American Beauty Due 10/13 Midnight

The movie American Beauty consists of many different terms we have discussed in our readings. This movie affiliated many social needs. A social need is an acquired psychological process that grows out of one’s socialization history that activates emotional responses to a particular need-relevant incentive. Social needs consist of the need for achievement, affiliation, intimacy, and power. Another thing incorporated into the movie was quasi-needs. Quasi-needs are situationally induced wants and desires that are not actually full-blown needs in the same sense that physiological, psychological, and social needs are. These needs affect how we think, feel, and act; and derive from situational demands and pressures. Once a person satisfies a situational demand or pressure then the quasi-need will fade away unlike those of social or physiological needs.

In the movie there are five main characters: Lester, Carolyn, Jane, Angela, and Ricky. Lester hates his life and he and his wife haven’t gotten along in years. As a result he becomes infatuated with Jane’s friend Angela. He then decides to live his life by just having fun; he quits his job, starts smoking pot, and works out to get in shape for Angela. After doing all of these things he feels much better about himself. Jane is a very insecure person who feels totally ordinary. Once she starts getting attention from the “creepy” neighbor boy her life seems to come together and she eventually develops and satisfies the need for intimacy. Angela always talks down to others. She makes up lies about who she has slept with when really she is a virgin. She wants approval from everyone and wants people to notice her. Carolyn is the mother and wife in the movie. Carolyn is totally wrapped up in her job where she desperately strives for achievement. Ricky plays a very important role in the movie. He and his father don’t get along well, and once his father believes that Ricky may be gay he gets violent with him. Ricky’s father is not really a homophobic person but he himself is gay which no one knows this.

There are many social needs shown throughout the movie. The pretty girl at school, Angela puts on an image that she has a spectacular life and is all around perfect. She is lacking affiliation and intimacy needs. Although she tells people she is sexually active she has actually never had sex. When Jane tells her about Ricky next door instead of being happy for her all she does is talk bad about him. The reason she does this is because she is jealous because she doesn’t have an intimate partner in her life. The book states that people high in the need for affiliation interact with others to avoid negative emotions, such as fear of disapproval and loneliness. They also can experience high anxiety in their relationships. Angela shows anxiety in her relationship with her friend because she is threatened of losing her to Ricky. She is seeking approval, acceptance, and security. This shows that just because she comes across that she has a perfect life; it really isn’t the case at all.

Every main character in this movie was striving for the need of intimacy. Ricky wanted a relationship with Jane. Jane wanted a relationship with Ricky. Neither one of them had good relationships at the home or with other people in their lives. Carolyn and Lester were lacking intimacy in their relationship at home. Ricky’s father was obviously lacking intimacy with his wife because his wife never communicated. He was ashamed to tell people about the person he truly was. He was gay and always communicated to people that he hated gay people to hide his true identity. The desire for intimacy arises from interpersonal caring and concern, warmth and commitment, emotional connectedness, reciprocal dialogue, congeniality, and love. Jane and Ricky found this where as the other characters never found all those characteristics in their love lives.

Carolyn wanted to find the need for power by impacting others, having control, and influence in people’s lives. She worked as a real-estate agent and was always striving for success. This involved influencing people’s decisions to try and convince them to buy a house. She also tried having control in the home. She wanted to have her husband act a certain way in front of people when he is his own person. Such power strivings often center on a need for dominance, reputation, status, or position. She owned things in the house like the couch for instance, where she only bought it to show to people that it was an expensive couch. She always had a take-charge style yet it often failed.

Another term that was shown throughout the movie was discrepancy. Discrepancy can be represented by the difference or mismatch between ones present state and ones ideal state. Present state represents the person’s current status of how life is going. The ideal state represents how the person wishes life was going. When the present state falls short of the idea state then a discrepancy is exposed. Obviously everyone in the movie shows these discrepancies. A discrepancy could be where your present state you are stuck in traffic, your ideal state would be to be driving with no interference, but the discrepancy lies there because you can’t reach that ideal state your wanting. Lester meets his ideal state with getting an easier more laid back job compared to the one he had before. He falls short of his ideal state where he wants to get his relationship back on track.

Efficacy expectations and outcome expectations are shown throughout the film as well. An efficacy expectation is a judgment of ones capacity to execute a particular act or course of action. The question for this type of expectancy is, “can I do it”? An outcome expectation is a judgment that a given action once performed, will cause a particular outcome. The question in this expectancy is, “will what I do work”? Efficacy expectations estimate the likelihood that an individual can behave in a particular way. Outcome expectancies estimate how likely it is that certain consequences will follow once that behavior is enacted. Lester had efficacy expectations to get a better body so he can get with Angela. Once he finally realized he was capable of getting with her he had outcome expectancies where he thought about the consequences of his actions and quit before it was too late. The three main things that go along with this are self, action, and control. Those three things make up perceived control. Lester had an action he wanted to take but had enough control in the end to stop it from going all the way.

Terms: Social needs, quasi-needs, physiological needs, psychological needs, achievement, affiliation, intimacy, power, interpersonal relations, approval, control, influence, leadership, present state, ideal state, discrepancy, efficacy expectations, outcome expectations, self, action, and control.

The movie American Beauty has many motivations and emotion components within its content. One aspect that is present in the movie is goal setting and goal striving. A goal is whatever an individual is striving to accomplish. People then set out in goal-directed behaviors to achieve these such goals. In the movie Lester decided that he wants to loose weight and look good for Angela. Lester has a goal specificity. This refers to how clearly a goal informs the performer precisely what he is doing. Lester set his goal specificity to looking good naked rather than just loosing weight. Lester has motivation to continue his goal because he get feedback from Angela. Feedback is the knowledge of results and it helps people to stay on track of their goals. When Angela notices that Lester is loosing weight and looking better, that feedback from her keeps Lester motivated to keep lifting and loosing weight.

One of the biggest themes present in the movie is the need for social needs. Social needs are an acquired psychological process that grows out of one's socialization history that activates emotional responses to a particular need-relevant incentive. There are three basic components to social needs. Those are achievement,affiliation and intimacy, and power. All the characters in the movie were all in need of social needs. Lester and Carolyn have a bad relationship and they are both in need of a new intimacy or affiliation to another person. Jane also has a hard time relating and being intimate with her parents, so she was in need of an relatedness to another person.
The biggest aspect to social needs the need of affiliation and d intimacy.People need the fulfillment of approval and the need for intimacy and relations with other people.Lester wants the intimacy relations with Angela and desires her and wishes he could obtain an intimate reaction to her. Jane struggles with a relationship with her parents. Then she meets Ricky and she forms this relationship and intimacy with him. He has an affiliation with him and she can talk and discuss things with him. Angela struggles with the fear of being alone. She is scared that she will always be alone and makes up stuff to appear that she isn't alone and has sex all the time. So she makes up these stories, even though she is a virgin and hasn't had sex yet.
The other two aspects to social needs are achievement and power. Achievement is the desire to do well based on a standard of achievement. Power is the essence of the need to make someone conform to their personal image for plan for life. Carolyn was the main person throughout the story that was a high achiever and wanted power. She wanted to achieve well in her real estate business but was having a hard time succeeding. She also created a great need for power. She made her house look nice and she put on an image when out in the crowds to make it seem like she had a great family and job. She made it look like she was succeeding in life and that she had power and control over her family.
All the characters also dealt with some sort of discrepancy. Discrepancy is the difference or mismatch between the present state and the ideal state that a person pursues.One of the biggest discrepancy in the movie was Lester's present state and his ideal state. He was not happy with the way his life was going. His relationship was falling apart, he hated the job he was doing, and he wanted to look better for himself. So in order to make his current state more like what he wanted for an ideal state, Lester up and quit his job and got a job where he has less responsibilities and commitment to certain things. He also went out and bought his dream car to make it more complete.

Terms: Goal Setting, Goal Striving, Feedback, social needs, achievement, affiliation, intimacy, power, discrepancy

Many of the characters in this movie were motivated by their need to fulfill their social needs. Angela, Jane’s friend, had a high need for affiliation and intimacy. Affiliation is characterized by a high need to be liked by those around you. A person with a high need for intimacy will also interact with others in a way that will prevent them from encountering rejection, disapproval or loneliness. Angela bragged about her sexual history because she though it would impress those around her. Although she was lying, she felt that she was gaining friends. While bragging about sleeping with a photographer in front of a group of girls, she was confronted by girls that felt she was acting like a prostitute. When she felt their disapproval, she instantly became hostile and insulted them back. She also discussed how she enjoyed knowing men found her attractive. Through her eyes, when they found her attractive she was meeting their approval. Angela wasn’t happy when her friend Jane got a new boyfriend. She was jealous because she lacked intimate relationships in her own life. She also feared the loneliness that would occur if Jane began choosing to hang out with her boyfriend more. Angela was confronted with this reality at the end of the movie. Jane’s boyfriend must leave to New York to get away from his father. When Jane chooses to go too, Angela gets very angry. She tells her not to because she fears the loneliness she will experience when her only friend leaves. Jane also served as the closest thing Angela had to an intimate relationship. Once she has been rejected by Jane, Angela seeks out attention from the only other person she knows will give it to her. She then goes to find Lester.

