This movie has concepts from Chapters 14-15. Though as usual, you can also remark on other concepts from other chapters.
Your comment does not need to provide an overview of the movie (we have all seen it). Your comment should be an in-depth analysis of one or more principles from your text. You should use scenes and characters to provide examples of textbook concepts. Your comment should reflect that you are in an upper division, university level Motivation and Emotion course and clearly link elements from the movie to the textbook. This is a comprehensive assignment (linking course lectures, textbook, and the movie) and you cannot do that in just a few short paragraphs.
BE SPECIFIC. At the bottom of your comment, please put a list of the ME terms you used.
The story of Billy Elliot was one the depicted the quest for eudiamonic happiness. This kind of happiness involves: being authentic, engaging in optimally challenging tasks, and putting forth a high amount of effort, among other things. In Billy’s life, he knew what he loved. He knew that he didn’t love boxing and that that task was not fulfilling or desirable to him. For Billy to be aware of what he loves and to be so sure of himself and to stand up for himself at such a young age is really incredible. With all that was happening in his community and within his family, it’s surprising that Billy chose to pursue dancing over boxing or something else that would please his father. Disregarding his own needs and desires would have been the easy choice. Had Billy concealed his true love for dancing and displayed only the characteristics that those around him wanted to see (e.g. a boxing loving kid), he would have been acting in an incongruent manner. This would be somewhat similar to cognitive dissonance- behaving in a hypocritical way.
At such a young age, Billy was concerned with growth seeking behaviors versus validation seeking ones. There was so much pressure for Billy to cave in and live his life in a socially pleasing way. This would be more validation seeking behavior. Instead, Billy chose to defy what society wanted of him and go his own way. He was more concerned about pursuing and mastering what he loved. Living by seeking out validation is not a fulfilling life. It may have been easier for him and his family in the immediate present, but Billy knew that denying his love for dance and his desire to succeed in it would not lead to fulfillment in his life.
On Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, self-actualization is the top most tier. It is a growth need. That is, self-actualization (or the realization of your capabilities and who you are) is something we strive to create not a void we strive to fill. Despite a lack of positive feedback at home, Billy seeks to reach self-actualization (though I doubt he is aware of the technical name for what he’s doing). As we have learned, feedback is important to us in our strivings. It helps us know what we are doing right and what we need to work on. It encourages us and adds fuel to our strivings. Yet, Billy lacked this at home. In fact, he seldom received direct positive feedback on his accomplishments at the gym while dancing. Though he lacked this feedback he continued to pursue self-actualization. Though he was torn to please his father, Billy chose to pursue something that he genuinely loved. He sought to challenge himself through dance. He sought to find happiness in his dancing.
This movie is such a great example of many of the concepts in Chapter 15. Billy, at such a young age, knows his true self. Though it’s difficult at times to seek his happiness while harming his relationship with his father and brother, Billy sticks to his guns. Once he makes the choice to dance, he dances and very little can cause him to consider changing his mind.
Terms: eudaimonic happiness, incongruence, validation seeking, growth seeking, maslow’s hierarchy of needs, self-actualization
The first concept that came to me is implicit motivation. This term refers to motives, emotions, and judgments that occur outside the awareness of a person. Before the little boy knew that he could dance, he was acting out all kinds of body movements when no one was watching him. He did not understand the specific reason of doing these, but he simply kept moving. These movements served to vent his emotion, and in a way helped exploring his physical existence. Such attempts were not always successful, as his judgments on his movements during team sports proved to be inadequate. Before he learned to dance, this kind of movement improvisation was beyond his consciousness.
Although there is limited empirical support, Maslow's need hierarchy also demonstrates different needs depicted in this film. There are several scenes that illustrate the physiological need. For example, there are few sexual scripts throughout the film. Although the characters did not really do anything, I think it is fair to say that the main character was a desirable object for both his male and female friends. A more obvious example may be the desire to move. We all know that we move from time to time even during sleep. In this particular case of a future dancer, his need to move is perhaps at an extreme level compared to normal people. Another example is that his family burn down their piano as firewood. The need for love or connection to the mother in the family is sacrificed for the more urgent need of staying warm.
The safety and security needs are big issues when the miners go on a strike and have no income. Such condition puts people under stress. The esteem need of the boy is satisfied when he is admitted to the royal academy. Though he was unsure about going to the school, he turned out to be a successful dancer. The process fulfilled the self-actualization need.
The struggle of becoming a male dancer demonstrates two contrary processes. The conditions of worth were first imposed on the little boy when his family members considered ballet unmanly and unacceptable. His family and his teacher got into serious arguments about this pursuit. On the other hand, he understood that he wanted to dance through the organismic valuation process. The most obvious example took place when his brother questioned about giving the boy a childhood. He responded: "I don't want a childhood. I want to be a ballet dancer."
I think the film shows both types of happiness. The hedonic well-being is present when he is dancing. He experiences pleasure, absence of problems, and vividness like "electricity" in his own word. He gained eudaimonic well-being after he becomes a professional dancer. He is allowed to make efforts toward challenges and fully engage in the lively experience. He can satisfy the psychological needs of autonomy and competence, and have the opportunity to achieve personal growth. Therefore the film shows us how he becomes a happy person.
Terms: implicit motivation, need hierarchy, physiological need, sexual script, love need, safety and security needs, esteem need, self-actualization need, conditions of worth, organismic valuation process, hedonic well-being, eudaimonic well-being, psychological need, autonomy, competence
This movie focused on the self-actualization of Billy Elliot. According to the book, “Self-actualization is an inherent developmental striving. It is a process of leaving behind timidity, defensive appraisals, and a dependence on others” (pg. 421). On his journey toward self-actualization, Billy had to overcome conditions of worth, in which his behavior was judged harshly by his father and older brother. He received their positive regard when discussing boxing, and was criticized whenever he brought up the topic of ballet. The book tells us that to overcome conditions of worth, we must provide ourselves with unconditional positive regard. Doing this will prevent us from interfering with our organismic valuation, which is our innate drive that allows us to enhance ourselves and realize our potentials. Billy gave himself this unconditional positive regard, which allowed him to continue to take ballet lessons without viewing himself through society’s negative lens.
