Topical Blog due Thursday 4/19@midnight

Billy Elliot is about a boy (Billy Elliot), who develops a passion for ballet. Despite disproval from his dad and brother (who are striking their coal mining jobs), Billy continues to practice with a ballet instructor without their knowledge in hopes to enroll in London’s Royal Ballet School. The movie relates to the material from the last chapter, because it demonstrates a individual’s struggle to fulfill his potential. Billy intrinsically likes ballet, but his environment creates social expectations which inhibit his interest. The theme basically states people will be happier in they pursue their passions instead of conforming to external expectations of them.

The particular scene of interest is when Billy’s dad, Jackie, learned his son had true talent. He not only approved, but also put his own beliefs at bay to help Billy, which was shown a few scenes later when Jackie stopped participating in the strike he vigorously stood for earlier, to raise money for Billy to get to London for an audition. However, I must provide background leading to the scene to establish the full impact. Billy initially boxed, but wasn’t satisfied with it. His needs were being ignored by his choice of seeking societal approval rather than his own inner passions. According to positive psychology, Billy didn’t realize his potential. However, he began to nurture his inner desires after stumbling upon ballet one day at the gym. From that point, Billy began self-actualization, in which he strived to realize his full potential in dancing, and was able to do so, because he had the two components necessary: openness and autonomy. He was open to trying it in the first place and had autonomy to continue striving for a socially unacceptable goal. For instance, he got a book on dancing, practiced outside of class, and consistently went to class. Aside from self-actualization, I believe he nurtured another need in Maslow’s hierarchy, with esteem needs. In the beginning, Billy wasn’t really happy at home nor his outside activities (boxing), but ballet provided him with a sense of accomplishment to boost his self-esteem. Anyway, his dad learned his son was in ballet and warned him to quit. However, Billy continued to show autonomy by arguing with him and continuing behind his back. The difference in views between Billy and Jackie came from their subjective organismic valuation processes, in which Billy found his potential and regarded it as growth-promoting, while Jackie thought of societal expectations and regarded it as growth-inhibiting. Jackie may have also partially projected some of anger onto Billy as a defense mechanism from the failure to win the strike with the coal mines. However, most of Jackie’s anger likely erupted from conditions of worth, in which he would approve of Billy’s behavior in certain circumstances (masculine sports). Billy was able to continue striving for potential ballet, despite receiving negative regard (disproval) from Jackie, because of positive interpersonal relationships with his instructor, her daughter, and his best friend, because they supported and encouraged him. Because of this, Billy developed congruence which pushed him to become good enough to audition for a prestigious dancing school.

That eventually led to Jackie finding Billy and his friend dancing at the gym. Although he initially conveyed disappointment his with facial expressions, they soon turned to amazement when Billy demonstrated his talent with an incredible dance routine, which marked the turning point in the movie. Jackie realized at that point that his son was truly gifted, and decided to support Billy’s inner desire to dance. With his approval, Jackie’s conditions of worth changed from approving of what’s socially acceptable to approving of Billy doing something he loved. With Jackie’s positive regard supporting him, Billy was better able to develop emergence of self in order to grow in complexity as a whole. However, what affected me more than Billy’s development was Jackie’s. Initially, his intrinsic motivation directed him to stand for his own beliefs (strike) through identified regulation, yet his regulation of Billy was interojected, because he was affected more by social expectations than his own inner beliefs (such as telling Billy that boys box, wrestle, or play football, but not dance). This scene not only changed Jackie’s organismic validation process and condition of worth toward Billy, but overpowered his own internal beliefs. By ending his strike to financially support Billy’s dreams, Jackie defied his own inner morals and social expectations, which ultimately showed his strongest internal motivation was to love and support his sons no matter what the cost. It is that final factor that I believe contributed to Billy’s congruence to accept his full range of talents. He later succeeds in getting into the school, and we learned in the final scene (many years later) he found meaning in his life through the dancing experiences, which gave him purpose. The movie ends with Billy leading a production of Swan Lake while his family watches from the audience.

Terms: inner desires, positive psychology, potential, self-actualization, openness, autonomy, Maslow’s hierarchy, esteem, organismic valuation process, growth-promoting, growth-inhibiting, societal expectations, defense mechanism, projection, conditions of worth, interpersonal relationships, negative regard, congruence, positive regard, emergence of self, intrinsic motivation, identified regulation, interojected regulation, meaning, purpose

The movie Billy Elliot is a perfect example of the concepts in chapters 14 and 15. The story is of a little boy, Billy, who aspires to be a ballet dancer even though his father and brother disapprove. At the beginning of the movie we see Billy’s discrepancy, or incongruence, between his current state of being a wrestler and his ideal self of being a dancer. Throughout the movie, Billy is conflicted between what he wants and what others tell him to do. In other words, it’s a conflict between his social and self definition. As the movie progresses, we get to see Billy strengthen his potential by acting upon his intrinsic motivation of ballet.
Billy is a character who demonstrates the self-actualization process from the beginning of the movie to the very end. At first, his curiosity motive led him to learn and gain a new interest, such as ballet, which is a form of his intrinsic motivation of dancing. Billy has strong growth needs that will allow him to direct his behavior into what he wants to become. In other words, he has an actualizing tendency because despite his dad’s disapproval, Billy persists and keeps practicing. An example in the movie which demonstrates this is when he steals a ballet instruction book from the library and practices in his bathroom over and over again. This also demonstrates the organismic valuation process because for him dancing is a growth –promoting experience that calms his anxiety and makes him feel free whenever something bad happens.
His father offers conditional positive regard and wants Billy to be like him and be a wrestler. This creates a tension and motivation conflict between his conditions of worth he learned from his father and his self-actualizing tendency. The father faces a conflict of his own because he wants to control Billy’s behavior and feelings about ballet, so he either has to avoid psychological costs or social costs, and to his father the social costs are worth more. Even though Billy isn’t receiving support from his dad, he receives unconditional positive regard from his teacher. She tells him about the school in New Castle and believes he can do it because it’s how you express yourself and offers private lessons so Billy’s dad won’t find out. This is an example of the teacher helping him discover and be himself. The teacher provides Billy the freedom to learn and takes on a student-centered approach. The teacher is an important character because she is supporting his actualizing tendency through a supportive relationship instead of a controlling one, like his father. Finally, after Billy misses his audition due to the minor strike conflict his dad and brother are involved in, the teacher confronts his family and tells them what’s been happening. This a clear example of the conflict Billy has between his external guide and his internal guide. However, he leans more toward his internal guide because during the fighting he sees himself dancing to feel better.
An important scene is the movie is when Billy and Michael are dancing and playing in the school when his friends dad walks in and sees them. He then runs and get’s Billy’s father from outside and calls him in to see. Upon seeing the boys dancing and wearing tutu’s, his father yells for Billy. Instead of Billy stopping and following his father, he continues to dance in front of him. This shows that he is done living by his father’s standards and is enhancing his autonomy. His dad leaves and runs to the teacher’s house to ask how much auditions cost. This demonstrates that his dad is adopting an unconditional positive regard for his son by giving him a chance to dance after seeing how well he did. According to Maslow and his hierarchy of needs, love and belongingness needs are 2 steps below self-actualization. By his dad and brother accepting Billy’s talents and capacities, it allows him a step closer to reaching his full potential. The next step is esteem needs. Billy achieves this after he got accepted into the school following his audition. It’s supported by his family and friend Michael who push him to go because they know he’s good. His teacher is also very supportive for his esteem needs. For instance, when Billy went to say goodbye to her before he left, she told him to go out and find life. Years later his dad and brother show up at his performance where Billy was the star performer. This demonstrates that he indeed achieve his potential and self-actualization.

TERMS: discrepancy, incongruence, social and self definition, intrinsic motivation, self actualization, curiosity motive, growth needs, actualization tendency, organismic valuation, conditional positive regard, unconditioned positive regard, freedom to learn, student-centered approach, supportive relationship, external guide, internal guide, autonomy, hierarchy of needs, full potential, esteem needs.

Billy Elliot had many scenes that involved some concepts from the last two chapters, 14 and 15. Billy is a young boy who is striving towards his goal of becoming a dancer, but due to his (at first) unsupportive brother and father, this goal is hindered slightly.