During this movie, Lester experienced a growing need for power. Up until this point, Lester’s life has been out of his hands. He’s in an unhappy marriage and an unfufilling career. He feels that his wife and daughter do whatever they want while he sits back and shuts up. The social need of power arises from the desire to make the social or physical world around us conform to our own image or plan for it. This is exemplified by impact, control, and influence. His first act in achieving his need for power was to begin disobeying his wife. While they were at a dinner meeting, his wife tells him to stop saying weird things. In that moment, Lester says he will do whatever she wants him to do and kisses her. This kiss was meant to embarrass her in front of someone she really wanted to impress. This was the exact opposite thing that she wanted him to do. Soon he quits his job after confronting his boss. In the beginning of the movie, Lester lacked the aggresiveness he needed to stand up to his boss. According to the book, aggressiveness can be set aside due to societal inhibitions and restraints. The book also states that these societal inhibitions can be removed by things such as drugs or alcohol. When Lester begins smoking pot, he feels he can say whatever he wants to say to whoever he wants to say it to. He writes a rude letter to his boss and quits on the spot. Leadership motive patterns are seen as a threefold pattern of needs. An individual will have a high need for power, a low need for affiliation or intimacy, and a high level of inhibition. Throughout this movie, Lester begins to become more of a leader. At first, he had a low need for power and did whatever his boss or wife wanted him to. He had a high need for affiliation and intimacy and avoided confrontation in his relationships with his wife, daughter, and others around him. His avoidance of these confrontations was due to his low level of inhibition and his lack of confidence. By smoking pot, witnessing his wife’s affair, and discovering a new lust for Angela, Lester begins to change. By the end of the movie, his actions demonstrate his low level of affiliation/intimacy, high level of inhibition, and high need for power. He completely loses his relationships with his wife and daughter. He confronts them at dinner and throws a plate at the wall. He begins working out to get his power back and loses his inhibitions. His high level of inhibition can be seen through what he says to others.

Lester’s wife, Carolyn, was working on her personal control beliefs through out the movie. Her job as a real estate agent required that she be confident in her abilities to sell houses. During the first showing of her house, Carolyn walked into the house and stated “I will sell this house”. While she was cleaning she kept stating this to herself to maintain her confidence in her efficacy expectation. An efficacy expectation is the judgement that you have the ability to execute an action. After being unable to sell the house for a long period of time, she had a break down. This breakdown was due to her lack of outcome expectation. Outcome expectation is the belief that once we execute the action that needs to be done, it will result in the outcome we want to happen. Although she did everything that she needed to do to get the house sold (cleaned, showed exagerration at the showings, wrote nice reviews about it), she was unable to sell it. She experienced a lower level of self-efficacy and perceived control. She lacked a mastery motivational orientation. Mastery motivational orientation refers to someone who is hardy and resistant in the face of failure. She possessed a helpless motivational orientation. This was exemplified by her withdrawing and acting as if the situation was out of her control. She realized her helplessness motivation orientation and began to listen to motivational tapes. On her way to kill her husband, she was repeating to her self that she would not remain a victim.

TERMS: affiliation, intimacy, social needs, fear and anxiety, power, aggressiveness, leadership motive pattern, inhibition, impact, control, influence, personal control beliefs, efficacy expectation, outcome expectation, self efficacy, perceived control, mastery motivational orientation, helpless motivational orientation,

Chapter seven talks about social needs and Carolyn is a very good example of social needs in this movie. In the beginning of the movie when she is getting ready to show a house she sees across the street that Buddy has sold yet another house. She kept telling herself that she is going to sell the house today. Because she did not feel her social need for achievement by not selling the house she broke down at the end of the day. At a party she sees Buddy and tells him that she is in awe of him and is intimidated by him. She is fulfilling her need for affiliation by doing this. Carolyn and Lester’s relationship is not intimate anymore at all. So to fulfill her intimacy need she ends up having an affair with Buddy. It first started when they went to lunch together to discuss business. During this time she found out that they had a lot in common. Because Buddy knows he is awesome at what he does he is fulfilling his need for power. He also tells Carolyn that when he is stressed out he fires a gun because nothing else can make him feel more powerful. Carolyn wants to feel like she is powerful so she buys a gun and starts going to shooting ranges. When Lester found out that she was having an affair Carolyn broke down in her car and got her gun out. She did this because she felt like she had power with her gun.

In the beginning Lester is told at his work that he has to write a paper telling the company what he does to help contribute to the company. He is pissed off because he has been at the company longer than the guy that is telling him that he has to do that. He doesn’t even try with the paper because he already feels that he shouldn’t have to write it since he has been there so many years. He did not fulfill his need for achievement in this situation. He also gave up trying to affiliate with his wife and daughter because he knew that they both just thought he was a worthless loser. But when he heard that Angela said that if he started to work out more she would fuck him he got excited and started to work out more. He wanted to please her. So in this situation he did fulfill his need for affiliation because at the end she noticed he had been working out and she liked it, which led to him fulfilling his need for intimacy. They were about to have sex but then she told him it was her first time so he stopped. Angela also fulfilled her need for achievement by telling people that she has a lot of men that look at her and want to have sex with her. She also felt powerful when she would say this because she had an impact on the people around her.

When Jane performed her dance routine she was fulfilling her social need of achievement. When she started to date Ricky she fulfilled her need for intimacy. She finally found someone that understood her for who she really was. They had a lot in common. In the end when he asked her to run away with her and she said yes I think she was demonstrating her need for power because she had the power to leave her parents. She never really tried to fulfill her need for affiliation with her parents. Ricky fulfilled his need for power by selling drugs behind his father’s back. He did try to make his father happy by using someone else’s urine so that he would not see that he was still doing drugs. Ricky’s father never really fulfilled his need for intimacy because he was gay. He did try by kissing Lester because he thought he was gay. When he found out he was not gay he shot him because he didn’t want other people to know that he was gay.

Words: Social needs, achievement, affiliation, intimacy, power,

The film American Beauty is one that I have heard of being used in varies sections of academia. The film contains many different themes such as the meaning of life, what defines beauty and what constitutes happiness within an individual. The film has also been used in wide media applications, most often times within music, where multiple artists have used sound-clips from the movie (most often Lester’s narratives that he provides through-out the movie and Ricky’s quotes on beauty and life). Despite its wide use in academia and the media, I had never before seen the film prior to this class and was very excited when I was given the chance to watch it as, “homework”.

I would say that within the film, American Beauty, it is hard to determine what Lester’s social needs really are. For his wife, Carolyn, it can obviously be seen that she has a high need for achievement within her real estate business, however, with Lester it is hard to evaluate. I would say that Lester actually does have a high need for achievement, despite not being as career driven as his wife. This high need for achievement can be seen in Lester constantly working-out through-out much of the film in order to achieve a standard of excellence that he believes may please Angela. I also believe that Lester’s high need for achievement can be seen in him trying to achieve control and a meaningful direction over his life as can be seen when he claims Ricky as his, “hero”. I would say that through-out the film Lester also has a high need for intimacy which is currently not being fulfilled by his wife. Not necessarily sexual intimacy with his wife, but he often times states how much he misses how she was prior to becoming so materialistic and also prior to them growing apart. I would say that Lester also has a need to be close to his daughter Jane, but often times states that she has a strong dislike for him, which obviously seems to upset Lester. I would say that through-out the movie, Lester shows a low need for power, as he often times does not show a desire to have impact, control, or influence over another individual, since, through-out much of the film, he is really just trying to have impact and control over his own life.

Much of the film I would say has a lot to do with Lester’s discrepancy between his present state and his ideal state. I was reading up on the film and found this interesting bit of information describing a scene where Lester is at work in his corporate job and a reflection of Lester can be seen on his computer. This computer screen that his face is being reflected upon shows large vertical columns of data making Lester look like he is actually in a prison cell. Apparently the director of the film, Sam Mendes, did this intentionally, in order to show Lester’s present state as being that of a prisoner within his own life. In order for Lester to achieve his ideal state, he quits his job for one of less responsibility and starts enjoying his life again. This discrepancy between Lester’s ideal state vs. present state can also be seen when Lester is evaluating his present state in the window of his garage, where he notices that he is not quite in the best shape that he could be in. Lester quickly searches for weights within the garage and starts weight lifting in order to achieve his idea of his ideal state. From here, Lester can be seen in engaging in discrepancy creation – creating goals and the goal-setting process that follows in wanting to achieve these goals.

I would say that at the beginning of the movie, it can be seen that Lester may be suffering from some sort of depression or quite possibly learned helplessness. The reason why I say learned helplessness is that it seems as if Lester has just sort of given up on life and no longer has any fight within him to control the direction of his life. It seems as though Lester almost feels as though his behavior has no impact on what sort of outcomes occur through-out his life. However, once Lester meets Ricky and becomes infatuated with Angela, there is a quick dissolution of his learned helplessness and Lester relies that he does have an impact on what happens through-out his life. It seems as though, after meeting these characters, Lester takes a, “Control, Solitary, and Approach” method of coping with the situation of not living a life that is fulfilling to his standards. Due to this, Lester seems to develop a higher amount of self-efficacy within himself (begins to think that he can cope with the situation of his sort of “mid-life crisis”), than that which could be seen at the beginning of the film.

Terms

Need for Achievement
Standard of Excellence
Need for Power
Need for Intimacy
Present state vs. Ideal state
Discrepancy creation
Learned helplessness
Control, Solitary and Approach methods of coping
Self-efficacy

As I watched American Beauty many topics that we have learned about jumped into my mind such as social needs, external and internal motivation, and present state versus ideal state. However, the one that was the most obvious to me was the concept of social needs. Chapter 7 describes a social need as the need to feel achievement, affiliation, intimacy and power. Humans obtain these social needs through experience, development and socialization. It is apparent to me that Lester’s and Carolyn’s social needs are not being satisfied.

