Free Screening of Film Conviction at UNI March 24
The Innocence Project of Iowa, the MacLin Institute for Psychological Science, the American Democracy Project, and the Graduate Program in Public Policy will co-sponsor a screening of the Fox Searchlight feature film Conviction beginning at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 24, in Sabin Hall Room 002 on the UNI campus. The film chronicles the true story of Betty Anne Waters' 18-year effort to put herself through college and law school to challenge the wrongful conviction of her older brother, Kenny. Kenny Waters was exonerated in 2001 with assistance from the national Innocence Project after spending over a third of his life in prison for a crime he didn't commit. The film, which was recently released on DVD, stars Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell. The screening is free and open to the public. More information is available at www.iowainnocence.org.
For 5 pts extra credit--attend the movie and sign in on site
for an additional 5 pts extra credit-write a summary, incorporating motivation and emotion principles, in a comment to this post by Friday 3/25 10pm.
“Conviction” is a movie about a woman who spends eighteen years trying to get her brother out of prison for a crime that he didn’t commit. She goes through college and law school to become a lawyer, and she eventually teams up with The Innocence Project. There were several large bumps in the road, but Betty Anne, the sister, refuses to lose hope that her brother, Kenny, will be released. At the end, it is found that he did not commit the crime, and he is released after spending eighteen years behind bars.
The biggest theme from this class in the movie was goals. Betty Anne sets an extremely long term goal of getting her brother out of prison. This goal was especially challenging at first, because it lacked goal specificity and short term goals. She did not know how she was going to accomplish this goal, and she didn’t have any sort of a plan to get there. Eventually, she decided to go to college to get her bachelor’s degree, apply to law school, pass law school, pass the bar, and become her brother’s lawyer. Each one of these could separately be a long term goal, and these had to serve as short term goals for Betty Anne. It is extremely impressive that she was able to stay on track for that long, and it shows how determined she was. Betty Anne struggled with implementation intentions. She struggled to get started, because she was unsure what to do. She then struggled to persist when it got difficult such as struggling with her grades and being placed on probation. She wanted to give up here, but her support system along with her own determination was able to keep her going. She also came to a complete halt in her progress when her boys chose to move in with their dad. She felt like a failure and missed several days of classes. She struggled immensely here to resume her goal.
I think self-schemas also played an important role here. Betty Anne never really saw herself as scholastically competent enough to get through college, law school, or to pass the bar. We see her struggling with this many times throughout the movie. Though she is determined, she doesn’t think she is intelligent enough to do it. I don’t think she realized she was competent in this area until she was done and reflecting back. I think Betty Anne saw herself as a good mother until the boys asked to move in with their father, and this broken self-schema was why she struggled with this so much. She was on probation at school, had a failed marriage, and was still so far away from accomplishing her goal, but she thought she was still a good mom. When her boys asked to move in with her dad, she just added another thing to her list of “failures”.
I think many people struggled with cognitive dissonance in terms of Kenny’s innocence. I think this happened with Betty Anne’s husband and Abra. Both of them somewhat believed that Kenny was innocent and somewhat believed that he was guilty, and these conflicting views caused dissonance. Betty Anne’s husband chose to remove the dissonant belief by believing that Kenny was indeed guilty. Betty Anne and her husband most likely got a divorce because he believed Kenny was guilty, and he wanted Betty Anne to stop trying to get Kenny out of prison. Abra chose to reduce the importance of the dissonant belief. She looked at it like it didn’t matter whether he was innocent or guilty, either way would provide some sort of closure to her friend.
There was a lot of extrinsic motivation present in this movie. Both witnesses with extrinsically motivated by threats of consequences by the police. They are told that they will be charged as an accessory if they do not say that Kenny did it. Officer Nancy Taylor was extrinsically motivated by competition in the police force to prove that she is the best and also intrinsic motivation to prove her competence as a homicide investigator. These people were so motivated that they were willing to frame an innocent man and place him in prison for a large portion of his life. I think this shows the power of motivation, competition, and the strong desire to protect oneself.
ME Terms: goals, long term goal, goal specificity, short term goals, implementation intentions, self-schemas, competent, cognitive dissonance, extrinsic motivation, consequences, competition, intrinsic motivation
By watching Conviction I was greatly saddened by the negative interaction and neglect by their Mother and society in general. Kenny and Betty grew up with negative self schemas that they both fought to establish who they were through deviant behaviors and having fun.
It is particularly sad that Kenny struggled so much with rejection from others throughout his life and while neither Kenny nor Betty seemed to have alot of motivational drive to establish themselves in society before the trial and conviction, it was Betty who was gripped by a "possible self" that established a goal to get Kenny out of jail. Betty goal was strategic, effective and persistent that she found herself finally reaching her "possible Self" dispite continual setbacks and personal sacrifices for the sake of truth.