At one point in the movie, Billy is sitting in the kitchen with his father who has just discovered Billy's love and interest for the ballet. By this time, Billy has already met most of his deficiency needs as claimed by Maslow's need hierarchy, but debates over Maslow's hierachy have been proven to be correct by Billy for he has fulfilled his physiological needs of dancing, his love and belongingness through dancing and with his teacher and best friend, but does not seem to feel safe and secure since his mom's death.I think in this scence at the kitchten, Billy reaches into his esteem need by developing a high sense of autonomy and competence by sticking up for himself against his dad. By yelling at each other, Billy shows his congruence by telling his dad he sees nothing wrong with being in the ballet and through the most passionate emotion, anger. His dad responds angrily showing his control causality orientation of believing that boys should be in football, basketball, etc., but not the "fricken ballet". After Billy screams that he hates Jackie and calls him a bastard, Jackie responds angrily causing Billy to run out the door. In the end, Jackie has used a negative conditional regard when responding to Billy's disobediance and failure of boxing instead of using a positive conditional regard by accepting and supporting his ballet achievements.

Throughout the movie Billy shows great interest and curiousty for the ballet. His willing to be open to new experiences by joining in on the ballet practices and autonomy by sneaking it behind his brother and fathers' backs for as long as possible. As mentioned before, Billy's dad Jackie relys on external cues to his expectations of his son, but Billy is supported by 'Miss', his dancer teacher, who uses autonomy causailty orientations by caring and being passionate for Billy's abilities.

In one of the last scenes, Billy and his best friend are playing around in the gym where Billy practices. His ex-box teaching sees them from afar and brings Jackie in to see. Before Jackie can say anything to Billy, Billy starts to dance (which Jackie has never taken interest to watching before). In this scence, Billy dances his heart out and shows no fear in front of his dad for the talents he has, reaching into his growth motivation of his self-actualization. Billy has finally emerged into his self and has collided his social definition of being a typical, young boy into his self-definition of being a beautiful ballet dancer. Through Billy's eudaimonic well-being, he has displayed his talents and interests through challenging himself in ballet as well as challenging his relationships with others to gain their loving support for his passion. Billy loses his facade when he gets accepted eventually into the school, and can now wear his true smile happily.

In conclusion, Billy Elliot is an excellent film about how gender norms and culture stereotypes of men and women can have great impact on people who need to express their true self. This movie also shows that parents should be supportive and loving of their children with no matter what they do in order to push them towards emerging themselves and succeeding happily. I have recently done research over the effect of cultural stigmas and biological labeling with men being masculine and women being feminie and ending discrimination against it, so this movie (which I have seen a long time ago) seemed to have cupid it's way into my heart yet again.

Billy Elliot is about a young boy who wants to pursue dreams of becoming a ballet dancer. He struggles with acceptance from his family, friends, and other adult in the community along the way. The movie shows his efforts and persistence in achieving his dream.
Throughout the movie Billy goes back and forth between achieving his deficiency needs. At the beginning of the movie we see Billy go to boxing practice where is it clear he does not fit in nor wants to be there. He watches the girls in ballet class and longs to be with them. Here he is experiencing a need for belongingness. Unfortunately, Billy is reluctant to fulfill this need because of the disapproval he will receive from those around him. The absence of a deficiency need, like belongingness, inhibits growth. Therefore, during this part of the movie Billy is at a standstill where development is not occurring .Along with this, Billy is also experiencing a deficiency in growth needs, or self-actualization needs. These needs provide energy and direction to what one is capable of becoming. After Billy’s first encounter with dance, he is aware that he has the potential to become a dancer. However, because of conflicting reasons with approval of others, he continues to have a need for self-actualization. He is currently deprived of the ability to reach his full potential in dance, something he now loves to do. When Billy considers dance according to his family values he view it negatively and regressive. However, when he considers dance according to his values and his dance teacher’s value she views it as positive and enhancing.

We all learn how to decipher which behaviors are judged positively or negatively by others at a young age through conditions of worth. According to the text, if a child’s parents wish them to be a certain way through conditional positive regard rather than accepting who they naturally are, the child will learn to understand what behaviors are acceptable and which behavior are not. In the case of Billy Elliot, he understands that going against his father’s wishes of becoming a ballet dancer is not viewed acceptable. He understands his behavior is frowned upon, but in this way Billy becomes his own person. Billy at first shows conflict between his pursuits for self-actualization and his conditions of worth. However, he then realizes which to put first and plans on achieving his dream.

Billy is a young boy who has an autonomy causality orientation. This means he relies on internal guides to regulate his behavior. Billy’s goals of becoming a dancer are what motivate him to persist in dancing and to end his boxing career. Intrinsic motivation plays a part in Billy’s ability to continue dancing when no one believes he should. What Billy truly wants to do in life is what he plans to do instead of following others plan’s for him. Billy demonstrates growth-seeking behaviors through this as well. Instead of validation-seeking, which would be gaining social approval for his behaviors, he searches for something to challenge him and aid in development. He is still able to feel validated because of the approval he gets from his inner-self.

Billy’s friend Michael struggles with congruence in his life. At school he is seen as a regular boy who acts tough and enjoys boxing. However, when Billy visits Michael at home one afternoon, Michael is dressed in girls’ clothing and puts make up on. Later in the movie we see Michael showing affection to Billy. Michael is assuming that Billy is homosexual because he dances. However, Billy informs him that just because he likes to dance does not mean he is gay. Michael asks Billy not to tell anyone his secret. Michael perceives himself in front of others as a different way than when he is alone or with someone he is close to, like Billy. Unfortunately, this incongruence could lead to anxiety, depression and self-doubt in Michael. However, fortunately at the end of the movie we see Michael at Billy’s dance performance and he seems to be open about his sexual orientation.

The movie did a great job of demonstrating different needs and how they are met. The intrinsic motivation, persistence, and other growth-seeking characteristics of Billy are able to show many different aspects of positive psychology.

Terms: deficiency needs, love and belonging need, growth needs, self-actualizing, conditions of worth, congruence, incongruence, autonomy causality orientation, growth-seeking, validation-seeking.

The movie, Billy Elliot, takes place in a small town in England where a kid named Billy Elliot finds his passion for dance and follows his pursuit of his dream to be a professional ballet dancer. He is first introduced to ballet at his boxing classes where his dad pays for him to take classes. Billy lives with his dad, Jackie, and his brother, Tony, who are on strike at the mine they work at so times are tough. Throughout the movie monitor Billy’s pursuit of his self actualization, being a ballet dancer, and the many obstacles that hinder his progress.

I would like to look more specifically at the environment surrounding Billy and how that negatively affected his pursuit of self actualization. As we all know well by now we have a certain hierarchy of needs that must be fulfilled in order for us to reach our full potential, according to Maslow. At the base of this pyramid are our most fundamental needs which we need to survive. There were times when Billy even had these threatened, like when his dad had to break up the piano for firewood to keep them from freezing. In the same way Billy had his safety, belongingness and esteems needs challenged throughout the entire movie. He was never very loved by his remaining family, his father would beat him and the police were always around threateningly, and he was always getting ragged on by his brother, father, and even Mrs. Wilkenson at times. Basically, Billy should never had reached his self-actualization being that his deficiency needs were always low or empty according to Maslow’s theory. There were various times when Billy wanted to give up ballet and resign himself to other pursuits. At times I think it was Billy’s unmet deficiency needs playing into this but at a few points Billy exhibited what Maslow called the ‘Jonah complex’. This is the behavior of being afraid of what your self-actualization might actually bring about. For Billy, he experienced anxiety when he thought he might be living in London, when he thought that he had botched his auditions and freaked out on that kids face, saying that he just couldn’t do it and that it was all stupid anyway. As you can tell from all the above it is really a miracle that Billy every became a ballet dancer because he had everything going against him at one point or another.