Let’s start with the social need for intimacy. Throughout the movie one finds that Lester and Carolyn are not happy in their marriage. This goes back to the social need of intimacy and affiliation. The need for intimacy and affiliation includes maintaining a strong relationship with another person. It is obvious that Lester and Carolyn do not feel their social need of intimacy being satisfied in the scenes where Lester starts to have fantasies about Angela and Carolyn starts to have an affair. If Lester and Carolyn’s social needs were being met within their marriage, they both would not be feeling the urge to develop a relationship with someone else.

Lester and Carolyn were not the only characters not getting their social needs met. Throughout the movie we saw Angela lying about who she had relations with in the past when she was really a virgin. We saw this in the scene where she tried to seduce Lester and Lester ended up finding out she was a virgin. In this scene, once Lester found out she was a virgin, they ended up not having sexual relations but just a good conversation. From this scene, the viewer can see that the conversation and bond is what really Angela was in need of, she just thought that sexual relations was the only way to obtain it. Lester and Angela’s daughter, Jane also lacked intimacy. The only one she had a good bond with was Angela. Jane and her parents did not get along at all. However, as the movie progressed, we saw that Jane and Ricky started to create a bond which started to satisfy Jane’s social need for intimacy.

Another social need is achievement. The social need for achievement includes the desire to do well relative to a standard of excellence. The need for achievement is to motivate people to take on challenges to improve their skills. Lester lacked the need for achievement. I saw this through the fact that he hated his job and was not motivated to take on any challenge. Lester had the ultimate fail of satisfying the need for achievement in the scene where he was laid off of his job. Carolyn was a little different than Lester in the need for achievement. Carolyn was a real estate agent and she at least had the desire to be good at her job. She doesn’t have much success in it but at least I saw that she had the want to be good at it. The scene where one can see she is not getting her social need for achievement fulfilled is when she doesn’t sell a house and she had a breakdown.

Power is another social need that is displayed in American Beauty. I saw the need for power in Carolyn. The book explains that people who have a high need for power often put a lot of importance on reputation, status and position. Status is the category that I saw Carolyn put a lot of effort into. She always wanted everything to be perfect on the outside. She wanted the most expensive of everything. One can see this through the nice house they had, the nice neighborhood they lived in, expensive decorations inside their house. Having nice and expensive things gave Carolyn a sense of power. However, even though she felt a sense of power, she was clearly not happy. This can be linked to external and internal motivators. Carolyn was focusing all of her attention on the external things such as nice furniture and a nice house that she was forgetting to focus on the internal things that would make her happy. We learn from the book and from lecture that when someone focuses on external motivators, they are not as happy as when they focus on internal motivators such as interests. This movie is a perfect example of the fact that external motivators do not increase your overall happiness. Lester showed this as well in the scene where he bought a nice new car. Another scene that showed an example of this was when Lester started working out only to impress Angela. If Lester were to listen to what the book says, he would find an internal motivator to working out instead of an external motivator such as a girl. I guess one could look at this example and say that Lester is using the internal motivator of love.

All of these characters showed a discrepancy between their present state and their ideal state. Chapter 8 describes the present state as representing how the person’s life is currently going. The ideal state is how the person wishes life was going. Discrepancy creates the sense of wanting to change the present state to look more like their ideal state. An example of one of the characters working towards their ideal state is when Lester started to work out and when he got a more laid back job. Lester realized that his current state of being married to Carolyn and hating his job was not what he wanted so he started to pursue a relationship with Angela and started working out in order to increase the chances of the relationship. He also embraced the fact that he got laid off of his job and got a new job that was more laid back and allowed him to have more fun. These actions were all helping Lester arrive at his ideal state. Carolyn’s present state of her marriage to Lester was not her ideal state which led her to having an affair.

When the movie started out we saw that most, if not all, of the characters were not having their social needs satisfied along with having a discrepancy between their present states and ideal states. However, as the movie progressed we saw the characters’ social needs being met along with their actions to get to their ideal state.

social needs, external motivation, internal motivation, present state, ideal state, achievement, affiliation, intimacy, power, experience, development, socialization, internal motivators, external motivators, discrepancy, present state, ideal state

American Beauty has a lot to do with a lot of the stuff we have learned about in our readings. This movie dealt with a lot of social needs and not quite meeting each social need. Social needs are an acquired psychological process that grows out of one’s socialization history that activates emotional responses to a particular need-relevant incentive. There are four social needs: intimacy, affiliation, achievement, and power. The movie also had a little bit to do with quasi-needs. Quasi-needs are situationally induced wants that create tense energy to engage in behavior capable of reducing the built-up tension. This basically means that we do not actually need them as much as social, psychological, or physiological needs. Lester is very unhappy with his life and how it has turned out. To make him happy he quit his job and got a job at a fast food place. He also started to smoke pot and became very interested in his daughter’s friend, Angela. When he over hears Angela say that he needs to work out more, he started to work out. All of these small things that you do not necessarily need succeeded in making Lester happy.

Intimacy is the one social need that all the characters seem to be failing to satisfy. Lester, Carolyn, and Jane each do not meet their intimacy needs. You can tell they are all on edge. You really see this when they have their family dinners. They hardly say anything except, “how was your day?” “How was school?” In both dinner scenes Lester and Carolyn ended up having a huge fight and Jane ends up walking out. Lester and Carolyn’s marriage is not good, neither is happy in the relationship, but outside the home they try to put on a big show and seem like they have the perfect family/marriage. They are no longer intimate and haven’t had sex in years and because of that they are no longer happy because they have not fulfilled that need. Jane does not get along with either of her parents, so she lacks intimacy as well. Then Ricky comes along and she becomes happier once she fulfills her need for intimacy with him. Jane’s friend Angela is also lacking in intimacy. Angela claims she has had sex with a lot of different guys, but she has not. She tries to fulfill her need for intimacy with Lester. Angela also is trying to fulfill her affiliation need. She gets jealous when Jane starts to have sex with Ricky and talks bad about him. She never has anything nice to say about the whole situation just because she is trying to fulfill that need but is not. You see all this when she is with Lester at the end of the movie.

Other social needs such as achievement and power come into play a lot with Carolyn. She tries her hardest to be successful at her job. In one scene you see her setting up a house for an open house. She gets everything ready and makes it look clean and nice. She tells herself like a hundred times, “I will sell this house.” When no one wants to buy it she freaks out. She starts crying and screaming and then yells at herself for crying about it. She is so concerned with looking professional and trying to appear wealthy and successful. She also thrives for power. She wants people to think she has a lot of power and a lot of control and influence in people’s lives. She also likes to have power and control in her household. She tells Lester what to do all the time.

Terms: Social needs, achievement, affiliation, intimacy, power, quasi-needs, physiological needs, psychological needs, control

The movie American Beauty showed a lot of psychological problems throughout the many characters. The main character Lester demonstrated a lot of concepts from our book. He demonstrated very negative cognitions that influenced his life drastically. He was in an unhappy and unsatisfying marriage and he had a bad relationship with his only daughter. His pessimistic outlook on life consumed him and he had no motivation to do anything positive for his life. His relationship with his daughter was lacking. When he made an effort to talk to her, she responded with anger and annoyance. His attempt at affiliation was a failure. He did not have an established or positive relationship with his daughter or his wife. When Lester decided to make a change in his life things really started to look up for him. Hearing his daughter’s friend mention that he would be better looking if he worked out led him to set a short term goal. He immediately went to the garage and started lifting. He even imagined that she would say “Have you been working out? You look great!” As he began working out his mood was heightened and his outlook on life became more positive. He began to think about what really mattered in his life. When he quit his job he felt a huge boost in empowerment. He felt this because he took a stand and took control over his life. He got a different job, continued to work out, and even smoked pot. All of these things made him feel better about himself and increased his self efficacy. His self efficacy rose because he began to feel competent and empowered in becoming physically active, having fun, and relaxing. He believed that he could work out and “look good naked” and when he started to feel the benefits of working out, his effort and persistence continued to climb. As chapter 9 points out, “the more people expect that they can adequately perform an action, the more wiling they are to put fort effort and persist in facing difficulties when activities require such action”. So, for Lester running with the two gay men was hard at first, but as his self efficacy grew so did his effort and persistence. As the movie progressed Lester began to change his ways of thinking. He became less focused on the negative people in his life and became more focused on doing things that he enjoyed and doing things that made him feel good. He came to have strong mastery beliefs about his life. Mastery beliefs “reflect the extent of perceived control one has over attaining desirable outcomes and preventing aversive ones”. In Lester’s case, the more control he felt over the choices in his life, the happier he became. At one point Lester tells his wife “you can’t tell me what to do ever again”. Not only did he feel empowerment, but he also felt autonomy. He felt like he was free to make his own decisions now, without his controlling wife bitching about everything! He made a complete transformation from the beginning of the movie when he felt helpless, to the end of the movie when he felt completely autonomous. Instead of blaming his wife or his daughter or his boss for his unhappiness, he took control over his environment and made his own individual choices. With this newly gained sense of control and empowerment, Lester no longer felt that his life was uncontrollable. At the beginning of the film, Lester felt helpless. He had severe emotional deficits and motivational deficits. He was depressed and pessimistic and he had no desire to do much with his life. At the end of the movie his daughter’s friend asks him how he is. It made him feel really good that someone cared to ask how he was doing; he said it had been a long time, but that he was great. The movie ends with him dying but talking about life. One thing he said that I thought was interesting was that “it is hard to stay mad when there is so much beauty in the world”. I think this quote demonstrates just how much his life had changed and improved all because he took the time to do things for himself. This movie shows that life is truly what you make it. Happiness is not going to come to you unless you reach for it. In this movie, Lester learned how to get past helplessness and find happiness.