By the end of the movie I thought Kenny would be strengthened and encouraged to establish his own "possible self;" that he would rise to characteristics and abilities that would be an incentive to energize a positive/motivated individual. I could just envision Kenny and Betty having a great relationship, Kenny getting a job and working on his relationship with his daughter. So when the movie ended I was left with questions about the real ending.
I was sickened to hear Dr. Maclin inform us that Kenny died six months after being released. I could not help but wonder/fear that Kennys possible self actualized into Betty's fear of Kenny being depressed and hopeless in spirit and thereby rejecting himself. I hope for Betty's sake that she can rise once again above her loss and live her life effectively strategizing toward her next "possible self."
Terms: possible self, incentive, energized, goal setting, strategic planning, positive/negative support.
“Conviction” is a movie based on a true story about a woman, Betty Ann Waters, whose brother gets sentenced to a lifetime in prison for a murder that he did not commit. The movie shows the sacrifices Betty Ann made for 18 years while she went to law school and became an attorney so she could help free her brother. There were many examples of motivation and emotion throughout the film such as goal setting, goal striving, and affiliation and intimacy.
When Betty Ann's brother, Kenny, got sentenced to prison, she promised him that she would make sure to get him out. Betty Ann made the goal to get her brother exonerated and she was willing to do whatever she could to make sure that would happen. Betty Ann set a difficult and specific goal, which according to our textbook, mobilizes effort, increases persistence, directs attention and promotes strategic planning. Our textbook also discusses that people have trouble persisting and finishing goals when they encounter distractions. Betty Ann was so focused on getting through law school that she did not spend enough time nurturing her relationship with her husband. They got a divorce and later on her two sons decided they wanted to live with their father. Betty Ann was extremely distraught by the decision her boys made and almost gave up on law school. However, she came across some letters from Kenny that reminded her of why she was in law school and she refocused to continue with the goal she had been striving for so long to attain.
Betty Ann and Kenny had a very intimate bond. They had a highly unstable and dysfunctional upbringing but they were always there for each other. Betty Ann loved her brother so much that she completely changed her life to focus on proving him innocent so he could get out of jail. Prison clearly took a toll on Kenny as he did not always behave the best. He was in solitary confinement so it was impossible for him to meet the basic psychological need of affiliation. He behaved violently and at times wanted to end his life because he did not see any way out. Betty Ann was the only think Kenny had that motivate him to keep going.
Luckily, through hard work and persistence, Betty Ann was able to overcome a number of setbacks and achieve her goal of proving her brother innocent and freeing Kenny from his life sentence.
Terms: goal setting, goal striving, affiliation, intimacy
“Conviction” is a movie based on a true story about a woman, Betty Ann Waters, whose brother gets sentenced to a lifetime in prison for a murder that he did not commit. The movie shows the sacrifices Betty Ann made for 18 years while she went to law school and became an attorney so she could help free her brother. There were many examples of motivation and emotion throughout the film such as goal setting, goal striving, and affiliation and intimacy.
When Betty Ann's brother, Kenny, got sentenced to prison, she promised him that she would make sure to get him out. Betty Ann made the goal to get her brother exonerated and she was willing to do whatever she could to make sure that would happen. Betty Ann set a difficult and specific goal, which according to our textbook, mobilizes effort, increases persistence, directs attention and promotes strategic planning. Our textbook also discusses that people have trouble persisting and finishing goals when they encounter distractions. Betty Ann was so focused on getting through law school that she did not spend enough time nurturing her relationship with her husband. They got a divorce and later on her two sons decided they wanted to live with their father. Betty Ann was extremely distraught by the decision her boys made and almost gave up on law school. However, she came across some letters from Kenny that reminded her of why she was in law school and she refocused to continue with the goal she had been striving for so long to attain.
Betty Ann and Kenny had a very intimate bond. They had a highly unstable and dysfunctional upbringing but they were always there for each other. Betty Ann loved her brother so much that she completely changed her life to focus on proving him innocent so he could get out of jail. Prison clearly took a toll on Kenny as he did not always behave the best. He was in solitary confinement so it was impossible for him to meet the basic psychological need of affiliation. He behaved violently and at times wanted to end his life because he did not see any way out. Betty Ann was the only think Kenny had that motivate him to keep going.
Luckily, through hard work and persistence, Betty Ann was able to overcome a number of setbacks and achieve her goal of proving her brother innocent and freeing Kenny from his life sentence.
Terms: goal setting, goal striving, affiliation, intimacy