Now I would like to examine what helped Billy continue on toward attaining self-actualization, externally and internally. First, Billy was internally motivated by his unconscious motivation in the sense that he had a strong desire to become a ballerino. This can best be described by modern day psychoanalyst’s idea of the ‘wish model’. Freud used to describe all of our needs as a type of drive, but he also insinuated that these had to have been met and motivated us to act. Modern psychoanalysts saw this as too stringent and divided these needs into drives and wishes. Drives are those physiological needs that are necessary for survival. They truly are needed and will motivate everyone. Wishes on the other hand are not necessary for survival but rather seek the improvement of life. As with much else in motivational psychology a discrepancy is made note of between the present state and the ideal state and this can happen at the unconscious level. I think that this is how Billy initially became interested in ballet. He was all set for boxing, even though he sucked. When he saw the gals doing ballet for some reason, unbeknownst to Billy, he took a look and even participated in ballet. I think it was his unconscious that drew him in to this because it detected the discrepancy between his current boxing self and his ideal ballerina self before he even knew that was what he wanted. The unconscious is crazy confusing like that! Lastly, the biggest thing that I believe motivated Billy Elliot was his actualization tendency, which Rogers theorized. This theory suggests that all of our needs and motivation are moving toward one ultimate goal and that is “maintaining, enhancing and actualizing the person”. Where Maslow said that we needed our physiological and social needs met before we self actualize, Rogers argues that our physiological and social needs are a part of helping us self actualize. Our actualization tendency is what keeps us going even when we run into problems. The example of the toddler learning to walk in our textbook can certainly be applied to Billy’s life. Billy’s mother had died, he wasn’t living on much, his dad and brother didn’t treat him well, and he was a social outcast. However, his actualization tendency helped to motivate him through the turmoil and ultimately to succeed.

I loved this movie because it actually had a happy ending, unlike “Deer Hunter” and “American Beauty”. Billy had a lot of different things standing in his way and inhibiting his motivation to become a ballerina but in the end he succeeded and was able to be the big show stopper in Swan Lake. Lots more could be pulled out of this about Michael(the ‘poof’) and Tony(the idiot brother) and Jackie(the distant father, who became awesome at the end) but this was the material I thought best fit chapters 14 and 15.

Terms: self-actualization, hierarchy of needs, Maslow, physiologically, safety, belongingness, esteem needs, deficiency needs, Jonah complex, anxiety, actualizing tendency, emergence of self, actualization tendency, Rogers, psychoanalyst, ‘wish model’, drive, present state, ideal state, Freud, unconscious

The movie Billy Elliot is a wonderful inspirational movie. We meet Billy who is a young boy that is searching for a passion in his life. He has a father and an older brother, who both seem to be very “manly men”. His mother had passed away which was very hard on Billy and the entire family. His father and brother work in the coal mine and like the sport of boxing. They take Billy to go boxing with them one time and Billy is having a hard time with it, but he sees a dancing class taking place so he sneaks in and joins the ballet class. The teacher for the class, Sandra, loves Billy and thinks he has great potential. Billy loves dancing and the art of ballet, but his father finds out and is not happy at all! Sandra get things lined up that Billy could try out to dance at an expensive school overseas. Billy’s father is still irate about the whole concept of Billy dancing and will not allow. One day his father does see Billy dance and is highly impressed by Billy and his skill level. So after many struggles and problems with his family Billy auditions for the school and of course he makes the cut! His father and brother then become large supporters of Billy and his dancing career and start to watch him dance without being ashamed.

This movie is the kind of movie I enjoy because after watching it I feel like I could concur any goal or ambition I have no matter what obstacles stand in my way. The movie also highly relates to the class of motivation and emotion and all that we have been learning throughout the semester. Billy’s self-esteem was low at the beginning of the movie because he didn’t have much confidence but then throughout learning dance he became confident in himself.

Maslow’s need hierarchy comes into play here because Billy was being taken care of physically with water and food but he searching for more, which he finds in ballet. He is intrinsically motivated to succeed because he knows he is good at ballet and can go somewhere with it, even without his families support. Even when his father discourages him to continue dancing, Billy still continues to practice and improve. Ballet makes him feel happy and like he has a sense of purpose in his life, this is an example of locus of control. He finds his self-definition in being an amazing ballet dancer. He develops a high sense of autonomy dancing even though he isn’t supposed to and finds competence in sticking up for what he loves in front of his father.

Even though Billy might have not known it right away because he was just so excited about being happy and finding something he loved. He was growth seeking because Sandra put goals in front of Billy that be wanted to achieve and he worked hard to prove to others that he is a great ballet dancer. He was looking for validation from his father and his brother because he wanted to be accepted and loved even though he wasn’t exactly like them. We can see Billy’s emergence of self by the end of the movie because throughout his growth seeking he found himself and what he finds important in life and I think that really impressed his father. Throughout the movie Billy didn’t have as much positive psychology as he needed, but going through all that he did created more positive psychology and helped his dream come true.

The movie was a great film to watch to see different gender stereotypes be shattered and show how a person can intrinsically motivate themselves and succeed even when it seems that all odds are against them. Billy didn’t know how much he loved ballet until he found it and used autonomy causality orientation to learn more about it and discover his gift and talent of dancing. It is a good lesson for kids to learn that just because your family does certain activities doesn’t mean you have to do the same. We were all made different and have different gifts that we need to share with the world. We need to stay motivated in what we are good at and pursue our own dreams. It is true what we have learned in class that we just need to continue to persevere and our goals can come true, like Billy getting into dancing school and his family finally supporting him.

Terms: motivation, emotion, self-esteem, intrinsic motivation, locus of control, self-definition, Maslow’s need hierarchy, autonomy, competence, growth seeking, validation, emergence of self, potential, positive psychology, autonomy causality orientation.

Billy Elliot is a about a boy in England who discovers dance and aspires to make that his life. He lives with his father and older brother who are coal miners currently on strike. Billy is pushed to be like his father, Jackie, and brother, Tony. He is made to take boxing lessons, which he does not enjoy and is not very good at. This is where he discovers ballet class and secretly starts taking that instead of boxing. Eventually his father finds this out and forbids him from continuing with ballet. Billy secretly continues taking lesson with the encouragement of his instructor. He has some talent and is told he should try out for the Royal Ballet in London. One day Jackie finds that Billy is still secretly taking ballet but after observing him dance he is so moved that he changes his view on it and does everything he can to support Billy and his goal of making ballet his calling. With Jackie’s help Billy auditions for the Royal Ballet, in the end we learn he is accepted and continues to be a ballet dancer as an adult.

A lot of the themes presented in Billy Elliot align with the concepts presented of our textbook, particularly chapter 15. We can see throughout the movie that Billy is striving to find his true self and achieve self-actualization. He displays high levels autonomy and openness as dancing was not the accepted activity for him to be doing from his family and the majority of people in the community throughout most of the movie. He displayed autonomy as he had to depend on himself a lot when he did not have to backing of his family. He displayed openness to learning all of the new things his instructor told him to do in order to become a better dancer.

Dancing for Billy was his way of satisfying his growth needs. Growth needs are at the top of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and are the last needs to fulfill in order to reach self-actualization. Growth can be encouraged by having supportive intimate relationships. Billy had this with his instructor, Mrs. Wilkinson, but not with his family. Once his family began to support his choice to dance, it allowed Billy to feel much better about himself and his strivings in life. This led to achievement of self-actualization through dance, allowing his true self to emerge.

Billy felt a sense of incongruence of self in choosing to dance. Although he was intrinsically motivated to dance, his environment does not fully support this choice. Congruence is achieved when one fully accepts their own characteristics, abilities, and desires. Billy could not fully do this because he had to hide his desire to dance from his father. Once his father accepted and supported Billy’s choice to be a dancer, congruence could be achieved because he could fully express who he really was and wanted to be to everyone. This probably led him to become a better dancer as well because of this acceptance he could become more open and confident in his abilities.

Billy displayed a autonomy causality orientation over a control causality orientation is his choice to pursue dance. He was intrinsically motivated to dance and this is what drove his behavior, which displays an autonomy causality orientation. If he tended more towards the control causality orientated, external motivators like his father’s disapproval would have drove him to discontinue dancing. Instead, he would have continued boxing to appease his father but would never achieve self-actualization because boxing did not satisfy his growth needs.