-Terms: cognitions, pessimism, motivation, short term goal, empowerment, self efficacy, effort, persistence, competent, autonomy, coping, helpless, contingency, happiness, depressed, emotional deficits, motivational deficits

When I was scanning over the topics covered in chapters 7-9, I was able to picture scenes from the movie in my mind that relate to the concepts. I am not about to explain everything that I came up with in my head using textbook terms but I'll explain a couple of them.
The mother is an excellent example of the Need for Achievement. She is seeking "success in competition with a standard of excellence" In this case the standard of excellence is the King of realty. She also exhibits the tendency to avoid failure. She even goes to the extent of KILLING HER HUSBAND to protect her self-esteem, loss of social respect, and to avoid the fear of embarrassment. She really exhibits all of the aspects of the achievement model but it seems pretty trivial to list them off aspect by aspect.
The husband is a perfect example of the opposite of the need for achievement.
The husband's decision to start weight lifting and running represents Goal Setting and Goal Striving. He wants to bang his daughter's friend and decides that he needs to look better naked in order to accomplish that goal. So, he detects his present-ideal inconsistency (beer belly-->six pack, flab-->muscle), he generates a plan to eliminate the incongruity (run every morning, lift weights in the afternoon), he instigates plan-regulated behavior (keeping up with workouts eating well) and he eventually monitors feedback as to the extent of any remaining present-ideal incongruity (feedback from daughter's friend). His goal is not very difficult but its enough to challenge him optimally. He also has one very specific ultimate goal (banging the friend) so he knows exactly what to strive for.
Interesting movie...very accurate depiction of some american families. Pretty sad how accurate some of the mindsets are.

Goal Setting
Goal Striving
Need for Achievement
Incongruity
Goal Difficulty
Goal Specificity
Standard of Excellence
Tendency to Avoid Failure

Having never seen American Beauty before, it was not what I expected. There was far more to that film then the simple summary that I read provided. American Beauty is overflowing with concepts from class the movie seemed to be made for this class. Though a lot of the main characters had meaning different social needs and motivation concepts, the concepts also overlapped with every character it seemed. Above all else the concept from class that seems to be a constant theme in this film is social needs, more straight forward intimacy and affiliation. Social Needs are an acquired psychological process that grows out of one’s socialization history that activates emotional response to a particular need. These social needs being achievement, affiliation, intimacy and power. Then there are the qusai-needs, the need that are situational induced wants and desires that are not actually full-blown needs in the same sense that the typical physiological, psychological and social needs are.

Lester, Carolyn, and Jane all have a need for intimacy. Lester feels stuck in a rut for the last few years, dissatisfied with his life and himself knows his marriage hasn’t been a marriage for some time. There is no intimacy in his relationship with his wife. He may feel trapped in everything he does, going along with the flow of everything not sticking up for himself. With him shut off from his wife, her intimacy needs are closed off as well; however, her reason is different due to her overwhelming need to succeed in fulfilling the professional image of a real-estate agent. So distracted by that she disconnects with her husband and their intimacy falls apart. Jane has no connected her parents in the movie, no intimate moments, and eventually finds Ricky to accommodate for her needs for intimacy in an honest relationship, which he too lacks intimacy in his life and finds it mutually in Jane. It seems the whole family is dysfunctional, socially disconnected that they cannot have warm, secure relationships with each other.

Carolyn in particular has a high need of achievement as well, which I mentioned before. Her desire to do well in what she does in a vastly competitive profession of real-estate; wanting to hold up her image of success with expensive things rather than more important things in life like her husband and daughter. She has a present state of mind that she’s not successful enough, telling herself that she will sell that house today and telling her husband what to do when in a social setting to best make her look good. She has the ideal state in mind where she’s completely successful, has everything she wants or needs and that her family is a perfect successful family. It’s clear that her family is nothing but. She has all these goals she’s setting, deep into goal setting behavior and everything seems to be failing. Her job in selling homes, her relationship with her husband and daughter to the point she sleeps with her ‘arch nemesis.’ But all she really wants is the intimacy from her husband and family and through it all still loves Lester which is clear when she learns of his death.

Along with Lester’s general lack of need of intimacy in his life, he becomes to have an interest in his daughters friend. Through his fantasies of her and what he hears her say, he has extrinsic motivation in to make himself a better person physically. Through speaking with Richy, he ends up finding intrinsic motivation into do something with his life. He has the motive to eventually establishing empowerment in himself, empowerment being the processing of knowledge, skill, and beliefs that allow people to exert control over their lives. By eventually gradually learning that he didn’t have to take the aversive things that life throws at him he can control the outcomes. He eventually gains a sense of mastery; the perceived control one has over attaining desirable outcomes and preventing the aversive ones. This is best shown when Lester manipulates his previous employer to not only quiet his job but black-mail them into paying him to be quiet. Set for now he begins to enjoy life like he did when he was younger when he was happier. And eventually he pulls himself up and eventually he turns himself around and his life turns for the better, for the most part, he as a person improves. His life is ‘great’ as he described near the ending of the movie. He just needs to turn the rest of his family around as well so they call can improve and be the family they were. That is of course when he dies, and we don’t know what happens after that.

Terms: social needs, intimacy, affiliation, extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, qusai-needs, achievement, goal-setting, present state, ideal state, empowerment, mastery, physiological, psychological

American Beauty displayed various terms throughout chapters 7-9 of our textbook. I feel the first major term that was displayed throughout the beginning was learned helplessness. Lester settles with his miserable job, failing marriage, and lack of a relationship with his daughter Jane because he feels he has no control over his life. However, Lester displays sense of empowerment when he states that "he felt as though he had been in a coma 20 years of his life, and is now waking up."

Therefore, after having this realization, Lester decides to take control of his life and make changes/goals. He wants to change his present state to an ideal state. He first decides to quit his job that he was miserable at, and take on a job at a fast food restaurant. This could be suggested as instigation, because he feels the need for change and hopes things will get better now that he is taking control over his life. I feel Lester is having what many of us define as a midlife crisis when he quits his job and buys himself a fancy new car.

First, Lester feels the need for achievement to impress Angela, his daughter's friend by working out when he overhears her saying he would be more attractive if he did. He begins running and lifting weights in the garage everyday, hoping for the reward of Angela's interest. In addition, Lester receives consummation from the running and lifting weights. It increases his endorphins, and provides him with a sense of confidence.

Also, Lester is having a discrepancy creation when he is desiring to be with Angela because his ideal state is existing within his mind until later on in the movie when he finally gets the chance to act upon this desire for his daughter Jane's friend.

Lester's wife Caroline feels the need for power by having an affair, and then also when she goes off to a shooting range and invests in a gun which she planned to shoot Lester with. Caroline suffers from mastery beliefs where she wants to have control over desirable outcomes regarding her family and life, by making it appear as though it it completely perfect. However, she wants to avoid the aversive outcomes such as her marriage failing, and the lack of relationship with her daughter who is somewhat of an outcast who is unsure of her identity.

As previously mentioned, Lester's daughter Jane is unsure of her identity, and feels an intense need for affiliation which causes her to form an unlikely friendship with her neighbor Ricky. They ended up forming a relationship based upon their loneliness and rejection from their peers. Also, Ricky and Jane both have troubled relationships with their families and find solace in each other.

Ricky has a father who displays aggressiveness and beats on his son because he is in denial of his own sexuality. Frank Fitts is fearful of the fact that he is a homosexual, and when he acts upon it with Lester whom he thinks is gay, he would go to an extreme of killing Lester before this secret came out.

Angela is very conceited and has performance goals where she feels the need to exaggerate her lifestyle, and come off as a different person because she is fearful of being ordinary. She feels the need to achieve or advance in life based on her looks. In reality, Angela is very insecure, and feeds off the attention that Lester gives her.

Lastly, Lester and Caroline both feel the need for intimacy which is lacking in their relationship. Therefore, Caroline partakes in an affair with Buddy who is another real estate agent, who gives her a sense of power. In addition, Lester fills his void by forming an obsession over Angela because of his lack of intimacy with Caroline. Ricky and Jane seek intimacy as they plan to run away together to get away from their families.