From when he first participated in the ballet class, Billy had psychological congruence: he accepted his desire to pursue ballet, and he did not care what the other dancers or his friends thought about it. He experienced minor incongruence, however, in regards to his family, as he had to put on a façade to hide his behaviors so that he would not have to endure their disapproval. By the time the movie ended the incongruence was gone, however, and he had convinced his father and brother to accept him for who he was.
Billy showed growth-seeking behavior rather than validation-seeking behavior. Those who seek validation desire social approval and behave in ways that will elicit that approval. If Billy had wanted validation from his family, he would have continued to go to boxing lessons every week like his father wanted. He quit those lessons, however, in order to learn about ballet and improve his innate ability to move well with music.
Billy’s pursuit of ballet made him happy, and he was optimistic about his abilities. According to the textbook, optimism “can be understood as a positive attitude or a good mood that is associated with what one expects to unfold in his or her immediate and, especially, long-term future.” Both Billy and his ballet teacher were optimistic about Billy’s chances of being accepted to the Royal Ballet School. This optimism allowed Billy to enjoy the process of acquiring the necessary skills to succeed, and it was what motivated the ballet teacher to give Billy lessons for free. While these two characters were optimistic, Billy’s father and brother were not. They were on strike for the majority of the movie, which made life difficult for their entire family. They were violent at times, both verbally and physically, and their lack of optimism only increased their frustration and other negative feelings. During the strike their lives lacked meaning, and they were unable to find significance in any positive event because of it.
When Billy was asked by the Royal Ballet School panel what it felt like for him to dance, he told them that it was like flying, becoming lost, and electricity. This answer shows that he experienced eudaimonic well-being, which the book says is “seeking out challenges, exerting effort, being fully engaged and experiencing flow in what one is doing, acting on one’s true values, and feeling fully alive and authentic” (pg. 443). Billy had to seek out lessons and practice the skills, which shows that he sought the challenge and exerted effort. Since he admitted that dancing is like becoming lost, we know that he experienced flow. He chose ballet over boxing, which demonstrates his values, and his statement about dancing feeling like electricity shows us that dancing makes him feel alive. Billy possessed all of the qualities of someone with eudaimonic well-being.
Terms: self-actualization, conditions of worth, organismic valuation, congruence, growth-seeking vs. validation-seeking, optimism, meaning, eudaimonic well-being
When comparing the movie Billy Elliot to chapter 14 and 15 from our text book, I found a lot of similarities from chapter 15. Chapter 15 was a discussion of growth motivation and positive psychology. In the movie Billy Elliot, Billy is drawn to dancing and one day while at boxing practice, he takes notice of a girls ballet class that is going on in the same gym. Billy ventures over to the ballet class and joins in the lesson. From then on Billy finds a love for ballet even though his father and family may not approve of it at first. In his community, being a boy who was interested in ballet was not socially acceptable. The book discusses how choosing ones inner nature versus cultural priorities can be extremely challenging for an individual. Cultural influences can be hard to ignore because they are apparent in our day to day lives making it hard to pursue the intrinsic motives we posses. Chapter 15 discusses humanistic psychology in the fact that it concerns two main objectives, one being toward growth and self-realization, and two moving away from façade, self-concealment, and pleasing others.
When looking at the development of the main character Billy in this movie, you can see the different stages of self-actualization. The term self-actualization is an inherent developmental striving including autonomy, moving away from heteronomy and toward an ever-increasing capacity to depend on one’s self and to regulate one’s own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and openness, receiving information that is neither repressed, ignored, or filtered, nor distorted by wishes, fears, and past experiences. Self actualization needs provide energy and direction to become what one is capable of becoming. Carl Rogers stated that “the organism has one basic tendency and striving- to actualize, maintain, and enhance the experiencing self” (Reeve 425). It is this actualizing tendency that drove Billy to continue with his ballet lessons and to become a gifted ballet dancer.
Although in the end of the movie Billy becomes a successful dancer, he endured many different trials and setbacks along the way one of which being a sense of worth. The book states that soon after birth children begin to lean the conditions of worth and by adulthood, individuals lean from parents, friends, teachers, and other members of society what behaviors and characteristics are good or bad, right or wrong. From both his family and society, being interested in ballet as a boy was seen as wrong or bad which made it hard for Billy to find a sense of self worth in the movie. It wasn’t until his father and brother began to support him that he was able to experience a sense of self worth.
The book also talks about growth seeking versus validation seeking individuals. Validation seeking individuals rely on feedback from society in order to measure their personal worth, competence, or likability. Growth seeking individuals on the other hand center their personal strivings around learning, improving, and reaching personal potential which is what Billy does throughout the movie. With growth seeking individuals, negative outcomes and interactions (such as those between Billy and his father when he finds out about Billy’s dancing) with others doesn’t necessarily hinder that individual from certain behaviors or actions, rather they identify areas in which need improvement. That is, even though Billy’s father strongly disapproved of Billy partaking in ballet, Billy continued to dance for his own sense of autonomy and self actualization.
Terms: Intrinsic Motivation, Humanistic Psychology, self-actualization, autonomy, openness, worth, growth seeking, validation seeking.