Self-actualization can be a tough thing to describe or point to a person as an example of achieving. In one of the last scenes, Billy dances for a panel of judges in order to gain admittance into the ballet school in London. After his audition one judge asks him what is feels like to dance. I believe she asks him this in order to gauge if this is truly his passion in life as his dancing itself is not the greatest and he would need to really push himself to improve. He answered that dancing makes him feel like his sense of self disappears, he feels like he is flying and his body feels like electricity. This describes the sense of flow and transcendence, a feeling you get when you perceive you are doing what you should be doing in life and your sense of self is being actualized. I think this is what swayed the judges to admit him as it expressed his true passion to be a dancer. If he had just said something generic like “dancing is fun” I do not think he would have been admitted.

This was the only movie this semester that I had not previously already seen so it was a little different to watch it for the first time with the assignment in mind. It is not a movie I would have picked on my own to watch but I am glad I did get a chance to view it. I was surprised that I like it considering what I perceived as the subject matter, ballet dancing. The movie itself transcended its subject matter and has universal appear. I liked it so much in fact that I all but forgot I was supposed to be watching the movie as an assignment. It is a good movie with a good message about perseverance and one boy’s ability to achieve his dreams despite what is expected of him. The message is also that if you love someone like the father loved Billy, you will support him and his choices in life not matter what. In his openness to support Billy, Jackie found in himself a greater sense of purpose and with this a new sense of happiness in Billy’s future achievement and success in life.

Terms: Self-actualization, autonomy, openness, growth needs, congruence, autonomy causality orientation, control causality orientation

The movie Billy Elliot is about a boy that lives with his father, brother and grandmother. While his brother and father are under a lot of stress with their jobs, Billy discovers his love of dancing. This movie is an example of many concepts discussed in chapters 14 and 15 of our textbook. The main conflict of the movie, Billy’s dancing, can express these examples.

In the beginning of the movie, Billy becomes familiar with the music and it is obvious that it is intriguing to him. While Billy goes to the boxing ring to practice, he begins to dance around instead, which makes the others upset. Later on, he watches the girls ballet practice. They ask him if he wants to join and at first he is not completely sure of it. Yet, sure enough he joins in their ballet class to practice with them. This was Billy’s first step to self-actualization. Openness and autonomy are the elements that are needed for self-actualization to occur. Billy showed openness when he decided to try something different by joining ballet. He did not ignore his desire to dance, which leads to learning more about ones self. Doing things that he chose to do on his own showed autonomy. He knew that his dad wanted him to box and that he would not be happy if he danced, but he did it anyway, for himself. Even though Billy was on a new road to finding himself, there was still some missing to make it complete. In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the basic human needs range from survival needs to growth needs. At this point, Billy had a deficit his needs, love and belongingness. Billy did not fit in completely at the point, in the beginning of his dancing lessons, in any particular group.

There is one scene that portrays the concept of actualizing tendency. While Billy was learning how to dance, there was one move that he couldn’t quite pick up right away. The move was a pirouette and it was more complicated than some of the others. Billy is shown in the movie practicing everywhere, trying to master the skill. This shows the actualizing tendency coming through. It pushes the individual through the struggles and disappointment of not getting it right 100 times before. The drive that Billy obtained through dance and the emergence of the self that occurred when he found how good he truly was created a need of positive regard from others. Because of the conflict between what he wants and what society and his family expect from him, there becomes an incongruence of his beliefs. This incongruence seems to come out when his dance instructor speaks to him about trying out for the dance school in London and as they are practicing he becomes very upsets and projects that onto her.

The last scene I would like to discuss is when Billy finally dances for his dad. This is the point where everything seems to come together. Billy’s dad realized how much talent he had and he wanted to support him and his dancing. Billy then had the safety and love and a new found esteem that was needed from his dad’s support, which then in Maslow’s eyes would create a full triangle of needs met. The ending of the movie had created a sense of optimism and hope for the whole family, not just Billy and I believe that is why it is still looked at as being an amazing movie to this day.

Terms: self-actualization, openness, autonomy, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, love and belongingness, deficiency needs, actualizing tendency, emergence of the self, positive regard, incongruence, projection, esteem, optimism, hope

Billy Elliot is a movie about a young boy who is trying to realize a dream that he has. Billy lives with his family, which includes his dad, his brother, and his grandmother. His mom died when he was younger and he still tries to make her proud. His dad and brother are under a lot of pressure because they are coal miners and they are currently in a strike where there is a lot of animosity. The movie takes place in a town in England where Billy grows up with his father wanting him to box. Billy soon joins a ballet class and becomes very good at it. He obviously has a passion for it and the ballet instructor really knows that he has some potential. Throughout the movie, Billy struggles to get accpetance from his family to help him achieve a dream of going to ballet school in London.

Billy obviously has a lot of motivation throughout the movie and has a drive to be very good at ballet. He is shown working very hard at ballet in the gym and even at home. He stole a book from a local library and reads it in the bathroom to try to get better at dancing and ballet. He shows such a strong drive at trying to be better. Billy rarely ever shows weakness when it comes to trying to achieve his goal of getting into the ballet school. He doesn't strive to get there at first though. At first he just wants to get better because he has a passion for ballet. He didn't even know that there was even a ballet school at the beginning of the movie. His passion for ballet is what drives him into becoming a successful ballet dancer by the end of the movie.

Something that Billy is trying to achieve in the movie is self-actualization. This is defined as the inherent developmental striving. Billy obviously shows strivings to get better at his craft throughout the movie. I think that he tried other things at first to become self-actualized. At first I thought was striving to be good at the piano but he didn't have the same gift with the instrument as he did with his feet. His dad really wanted him to strive to be good at boxing but he showed more of a passion for dancing around the ring than actually fighting the opposition. Chapter 15 also talks about a hierarchy of human needs. You can see many times in the movie where Billy is trying to meet these needs. One of the needs that is very self-evident in the movie is love and belongingness. Billy seeks his father's love and I would say that he does with his brother too. When you don't have this type of need they are referred as deficiency needs. I really think that for most of the movie Billy really seeks out for love and belonginess needs. I think that he finely reaches those in a scene with his father where he pushes his father off from a fence playfully and they for the first time in the movie to both be happy at the same time. It looks as if something has changed in his father's eyes.

There is an important concept in the book of growth seeking and validation seeking. I think that the movie showed both of these in very similar situations. First of all, Billy shows growth seeking in the sense that he wants to get better at ballet for the passion that he has in ballet. He really doesn't care about beating anybody or achieving something big but he just wants to keep growing as a ballet dancer and as a person. But Billy also shows that validation seeking tendencies. He really wants validation from his father that he is not a failure and he wants to show him that he is good at something. He also wants his brother to appreciate him and feel like he is not a loser. Both he and his father both show a tendency that they hate ballet and they think it is for "wussies". He wants to show that ballet is something not to laugh at it.

Terms: Hierarchy of needs, love and belonginess, self-actualization, growth seeking, validation seeking, deficiency needs, self, motivation, drive

Billy Elliot is a movie with many different conflicting roles. The movie itself is quite humorous, but fairly sad at the same time. Billy is a young boy who is growing up in a very masculine oriented house. Billy seemingly shares his mothers passion for music and the arts whilst his father and brother are coal miners on strike. Jackie, Billy’s dad, pressures him to box. However, while boxing he discovers ballet and took an interest to it. Jackie eventually finds out about his son’s interest in ballet and has an intervention with Billy. Billy continues to go to ballet and creates a bond with his teacher. Billy’s teacher suggests that he try to get into the Royal Ballet School and she mentions that she will provide private lessons to him that no one has to know about. Billy agrees and starts taking lessons privately. The day before his audition, his brother gets arrested. Shortly before that, Billy’s brother and father got into a fist fight, causing internal problems with Billy which affected his practice and directly influenced the fight he had with his ballet teacher. Billy misses his audition to go to court for his brother. Shortly after, Miss comes looking for him and runs into the whole family which then turns into another big fight. The dancing stops for a while until Billy just can’t hold it in any longer. Jackie then catches his son dancing again late at night and finally realizes he has a talent and passion for dancing. Jackie then goes to Miss’ house and asks her about the cost of the ballet school and other information. Jackie ends up taking Billy to his audition and later down the road he and his older son go to watch Billy at a major performance.

Billy is trying to establish a state of holism throughout the whole film. Since holism can be used to contrast two different states (present and ideal), we see that Billy is being pushed to be a boxer and “tough kid”. When really he wants to be a ballet dancer (ideal state). So, Billy is in this constant battle with the environment and various external factors all the while trying to reach total holism.