Terms used: intimacy, discrepancy creation, empowerment, fear, aggressiveness, goal setting, present state vs. ideal state, goals, instigation, achievement, consummation, rewards, mastery beliefs, affiliation, power, performance goals

The film American Beauty exemplifies the vast arrays of social needs. The film deals with a lot of hard situations and uneasy subjects while uncovering how these certain needs affect ones ability to deal with these unsettling situations.
When it comes to social needs, there is a lot to be said for it seems all of the main characters (I am choosing to talk about just Lester, Caroline, Jane, Ricky and Angela) struggle with making these needs. The first need to be addressed is the need for achievement which varies in each of the characters. Lester has a low need for achievement and you can tell this by the fact that he does not desire to do well and doesn't seem to want any responsibility at all. However, he does seem to have mastery goals because he does decide to begin working out in order to attract the attention of Angela. He also becomes intrinsically motivated (by this I mean he begins doing the things he wants to do such as quitting his job and acting like hes 19 again. However, his character also showed an avoidance-oriented motivation because he tends to under perform (getting the job at the burger place because he didn't want responsibility) and quitting quickly. Caroline has a high need for achievement. She desires to do well in her career to a frantic level. She is in constant competition with tasks, herself, and others (Buddy). She has performance goals and you see this because she has a need to prove herself competent in her business and her home (the roses) and desires to out perform others (Buddy, again) She exhibits performance-avoidance goals because she desires to avoid doing anything poorly. Jane has a low need for achievement because she is not too concerned about doing well if she is concerned at all. Whether she has any real goals is questionable but I would suggest she has performance goals, mainly performance-avoidance/ avoidance-oriented goals because she seems to under perform in all aspects (including in the way she dresses). Angela has a high need for achievement and you see this every time you hear her say “I don't want to be ordinary”. She wants to be a model and she is in competition with others around her. She has performance-approach goals because she has to outperform everyone, succeed with little effort and show her ability to friends and family. Lastly, Ricky has a low need for achievement because he really doesn't care about success. I would argue that he shows performance-avoidance goals because he tiptoes around his father in order to appease him so that Ricky stays out of the radar. However, outside of the home, he seems to show mastery goals because he takes interest in learning and being up close and personal with things and he does most things out of intrinsic motivation.
Affiliation and Intimacy is also something to be examined since the characters exhibit the characteristics so well. Lester has a high need for intimacy and you see this by the fact that he is always masturbating and fantasizing about other women (by this I mean Angela) because he no longer has a close, intimate relationship with his wife and he is always asking how Jane is doing because he misses their close relationship. He has a growth-oriented motivation because he wants to see these relationships nurtured. He has a low need for affiliation because he seems not to care about anyone outside this ring of people. Caroline has a high need for affiliation and you see this when they attend the formal gathering for her work. She wants social acceptance. She also has a high need for intimacy because she starts having a sexual affair with Buddy, another realtor. She has a deficiency-oriented motivation, however, because she doesn't seem to care much about close personal relationships as much as just having someone around. Jane has a low need for affiliation and thus her only real friend is Angela (before Ricky shows up). However, she has a high need for intimacy. She wishes she could be closer to her parents but the gap is so big now that she just hates them for lack of affection. She desires to be around Ricky because their love fills the void for her. In this way she is growth-oriented because she is nurturing a intimate relationship with Ricky. Angela has a high need for affiliation and you can tell this by how much she demands the attention of those around her. She is always bragging herself up and likes the idea of people undressing her with their eyes. She has a low need for intimacy because she doesn't seem to care too much about having a close relationship with someone as much as she just wants someone around. In this way she is deficiency-oriented. Lastly, Ricky has a low need for affiliation and you see this because he is an outsider at school and doesn't care at all and doesn't seek out anyone’s attention by Jane's. He has a high need for intimacy because in his home life he doesn't get any at all and he wants to have a close relationship with Jane and he refers to his dad (despite his fathers abuse and neglect) as a “good guy” and its obvious he loves his mom so you can still tell that he wishes they could have intimate relationships but not all participants are willing. Because of this he has growth-oriented motivation.
The last social need to be addressed is power and this is a need that all characters are struggling with constantly throughout the movie. Lester has a low need for power because he is not interested in impacting, controlling, or influencing anyone around him. He has no desire to be a leader, he does not have an influential job (at the end hes working at a fast food place), he doesn't care about possessions (he doesn't care about the expensive couch), but he does show aggression towards his wife. They get in really heated arguments and even once he threw a plate at the wall. Caroline has a high need for power and she tries to impact, control and influence both Jane and Lester throughout the movie by telling Jane she needs to look better, criticizing Lester for everything he does and conducting the family (doing things she wants to do irregardless of whether she wants to do them or not) like an orchestra. She demands leadership in both the family circle and her business, shes incredibly aggressive towards Lester, I think she believes her job is influential and she in concerned with everything looking and being nice (thousand dollar sofa, roses in the front yard). Jane takes after her dad in that she has a low need for power and shows no interest in controlling anyone except in one moment when she is yelling at Angela (aggression) “don't fuck my dad”. She has no influential job or prestige possessions and she doesn't care in the slightest. Angela is much like Caroline when it comes to the high need for power. She aims to impact, control and influence everyone (by using her beauty) and she love the feeling it creates. She becomes a leader to Jane for the first part of the film and she is even aggressive towards Ricky and Jane is several scenes as a way of putting them in their place, so to speak. She modeled once and still strives to be a model so that could have the same effect as having a influential job but besides her looks she doesn't have any notable possessions. Ricky shows a low need for power because he also does not try to control, impact or influence anyone in particular. He is not a leader and if anything he wants to stay under the radar. The job or being a drug dealer has some power to it because he does get things he wants when people need to make up the difference in favors instead of cash (how he gets the cabinet key, clean urine). And I suppose you could call his camera/film collection somewhat prestigious.
Its this dynamic of personalities and acquired needs that create the tension and hostility between all the characters in this film. They are are struggling against each other in one way or another; Lester wishing his wife was still fun and his daughter still loved him but takes the attentions of Angela instead, Caroline who wants to be successful puts her family on hold for that and loses them so she has an affair, Jane whose perceptions of her parents faulty relationship pushes everyone away but Angela and Ricky, Angela who needs attention so bad she is going to sleep with a 42 year old man to get it and lastly Ricky who just wants to be left alone to be with Jane and to reflect further in the beauty of the world.
Social Needs, Achievement, Performance Goals, Mastery Goals, Avoidance-oriented, Performance-avoidance, Performance-approach, Intrinsic Motivation, Affiliation, Intimacy, Growth-oriented, Deficiency-oriented, Power

This movie is all about the social needs of many different individuals; Lester, Caroline, Jane, Ricky, Angela, and Colonel Frank Fitz. They show many social needs, some of which are the need for power, intimacy, and affiliation. The movie also contains many different examples of discrepancy.

Carolyn shows the most obvious signs of possessing a high need for achievement. It is evident in almost everything that she does. The movie opens with her tending to the roses in her yard. She is delighted when her neighbor Jim asks her how she got her roses to look so good. Although we never actually witness her selling a house and cannot make judgment as to how successful of a realtor she is, she projects an image of extreme confidence that generally comes from someone who has a history of high achievement. Carolyn listens to motivational tapes and gets advice from someone who has achieved more than her, the “real estate king” Buddy Kane, all in an attempt to increase her achievements. Lester, on the other hand, is a good example of a person who has a low need for achievement. In his job he is not trying to advance higher in the company. He is actually happier when he no longer has a career but instead has a menial job at a fast food restaurant. He is complacent and seen as a loser within his own family. At one point in the movie, when he starts making all of his changes, he states that he feels as if he just woke up from a twenty year coma. Only at this point does he start to strive to improve himself through setting and achieving goals.

Goal setting and discrepancies are also recurring themes throughout the movie. Carolyn sets goals in her career. She wants to be more successful and tries very hard to change from her present state to her ideal state. She sets daily goals about small things like selling houses, having a nice yard, and being on time. Lester set goals in his personal life. He wanted to be happier, in better shape, and more involved with his daughter. He attempts to move from his present states to ideal states by quitting his job and starting to get high again, lifting weights in the garage and running, and talking to Jane and attending her dance performance respectively. The other characters show goal setting as well; Ricky strives to capture the beauty of the world with his camera, Angela strives to be a model, Jane strives to be close with someone, and Col Fitz strives to make sure that nobody finds out about his sexual orientation and that his son is successful.

Another need that is seen throughout the movie is the need for relatedness and intimacy. In the beginning everyone in the movie is being deprived of this need. Yet by the end most of them have managed to increase their intimacy with someone. Jane and Ricky, Carolyn and Buddy, and Lester and Angela they have all found someone that helps to satisfy this need and there is a visible upswing in everyone’s moods after they have satisfied this need. The one exception to this trend is Col Fitz. When he attempts to find someone to be intimate with he is denied and very obviously cannot take being shut off from other people anymore. Therefor he ends up killing Lester. Angela and Jane’s relationship on the surface may seem like it is satisfying both of their affiliation needs but I believe that it isn’t really helping either one of them. I think that for Angela their friendship only serves to reinforce her need for achievement. Hanging out with Jane makes Angela feel even better about the person she is and the things that she has accomplished. It is harder to tell what Jane is getting out of the friendship.

Terms:relatedness and intimacy, goal setting, present state, ideal state, need for achievement

In the movie American Beauty one of the biggest concepts from our book centrals around social needs. Each character in the movie has some sort of need that is not being met. The father has multiple social needs that aren't being met; these include his marriage, career, and overall social life. He views himself as pathetic and feels that everyone surrounding him thinks poorly about him. He is not being satisfied when it comes to intimacy, power, or any formof achievement. As the movieprogesses Lester goes through a type of midlife crisis. Through out this crisis he quits his job, buys his dream car, and meets his daughters friend who he falls for. After meeting Angela he sets a goal to lose weight as a way to impress her and a way to achieve positive feedback from someone he admires.
Lester's wife is a very unsatisfied wife, who just goes through the motions everyday. She has a need for intimacy and love. She appears to be the "perfect" wife, but it's really all for show. Carolyn is a real estate agent and has the constant need for power. She is constantly in competition with a co-worker and in one scene you see her having self talk about how she will sell the house.
Lester's daughter Jane, in the beginnning struggles with intimacy and a social need for achievment. Jane wants to get a boob job to be more accepted, even though she obviously doesn't need it. As Jane's character progresses she meets Ricky, and begins to date him. This begins to fulfill her need for intimacy, and she feels like less of an outcast.
Angela befriends Jane for her need of affiliation and wants to be liked. She has a goal to be a model, and the feedback that she receives from men fuels her ambition. Her friendship with Jane isn't a true friendship, as Angela constantly makes up stories to tell Jane.
Ricky's dad is faced with the challenge of having control. He is a military man and has always led a strict lifestyle. NOt being able to control his son's "weird" ways bothers him. He tries to control him by giving him frequent drug tests and by causing him physical harm when he doesn't respond to him. As the movie progresses we see that he is gay, and that is the underlying issue for his control. Lester finds out that he is gay, and as a way to control this situation, he shoots Lester.
Intimacy, social needs, feedback, intimacy, power, achievment