Billy Elliot if about a young boy who finds happiness in dancing, specifically ballet. With hopes of getting into London's Royal Ballet school, he goes behind his fathers back and trains with his instructor. This movie relates well to chapters 14 and 15 concepts, especially with self actualization. This is defined as the inherent developmental striving and the process of leaving behind timidity, defensive appraisals, and a dependence on others that is paired with the parallel process of moving towards courage to create, make realistic appraisals, and achieve autonomous self-regulation. Obviously throughout the movie Billy doesn't have self-actualization at first. Billy is struggling with the need of love and belongingness on Maslow's hierarchy of needs. His father tries pushing Billy into boxing because it's what boys do and is socially accepted. He doesn't feel the need to belong because it's not what his father wants. His father has control casuality orientation. Control causality orientation is a person that relies on external guides and experiences. He catches Billy doing Ballet and gets upset and tries to get Billy to stop dancing and start boxing. On the other hand, Billy has autonomy causality orientation. With autonomy causality orientation, a person is driven by their interests, needs and goals.
Billy also portrays classical actualization tendency. This is defined as an individual having the basic tendency and striving to actualize, maintain, and enhance the experiencing self. He experienced this through his love of ballet.
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. Dancing for Billy was his way of satisfying his growth needs. Growth can be encouraged by having supportive intimate relationships.
His growth need was inspired by Mrs. Wilkinson, his dance instructor. Mrs. Wilkinson also filled the need for positive regard. Positive regard is the approval, acceptance and love from others. She willing helped Billy every week secretly because she knew Billy was different than her other students and she wanted to see him succeed.
Billy felt a sense of in-congruence of self in choosing to dance. He felt this because he couldn't do what he loved without hiding it from his family, and also the world. 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. He is also confused with his self and social definition. Social-defined individuals accept external definitions of who they are while self-defined individuals resist these external definitions and instead favor internal definitions of the self. His inner desires of wanting to dance ballet were going against what society wanted him to do. Once his father finally accepted him and his talents, his congruence was achieved to the fullest which motivated Billy to become an even better dancer which moved him to becoming a professional dancer.
This movie portrays a lot of self-actualization and personal growths. Each character has a struggle and in the end of the movie, everyone comes to self actualization and it turns out to be a happy ending. The message of this movie when relating it to this class is that anything is possible if you are intrinsically motivated. Like Billy, finding something that makes you happy is worth fighting for. This movie definitely showed multiple example of this.
Terms: motivation, happiness, self actualization, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, growth need, classical actualization tendency, incongruence, congruence, social and self defined, positive regard, belongingness, control casuality and autonomy casuality orientation
This movie was definitely not the best movie I have seen recently, but I could totally see the similarities between the movie and the chapter. The main concepts of positive psychology and growth motivation were very relevant in the movie. This is shown when Billy is supposed to be participating in his boxing class that his dad enrolled him in, but instead Billy is drawn to the ballet class that is going on at the same time. Quickly Billy is fascinated by ballet and unbeknownst to his father he is participating in ballet instead of boxing. With this occurring, during the time period, it was not too socially acceptable for a boy to be interested in that sort of thing. However the book discusses how one chooses their own path due to inner feelings rather than cultural influences. Which in this case, this is a perfect example of Billy.
A big aspect of the chapter is self-actualization. This is an inherent developmental striving. It is a process of leaving behind timidity, defensive appraisals, and a dependence on others. Obviously his father and brother, at first, did not approve of this whatsoever. Billy had to overcome that his decisions were being judged very badly. When the topic related to boxing, he had all the support in the world, but ballet not at all. For Billy’s situation, for him to overcome this, the book hints that a person must provide themselves with their own unconditional positive regard. In other words, our innate drive allows us to realize our own potentials. Billy realized his talents were geared toward ballet and he went full stride with it.
With the same situation Billy has against his father and brother, there is the idea of growth seeking behavior versus validation seeking ones. This concept also is an example of the same situation. Billy has all the pressure in the world to just give in to his family’s wants and do boxing, which would be the normal socially pleasing way. Not for Billy though. Validation seeking individuals rely on feedback from society in order to measure their personal worth, whereas, growth seeking individuals center their personal strivings around learning, improving, and reaching personal potential. Which do you think Billy strived on? Easily, it was growth seeking. Like I mentioned before, Billy chose to go against the norms of society pursuing something that he had a passion for. Living by seeking out validation is not a fulfilling life.
Even though Billy becomes the successful dancer he thrived for, the road was not easy for him. He had many challenges and setbacks along the way, one being a sense of worth. In the book, it tells you that children start to learn this concept at a very young age. By adulthood, you start to learn from others and learn what is right/wrong, good/bad. It was tough for Billy to find a sense of worth since he did not have the approval. Toward the end, once he had the support of his family, that was when it was evident that Billy found his sense of worth. I try to put myself in Billy’s shoes and I totally see why this is so tough for him. We all have had that moment where your parents just do not see eye-to-eye with you and it makes for such a tough decision. Everybody always wants to get what they want, but then when the decision goes against the one that raised you, it makes for situation.
Key Terms: positive psychology, growth motivation, self-actualization, growth seeking behavior, validation seeking, sense of worth
This was the first time I had seen the movie “Billy Elliot”. In my opinion, I thought the film was kind a bit dull, and at sometimes kind of strange. With that said, there are many motivational terms that can be used to reflect scenes in the movie. The main concept from our textbook would be implicit motivation. This concept was displayed throughout the movie as Billy demonstrated his passion for dance. Implicit motivation is defined as the “motives, emotions, attitudes, and judgments that operate outside a person’s conscious awareness and that are fundamentally distinct from self-report motives, emotions, attitudes, and judgments (pg. 399). The best scene to represent implicit motivation is when his brother and father get angry with him and his teacher for wanting Billy to audition for ballet. After Mrs. Wilkinson leaves, Billy storms outside in anger. This was a strange scene because Billy spam’s out, and begins dancing everywhere, tapping his feet, running, and spinning in circles on building. Scenes similar to this can be seen throughout the movie, and it clearly demonstrated Billy’s unconsciousness taking over. Our text also says that implicit motives can direct, orient, and select one’s attention to certain behaviors. Billy’s unconscious motivation to dance drives his behaviors because he practices and practices so he will be able to be accepted into ballet school. Billy also demonstrates self-actualization, as a result of his implicit motive to dance. Billy displays self-actualization in the scene where he is practicing alone with Mrs. Wilkinson in the gym. Billy is striving and working hard to become a better ballet dancer, and he enters a state of flow when he is dancing.