At about the same time that Billy quit boxing and picked up ballet he entered self-actualization. Billy realized that boxing wasn’t for him and that ballet was his true passion. Billy realized his talent and recognized his future potential. Billy is concentrating on something that makes him happy and original. It’s also worth noting that Billy is an optimistic individual and despite the fact that his life/childhood is fairly bad, he still keeps a positive mindset and remains somewhat happy. Billy is generally resilient to the unfortunate things going on in his life and tries to make the best of each situation. These are all examples of positive psychology.

Billy is in a constant struggle with trying to stay in the self-actualization stage. In his heart, Billy is trying to increase his ballet abilities. So, this puts him in the growth-seeking or growth motivation stage. Billy is in a constant flux of being in and out of this stage. His father and teacher keep pulling him back and forth between self-actualization and the love & belongingness stage. This in turn, creates a deficiency need which Billy needs to address before he can move back on to growth motivation. Therefore, Billy’s progress can be easily tracked on Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs pyramid. Billy can’t progress without having his families support and love. This is what keeps him in the Love and Belongingness stage. Billy is desperately seeking the love of his brother and father.

Billy goes through various periods of suppression. Multiple times when he gets caught dancing he tends to quit and suppress it temporarily. However, his feelings are often too strong to keep in and he starts dancing again, showing that he has a true passion for it. Psychodynamics also play a huge role here. Billy tends to totally fear dancing and at the same time love it. Billy fears dancing because of what consequences it will bring with his father and brother. At the same time though, he loves it and is intrinsically motivated by it. Now, this creates a validation-seeking personality in Billy. Constantly, he is trying to get approval from his father and brother. Ultimately, Billy gets the approval he so desperately desires as the movie progresses. His father and brother accept his passion for ballet and even come to watch him perform later on.

Terms: Holism, Positive psychology, Self-actualization, Deficiency needs, Growth-seeking, Validation-seeking, Suppression, Psychodynamics, Love and Belongingness needs, Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs pyramid

Billy Elliot

Billy Elliot is a movie about a young boy who finds passion in ballet regardless of his family’s approval, his brother and father especially. The young boy continues to practice ballet behind their backs with the hopes to be accepted into London’s Royal Ballet School. One scene that relates to chapters 14 and 15 was the scene where Billy is half asleep while out getting milk and sees his mother, who obviously isn’t really there. This image must lie in the boy’s unconscious similar to his dreaming about his mother. His unconscious mind seems to show his true feelings and emotions towards his mother. Throughout the movie, especially in the beginning, it is apparent that Billy goes through some discrepancy between his actual self as a wrestler and his ideal self as a ballet dancer. Incongruence was also apparent in another way while the boy was starting out as a dancer. While Billy was learning how to dance, there were one move that he couldn’t quite pick up right away. The move was a pirouette and was more complicated than some of the others. Billy is shown in the movie practicing everywhere, trying to master the skill. This shows the actualizing tendency coming through. It pushes the individual through the struggles and disappointment of not getting it right 100 times before. The drive that Billy obtained through dance and the emergence of the self that occurred when he found how good he truly was created a need of positive regard from others. Because of the conflict between what he wants and what society and his family expect from him, there becomes an incongruence of his beliefs. This incongruence seems to come out when his dance instructor speaks to him about trying out for the dance school in London and as they are practicing he becomes very upsets and projects that onto her. Dancing for Billy was his way of satisfying his growth needs. Growth needs are at the top of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and are the last needs to fulfill in order to reach self-actualization. Growth can be encouraged by having supportive intimate relationships. Billy had this with his instructor, Mrs. Wilkinson, but not with his family. Once his family began to support his choice to dance, it allowed Billy to feel much better about himself and his strivings in life. This led to achievement of self-actualization through dance, allowing his true self to emerge. Billy displayed a autonomy causality orientation over a control causality orientation is his choice to pursue dance. He was intrinsically motivated to dance and this is what drove his behavior, which displays an autonomy causality orientation. If he tended more towards the control causality orientated, external motivators like his father’s disapproval would have drove him to discontinue dancing. Instead, he would have continued boxing to appease his father but would never achieve self-actualization because boxing did not satisfy his growth needs. Throughout the movie we see how Billy grows and changes and almost how he comes into himself through his struggles. The two main directions that help make self-actualization possible are autonomy and openness. Billy at first appeared to have a lot of openness. When he tried ballet for the first time he followed suggestions and would even practice on his own. This is a good example of getting the most out of what an experience has to offer. With time he also developed better autonomy. He made up his mind that he was going to skip boxing and do the ballet class. I really enjoyed the movie and thought that it was a good example of motivation and emotion. Billy Elliot is passionate and motivated to be the best dancer her can be and truly enjoys dancing and it is apparent throughout the movie in his emotions.

Terms: unconscious, discrepancy, actual self, ideal self, incongruence, actualizing tendency, growth, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, self-actualization, causality orientation, intrinsically motivated, autonomy causality orientation, control causality orientation, autonomy, openness

Billy Elliot is about a boy who has a secret passion for ballet. His father and brother do not like the fact that he is dancing when they find out. Billy is also embarrassed at the beginning of the movie because he hid in the bathroom until all the other boys left before he went to ballet. He also hid his ballet shoes under his mattress and believed that ballet made him look like a sissy. How can somebody who loves what they are doing, hide it from everybody? He is doing this because he is in the conformist stage of ego development. In this particular stage, anxiety of group disapproval becomes a potent counterforce against one’s impulses. He may want to dance, but he is more worried about not getting approval of two of the most important people in his life. Throughout the movie, his father and brother become more accepting to the idea of ballet and Billy eventually gets accepted into a ballet academy. When the group he wants approval of gives him that approval, it is like a green light for Billy to dance.
Object relations theory is also present in the beginning of the movie. Billy’s mother passed away when he was young and his father and brother were always out of the house. This situation led Billy to grow up without a caring and emotional caregiver. When a primary caregiver is warm, nurturing, responsive, available, and trustworthy, the parental object satisfies the child’s need for relatedness. Billy did not have this growing up and as a result was very distant from his father and brother and did not seem to be accepted by many of his peers. This was seen when he ran out on his father and joined the dance teacher for supper. She was warm and welcoming and Billy had a fulfilled sense of relatedness.
Self-actualization seems to be the main theme of the movie. Self-actualization is an inherent developmental striving to realize one’s talents, capacities, and potential. Billy was a little hesitant to join ballet at first. He was afraid that his father would disapprove and that the boys at boxing would think he was a sissy. With a little support from his friend, Billy became more comfortable with the idea of ballet. He went against his father’s wishes and practiced. It was because he was developing an idea of who he was and what he wanted to become. Once his father and brother jumped on board, he was happy with whom he was and wanted to increase his ballet potential and join the academy.
Emergence of the self was also a concept present in the beginning of the movie. Emergence of the self is the emergence of the need for positive regard. The need for positive regard is of special significance because it makes the individual sensitive to the feedback of others. This was seen when Billy ran away from his father and went to the ballet teachers house. When his father criticized his use of time, Billy became upset (sensitive) and ran away. He went to a place where he was accepted for who he was and encouraged to do what he loves.
Ego development, conformist stage, object relations theory, relatedness, self-actualization, emergence of the self

Billy Elliot is a movie about a boy named Billy that develops a passion for ballet. His father and brother are “manly men “and work in the coal mine. They believe that Billy is taking boxing lessons, but after observing a ballet class Billy decides to join the dancers instead. Billy’s dad finds out about him taking ballet classes and does not approve at all. He tells Billy he must stop ballet because he would be an embarrassment to the family. His dad and brother never even gave him a chance to show them how well he could dance. This movie relates to the previous chapters because Billy demonstrates the struggle that goes along with fulfilling his full potential. Billy’s environment inhibits his passion for ballet which is motivated intrinsically. The main idea of the movie is that people will feel most satisfied with their lives if they are pursuing their passions instead of conforming.

