness. But as the movie went on you could see his competence grow. Even though Lester had an unfortunate end, I do believe that he turned his life around and started to take control instead of being controlled by his wife.

Terms-social needs, power, relationship, goal, feedback, self-efficacy, aggressive, affiliation, intimacy, effort, helplessness, anxiety, goal striving, control, depressed, and competence

In American Beauty, there are many concepts from the book that can be seen. These concepts are split up among the main characters. All of the characters are associated with social needs.
Lester is a middle-aged man that is stuck in his boring life. He has lost all connection with his wife and daughter and is in a rut. This is a result of his lack of intimacy with his family. Lester's life looks hopeless, and he had attained learned helplessness because he feels like his life is out of his control. However, when he meets his daughter Jane's friend Angela, he has an "Ah!" moment; he becomes infatuated with her and her appearance and starts to have fantasies about her. After overhearing her tell Jane that she would have sex with Lester if he worked out more, this gave him the feedback he needed to set a goal. He decided to set a goal because he realized the discrepancy between his present state (somewhat pudgy) and his ideal state (buff). His goal was to tone up so Angela would notice him. This goal is both mastery and performance because he is improving himself but also proving to her his abilities. He set a plan in place to run with his neighbors and lift weights. He had both efficacy and outcome expectations. Would he be able to do this and if he did would it work to catch her eye? At this point, he acquires a high need for achievement to reach this goal. At the end of the movie, she finally gives in to him, which shifts his self-doubt to self-efficacy and empowers his ability to get the girl. Another person that influences Lester's new attitude and behavior is Ricky, the kid that just moved in next door. After meeting him, Ricky supplies Lester with dope and this allows him to loosen up. Lester reaches a level of reactance where he tries to take back his old life and doesn't have any worries anymore.
Carolyn, Lester's wife, has a lot of needs. She has a low need for intimacy (at least with Lester because their marriage is not doing so well), but a very high need for achievement with her real estate business as well as her roses (but not as high); she follows a standard of excellence in both settings. Her goals in her business are both mastery and performance; she is always looking to make progress but is also trying to prove to everyone that she can make it in the business. In the scene where she is trying to sell the house, it shows that the goal difficulty must be high because she is putting in a lot of extra effort to sell it. She does some self verbal persuasion by telling herself over and over "I will sell this house today." She also has both efficacy and outcome expectations in this scene. Can she sell this house? Will all the extra cleaning work to help sell it? At the business function, she asks her competition for feedback on how to better her business, which leads to an affair with him (hence only the low need of intimacy with Lester). She feels like she is in personal control until Lester catches her cheating. Her mastery beliefs then turn to learned helplessness. She is no longer handling her home situation well so her self-efficacy is gone too. At this point, she is using a pessimistic explanatory style because she believes she is losing all the control she had.
Jane, Lester and Carolyn's daughter, is also lacking intimacy in her life. This explains her depressed and angry behavior. She also believes she is boring and ordinary. She has a goal to get breast implants because she believes there is a discrepancy in her present and ideal state of beauty. These problems are somewhat supported by her friend Angela's behavior. Most of these problems disappear when she begins to date Ricky, her neighbor.
Angela has a very high need for affiliation, not intimacy. She tells the whole school that she is very sexually active to get their attention so she will not be social isolated. This aspect of her life also allows her to fulfill her need for power over her peers. However, we find out at the end of the movie that it is all a hoax and that she is still a virgin. This also explains why she is willing to have sex with Lester; she wants the close relationship, not the intimacy per se. Angela carries all these mastery beliefs about her control over people until Ricky calls her out at the end of the movie and it makes her realize what she is doing.
Ricky is also carrying some conflict in his life. His father has a very high need for power; he is very aggressive towards Ricky and comes off strict to everyone he meets (he was in the Marines). His father also likes to have all the control in the house; Ricky's mother almost seems afraid to move in the movie. Ricky has high self-efficacy. He is confident in all of his actions, and he is not afraid to take risks. He partakes in an optimistic explanatory style, but he also somewhat has a pessimistic style. It was really good to know he had a long-term goal all along to move out of his parents' house for good and move to New York (which ended up including Jane). He had short-term goals, like selling dope for money and keeping up appearances with his parents.

This movie definitely left an impact on me. It was perfect for the class. However, I was definitely surprised by the content and story line especially having no prior knowledge about the plot line.