There are many concepts important to Motivation and Emotion present in the movie American Beauty. The first concept is intimacy needs. The need for intimacy is the socialization of the need to have intimacy. This is a growth-oriented motive, and includes the need for interpersonal caring, warmth and love, as well as relatedness within warm, close, reciprocal, and enduring relationships. There is a strong need for intimacy displayed in many of the characters in American Beauty. Lester, the father, is almost like a stranger to his wife and daughter. They all live in the same house yet have little intimate contact with each other. Lester receives no warmth or love from Carolyn, his wife, who constantly criticizes him and refuses to have any sexual contact with him. And Jane, his daughter, views him with contempt, keeping her distance from him. There is no warm, close, reciprocal relationship within this family. At one point in the movie Lester tries to become close to his wife, yet she evades his attempt by complaining he will spill beer on the couch. He also tries to make conversation with his daughter, yet she criticizes him and tells him what a terrible father he is. Ricky, the neighbor and Jane’s boyfriend, also experiences a need for intimacy. His father is militaristic and would regard any warmth towards his son as a gay move. And his mother appears to have a psychological problem and is not really connected with the world around her. As a result of this Ricky and Jane become very close and connect, fulfilling their need for intimacy through each other. Intimacy needs are very apparent in this movie and cause many of the events that take place to happen.
A second concept present in the movie is discrepancy. Discrepancy is the mismatch between one’s present state and their ideal state. A person’s present state is their current status of how life is going now. Their ideal state represents how the person wishes their life was going. When the present state falls short of the ideal state, this forms a discrepancy. The discrepancy creates the sense of wanting to change the present state. In the movie Lester is just going through the motions and is constantly beaten down by life: his wife doesn’t love him, his daughter hates him, and he is about to be fired. This is his present state, and frankly things don’t look good for Lester. His ideal state is to be more in control of his life, to have people want him and love him, and to not be stepped all over by the people in his life. There is a discrepancy here. He begins to move toward his ideal state and by the end of the movie he really seems to be happy finally. Another example of a discrepancy in the movie is with Angela. Angela has a fear of being ordinary. She believes she is ordinary – this is her present state. Her ideal state is being extraordinary and to stand out above everyone else. Because of this she talks up her sexual history, bragging to Jane about all the guys she has had sex with and a famous photographer she slept with. In reality, she has never had sex. Yet by exaggerating her sex life and pretending she has a long sexual history, she makes herself appear to be extraordinary. The discrepancies the characters have between their present states and ideal states really motivate their actions and cause them to change their actions.
A third concept present in the movie is learned helplessness. This especially pertains to Lester. Learned helplessness is the psychological state that results when an individual expects that life’s outcomes are uncontrollable. In the beginning of the movie Lester is just going through the motions. He has a dead-end job he is about to be fired from and a terrible life at home. Lester doesn’t believe he has any control over the outcomes of his life and can’t do anything about his situation. Because of this he lets people walk all over him and doesn’t try to gain control of his life – he is very listless in the beginning of the movie. This begins to change though. Lester begins to realize that he does have control of his life and he can in fact change himself and his world around him into the way he wants it to be. He begins working out, smoking pot (which is an activity he enjoys and never felt he could do before), quits his job, and talks back to his wife and daughter when they try to walk all over him like they always did in the past. This change in Lester is caused by his development of mastery beliefs. Mastery beliefs are the extent of perceived control one has over attaining desirable outcomes and perceiving adverse ones. Lester begins to perceive control of his life once he starts working out, changing the way he thinks about himself and his life. He realizes he is able to attain desirable outcomes, and his whole personality changes. Lester changes from the listless man he once was to an outspoken and bluntly honest man.
Terms used: Intimacy needs, discrepancy, present state, ideal state, learned helplessness, mastery beliefs

American Beauty is a great movie about social needs. It mirrors life in that each person has needs that often conflict. The biggest difference within the group of people is that within their interpersonal network, they don't receive any support from those who should help life their social burdens.

Caroline is most notable, for she lacks the most. She is an adult who feels powerless and weak. She hurts for intimacy too, as she is unable to get in touch with her emotions most of the time. She can only really talk about them at great length when she feels powerful.

Caroline spent her entire life chasing dreams of being rich, prestigious, and powerful to ultimately fail where it counted most. She didn't cultivate good relationships with her husband or her daughter. Instead all she has is things that provide no real comfort. Even the gun, a thing which she found as a source of power for some time, as well as a connection to Buddy Kane.

The relationship with Buddy Kane is the one truly intimate relationship she tries for in the movie, a man she sees as so much like herself only more successful. He aligns well with her own goals, but because of his success, mere affiliation with him raises her self-esteem. When he ends up abandoning her, she is crushed. By that point in the movie, her world is a ruin as her husband knows about her affair. The actions of Kane coupled with those of her husband at the drive through leave her even more isolated. She hasn't achieved any more throughout the course of this narrative but she has lost so much in terms of relationships.

On the other hand, Lester is a man struggling with his self-concept. He hits on all the signs of a mid-life crisis when he finally puts together that he isn't the man he thought he'd be growing up. It's not that he never knew, but as the movie says never underestimate the power of denial.

Lester's goals change rapidly, as they would tend to when he acknowledges he has more then they really dreamed of. He sees all of the prestige possessions of his wife for what they are. He also sees that they highlight the later part of their marriage as more a partnership than an intimate relationship.

Angela Hayes is another individual who was very interesting to me. The way that she portrays herself as a sexually free spirit throughout the movie only to reveal herself to be a virgin was a great twist. The tales she told were attention seeking, a source of power in highschool. It's a way of owning the attention that men give her, but one that ultimately backfires.

Angela's actions also show that she lacks a great deal of intimacy. Even her best friend is unaware that she isn't promiscuous. She has never had a boyfriend serious enough to be her first. When Angela and Lester are about to have sex, she blurts it out, forewarning him that she may be less than a dynamo in the sack. Lester has a very appropriate attack of conscience when he realizes that he can not be her first. Instead he provides the kind of intimacy that Angela needs. Though the road to getting there was absolutely wrong, it did lead to the beginning of what could have been a supportive relationship had he not died shortly thereafter.

Terms:
Social Needs, Power, Prestige Possessions, Goal Pursuit, Interpersonal Networks, Intimacy, Achievement, Affiliation, Self-Concept

The movie American Beauty had many examples of social needs. Social needs are acquired through experience, development, and socialization. The four social needs include intimacy, affiliation, achievement, and power. The main characters in the movie all are striving to fulfill their social needs.

Characters of the movie are trying to fulfill their lack of intimacy. We always are looking to form bonds with others and feel a sense of want and that we belong. Lester and his wife Carolyn have not had a good marriage for many years. Because of this, Carolyn starts to have an affair with another realtor and Lester is attracted to his daughter Jane’s friend. Ricky grew up an a non emotional military family and has lacked intimacy throughout his life. Jane also lacks intimacy and forms a bond with Ricky that we see throughout the movie. Angela always talked about sex and hooking up with various guys. In the end she tries to seduce Lester and we find out that she was a virgin. Angela and Lester then just have a meaningful conversation and bond with each other so her intimacy is met for the time being.

Affiliation is a need to please others and gain approval. Need for Affiliation is shown in the movie with Carolyn especially when she tries to fit in at her realtor party. She talks to Lester telling him how to act to better fit in with everyone. She also has a need to affiliate with the other realtor especially up until she sleeps with him. You can tell that Jane and Angela want to affiliate with others because they are always trying to look cool and impress others. Jane tells Ricky off in the beginning because she thinks that’s what Angela wants her to do. Angela talks about sex and smokes cigarettes to be what society deems sexy and cool to fit in as well. Ricky tells his dad what he wants to hear about neighbors in order to please him.

Achievement is a desire to do something well to show competence. A good example of need for achievement would be when Carolyn hosted the open house. She tried so hard to prove she was a competent realtor and that she was just as good as her competition. When she didn’t sell the house or have any offers you see her have a break down because she couldn’t fulfill that need. You also see a failed attempt at achievement at Lester’s job. He put for effort up until he had to prove himself with a paper in order to keep his job. He then lost all motivation and quit.

Finally we come to power. Power is a desire to have an impact on others. An example of this would be with Ricky’s dad Frank who is in the military. He has lots of guns which he keeps locked away. When he finds that Ricky had been into his cabinet he freaked out and abused Ricky. You can tell that he always wants to be in control and control others in his environment. He feels above the others in the neighborhood. You also see him vulnerable in the end when he tries to kiss Lester.

You could also relate the movie to discrepancy because Carolyn she as her actual state and her ideal state. Right now, she isn’t a good competitor in real-estate. She has to give herself pep talks in order to feel better. She also is having a hard time with her family. She has a bad marriage and has no relationship with Jane.

Social needs, intimacy, achievement, affiliation, power, discrepancy.