In the beginning of the movie, it is obvious that Billy feels incongruence toward boxing. He boxes because that is what his dad wants him to do, because that is a “man’s sport.” Clearly Billy is intrigued by ballet dancing because he shows an interest in it, and strays away from boxing practice to experience ballet. Billy also displays ego defense in the film, which is evident in the scene where he is hiding in the locker room stall, and comes out to join the ballet dancers when all of the boxers are gone. Billy is afraid what everyone else will think about him. He takes the extra step to avoid letting his father, and the other male figures in the film know about his activities when he should be boxing.
I feel like autonomy is another theme in this movie. Billy is satisfying his need for autonomy by making his own choice to participate in ballet, as opposed to boxing. Billy doesn’t feel like he has complete autonomy because he doesn’t have the support of his father and brother, at least not at the beginning of the film. In the textbook, on page 437, it says that having a rich relationship can facilitate autonomy. This is done by relatedness, which is the need to have a sense of belonging. In the scene where Billy dances in front of his father, his father walks out on him. At first I was disappointed, but then his father visited Mrs. Wilkinson to talk to her about the auditions for ballet school. At that moment, Billy’s father began to support his son, and this gave Billy the opportunity to have complete autonomy over his dancing passion.
Another concept from chapter 15 displayed in the movie is eudaimonic well-being. Eudaimonic well-being is feeling happiness from seeking out challenges, putting forth effort, experiencing flow and becoming yourself (pg. 443). One of my favorite scenes to display the challenges and effort Billy undergoes is when he is practicing at home, locked in the bathroom so no one else knows what he is doing. He tries to perform spins while staying balanced, and he knock things off the wall, and eventually loses balance and falls into the bathtub full of water. It shows that Billy was seeking out something that wasn’t easy, and putting maximum effort into it. In the end of the movie, Billy was happy because he was doing something he loved, and also had the support of everyone around him.
Terms: implicit motivation, self-actualization, autonomy, relatedness, relatedness to others, incongruence, ego defense, unconsciousness, eudaimonic well-being, flow, effort
Billy Elliot is a great movie about a young boy realizing his dancing talents, capacities, and potentialities. This movie focuses on the concept of self-actualization. Self-actualization is a process of leaving behind timidity, defensive appraisals, and a dependence on others that is paired with the parallel process of moving toward courage to create, make realistic appraisals, and achieve autonomous self-regulation. In the beginning of the movie Billy doesn’t have self-actualization. He participates in boxing because his dad wants him to and boxing is socially acceptable for boys to do. After stepping in on a ballet class Billy realizes he wants to dance. Soon he decides not to care about what people think of him and do what makes him happy. Billy experiences flow when he dances. Flow is a state of concentration that involves a holistic absorption and deep involvement in an activity.
After Billy decided to start dancing and give up boxing, he felt some incongruence. He felt like he had to hide his love for dance from his family and society. He was afraid of being judged because dance was not a socially acceptable activity that boys participate in during that time period. Billy adopted a facade because of his fear. A facade is the social mask a person wears. Before he went public with his decision to dance he hid his love for ballet from everyone and pretended he enjoyed boxing.
Billy was a growth-seeking individual. He centered his personal strivings around learning, improving, and reaching personal potential. Individuals who were validation-seeking are looking for external validation to measure their personal worth, competence, or likeability. Billy was completely opposite from validation-seeking individuals. He did not let negative feedback from his family or society hinder his performance or love for dancing. He only focused on what makes him happy and his talents.
Dancing fulfilled Billy’s growth needs. Growth needs provide energy and direction to become what one is capable of becoming. Billy is capable of becoming a successful dancer and he strives to become the best he can be. Even though his family did not support him, Mrs. Wilkinson (his dance teacher) supported him 100%. She gave him the support and encouragement that nobody else was giving him.
Term: Self-actualization, flow, incongruence, facade, growth-seeking validation, validation-seeking, growth needs.
I found this movie to be very interesting. I had never seen it before, and was so glad when I discovered it was on Netflix and therefore I didn’t have to rent it on Amazon. I found myself during the movie thinking it was slow and dragging on, and yet now when I ask myself the question whether I liked it or not, I find myself saying that yes, I did like it. I believe that is because the ending is happy and it is very satisfying to see that Billy accomplished his goal.
There are many concepts from chapters 14 and 15 throughout this movie. One of the main things we see throughout the movie is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. During this time the movie takes place, Billy’s father and brother are on strike for the mines they work for. The family is also taking care of their grandmother and Billy’s mother has passed away. With all of these hardships, many need’s of Billy’s are not being met. There are five tiers to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The bottom tier is what needs to be met first before we can meet the needs on top of that, and so forth. The needs are as follows: physiological, safety and security, love and belongingness, esteem, and finally self-actualization. With all of these hardships the family is facing, Billy has just met is physiological needs, yet is struggling from there. He is experiencing a deficiency of needs. At one point in time during the movie, we see his father chopping up his mother’s piano in order have fire wood to heat the house. This is a deficiency in his need for security. He also is experiencing other deficiencies. The next tier, love and belongingness, is also not being met at the beginning of the movie. Billy’s father is outraged when he finds out that his son has been pretending to continue boxing but in reality he is practicing ballet.
We could also look at this from a different standpoint and revert back to the beginning of our textbook, to chapter six. This chapter focused on psychological needs, naming three main psychological needs: competence, relatedness, and autonomy. Billy is struggling to feel like he belongs with his family. He isn’t getting any intimacy from his father or brother, and it appears that his grandmother has some form of dementia. He has a deficiency in his relatedness need. On top of that, his father’s reaction to his ballet has him feeling like his is incompetent. Not only is he feeling incompetent there, but at one point in time his instructor (don’t know her name, all I know is she’s Mrs. Weasely on Harry Potter) also makes him feel incompetent. This is because she is neglecting to give him positive feedback, something crucial in becoming better.