ME Terms: social needs, intimacy, hope, learned helplessness, achievement, mastery goals, performance goals, plans, goal (long-term and short-term), feedback, discrepancy, ideal/present state, efficacy/outcome expectations, self-doubt, self-efficacy, empowerment, power, reactance, standard of excellence, goal difficulty, personal control, verbal persuasion, mastery beliefs, pessimistic explanatory style, affiliation, optimistic explanatory style

In the beginning, all of Lester’s social needs were very low. His social need for achievement, or his desire to do well relative to the standard of excellence, proved to be low by him voicing how he does not care enough to try enjoying his life anymore. Hi sits in the back seat of his wife’s minivan with his head in his hands slipping further into depression. His social need for affiliation proves to be low when he does not care about, or make an effort to, enjoy spending time with his friends and family. He is annoyed and uninterested when his wife drags him to his daughters cheerleading performance. Lester’s social need for intimacy is currently not being satisfied by his wife or daughter as they both act like they hate him. He has seemingly no impact what-so-ever over others in his life, and therefore a low need for power. His wife Carolyn has a high need for power as she is extremely dedicated and competitive in her real estate job. She is constantly comparing herself to Buddy Kane, “the king” for her standard of excellence. She later goes on to have an affair with him, possibly to satisfy her own need for intimacy or even more power. It is at his daughter Jane’s cheerleading performance that Lester notices Angela Hayes, Jane’s friend. When Angela (who has her own power and intimacy issues) comes over to Jane’s house, she flirts with Lester, enticing him further into his fantasies about her. She mentions how good he would look if he lifted weights. Lester then sets a performance goal to display his abilities to lift and get into shape to show Angela. He chose to do this because he knew he could succeed. He made a plan to change the discrepancy between his present behavior with Angela and his ideal behavior with Angela. When his wife walks in on him smoking pot and lifting in the garage she tells him to do something else, he does not accept this external goal because there is no extrinsic incentive and his wife’s credibility is low. Also, reactance theory is causing him to want to gain back his freedoms. When Carolyn gets caught with Buddy at the fast food drive in, she considers many ways of coping. I would say her decision to shoot him is avoidance as she was avoiding working things out with him by simply wanting him dead. All this time Jane is busy finding herself and falling in love with the creepy boy next door, Ricky. Ricky’s dad is homophobic and eventually kicks Ricky out for fear his son is gay with Lester. He goes over to Lester’s house obviously distraught but tries to kiss him. When Lester rejects him, he comes back and shoots Lester in the head while he is sitting at his dining table looking at a picture of his family during happier times. During that time you could practically see his thoughts of his ideal family situation as they were being compared to his present family situation. After he had gone through this midlife crisis he would have been a better man. You could sense that his efficacy expectations for how his behavior can affect the outcome were beginning to improve as well as his outcome expectations.
Terms: Social needs, standard of excellence, affiliation, intimacy, power, achievement, performance goal, plan, discrepancy, ideal behavior, present behavior, reactance theory, external goal, extrinsic incentive, ways of coping, avoidance, efficacy expectations, outcome expectations

The movie American Beauty begins with narration from the lead character, Lester, which portrays his feelings of helplessness and depression. Lester begins by talking about his life at the present moment. He sums it up in a single sentence in Chapter 1: “In a way, I am dead already”. He talks about his loveless marriage to his wife Carolyn and his strained relationship with his teenage daughter Jane. He talks about how they used to be happy and he doesn’t know what went wrong. He feels that no matter what he does, his wife and daughter will still think he is a loser, he will still feel “sedated”, and will still lose his job (which he hates anyways). This learned helplessness leads to a motivational deficit at work when he does not try to save his job by writing the suggested job description. His lethargic responses to his wife at the beginning of the movie suggest an emotional deficit as well. He has chosen to cope with avoidance and escape techniques. This leads to a pessimistic explanatory style, which is why he started smoking marijuana. I think he was in a “life can’t get any worse” phase and the marijuana gave him an escape from his problems.
After forming a crush on his daughter’s friend (Angela), Lester decides to turn his life around. He now has a goal to “look good naked”. Unfortunately, this goal does not have goal specificity which may not help him accomplish it. He also focuses on the goal, but in an outcome simulation. When he lifts his weights, he takes off his clothes to picture how he wants his muscles to look. He should focus more on the process and how to get there. However, he seems to have developed a specific action plan which includes running and lifting weights. Having a specific action plan will increase the likelihood of achieving his goal.
Towards the end of the movie, Lester begins to feel hope. He feels he can stand up to his wife, he works at a job where he is not so stressed and unappreciated, and he feels he accomplished his goal of building muscles so Angela would notice him. He eventually questions Angela about how is daughter Jane is doing and she tells him that Jane is in love. I think it gave him hope that he did not screw up his daughter and that everything would eventually work out for the best.
ME terms used: helplessness, depression, motivational deficit, emotional deficit, pessimistic explanatory style, avoidance coping, escape coping, goal, goal specificity, outcome simulation, process simulation specific action plan, hope.