In the movie American Beauty, any individual can point out many of the aspects that cover chapters 7 and 8 of our textbook. The major aspects I noticed were social, quasi-needs, and also goal setting.
The main characters of the movie were all set out to achieve the things they wished to have or do. Starting with Angela, she wished to be a model and in order to do so, she portrayed herself to be a sleazy girl just to get more attention. She enjoyed this attention because she had a social need of affiliation. She’s looking for acceptance and approval for reassurance that she’s beautiful. Due to her goal of wanting to be a model, I also see this as a social need of power; if she gives herself a better grip on the goal, she’s more apt to obtain it.
Lester is a very unhappy married and working man. You can tell this in his first two scenes where a) his family makes a mockery of him and b) his boss degrades him in his work, which he is already faking his happiness. He in return hits a threshold that makes him snap and he decides to live his life the way he wants to: quits his job, starts smoking pot, working out, etc. He decides to go back to a teenage job at a burger joint and relive true happiness he experienced as a child, and he also starts buying the things he always dreamed to have. His lack of intimacy starts to grow a fascination with Angela (or a quasi-need) as you see him set a goal of becoming her dream man (hence, the working out) but he ends up snapping back to reality because he was already satisfied because he could attain what he wanted and he didn’t want to destroy a young girl as he already had with his daughter.
Jane is a very unique young girl with many issues in her life. Her parents are very dysfunctional and all she ends up wanting is love, which she eventually experiences with Ricky. Ricky also has a dysfunctional family that has him searching for the same as Jane. These two are the only two characters who end up resolving their need for intimacy and love. Jane hangs out with Angela and is a cheerleader because I feel she is seeking affiliation with anyone willing to satisfy that need. She is downplayed by her friend, because her friend is power hungry and just as deprived of the social needs that she is.
Carolyn, the mother, is lacking both achievement and intimacy. She and her husband Lester have a failing marriage and there is a lot of tension. She lets this tension build up and it ends up defeating her at work. She is envious of the competition, but is also very turned on by him, which makes her even tenser. She engages in an affair with her competition, especially to boost her career. This all comes crumbling down when Lester catches her and she’s left back at square one. Though Lester tries to help her and be with her again, she’s not the person he once fell in love with and this results in failed attempts. She was essentially power hungry as well. In her business, she tried to be the best and in home, she tried to have the “perfect” life status. Overall, this status she attains never makes her happy.
There are major discrepancies found in the lives of the characters. None of them attain the lives they wish they had, and this is shown throughout the whole movie: Angela wanting a certain status, Jane wanting to be extraordinary, Ricky wanting to live the life he wanted (not his father’s wants for him), Carolyn with wanting control, and Lester wanting his life back on track.
Terms: social needs, quasi-needs, achievement, affiliation, power, intimacy, control, status, goal, discrepancy, attention, acceptance, approval, reassurance

American Beauty was a very interesting movie to say the least. When describing needs, there were multiple incidences throughout the movie. The first concept from the chapter that stuck out was the concept of quasi-needs. Almost all of the characters from the movie experienced quasi-needs at some point. From the beginning of the movie it was apparent that Lester and Dorothy had marriage problems and family issues had developed early. The concept of quasi-needs for Dorothy where extremely emotional because of here declined relationship and mixed feelings with the cognitions running through her head. Jane experienced quasi-needs from the demands of the situation, ones where she felt an outcast and alone in her family. Lester experienced quasi-needs because of his feelings for Jane’s best friend after the first time he met her. He also lacked quasi-needs according to the text because of his lack of care for job, the money it had to offer, and the approval of his family. All these suggest quasi-needs which would show Lester unable to fulfill.
Dorothy was unable to fulfill her needs being married to Lester and showed obvious signs of suffering from job performance while not being able to sell houses as a real estate agent. The feelings of being incompetent and insufficient produced extreme social needs for Dorothy during her midlife crisis. She finally reached the need satisfying incentives social needs encompass when she met Buddy Kane, a man who could finally relate through organizational work in the same field. During Dorothy’s breakdown she experienced much strife failing to achieve her goals of selling houses. Dorothy was beginning to fail her achievement of reaching a standard of excellence in her profession. This emotionally affected her, as well as limiting her need for achievement. Buddy Kane had a high achievement for the future. His motivational behaviors to explore and advertise his real estate agency across the town showed he had high hopes and future goals. During Dorothy’s cheating experience she felt much anxiety and fear even as Lester tried to seduce Dorothy she exemplified fear of any intimacy because of here betrayal of Lester. She had extreme anxiety even during romanticism because she knew Lester was in the “moment” and she had feelings of guilt.
During all the strife throughout the Burnham family, Lester was able to experience an interpersonal network with Ricky from the minute they first met. The entire pot smoking schema left a remarkable impact as buyer and seller of an illegal substance that was misconstrued by Ricky’s dad as an oral gratification of sexual pleasure between the two. In reality, the impact was a friendship of loose ends between particular needs and fixations. During this misconception Ricky’s father exemplified a strong emotional power of him by physically beating him for his “perceived” actions. He wanted to show his dominance as a father and set his son straight by constructing his own beliefs in his son, even though they were misconstrued. Ricky’s father showed pure aggressiveness by his control tactics. As a military man, he wanted to enforce structure in Ricky’s life. The problem resulted in family relationship problems that were unspoken of. Ricky’s dad wanted to control and influence his behaviors based on his own motivational appearances and actions. Ricky was unable to build up the courage to physically fight back with his own father, but had developed plans to counteract his ideas. Ricky planned out his environment by choosing to continue weed smoking and selling it in order to obtain cash. He deceived his father by working pointless jobs catering in order to throw off the trail of his denial toward his dad.
The main problem with Ricky’s actions was his goal difficulties. Hiding the fact he had been smoking and selling weed throughout his own parent’s house was a tough factor to accomplish. His goal was to save enough cash to eventually live and afford for his self. His goal difficulty was disturbed by his father who was constantly breathing down his back. The fact he was able to deceive his father by faking urine tests every few months showed how he was able to overcome his goal difficulties.
During all the complications of the Burnham family, Jane’s best fiend Angela is continuously expressing her physical beauty and love life to Jane. Angela is attempting to fulfill her own self-efficacy through her own internal cognitions because she in fact fears deeply about being ordinary and plain. She is continuously worried about her appearance toward others and making them believe she has had the ability to satisfy men in order to relieve her own stressful thoughts. She was physically attracted to Lester, who after much progress and working out, verbally persuaded her to become intimate with him after a long desired passion. This is where the unexpected happens. She finally admits she had never been with a man before, and her insecurities are finally revealed. Angela’s physiological state became apparent when her tense and fearful self-worth was unable to continue the way she was living. Her perceived self-efficacy was finally realized during the passionate moment with Lester. Ultimately it was Lester’s choice and realization to avoid any further contact he had already made with Angela. After the simple fact she admitted her virginity to Lester he was overwhelmed by emotional feelings about his family relations. Ricky’s dad who unsuspectingly killed Lester was emotionally unfit to carry on with his life as a closet homosexual.
Just prior to Lester’s death, there were mixed emotions about Ricky and Jane leaving for New York. Angela and Jane got into a big fight about their friendship while Ricky called Angela out on her insecurities. Both Jane and Ricky showed signs of hope in their “awkward” relationship and being able to be a happy couple. This is all a perceived event both had chosen to overcome.
Terms: quasi-needs, social needs, achievement, achievement goals, hope, anxiety/fear, interpersonal network, power, aggressiveness, goal difficulties, plans, cognitions, self-efficacy, choice,

I had never seen the movie American Beauty before until now. This is one of the craziest movies I have ever seen, but it was very interesting to watch. I find it crazy how much a person’s needs can motivate them to do really crazy unrealistic things they normally wouldn’t do. Throughout the movie I saw many concepts from the Motivation and Emotion book come out. A lot of the needs in this movie were social needs that were being portrayed. The three social needs are achievement, affiliation, intimacy, and power.

The need for achievement came out extremely in the mom. She really wanted to be the most amazing person anyone could ask for and because she needed to feel successful she didn’t pay much attention to other aspects of her life like her family. She became very distant from her husband and daughter until the point that the two didn’t even like her anymore. She became miserable throughout the movie because all she wanted was to be successful so she had an affair with a very successful man to make herself feel better. She ends up being caught and feels even worse overall.

The need for affiliation comes out in Angela. She needs to feel like she is the most popular girl in school. The need for affiliation makes Angela very snobby to her friends because she wants to look cool. She even makes up lies about not being a virgin just to try to be cool, when in the end you find out Angela is still a virgin.

The need for intimacy comes out in the dad because his wife doesn’t pay any attention to him. He needs an intimate relationship so bad that he even goes after his daughter’s teenage friend! He becomes very hostile towards his wife and even throws a plate at a wall because she isn’t fulfilling his need of an intimate relationship.

The need for power comes out in the neighbor’s dad. He feels like he needs to be in control of his son so much to the point where he actually beats his son. His dad constantly is spying on his son to catch him doing anything wrong. He even thinks the son is gay because he sees him through a window and suspects wrong things of him. Because the dad is so controlling and angry, his son moves out of the house.

Many of the characters in the movie have trouble differentiating between their present state and their ideal state. Overall, none of the people in the movie are happy with their present state and want to be someone else. This leads them to do crazy things like fall in love with an extremely young girl, have an affair, move out of the house, and even kill. In the end of the movie, the neighbor boy’s dad is so upset that he thinks his son is gay and can get a boyfriend but he can’t, that he ends up shooting his neighbor!

None of the people in the movie have high self-esteem. They all want something better in their lives and will do anything to get it. In the end, mostly everyone ends up happier than they were before. The main girl character finds love that appreciates her for who she is. The girls friend gets attention from the girl’s dad and realizes she doesn’t need to put on an act to find love. The dad gets shot and put out of his misery like he said he wanted (which he really didn’t). But, some people ended up better off than they were in the first place. The wife lost her husband even though she didn’t appreciate him all the way through their marriage. Also, the dad wanted his family back to normal but didn’t have a chance because he was killed.