Another aspect from chapter 15 that this movie demonstrates rather well is Self-Definition and Social Definition. Social definition is using external cues to define who you are. Self definition ignore society and look inside of themselves to define who they are. At the beginning of the movie Elliot is a socially defined individual. He is self-conscious about liking and participating in ballet, and keeps it a secret. However at the end of the movie, he embraces his love for ballet and becomes a self-defined individual.
Looking back to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, I previously talked about how Billy’s needs were not being met, including some of the very basic needs. Though this is true at the beginning of the movie, I think it is also important to note that by the end of the movie, Billy is experiencing self-actualization, or at least a part of that need is being met. Self actualization is at the very top of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. In order to become self actualized, one must experience autonomy and openness to experience. First Billy becomes open to taking ballet. Then he becomes open to auditioning for the ballet school in London – this is a very important step for his self actualization. Finally, his dad allows him to do this and he has a feeling of autonomy. His audition and final questions also help support his autonomy. Becoming open to these experiences and achieving autonomy creates the feeling of self actualization for Billy Elliot.
Terms:
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, deficiency needs, psychological needs, relatedness, competence, self-definition, social definition, self actualization
Billy Elliot is a great story that incorporates many of the concepts from chapter 15 of the text book. Billy is a young boy that realizes that he has different interests than the typical male role of the time. His father and brother are miners, while Billy wants to be a ballet dancer instead of a boxer. Incongruence is defined in the book as the extent to which an individual denies and rejects the full range of his personal characteristics, abilities, desires, and beliefs. This is the perfect word to describe the feelings that Billy had when he first became interested in the ballet. He learned quickly that the ballet was where he fit in and belonged, but he hid that from his father and brother because he knew that they would not be accepting of him. They expected another man in the family to follow suit of both of them: be a boxer growing up, then join his family as a miner. However, this did not stop him from still secretly working with the ballet teacher, even if it meant paying for it himself. His teacher saw right through him the very first time he stepped into the dance studio. She became a very positive motivator for Billy. She never gave up on him, and was even willing to stand up for him against his family. This brought him a feeling of self-actualization. He realized how happy and positive the ballet made him feel and began to start to open up about it with his friends and eventually his family. He developed a desire for autonomy -- he wanted to regulate and feel his own feelings, not try to live the life that his father and brother wanted him to live. He also was striving for openness. He wanted to be free with his feelings, but he always felt a little held back, though he would not give in to those feelings. These feelings are a result of his deficiency needs. Although he sought autonomy and openness, he never let the needs for safety, belongingness, and esteem fade away. These needs derived from Billy's father and brother and how they treated him. Throughout the entire movie, we watch Billy struggle to convince his family to accept him for the man he wants to be.
Finally, we begin to see an emergence of the self. I believe that this begins when Billy first dances for his father. He was terrified of how his father would react, but he did it anyway because he was expressing himself and how he wanted to live. This then led to his father's emotional road to acceptance. Billy became a growth-seeking individual -- learning, improving, and reaching personal potential. He auditioned for the major dance school, hoping that he would be good enough. He realized that through all that he had been through, he didn't have to hide anything anymore, and he was free to be himself. He no longer felt an incongruence, but congruence. He accepted the full range of all of his own qualities and was proud to be who he was.
At the end of the movie, we see Billy's family arrive at the theater to watch Billy perform. We see that it is years later, after he had gone on to do great things. With the full support of his family and fulfilling his goal to be a professional ballet dancer, we see that he was now "whole" and healthy -- this is how the movie portrayed holism.
Chapter 15 focused on growth motivation and positive psychology. Billy grew and developed from the positive motivators in his life by focusing on what was most important to himself. He was intrinsically motivated by his passion, which is a very positive motivator. He learned a lot about himself and, through growth motivation and positive psychology, became his own success story.
Terms: incongruence, self-actualization, autonomy, openness, deficiency needs, emergence of the self, growth seeking, congruence, holism, intrinsic motivation, growth motivation
Billy Elliot portrays a boy trying to gain support and acceptance from his family for what he truly loves, dance. Throughout the entire movie, Billy is trying to foster his newfound love of dance, while at the same time hiding this from his father who does not believe dance is something a young boy should do. Billy struggles to satisfy his deficiency needs, the needs for safety, belongingness, and esteem. He feels threatened by his father and he feels that his father does not accept him for who he is. The film also focuses on Billy’s growth needs, or self-actualization needs, that are driving and directing him to strengthen his talent and love for dance. In the chapter, it mentioned, “a musician must make music…” Well, in Billy’s case, a dancer must dance.
Billy is conflicted with his actualizing tendency, his need of fulfillment through belongingness, and his self-actualization tendency, his need of fulfillment through doing what he is capable of doing and what he loves. He experiences salient conditions of worth from his father. That is, his father’s positive regard for Billy is conditional. It only occurs when Billy does what his father wants. It does not occur unconditionally through constant support of Billy’s ambitions and endeavors. Billy desperately wants his father’s approval, but wants to continue progressing himself as a dancer. This leads him to take private dance lessons without his father’s knowledge or consent.
A profound moment in the movie is when Billy’s father finds him in the gym teaching his friend how to dance. In this scene, Billy comes face to face with his disapproving father. But, instead of immediately ceasing his dancing as he had in the past, he continues to dance right in front of his father. In this moment, Billy is demonstrating his desire for self-actualization. He is “leaving behind timidity, defensive appraisals, and dependence on others” and he is “moving toward courage to create, make realistic appraisals, and achieve autonomous regulation” in the realm of dance, his passion. Although he shows strides toward self-actualization, he has not yet achieved it.