American Beauty was a weird, but good movie. Kevin Spacey’s character goes through a life change during the movie that fits in well with what we have been reading together as a class. The movie heavily shows examples of social needs, goal setting, and personal control beliefs.
Lester has been going through the same routine for years with not much to show for it. This is him at the beginning of the film. During one day of his life, it becomes apparent that he is bombarded with quasi-needs. The new manager at work is laying people off and Lester is reminded that he needs to keep this job to support and maintain an image to his family. After watching his wife talk to the neighbors, he knows that she and their marriage has changed for the worst. A lot of these little nuances come up to remind him that he has needs to fulfill and accomplish. Lester also has various social needs that need to be fulfilled as well. In the beginning of the film, Lester is pretty much failing at his social needs. He barely has any intimacy, power, achievement, or affiliation. His wife and daughter see him as a loser. He gets no respect from his bosses. He has been going through life without any real purpose or achievement. At least until he blackmailed his boss for a year’s salary and got his dream car and job. He obviously achieved something to fulfill his personal competence. This can be evidenced by the awesome “I rule” statement. Lester does not seem to be deeply affiliated with anyone in the movie. He has a wife and daughter but he has grown distant from both. He becomes even more different during the transition to becoming a carefree pot head. Therefore, it is apparent that Lester has an extremely low need for affiliation. Lester does not show a high need to be intimate either. He strives to have sexual relations with his daughter’s friend, but it does not seem as though he wants to have a meaningful relationship with her. His wife, on the other hand, has a much stronger need to be affiliated and intimate with the “king” and the other people she deals business with. Lester strived for and eventually achieved power. He went from having little control in his life to having a lot of control. His power is based on control his environment. He also bought a car as a prestige possession to illuminate his power and awesomeness.
A large portion of this movie is dedicated to Lester’s goals. I believe that Lester has two goals in this movie. The first is to get inside a teenager’s panties and the next is to gain control over his life. As with all goals, Lester makes some plans. He plans on working out to become attractive to his love interest. He also makes plans on how to get his dream job and dream car to gain more control over his life. Both these goals present their own challenges but they are not too easy or hard. Therefore, they are able to fit in the perfect range of goal difficulty. Lester is also able to receive continuous feedback on his goals which increase his rate of success. He becomes leaner and more muscled and that provides feedback on how well his workout sessions are going. Lester is able to get a years’ worth of salary and quit his crappy job which is a clear indication of success towards his goal of gaining control. He is able to accomplish both of these goals at the end because he makes specific goals, and thinks of realistic ways of achieving them.
At the beginning of the film it appears as though Lester is going through a bout of learned helplessness. He has no control over what is happening to him. He has no idea how to change the way his marriage is heading, and nothing he seems to do matters. He has lost interest in life almost. This all change after he saw the blond cheerleader. He realized that he had to make some major changes in his life over his own personal control beliefs. He took charge and he eventually worked towards achieving a good sense of self efficacy. Before Lester was murdered he had control over his environment and he knew that he could do well on whatever challenge might arise.

TERMS: social needs, goal setting, personal control beliefs, quasi-needs, achievement, affiliation, intimacy, power, prestige possession, plans, feedback, goal difficulty, learned helplessness, self effiecey.