One scene that stuck out to me was when Billy tried ballet for the first time and was so open to suggestions for improvement. He did not have an attitude where he believed that he was better or that he knew best. He took advice from the dance instructor and made changes accordingly. This is an example of self-actualization. Billy knew that he fell passionate for ballet and he continued to engage in classes even though he knew his dad and brother would not approve. Autonomy and openness make up self-actualization. This is demonstrated throughout the movie. Billy is open to suggestions and trying new moves. He demonstrated autonomy by skipping boxing practice. He knew it was not an activity that he was interest in so he found something else. This is a great example of self-actualization because he still wanted to do something with his talents that he knew he had. It also demonstrates Billy’s attitude that he was willing to try something that was most likely suggested by someone else. His dad wanted him to be involved in boxing as a social status and to have a sense of belonging. Which, is not a bad thing that his dad wished this for his son.

Another scene that really stuck out to me was when Billy’s ballet teacher and he were practicing in the boxing ring alone. He was attempting to twirl numerous times and stay in one position, respectively. She continuously said “you’re not even tryin!” Billy became fed up because of all the other traumatic things going on in his life that he did not know how to handle the situation. He fell on the ground and refused to get up and try again. He then continued to run off and hide in a stall. The ballet teacher went after him and tried to console him. Billy was still thoroughly irate and wanted nothing to do with her. He said hurtful words and she ended up slapping him across the face to calm him down. They both had a moment and then decided to try the move again. The sense of hope and internal guidance shows how committed they both are to Billy achieving great things. She wants him to try out for Ballet School and be the best dancer he can be. She was demonstrating autonomy causality orientation.

I have seen Billy Elliot before, but I forgot what a great movie it is. All of the actors do a wonderful job portraying different struggles that people go through, whether it is with their identity, stereotype, job, relationships, and so on. Billy breaks through his stereotype that his dad created for him. His dad wanted him to be a tough boxer and end up working in a coal mine, factory, or a similar job. Billy explored his options and found boxing was not for him. His passion was for ballet. This takes a lot of courage that not many people have. Everyone has a gift that should be discovered and applied.

Terms: potential, inhibits, motivated, intrinsic, conforming, social status, belonging, autonomy, openness, belonging, autonomy causality orientation, achieve, applied, stereotype

Billy Elliot is a movie about hardships and the trials and tribulations that produce stronger people who survive them. Billy is a young English boy living in a lower class mining town. He has lost his mother and his brother and father are in the midst of a heated miner’s union strike that has left the family scrambling for resources. It is hard for all involved to cope with the hardship of no mother and no income, but they all cope in their own ways. Billy’s brother listens to his record player. Billy on the other hand gives up boxing, which his dad urges him to do, and begins to dance. Ballet allows him to escape all the hardship in the town and in his family and lets him be free to express himself. Plus he is really good. One of the first things I noticed about Billy was his use of object relations theory. He has grown up as a young boy seeing his mother and father act. Mainly I focused on his father’s aggressive nature. From old pictures Billy looks at you can see that the family was once very happy before the mother died. Now that Jackie is an angry abusive father Bill picks up on that. He finds that slapping solves things and gets people to be quiet. This shows through when Billy finishes the audition and he believes he has failed. The nice young man in the locker room tries to console him and Billy backhands him to get him to shut up because this is what his father does. Of course he gets in trouble and almost ends his career which as we see turns into a very successful one.
Once Billy is introduced to dance he quickly starts to display encouraging growth self-actualization behaviors, namely being honest with himself. Once he starts to dance he knows he is not a boxer. He is a dancer, It allows him to move freely and express himself. As the book puts it, he dares to be different and an unconformist. Being a ballet dancer is a high society rich crowd and a coal miner’s son doesn’t scream sophistication. However, Billy breaks to mold and shows everybody that he will be a great dancer.
After Viewing Billy Elliot I was very aware of the ego in this film. One of the most widely visible were the defense mechanism displayed by everyone in the family over the death of Bill's mother. As we know everyone experiences grief sometime during their life and since we are all unique we experience our pain differently. There are 11 main categories that Reeves Identifies in the book as coping mechanisms for grief. Billy's brother and father were severe users of displacement. Jackie was upset that his wife died, who was the most important thing to him. Because Billy and his brother remind Jackie of his wife he takes his anger from the strike and losing her out on his kids who remind him of her. When he does that then Billy's brother gets angry for being pushed around by both his father and the management of the coal mining. He then displaces his anger onto Billy for little things like listening to his record player. Billy takes all of this anger and further displaces it on his friends and teacher. This trickledown effect is very common when coping with hardship like the loss of a family member or a job and is adequately displayed in the movie. In congruence with the defense mechanisms Jackie displays Ego Effectance particularly well. He has always been a coal miner and has learned well what the needs to do to support his family. Take that job away from him and he know longer understands the environment and challenge he has just met. One of the needs that comes from his change in situation is the need for power. He asserts his dominance over the family by telling Billy he can't dance and punching his other son when he tries to leave for strike activities

Terms Used: Ego, Ego defense mechanisms, coping, ego effectance, power, object relations theory, encouraging growth behaviors, self-actualization

Billy Elliot is a boy who goes against the wishes of his father and brother, who work in the coal mines, in order to learn ballet. Billy’s passion for ballet goes against societal views, but acts in accordance with his natural temperament. Billy practices ballet without his dad and brother knowing. Billy has great potential that he works to achieve throughout the film as his goal is to get good enough to enroll in the London Royal Ballet School. As he works toward his potential, he struggles between his internal/intrinsic motivations related to his love for ballet and the environment that extrinsically /motivates encourages him to conform to social expectations. The social expectations, however, would prevent or inhibit him from working toward what he naturally loves or is interested. The purpose of the film is to inspire people to go after their dreams and what they are passionate about because, in the end, they will be happier than if they follow what society expects of them (also the basic theme of chapter 15).

In the kitchen, when Billy’s father found out about Billy’s passion for ballet, Billy shows defense for his esteem needs as he stands up for his love and his interest against his dad as well as his psychological needs of shows autonomy and competence. In the build to this point of the movie, it is established that, since his mom’s death, his need for safety and security from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has not been adequately met. He has met other hierarchal needs such as his physiological needs which he is able to meet through his dancing. He is able to meet most of his deficiency needs with the help of dance as he also develops a sense of love and belonging with his teacher and best friend. He only really seems to lack a since/feelings of security and safety. Dance seems to give him some fulfillment of all of his basic needs which is probably why we works so hard to defend his passion which is what helps him fulfill his psychological needs encouraging him to feel competent, relate to others/relatedness, and autonomy. He can also develop a sense of control over something in his life.

As the two yelled at each other, Billy displays congruence as he argues the normalcy of ballet and states that nothing is wrong with his passion. Anger seems to be a strongly present emotion in this scene as the two battle for a sense of control. The control causality orientation of Billy’s father is his belief that boys are meant to play more contact sports, such as football, but not, as he puts it, “fricken ballet”. Anger causes the two to fight more as Billy tells his father, Jackie, that he hates him. Jackie’s original inability to accept Billy for who he is and instead choosing to ‘punish’ him is a form of negative conditional regard, however, if Jackie had originally accepted and supported Billy and his ballet achievements at that point, he would have shown positive conditional regard instead.

In the beginning, as Billy sought to satisfy or seek out approval through working to gain societal approval (in participating in boxing for example), he was ignoring his inner drive and passion. Positive psychology looks at working to achieve one’s full potential. When Billy was boxing, he was not working toward satisfying his inner feelings and reaching his potential. As Billy’s love and commitment to ballet grew, he begin to put more focus/nurture his inner desires more by working to pursue them.

Self-actualization was present in the movie as Billy began to focus more on his inner wants and less on societal approval. He worked toward his full potential in dancing. He was open and had a feeling of autonomy in his decision and actions. He had control over pursuing his potential and choosing what to do with his life and he was open to the idea of going against society or against the normal grain of life.

Jackie and Billy were very different in their subjective Organismic valuation processes or the way in which they may decisions about their potential and the promotion of growth. Jackie found growth inhibition and societal expectations similar while Billy saw found his potential in ballet and viewed that working toward his potential to be growth-promoting.

Defense mechanisms may also be seen by Jackie as he transferred his anger about losing the mining strike to Billy. Because Jackie has negative regard for ballet he treated it with disapproval while continuing to support and behave differently in situations surrounding ‘masculine’ sports. Billy continued to have positive interpersonal relationships with his teacher, his teacher’s daughter, and his best friend due to their support for his potential. The support and encouragement that Billy got from all of those people pushed him and helped him to develop congruence which propelled him into becoming good enough to audition for the dance school of his dreams.