Billy is also seeking eudaimonic well being. His passion for dance motivates him to challenge himself and exert effort toward fostering his dancing abilities. He desires full engagement and flow from life and he knows he will experience that if he follows his passion for dance. His goals for dance are self-endorsed, they align with his true self. But he is not able to fully achieve eudaimonic well being without relatedness, which is the best determinant of eudaimonic well being. He struggles to fulfill this psychological need for relatedness with his father. After Billy’s face-to-face encounter with his father, his father recognizes Billy’s talent and reevaluates his previous thoughts about his son’s dancing. At this point, Billy’s father begins to show more support for his son, doing what he can to provide Billy with the means to attend the audition for the dance academy in London. At the end of the movie, it is evident that Billy’s father’s ideas have changed and they have established a greater bond allowing Billy’s psychological need for relatedness to be fulfilled. This, in turn, forecasts a greater probability of achieving eudaimonic well being.
Terms: Deficiency needs, growth needs, self-actualization, actualizing tendency, self-actualizing tendency, condition of worth, self-endorsed goals, eudaimonic well being, relatedness.
I really enjoyed watching Billy Elliot! It was nothing that I thought it was going to be and also very inspiring. The first concept from the chapters we are covering was congruence. Congruence and incongruence take place when one is accepting or rejecting their own personal beliefs. This takes place in a couple of situations in the film. The first is Billy having to decide whether to reject or accept his love for ballet. It would have been incongruent to himself had he instead went forth and pursued boxing. He may be able to portray on the outside to others that he enjoyed boxing and that it was what he wanted, when on the inside hiding his true feelings. Another example from the film is when Billy’s friend Michael tells Billy that he’s gay. To understand that at such a young age and being ok coming out is something that Michael had to do for himself. Trying to feel or behave in a different manner would have been incongruent with himself.
Another concept I found from the book that also relates to the two examples above, were self-definition and social definition. Self-definition is when a person resists external definitions and relies on how they feel about themselves and who they are. Social-definition is when a person accepts an external definition of themselves. Billy’s father and brother seem to struggle with finding where they fit in with these to concepts. They have a difficult time throughout the movie with Billy wanting to pursue ballet, it takes them a lot of time before they realize that he deserves this and they have to give it to him and give him a chance. The external definitions were something they thought they needed to define them, and resisted what they thought was something they couldn’t handle or feel. This is also fitting for Michael, and how he has chosen to be self-defined.
Billy is the definition of eudemonic well-being. He knows that he has hardships, his life is not easy and he needs to work for what he wants and believes in. He looks at the challenges in his life as something to get through and he is fully engaged in his surroundings. When he gets to dance he feels fully alive, he is going against the grain and doing something for himself that makes him truly authentic. He accepts that his friend Michael is gay and shows that he acts and cares based on his true values. This movie had the theme of eudemonic well-being, and it gets you emotional because you can see a lot of characters displaying this concept and overcoming some sort of obstacle, and finding out that they can just be themselves and that it is perfectly ok.
In the end Billy’s family decides to fully support and embrace how amazing of a dancer Billy is and help send him to the Royal Ballet School after he is accepted. We can see a lot of motivation in Billy and it seems that the harder the goal gets, the harder he strives. Even with fear of rejection Billy stays determined. His motivators are to get away from home and experience something new, to make something of himself and make his family proud.
Terms: eudemonic well-being, self-definition, social-definition, motivation, congruence, incongruence
Billy Elliot was an interesting movie. It’s obvious right away how this film relates to Chapter 15: Growth Motivation and Positive Psychology. We can see that Billy has a growth need that relates to his need for self-actualization. He is being pushed by his father and society to become something he does not want to be. He is being forced to take boxing lessons but instead wants to take ballet lessons. Billy’s journey is one towards an ultimate goal of self-actualization.
Billy’s behavior toward self-actualization can be understood when we look at the six behaviors that encourage self-actualization in chapter 15. The first behavior, making growth choices, is portrayed by Billy when he makes the choice not to do boxing and to do ballet instead. The moment he starts practicing with the other dancers he has made a growth choice. The second behavior, being honest, comes later in the film. He is not honest with his brother or father about his interest in ballet. In fact, at the beginning of the movie he hides his shoes underneath his mattress to prevent them from finding out. However, there comes a scene in the movie when Billy dances in front of his father and it is at this point that I believe he is being truly honest. The third behavior is to situationally position yourself for peak experiences. Billy does this by getting rid of the false notion that he would be interested in or good at boxing. He accepts that he’s interested in ballet and further pursues this opportunity. The fourth behavior, giving up defensiveness, is displayed by Billy when he dances in front of his father for the first time and when teaches his friend how to dance. The fifth behavior, letting the self emerge, is basically shown throughout the whole movie. Billy has decided to shut out the rest of the world and only concentrate on what his main interests are and how to further pursue them. The final behavior that encourages self-actualization is being open to experience. Obviously Billy is open to new experiences or he wouldn’t have wanted to learn ballet in the first place.
Another aspect discussed in Chapter 15 is the idea of conditions of worth. At the beginning of the movie, Billy believes his father, his brother, and society would reject his interest in ballet, and he is right. When Billy’s father finds out he is upset and tells him he will no longer pay for those and he seems to think of Billy as a “sissy.” In addition, Billy’s brother rejected his interest in dancing and showed his rejection by yelling at Billy’s instructor when she visited his house. However, throughout the film, after Billy shows his father his dancing skills, Billy’s father starts displaying signs of unconditional positive regard. This unconditional positive regard helps Billy to further grow and pursue his interest in ballet and to ultimately attend the ballet school he so badly wanted to go to. Billy’s brother starts to come around too and these two characters ultimately help Billy to reach self-actualization.