The movie American Beauty demonstrates human social needs and control beliefs in many ways. First, I would like to discuss the character Carolyn Bernam, the striving mother. Carolyn has a high social need for achievement. She strives to keep her lawn beautiful and her realty business thriving. She desires to do well relative to a standard of excellence and places herself in situations that are known to satisfy the need for achievement. Carolyn’s job consists of moderately difficult tasks (selling homes), competition with others (especially Buddy Kane at first), and entrepreneurship (she owns her own business as a realtor). Carolyn wants to better herself or gain competence as with mastery goals; however that doesn’t seem to be her main source of motivation. She seems driven by performance goals because she wants to appear competent, display her high ability, outperform others, and try to make it all look easy. Carolyn also demonstrates a high need for power. She tends to “collect” power symbols such as prestige possessions. She scolds her husband Lester during a rare intimate moment because he was about to spill beer on her “four thousand dollar sofa upholstered in Italian silk.” She learns how to fire a gun and couldn’t get enough of it. She also yells at her daughter claiming to teach her the most important lesson in life, “You cannot count on anyone but yourself!” This character also demonstrates goal setting. Carolyn’s goal, or what she is striving to accomplish, is selling an outdated home quickly. Early in the scene she is chanting, “I will sell this house today!” as if the words will magically make it happen. She knows what the house should look like in order to sell, compared to what the home currently looks like. The incongruity between those two states pushes her to quickly and obsessively clean the house. Carolyn receives feedback from the wretched looks on the clients’ faces and from not selling the home. Afterward she is devastated with her failure. Carolyn’s character is such a stark contrast from her husband, Lester Bernam. Lester does not have a high need for achievement and proves this when he leaves his miserable high paying job and takes a job at a fast food chain. Lester has given up his power to his job and his family for so long that he almost has a sense of learned helplessness. He is depressed and feels that life’s outcomes are uncontrollable. Lester reacts to the loss of control by becoming more active and aggressive; this is called reactance. He is having somewhat of a mid-life crisis and adopts the “what have I got to lose” attitude. He demonstrates this when he berates his boss, or “efficiency expert”, Brad Dupree, stands up to his wife and daughter, buys the 1970 Pontiac Firebird that he always wanted, and starts working out for himself (or to attract the young Angela Hayes). Lester begins to gain self-efficacy when he succeeds at fulfilling his own needs. He feels a sense of empowerment when he realizes that he has voice and is able to exert control over his life. Unfortunately, Lester accomplishes this and finds meaning, at the very end of his life.
Terms Used: social needs, control beliefs, achievement, standard of excellence, mastery goals, motivation, performance goals, power, goal setting, incongruity, feedback, learned helplessness, reactance, self-efficacy, empowerment, voice

In the movie American Beauty, there were many concepts from chapters 7-9 that were rather relate able to the character throughout the movie. Since chapters 7-9 discussed different aspects of self motivation, needs, and worth, these concepts can be best through each individuals role.

Lester Burnham, the main character, throughout the movie is reacting in a way that many would label as a "mid-life crisis". However, you are looking at it from a psychological stand point you can say that he is reacting to discrepancy reduction. His environment, middle class suburbia, has set a standard for him and he has lived by its standards. He has always stuck to the plan based model and was reactive to his environment. However, because so many other things are lacking in his life his ideal state changes causing his behaviors to change. His first major need that is not being fulfilled is intimacy and affiliation. Lester no longer feels attached or close to his wife both emotionally and physically. They are not having sex and conversation is always lacking real substance. His job is no better, and he has no real connection with his daughter either. He is needing to fulfill his social need but is not getting it from those closest in his environment. In many ways, he feels powerless. The need for power is the desire to make the physical and social world to conform to one's personal plan or image for it. His social world is not conforming and his physical world no longer is exciting him. This is why he went and bought a new car, one that represented his youth rebellion. Also, he befriends his newfound pot dealer, and tries to create some sort of sexual relations with his daughter's best friend. He no longer wants a challenge so this causes a change in his behavior. He wants a something he is capable of but does not have to exhibit too much effort and can be easily solved. By doing this he wanted to have a positive emotional reaction. He does all this by quitting and extorting his other job and picking up and easy, yet fun job in the fast food industry. Much of his behavior sets off quiet the emotional reaction in his wife.