Overall, the movie was very interesting and entertaining to watch because it was so crazy. It showed a lot of the concepts from the Motivation and Emotion textbook and showed how people will do a lot to fulfill their social needs and their ideal self just so they can feel good about themselves and their lives.

Vocabulary: needs, achievement, affiliation, intimacy, power, control, present state, ideal state, self-esteem

I had never seen the movie American Beauty before until now. This is one of the craziest movies I have ever seen, but it was very interesting to watch. I find it crazy how much a person’s needs can motivate them to do really crazy unrealistic things they normally wouldn’t do. Throughout the movie I saw many concepts from the Motivation and Emotion book come out. A lot of the needs in this movie were social needs that were being portrayed. The three social needs are achievement, affiliation, intimacy, and power.

The need for achievement came out extremely in the mom. She really wanted to be the most amazing person anyone could ask for and because she needed to feel successful she didn’t pay much attention to other aspects of her life like her family. She became very distant from her husband and daughter until the point that the two didn’t even like her anymore. She became miserable throughout the movie because all she wanted was to be successful so she had an affair with a very successful man to make herself feel better. She ends up being caught and feels even worse overall.

The need for affiliation comes out in Angela. She needs to feel like she is the most popular girl in school. The need for affiliation makes Angela very snobby to her friends because she wants to look cool. She even makes up lies about not being a virgin just to try to be cool, when in the end you find out Angela is still a virgin.

The need for intimacy comes out in the dad because his wife doesn’t pay any attention to him. He needs an intimate relationship so bad that he even goes after his daughter’s teenage friend! He becomes very hostile towards his wife and even throws a plate at a wall because she isn’t fulfilling his need of an intimate relationship.

The need for power comes out in the neighbor’s dad. He feels like he needs to be in control of his son so much to the point where he actually beats his son. His dad constantly is spying on his son to catch him doing anything wrong. He even thinks the son is gay because he sees him through a window and suspects wrong things of him. Because the dad is so controlling and angry, his son moves out of the house.

Many of the characters in the movie have trouble differentiating between their present state and their ideal state. Overall, none of the people in the movie are happy with their present state and want to be someone else. This leads them to do crazy things like fall in love with an extremely young girl, have an affair, move out of the house, and even kill. In the end of the movie, the neighbor boy’s dad is so upset that he thinks his son is gay and can get a boyfriend but he can’t, that he ends up shooting his neighbor!

None of the people in the movie have high self-esteem. They all want something better in their lives and will do anything to get it. In the end, mostly everyone ends up happier than they were before. The main girl character finds love that appreciates her for who she is. The girls friend gets attention from the girl’s dad and realizes she doesn’t need to put on an act to find love. The dad gets shot and put out of his misery like he said he wanted (which he really didn’t). But, some people ended up better off than they were in the first place. The wife lost her husband even though she didn’t appreciate him all the way through their marriage. Also, the dad wanted his family back to normal but didn’t have a chance because he was killed.

Overall, the movie was very interesting and entertaining to watch because it was so crazy. It showed a lot of the concepts from the Motivation and Emotion textbook and showed how people will do a lot to fulfill their social needs and their ideal self just so they can feel good about themselves and their lives.

Vocabulary: needs, achievement, affiliation, intimacy, power, control, present state, ideal state, self-esteem

The movie American Beauty has a plethora of examples of terms discussed in chapters 7- 9.
The characters in the movie all have many flaws and personal problems. I am going to discuss three characters, Lester, Carolyn, and Angela, and how they display strong needs and deficiencies throughout the film.

The main character, Lester, is a perturbed man. He describes his life as one that is boring, standard, and most of all controlled. “Although I don’t know this yet, I’ll be dead in a year. In a way, I am already dead.” In fact, he says masturbating in the morning shower is the best part of his day.

He has learned helplessness, and feels like he has no control over his life. Perceived control comes from one’s expectations in how much influence they have over the events in their life.

After being clearly unhappy with his life and marriage, he “snaps” as he watches his daughter’s dance performance. He focuses all his attention on his daughter’s friend, Angela. He even begins to fantasize her doing sexual dances with just the two of them in the gym. After this infatuation with Angela begins, Lester becomes a new person. “I feel like I’ve been in a coma for 20 years and am just now waking up.”

With this newfound control over his life, Lester begins to make goals. Goals rely on discrepancies as the driving force of motivation. Discrepancies arise between the comparisons of one’s present state versus ideal state; in other words, behaviors and qualities you currently have compared to the one’s you desire.
In Lester’s case, he has some major discrepancies. One of the first goals he has is to “look good naked.” This is driven by his desire to look good for Angela. He begins constantly lifting weights in his garage, sometimes naked. This would be discrepancy reduction.

Lester is sick of his wife telling him what to do and how to be. This reaches a climax when he yells at the dinner table that he is sick of being treated like he does not exist. As a result, he finds a new job at a fast food restaurant, where he has “as little responsibility as possible.” This makes him feel like he has autonomy can control over his life.

Carolyn, Lester’s wife, is materialistic and controlling. Everything needs to be perfect. She is very motivated, and displays goal-oriented behavior. This could be from a new for achievement. Achievement needs are the desire to do well relative to a standard of excellence. Every day she passes by the signs for the “King” of real estate, and becomes more depressed about her lack of ability.
In one of the early scenes of the film, she is seen diligently washing and preparing a house, while she keeps repeating “I will sell this house today. I will sell this house today.” This mindset of hers displays efficacy expectations. As I said earlier, goals are directed by expectations. Efficacy expectations are the expectations that you think something is possible or able to be done. “I have what it takes.”
She tries to satisfy her needs by going directly to the “King.” They end up having sexual relations. This is Carolyn’s way of controlling her life.

Finally, we have Angela. Angela is Lester’s daughter’s promiscuous friend. She makes comments throughout the movie about how many guys she has sex with, how she likes it when guys think about her when they jack-off, etc. She also emphasizes that she would “rather be pretty than normal… There is nothing worse than being ordinary.” Also, throughout the movie, she keeps hitting on Lester. Near the end, they almost have sex, until she confesses that she never has, so Lester backs off.

I find her behaviors to be the cause of affiliation needs. Affiliation is derived from the need to establish, maintain, and restore relationships with others. Angela’s actions are negative, and result in rejection anxiety. This is to avoid negative emotions, such as loneliness or disapproval. She fills these inner-flaws by flaunting her body, and lying to others about her experience of sex.

These are just a few examples of how the characters in the movie display personal flaws, resulting in powerful needs and behavior geared towards satisfying those needs.

TERMS: Social Needs, Achievement, Affiliation, Rejection Anxiety, Goals, Goal-directed behavior, Discrepancy reduction, Ideal State, Present State, Personal control outcomes, Self efficacy (has what takes), Outcome expectations, Learned helplessness

Much of the film I would say has a lot to do with Lester’s discrepancy between his present state and his ideal state. We see him towards the beginning of the movie working at a job that he despises. He feels trapped by his life and is looking for a while to feel free again. In order to reach his ideal state, Lester quits his job and seeks out a position that has less responsibility at a fast food joint.
Another example of the discrepancy between Lester’s ideal state and his present state is when he is unsatisfied with his physique. Not happy with the way he looks, Lester begins to work out in order for him to achieve the body he feels he should have. From here, Lester can be seen in engaging in discrepancy creation – creating goals and the goal-setting process that follows in wanting to achieve these goals.
Lester’s daughter Jane also seems to have an issue with discrepancy. She feels alone and that her life is extremely depressing. She desires to have intimacy in her life but her present state is lacking it. Trying to fill the void in her life, Jane starts to affiliate with her classmate Angela although she does not feel close to her and the friendship is very one sided (with Angela dominating the friendship). When Jane finally meets Ricky, she is able to fulfill her need for intimacy and realized that she no longer need to affiliate with Angela anymore.
Lester’s wife, Carolyn, is the character that has the highest need for achievement. Whether it’s tending to her rose garden or selling real estate, Carolyn strives to be the best she can possibly be (almost to the point of neurotic). I think the clearest example of Carolyn’s need for achievement (and a high level of self-efficacy) is in the scene where she is determined to sell the house that day. While cleaning frantically throughout the house, Carolyn continuously gives herself a pep talk (verbal persuasion) about how she will sell the house today. When she fails to achieve the goal, she is distraught and in tears.
Carolyn also seemed to have an extremely high need for power. The book explains that people who have a high need for power often put a lot of importance on reputation, status, and position. In Carolyn’s case, she was very concerned about her status. She always wanted everything to be perfect on the outside. She wanted the most expensive of everything. One can see this through the nice house they had, the nice neighborhood they lived in, expensive decorations inside their house. Having nice and expensive things gave Carolyn a sense of power. Despite this feeling of power, Carolyn still felt like her life was missing something. This can be linked to external and internal motivators. Carolyn was focusing all of her attention on the external things such as nice furniture and a nice house that she was forgetting to focus on the internal things that would make her happy. We learn from the book and from lecture that when someone focuses on external motivators, they are not as happy as when they focus on internal motivators such as interests. This movie is a perfect example of the fact that external motivators do not increase your overall happiness.
Terms: discrepancy, ideal state, present state, discrepancy creation, creating goals, goal-setting, intimacy, affiliation, achievement, self efficacy, verbal persuasion, goal, power, internal motivators, external motivators.