Another section discussed in chapter 15 focused on how relationships help to support the actualizing tendency. In this section, the idea of “freedom to learn” is talked about. This section reminded me of Billy’s ballet teacher. The book discussed teachers more as facilitators who create an atmosphere conducive to learning. Billy’s ballet instructor never seemed to be actually “teaching” him but rather supporting him. Billy was pursuing his interest in ballet by himself at home (reading ballet books, practicing in the bathroom, etc) and his teacher whom he referred to as “Miss” was merely a supporter in pursuing his dancing further. Billy’s teacher helped him to attain self-actualization.
Terms: self-actualization, actualizing tendency, freedom to learn, conditions of worth
Cool movie! Great way to highlight self-actualization in a real life setting. Young Billy demonstrates self-actualization by wanting to do something different. Self-actualization is the developmental striving to be good at something in one's life. Billy is striving for self-actualization and autonomy. Autonomy is doing what one wants to do when they want to do it. Billy's father and brother, in the beginning of the movie really stressed for him to do "boy-ish" activities like wrestling, boxing, or football. Billy, on the other hand, is doing this HIS way. Good for him.
I also saw a high amount of actualizing tendency in Billy. This is basically curiosity in a person. Actualizing tendency quietly guides people towards genetically determined principles, like walking, for example. It also motivates one to pursue new and challenging behaviors, like Billy. He used actualizing tendencies to go towards this new thing, ballet.
Billy's conditions of worth were challenged from the beginning of this movie. Conditions of worth are what a child, from birth, is told what is "right" or "wrong" or "good for you" or "bad for you". Parents, or guardians can influence a child by either using condition positive regard, which is praising their children on what is right based on their own values and beliefs, while teaching conditions of worth through unconditional positive regard is when a parent loves and respects their child for who they naturally are. It took a while for Billy's father and brother to come around and chose an unconditional positive regard towards his ballet, but they eventually did.
One of Billy's friends had been homosexual from when he was a child, and in the last scene we see this same childhood friend all grown up at the ballet, sitting next to Billy's brother and father. The aspect of self-actualization comes into play here as well. This child found autonomy and did what he wanted to do. We don't get any interaction with this child's parents, but there is a good chance that because he grew up seemingly happy and with a male partner, maybe his parents demonstrated unconditional positive regard toward his sexual preference.
Billy also has a high level of congruence for his dancing. It is totally "him". We see this from his dancing and the amount that he partakes in. He is always dancing! Even if it is out in public. Congruence is the acceptance for who one is. As we see his best friend and neighbor participating in homosexual tendencies, he tends to hide them around other people, except Billy. We see his friend dressed up in a dress and putting on lipstick and he tells Billy that he only does it while his parents are away, this is suggesting he has high incongruence, where he denies or rejects how he truly is.
Lastly, taken from another chapter of the book we see a very high level of intrinsic motivation in Billy. No one is telling him to dance (except his teacher), but he joined the dance lesson group out of his own will. We see him dancing when it is completely his choice to dance. We see him making up dance moves in the street when he walks. No one is ever telling him to do any of that, he just simply does it because he likes it. One of my favorite parts of the movie was when he went to the big dance school for his audition and one of the judges asked him what he feels when he dances. He said feels like he is flying, and that electricity is going through him. This was the one time he really vocalized how much he really loved to dance, but it is pretty obvious otherwise that he is extremely intrinsically motivated to dance!
Terms: self-actualization, autonomy, actualizing tendency, conditions of worth, unconditional positive regard, conditional positive regard, congruence, incontruence, intrinsic motivation
The movie Billy Elliot showed a lot of concepts from chapters 14 and 15. It portrayed unconscious motivation and self-actualization very well. I do admit that I was a little lost during the movie and I do not do well with understanding accents sometimes. It was hard to understand what was being said in a lot of the scenes, but I did make out what was generally going on. I first noticed that Billy was really interested in something different than what was expected of him. He was at boxing lessons and felt a need to dance while their when hearing the music being played. He even started dancing while in the ring and then got knocked down right after dancing. This shows that somewhere deep inside he had an unconscious motivation to dance. Our textbook defines unconscious motivation as being motives and intentions that lie outside of our everyday awareness (p.397). Billy was very unsure of why he wanted to dance more than anything. He had many different feelings for it throughout the movie. He at first denied that he wanted to dance and then he blamed the teacher for making him do it. In the end he described to the dance school admissions board that when he danced he forgot everything else and felt free while dancing. In that moment Billy realized his true motivation to why he dance and this showed that he unconsciously motivated to dance because it was his way to escape his horrible life and just be free from it all for a bit. The whole movie did a wonderful job of showing Billy’s process of motivation.
Another part of our textbook that connects with Billy Elliott is the section on ego defense. Billy used different ways of defending himself throughout the movie. At first he uses denial that he wants to even dance, then he uses projection by blaming the dance instructor that she is making him do this for her own benefit. He also uses physical violence when he is at the dance school. He slaps the boy who was trying to calm him down after his audition because he was so nervous and was angry because he thought he wasted his time. These were all ways that Billy used defense mechanisms to protect his ego from being hurt. These defense mechanisms are ways to help the ego from becoming completely overwhelmed with anxiety. In the end, Billy is able to reach a mature way of handling his stress and anxiety through the defense mechanism of sublimation. Sublimation is when a person channels there stress into a creative and active outlet such as dancing. Billy used his dancing as a way to let go and get rid of his anger and frustration. This shows that he had hit a mature level of ego defense.