Caroyln Burnham (wife) seems to be the exact opposite of her husband which is mostly why their marriage is in such bad shape. She has a high need for self efficacy. She is in the business of real estate and her choice in this career is because she feels determined and capable of her job. Her wants and desires stem much from socialization influence. Those around her who are successful are the most happy so she wants to experience this. Her high need for achievement can also be seen as having cognitive influences because she has perceptions of high ability. Due to this she engrosses herself in her work always persisting at doing her best and has a high need for achievement. She actually becomes aroused by achievement. This is why she was attracted to the successful real estate agent and ultimately started an affair with him. He can be seen as achieving mastery and this is what she yearns for as well, to master her life all around. He provided her with the feedback that she needed, that she was smart, successful, and sexy. She was not feeling those things with Lester because he could honestly careless about her job and the way it made her become so materialistic. By dating this successful man and doing well in her career she is receiving the emotional satisfaction from goal attainment. Her affair can also be said to be triggered by her emotional reaction to her husband. By him quitting his job and his obvious expression for lack of concern infuriates her for he is not living by her principles.

Jane Burnham is the result of someone who experiences low self efficacy. She has much doubt in her performance and for this she does not have high expectations of herself and therefore rarely will set any types of goals. In a way, you can say she suffers from learned helplessness. She views her situation, prettier friend, twisted parents, and her feelings of loneliness as uncontrollable circumstances. She is too young and lacking in too much control to change her environment. She becomes intrigued by the new student, Ricki Fitts, at school, but she expects he will like her best friend and not even notice her like most boys. Her outcome expectation of her thinking he will reject her causes her to remain quiet and no proactively interact with him.

Ricki Fitts is another character that exhibits many concepts discussed in the book. He acts the way he does in rebellion to what the world expects of him. He does this because through the observation of others around him, he sees that those who conform are truly not happy with themselves. His father is also extremely controlling, so by Ricki being sneaky he creates perceived control. Since he deals drugs, smokes weed, and can get away with passing drug tests empowerment and control. He is controlling how his father views him and for this he feels empowered. Ricki is able to influence Jane into seeing that she is beautiful and that he wants to be with her. By verbally persuading Jane, he actually helps raise her own self efficacy and efficacy expectations. This is because she becomes more confident in herself, and therefore more confident in her ability to execute a particular course of action. Because of Ricki, she wants to rejects her parents and her friend's wants. For example, her being on cheerleading team so she can prove to all of them that she is more normal.

Terms used: discrepancy reduction, feedback, efficacy expectations, outcome expectations, perceived control, self efficacy, empowerment, mastery, learned helplessness, doubt, observation of others, verbal persuasion, choice of activity, extent of effort, quality of thinking, emotional reactions, social need, achievement, socialization influence, cognitive influence, affiliation and intimacy, power, control, influence, goal attainment

The movie “American Beauty” has many examples of social needs. Social needs are learned through experiences. Although they are not innate, they are still important needs that have to be met in order to accomplish learning, knowledge and overall well-being. There are four main social needs: achievement, affiliation, intimacy, and power. This movie displays all four. The first one I’ll discuss is achievement.
The need for achievement is accomplished by doing well relative to a standard of excellence (pg. 175). People have to meet this need because it makes them feel good about themselves and we enjoy succeeding in something. People vary on their level of this need. In the movie, Caroline has a very high need for achievement. She’s always working hard to sell a house and to be viewed as a successful business woman. This need, however, is not usually met because she fails to sell the houses as well as she’d like. She also tries very hard to have the “perfect” family and life but this doesn’t happen either. When these things don’t go as Caroline plans, she breaks down. This is because she has low self-efficacy, which is a person’s capacity to use their skills to do well in situations, especially difficult ones. When Caroline is in a very difficult situation dealing with her husband, she comes very close to killing him. Someone also high for achievement is Buddy. Buddy is the “Real Estate King” so he’s very successful. I think the reason he’s so successful is because he has a high self-efficacy. He knows how to handle difficult situations and his ability to work through them led him to a good career. Caroline tries to increase her self-efficacy by vicarious experience, or learning/watching from Buddy. Someone with a low need for achievement is Lester. Lester didn’t care at all about doing well with his job. We he realized he could bribe the company into giving him a lot of money, he quit. He began working at a fast food restaurant because he wanted to least amount of responsibility. He did, however, have a goal to get in shape. His standard of excellence was the approval of Angela. This goal was good for Lester because it was difficult and specific. He said he wanted to look good naked. He received feedback when Angela told him she thought he was sexy. This met his need for achievement.