As Billy’s dad’s discovery of Billy’s talent and passion, it helped to change his father’s firm relationship with the societal expectations that worked against his son’s interest in ballet and his natural desire to support and encourage his son. He begin to go against the societal norm and approve of his son’s interest by showing his support by putting his beliefs at a lower level of importance compared to his son. He even helped raise money for Billy’s audition.

Terms: Temperament, societal views, goal, potential, inhibit, internal/intrinsic motivations, extrinsic motivations, environment, interest, social expectations, passion, competence, esteem needs, autonomy, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, security/safety, physiological needs, deficiency, belonging, love, control, relatedness, psychological needs, congruence, negative conditional regard, positive conditional regard, anger, support, beliefs, punish, achievements, control causality orientation, positive psychology, drive, feelings, subjective Organismic valuation processes, growth promoting, growth inhibiting, negative regard, support, congruence, defense mechanisms, self-actualization,

Billy Elliot was a movie displaying many of the concepts from chapters 14 and 15. Billy is an 11 year old kid who's mother passed away and he is living with his dad, brother, and grandmother. He aspires to be a ballet dancer but his dad and his brother want him to continue with boxing because it is the "manly" thing to do. This struggle that Billy has internally and externally serves as the basis of the movie and many motivation and emotion concepts.

The first scene that really connected me with motivation and emotion was when Billy discovered the ballet class practicing while he was at boxing. You could tell that Billy was not fully into boxing and the dancing intrigued him. While he was supposed to be practicing the correct boxing technique, he joined the (all girls) ballet practice. This is an example of self actualization where Billy realized his talent and potential as a ballet dancer. He was also autonomous and open to the experience. He knew he was making mistakes and allow the teacher to correct him. He was open to the experience just by allowing himself to walk over and join the practice.

This is also a great example of positive psychology because it is looking at Billy's mental health and how he is living his life. He is asking himself, "what could become of me if I was a ballet dancer?" It makes him so incredibly happy to dance. There are many examples throughout the movie where he is dancing randomly everywhere. From the very start of the movie when he is preparing his grandmother's breakfast, in his room, and all over the streets of the neighborhood he lives in. He has had a pretty rough life with his mother dying and his father and brother striking all the while he has to care for his grandmother (who is slowly losing her mind). It is hard to believe that Billy actually gets to be a kid because he has to deal with all of this. In such a negative period of his life he still manages to find happiness in dance.

We also see Billy demonstrate congruence and in-congruence throughout the film as well. After working with his teacher for hours to prepare him for the first audition, he totally blows it off while bailing his brother out of jail. This is Billy being in-congruent where he denies and rejects being a ballet dancer. It is too much for him to handle because his father and brother are extremely disapproving of it. As time moves on though Billy becomes more congruent where he accepts the full range of being a dancer and he accepts his own goals and desires. He does make the second audition and ends of getting into the Royal Ballet Academy. This fully functional Billy demonstrates Roger's actualizing tendency and experiences a sense of autonomy, openness, and personal growth. Finally with his father's support he isn't torn between his intrinsic and extrinsic sources of motivation anymore. His father, the extrinsic source, becomes the same as Billy's intrinsic motivation and pushes him even harder to get into the academy.

Lastly, when Billy got up one evening to get a glass of milk he sees his mother standing in the kitchen drying off dishes. It doesn't seem to overly fade him, its just normal. I think this was a part of his unconscious - he wasn't really dreaming but he definitely wasn't fully conscious. Consciousness is a subjective experience where you are aware that is happening. This was occurring without Billy even consciously thinking about it. He started to drink right out of the milk bottle and his mother told him to pour it in a glass and put the milk away. This is a self awareness unconscious where Billy had personal experience and a history with this memory. Billy stopped himself from drinking out of the bottle but consciously he probably didn't know why this was occurring. Unconsciously though, this was probably something his mother had repeatedly told him to do and that memory stuck with him. It is very clear how much he misses her throughout the movie and justifies why he would have that one memory from something as simple as drinking milk.

TERMS: self actualization, autonomy, open to the experience, positive psychology, congruence, in-congruence, actualizing tendency, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, unconscious, Freud, conscious

One of the first concepts that came to mind while watching Billy Elliott was that of suppression. It was very evident from the beginning that Billy was trying to suppress his intrigue and desire to join the ballet class. Even after joining he still tried to suppress his enjoyment for the ballet. It wasn't until his teacher told him to turn in his shoes if he wasn't going to come back that he finally started to open up to the idea that he did in fact want to be a part of the ballet. His openness to the class was short lived, however. Once his father found out he was once again forced to suppress his desire to return to the class for fear of getting in trouble.
Another character who battles his inner self by suppression is Billy's friend, Michael. I first thought that he may be hiding feelings when Billy showed up to his house and he was putting on makeup while wearing his sisters dress. This was confirmed when he gives Billy a kiss on the cheek and asks him not to tell anyone. Because of the time period and culture he was forced to suppress his true feelings until he grew up and could get away from his small town life.
Both of the boys are going through a very important stage in the development of the ego: conformist. In this stage, the ego has internalized the group-accepted rules. Actions are guided by the fear of disapproval from the group. In the town the boys grew up in, ballet was not an acceptable outlet for boys to participate in, hence why Billy was forced to keep it a secret for so long. Michael also feared the disapproval of the group- his peers, family, and neighbors.
It could be argued that Billy moved through the stages of ego development rather quickly and did reach the autonomous stage. In this stage thoughts, plans, goals, and behaviors originate from within and are self-motivating and self-regulating. I believe this stage is played out when Billy's dad catches him dancing with his friend and instead of taking whatever punishment his dad was going to hand out, he danced and showed him his passion for it. He was motivated to perform these actions from his own self rather than suppressing them again because of society and his father's demands.
The entire movie is filled with the striving for self-actualization in all characters. Self-actualization is a process of leaving behind timidity, defense appraisals, and a dependence on others paired with the process of moving forward to create autonomous self-regulation. Each character is on the road to self-actualization in their own way. Billy's journey is perhaps the most obvious. He seeks to change his father and peers views on men in the ballet to pursue his passion. Billy struggles with growth needs throughout the movie. His desire to be in the ballet will not be fulfilled until he can gain the love and belongingness and esteem needs to provide the direction to become what he so longs to be. Michael longs to be open and honest about his sexuality but cannot achieve this until the end of the movie. Billy's brother, Tony, fights for the rights of the miners in the union and will not give up, no matter what the circumstance. Billy's father, Jackie, is striving to find his inner peace and happiness since his wife passed while still trying to maintain "order" in his home. It is not until the last scene of the movie that you can see all characters come full circle, accept each other, and accept themselves. Tony and Jackie must gain acceptance and openness to experience in order to accept their brother/son's life calling.

Terms: suppression, ego development, conformist, autonomous, self-actualization, openness to experience, growth needs, love and belongingness, esteem