A second need is affiliation. The need for affiliation is satisfied when someone interacts with others in order to avoid negative feelings. Everyone has this need because people like to be around others for support and to avoid loneliness. In the movie, Jane has a low need for affiliation. She doesn’t have a large group of friends and she’s fine with it. She also has a strained relationship with her parents because she doesn’t care to share much information with them. One example of her showing her need being met is when she takes off her clothes for Ricky. She had just gotten into an argument with her mother and wanted to feel close to someone to feel better. Taking her clothes off was her way of interacting with Ricky to feel approved and to rid her anxiety. Caroline has a high need for affiliation. She cares a lot about what people think and she works hard to make it seem that she has a perfect life. If she feels rejected, she gets very anxious and upset. Another character high in the need for affiliation is Angela. She desperately wants people to like her so she makes up stories to make herself sound better. After her and Jane got into an argument when it seemed that Jane didn’t like her, she was very upset and went to find Lester in order to feel approved by someone again.

A third need is intimacy. The need for intimacy is fulfilled by having warm, loving relationships. We fulfill this need because we enjoy feeling loved and knowing that people care about us. With Caroline, Lester, and Jane, this need is not being met. They’re not very close and their lives have become a routine rather than a relationship. Since this need is not being met within the family, they look elsewhere. Caroline becomes close to Buddy and they eventually have sex. After this happens, she is much happier. Lester wants to have a closer relationship with Jane because he knows he hasn’t tried in the past. This doesn’t happen, though. He also tries to have an intimate relationship with Angela. Although this doesn’t happen, he is still happy. Right before he died, Lester’s need was met because he realized that even though his life isn’t what he wanted, at one time he had a loving, close relationship with Jane and Caroline. Jane meets this need by her relationship with Ricky. He’s a loving, kind person who truly cares about her. She is much happier after their relationship begins. Ricky has a high need for intimacy and he meets this need by not only having a relationship with Jane, but by seeing the beauty in everything in the world. It seems that he has a close relationship for all things because all things are beautiful. Frank’s (Ricky’s dad) need is not being met. His wife seemed to have a mental disorder and doesn’t seem to have much of a personality. Also, Frank is gay but pretends he’s not and that he hates gay people. When he tries to meet his need by kissing Lester, he’s rejected and this was so hurtful to him that he killed Lester. Frank was probably a very unhappy man throughout his life.

The fourth need is power. Fulfilling the need for power consists of having some level of control and impact over people. Frank had a very high need for power. He was constantly trying to control Ricky’s life by giving him drug tests and not allowing him to lock his door. He also searched through Ricky’s room and belongings. He believes he is the leader and when someone doesn’t do as he wants, he’ll do what he can to restore that power. Leadership is a way in which this need can be fulfilled. An example of this is when Ricky goes through his cabinet. It was a rule to stay away from it and when Ricky disobeyed, Frank hit Ricky. Aggressiveness is another way that people fulfill their need. Frank is very aggressive. He also hits Ricky when Ricky acts like he’s gay because Frank says he hates gay people. Another example of Frank’s aggressiveness is when he kills Lester. Because Lester denied Frank, he was basically not agreeing with him. This wasn’t okay and in order to feel powerful and in control, he killed Lester. Caroline also has a high need for power. She needs to have control over her life otherwise she becomes very upset. The way she fulfills her need is by being the leader. She is the leader of the house and is basically her own boss by being a real estate agent. When Caroline felt powerless, she would shoot a gun because you have complete control over a gun.

Terms: social needs, achievement, affiliation, intimacy, power, self-efficacy, vicarious experience, feedback, control, impact, leadership, aggressiveness, goal, difficult, specific

American Beauty is a movie about a family who appears to have the perfect relationship and life, in their perfect little town. However, it all becomes this sort of lie. The father (Lester) seems to be going through some sort of mid-life crisis and his seemingly perfect life doesn’t exist anymore. He starts to hate his job and, as a result, his wife and daughter begin to not like him as much anymore. He then becomes determined to be the kind of father and husband that he should be; he wants to make it right.

There are a ton of different concepts from chapters 7 through 9 that you could apply to this movie. In chapter seven it talks about the different social needs that every person has: Achievement, Affiliation, Power, and Intimacy. It seems that Lester does not have the need for achievement… at least when it comes to his job. He doesn’t really work hard towards his job and has no motivation to do well. That is the exact opposite of achievement, which is the “desire to do well with a standard of excellence”. Lester also seems to be lacking in the “intimacy” department throughout this movie. Intimacy is a very common need of all humans, and Lester’s need is not being met at all, in any area of his life. He seems to have terrible relationships with the people in his life, including his wife and daughter. Also, he doesn’t seem to develop closeness with anyone throughout the movie…until Angela (his daughter’s friend). That is the closest he comes to having a close/personal relationship with someone, and that isn’t even until the end of the movie. It could be one of the main reasons why he is the way he is. When our needs are not being met, we tend to become different people and act out in different ways. The way Lester acted in his life could have been the cause of him not meeting his intimacy needs.