Billy Elliot followed Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Billy physiological needs of food and water were attained. At the beginning of the movie, Billy's safety and security needs was not met. Billy's father, Jackie, and his brother worked in the mines, but the union was on strike. This meant that Billy's father and brother were out of work and not making any money. Because they were part of the union rebelling, the government's riot police beat up Billy's brother and sent him to jail. Because Billy's brother went to court, Billy missed the first Royal Dance Academy's auditions. Billy's family lives in the lower class area of town, where their house is tiny and their toilet is outside. The scene that struck me was when Billy's father was chopping up his late wife's piano so they would have enough fire wood for their Christmas. Because of all this animosity with the strike, his father and brother were sometimes at odds with each other. His father punched his brother in the face because of a disagreement. When Billy's father realized how good of a dancer Billy was, he did everything he could to make enough money so Billy would have a chance. Billy's father even broke from his union so he could work again to make money.
Billy in the beginning was attending boxing lessons, but he did not feel like he belonged. Billy was not very good at boxing. His father wanted him to box. He was a boxer and his father was a boxer. But when he tried dance, he enjoyed it. Billy felt an incongruence. Boys were suppose to be boxers, not ballet dancers. Ballet is for sissies. Billy's father also felt an incongruence with Billy doing ballet. He was a firm believer that boys should box. Billy felt like he belonged more in the ballet class. He was pretty good at it and liked dancing. Billy in the beginning felt like his father did not love him. He would yell at him and not allow him to take ballet lessons. But you could tell that his father loved him. He broke the union and his beliefs just so he could make money for Billy's dancing. He was supportive and even took him to his auditions.
Billy was not the only one that felt like they did not belong. Billy's friend Michael felt like he did not belong. Billy came over to Michael's house once, and Michael was in a dress and then put on lipstick. Later Michael kisses Billy. Michael is what Billy calls a "poof," or gay. Even though Michael was a "poof," Billy was still friends with him.
Billy would always dance, not matter where he was. He just enjoyed dancing. Billy showed his self-esteem when him father showed up while he was hanging out with Michael. Billy's father looked at him disapprovingly, and Billy goes and dances. He does not care that his father does not approve, he likes dancing and he does not care. Billy was working on a turn with the dance teacher, and he was not able to do it. But when he danced in front of his father, he was able to do the advanced turn. Earlier in the movie, Billy's brother and father told him to dance, but he was not confident enough to do it. But now, Billy had enough confidence.
Billy reached self-actualization when he received the letter announcing that he was accepted into the ballet school. Also, at the end when Billy is dancing a renown ballet in front of an audience, his family and friends. This shows Billy's growth and how he has found something he loves and has become successful at. Billy's friend Michael also found self-actualization. He accepted the fact that he was a "poof," and does not care that he is. He showed up at Billy's big performance dressed up feminine and with another man.
Billy's father demonstrated defense mechanisms in the movie. Since Billy's father was on strike, there was a lot of built up anger, which he displaced towards his sons. He would yell at them, be aggressive, and violent at times. He hit Billy's brother once in the face. I think Billy's father also showed some denial when Billy was doing ballet. Billy's father was suspicious, but he would have not done anything if Billy's boxing coach had not said something about not seeing Billy for months.
TERMS: Maslow's hierarchy of needs, physiological needs, safety and security needs, love and belongingness needs, incongruence, esteem needs, self-actualization needs, defense mechanisms, displacement, denial

Billy Elliot was a wonderful film that portrayed the struggles that Billy, a young boy who was inspired to become a professional dancer faced. In addition to the struggles that Billy faces, the movie also depicts the hardships that his father Jackie had to deal with due to losing his wife and facing the shortage of money due to the miner’s strike. Billy Elliot offered many concepts that allowed a better understanding of both chapters fourteen and fifteen.
Chapter fourteen discusses the different ego defense mechanism which people use and how they exist in a hierarchical ordering from least to most mature, from least to most adaptive. Towards the beginning of the movie when Billy is learning how to dance, he gets frustrated and wants to give up. However, his teacher Mrs. Wilkinson kept on him to do the dance correctly. The ego defense mechanism that he turns to is projection. He gets mad and starts to yell at Mrs. Wilkinson telling her all of her faults to take the pressure off of him. This was an example of a more immature ego defense mechanism, but as the movie progresses, Billy shows some maturity in how he handles certain situations.
Billy has a lot of pent up anger towards his father. Jackie wouldn’t let him dance even though that is all Billy wants to do. He is also dealing with his father and brother being on strike and the anxiety that they are facing is falling on his shoulders as well. When he wasn’t able to go to the audition, because his brother was arrested, Mrs. Wilkinson shows up at his house. Now he has Mrs. Wilkinson, Jackie and his brother Tony all yelling at each other about whether or not he should be a dancer. At that point, the scene flashes to Billy dancing in order to let out all of his frustrations and anger. This was a very mature way to handle the situation as it depicts sublimation. Instead of choosing to join in the fighting he instead dances in order to transform his anxiety and anger into a more positive and acceptable way to handle the stress he is facing in his life. Another time that Billy uses ego defense mechanisms in the movie was when his friend Michael kisses him on the cheek. Instead of trying to project an uncomfortable feeling onto his friend because Billy is not gay, he uses sublimation to make Michael know that it’s alright and not to feel bad about it. Billy does this by smiling at him and taking him to the gym, so he can show him how to do ballet dancing.
While finally at the audition, Billy felt so much anxiety and was disappointed in how he thought the audition turned out that he used regression to cope with the situation and punched another kid. He regressed back to displacement, a more immature ego defense mechanism. Though the young child did nothing wrong to Billy, he still punched him because the pressure was too much for him to handle and he needed some way to release it.
Towards the end of the movie, both Billy and his dad reach the mature ego defense mechanism of humor. They are about to say goodbye because Billy was going to leave for ballet school, and Billy pushes Jackie back over the ledge and falls back right after him. They are finally to a point in their lives where they weren’t taking themselves too seriously. While they were sad to leave each other they were able to joke around and have a pleasant goodbye.
Chapter fifteen discusses self-actualization and what behaviors encourage it. The chapter describes self-actualization as being “an underlying flow of movement toward constructive fulfillment of its inherent possibilities." Throughout the movie, Billy comes to the self-actualization that he was to become a ballet dancer. He wasn’t meant to be a boxer or work with his brother and dad in the mines. One of the behaviors that encouraged this self-actualization was that he chose to start dancing with the girls instead of boxing. This was a progression-growth choice since it was a movement towards his self-actualization. Another way that Billy encouraged his self-actualization was that he was honest to himself. Even though he was teased by the girls, and his brother and dad were against him dancing he still chose to dance. He even went to the library and stole a book about ballet dancing. Billy also put himself in the most favorable position for peak experiences. He loved ballet dancing, so he would spend time at the ballet school. He spent all his time dancing, whether it was with Mrs. Wilkinson or by himself. Billy also encouraged his self-actualization by letting his self emerge. Though Billy’s dad and brother were very much against him dancing he listened to his own heart and knew that he had to dance. The final behavior that encouraged self-actualization for Billy occurred after Mrs. Wilkinson suggested that he audition to get into ballet school. If it wasn’t for Mrs. Wilkinson pushing him to audition, there was a strong chance that he wouldn’t have ever thought about auditioning. It probably was never considered, because he would have to leave his family and move to London. However, Billy was open to the experience and went to the audition. He was clearly so nervous at the audition, but Billy danced amazingly. All of these decisions paid off in the end, because Billy was able to live his dream, dancing in the ballet.

Terms: ego defense mechanism, projection, sublimation, regression, displacement, humor, self-actualization, progression-growth choice, honest, self

Billy Elliot is a remarkable story about a young boy who gives up boxing to pursue his newfound passion, ballet. Billy’s father (a coal miner on strike) disapproves of his son participating in ballet. With the encouragement of his ballet instructor Billy secretly continues to practice with hopes of getting into the London’s royal ballet school. Billy is torn between doing what he loves (ballet) or living up to his fathers and societies expectations of him.
Billy initially is a boxing, however he doesn’t feel any personal satisfaction from the sport. He participates because it’s manly and that’s what his father wants him to do. When Billy is boxing it’s influenced by outside factors (heteronomy). Billy’s father Jackie soon realizes that his son is quite talented and becomes supportive of his sons decision to pursue ballet. He quits the coal mining strike in order to get money for Billy’s trip to London for his audition. Jackie begins to nurture and support his sons dancing.
When Billy realizes that he enjoys ballet he begins a journey towards self-actualization, he leaves behind timidity and realizes his potential. Billy experiences autonomy and openness, both characteristics of self-actualization. Billy starts to care less about societal expectations and strives towards his goal of making it into London’s royal ballet school. Holism is a major theme of this movie; Billy is motivated to achieve growth and self-realization while getting rid of the need to fulfill the expectations of others. This movie follows the themes of 15, doing what one loves to do, oppose to conforming to society and being unhappy. One becomes happy when they satisfy their own needs and realize their full potential.
When Billy’s father finds about his dancing and realizes he is talented he encourages growth. In the beginning when his father is disapproving of Billy dancing, Billy experiences negative self-worth. His father puts him down for dancing and associates dancing with being girly. Billy experiences the emergence of one’s self, he longs for positive regard and feedback.Billy later experiences positive regard when his father and brother are supportive of him dancing and he makes into the school and performs.

Key terms: intrinsically, heteronomy, self-actualization, holism, growth, self-realization, encouraging growth, emergence of one’s self,