Another reason why Lester could be acting this way is the fact that is wife seems to be the exact opposite of him. She has a very strong need for Achievement and a fairly low need for intimacy. This can cause major problems in any relationship. She may not recognize his need for a close, personal relationship because she herself doesn’t need this. His lack of need for achievement would also cause problems, because his wife would not understand this. It would be a very different need for him than it is for her.

Chapter nine mentions self efficacy, which is one of the personal control beliefs that means he doesn’t think he has any ability to do much of anything in his life. He seems to be this way in every part of his life—work, family, etc. He is just all around a not happy guy. Learned helplessness is another personal control belief found in chapter nine. Lester was one of the kinds of people that just went through life without really doing anything, or enjoying where they were at. He never really tried anymore with anything in his life including his job and his family. At first he didn’t really see his behaviors as having any effect on how his job life and family life were going. He soon realized that there actually may be a connection between the two. Throughout the movie we see him changing in all aspects of his life and becoming more confident (his self efficacy is rising).

Overall, I thought this movie did a good job of tying in chapters 7, 8, and 9. There was a lot of good information and “examples” throughout the movie.

TERMS: achievement; intimacy; self efficacy; personal control beliefs; learned helplessness;

Quasi needs are fairly evident throughout this movie, the most prominent scenec in reference to this aspect is the scene where Lester essentially black mails the effiency manager guy into giving him 1 years paid salary and benifits. After Lester is financially secure he no longer worries about work, but instead spends his money on a fancy car and pot to satisfy his social needs.
Social needs are the main affliction on Lester's wife, she is obssesed with her apperance and her family's The scene that most strongly displays this is when her daughter comes outside to get a ride to school and she asks her is dhe is trying to look horrible and tells her she is succeding admirably, she forces her importance of social needs on others (which also demonstartes her high need for power) she also posses a somewhat destructive high need for achievement as seen in the scene where she literally beats herself up because she did not sell a house, and the whole concept where she sleeps with the top selling real estate guy because it makes her feel more succesful.
Jane, Lester's daughter, seeks out Ricky because she is in a stage of social isolation after she realizes how much she does not like her only friend Angela This is a condition that elcited affiliation /intamacy needs.
Each main character possed some sort of discrepancy between who they were at the begginng of the movie and what they actually became. The entire movie is about the American dream and the actual discrepancies that exist within it. Lester has a discrepancy creation after he meets Angela, his daughters friend,. He creates this goal to live actively instead of passively by working out and standing up for himself. After he realizes that he can win an argument with his overly controlling wife and goes to bed smiling, he gets the feedback that he can change and he doesnt posses that learned helpless aspect so much anymore. In the first 20 minutes of the film Lester is just starting to exhibit efficacy expectations "Can I do it?" the rest of the movie he realizes he can exert an influence over his enviroment so it then becomes an outcome expetaction "Will what I do Work?".and overall his Self efficacy rises. Lester used his personal behavior history of being happy while flipping burgers to builf his self efficacy and go back to work flipping burgers. Ricky Fitts is where he gained his viacrious experience from because its as though Ricky represents his lost youth and ability to live actiley and rebel.
Lester does not really recieve any verbal persuaion in fact just the oppsite , unless it came from himself. Physilogical state was also a contributing factor to efficacy. AS lester increased his self efficacy he broadned his activites such as running and smoking pot. He also persisted in both of them. His whole demeanor changed after he began to work out. All of the other characters experienced this phenomen for example, Jane was not happy with herself and was saving up money for a breast augmenatation, Angela tols everyone she was basically a whore when in reality she was a virgin, Ricky was percieved as a staright arrow but in fact was a drug dealer hiding it with various jobs, His dad was homosexual but masked it with hatred towards gays.

Terms used: Quasi need, social needs, high need for achievement, high need for power, intimacy /affiliation, discrepancy creation, efficacy expecatation, outcome expectation, learned helplessnesss, goal , personal behavio history, self efficacy, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, physiological state

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