Chapter 15 also goes along well with the movie Billy Elliot. This chapter talks about holism and self-actualization. Holism is viewing things as a whole or unbroken. This is view that people are whole when their ideal self and actual self are similar. This means that a person needs to be doing what they believe they should be doing. Billy starts off being broken and not a whole being since he truly wants to dance, but knows it is looked down upon by his father and others. The only way that Billy is able to be complete is if he is able to dance and also know that it is ok with his family. Once his father saw that he really had a talent for dancing is when he was able to finally accept himself has being whole. This is how Billy is connected to the idea of Holism. Chapter 15 also talks about the idea of self-actualization. This is defined as an inherent developmental striving toward one’s goals and fulfillments (p.421). A person that is moving towards self-actualization has autonomy and openness to experience. This means that they move towards making their own choices and rely on how they feel about something, not what others think. When a person is open to experience they are leaving behind timidity and move toward courage to receive new information. Billy gradually makes decisions on his own and also opens up his mind to new experiences and information. He truly comes to self-actualization through dancing and stands up for himself by proving to his father that he really can dance amazingly well. Billy Elliott really develops a stronger self throughout the movie and proves that he can accomplish his dreams.
Overall, Billy Elliott was a great movie to represent self-actualization and unconscious motivation. It showed all the struggles that come to be when a person is trying to break out and be their own person. It is always difficult to find one’s true calling in life and even more difficult when your loved ones do not approve of our actions. Billy was a strong character by the end of the movie that really portrayed how a person can truly accomplish their dreams if they really believe in themselves.
Terms: unconscious motivation, ego defense, defense mechanisms, sublimation, holism, self-actualization
When I first started watching this movie (with my roommates) we were not able to get past the thick accents, and had to turn on the subtitles to understand the scenes (none of us had seen this movie before). I thought this was a very good movie. It held my interest and I enjoyed the story-line.
Chapter 14 supplies many terms in which to analyze scenes from the movie, “Billy Elliot.” A specific term is that of implicit motivation. The text defines implicit motivation as, “all motives, emotions, attitudes, and judgments that operate outside a person’s conscious awareness and that are fundamentally distinct from self-report motives, emotions, attitudes, and judgments.” The term “implicit” describes motivational processes that are indirect, implied, or not well understood. This can be applied to the movie as Billy is unaware, when asked by the ballet school board, why he decided to begin dancing. For the reason that his processes are not well understood, Billy is unsure of why he wanted to dance. Billy’s motives and judgments in reference to dancing/ballet are operating outside his conscious awareness. Only when he is asked to describe what dancing is like, is Billy able to begin to understand what dancing/ballet means to him. Another term from chapter 14 is that of suppression. Suppression is the “process of removing a thought by ways that are conscious, intentional, and deliberate.” This can be seen in the film when Billy’s father attempts to suppress the memory of his dead wife. He tells Billy to stop playing the piano and gets upset when Billy responds by saying that the mom would have let him play. Billy’s father also demonstrates suppression when he first finds out that Billy is dancing instead of boxing. He is furious and tells Billy he cannot dance and attempts to suppress the event from his mind. Whenever the father is shown in a few later scenes, it has him focusing on the strike and the “Scabs.” Ego defense is also present in the movie “Billy Elliot.” Ego defense is defined by the text as always being in a state of vulnerability. According to the text, “through it defense mechanisms, ego buffers consciousness against potentially overwhelming levels of anxiety originating from conflict with id impulses (neurotic anxiety), superego demands (moral anxiety), and environmental dangers (realistic anxiety). Billy is a perfect example of ego defense and gives multiple scenes for which to apply this term. Young boys partaking in ballet and wanting to be dancers is not seen as “acceptable” in Billy’s home or his surrounding society. He is constantly defending his ego, such as when he hides out in the locker room stall until he is sure that all of the boxers from his practice have left – in which he proceeds in attending dance class. He also hides his ballet shoes under his shirt when he is leaving home for “practice.” (While walking home from ballet he does not feel the need to defend his ego and thus wears his ballet shoes/slippers around his neck). Other scenes include those of which he is having trouble completing a step or move and tells his instructor that he “can’t.” He is defending his ego by saying he is unable to do something instead of making a fool of himself – he also prevents this by practicing in his bathroom or bedroom with the door closed so that his family does not see him dancing. A final scene in which Billy demonstrates ego defense is when he blames his instructor that she only wants him to audition for her own good. He feels that he will not make the cut and does not want to hurt his ego by admitting this.
Chapter 15 also offers many terms that allow analysis of scenes from the movie “Billy Elliot.” Self-actualization was a main term in the scenes in this movie. The text describes self-actualization as the “process of leaving behind timidity, defensive appraisals, and dependence on others that is paired with parallel process of moving toward the courage to create, make realistic appraisals, and achieve autonomous self-regulation.” Throughout the entire movie Billy is attempting to achieve self-actualization. He is constantly met with fighting and disgust from his father and brother regarding his interest in ballet. However, Billy perseveres because dance is important to him and takes part in his process of becoming self-actualized. (His father and brother only support him taking part in boxing, not dancing). Billy is not given positive feedback while at ballet practice and attempts to become self-actualized by practicing at home and around practice in order to perform and perfect certain moves and poses. Once in class, when he completed “spotting” (watching a point on the wall while turning in circles) he knew that he had finally accomplished the task, even if his instructor gave him minimal feedback. To relate self-actualization back to other terms from the text, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs can be addressed. Self-actualization is at the top of the “triangle” of needs – a growth need. Growth needs provide energy and direction to become what one is capable of becoming – aka, self-actualization needs. In the process of becoming self-actualized, (finally being accepted as a dancer by his father and brother, and being able to attend the ballet school), Billy has grown and left behind timidity, defensive appraisals, as well as dependence as he created himself and achieved autonomous self-regulation. Another term from chapter 15 is that of autonomy causality orientation – the extent that individuals habitually rely on internal guides. Billy had autonomy causality orientation as he relied on internal guides to push him in his drive for ballet and dancing. Even though his father and brother did not initially support him, Billy used his internal guides to focus his determination and to fight for what he wanted to do in his life. Validation-seeking was also present in this movie. Validation-seeking is when other people are seen as sources of external validation and as social yardsticks by which to measure one’s personal growth. This is seen in the movie in the scenes dealing with the strike and the “Scabs.” In the movie, every miner was judged as either a “Scab” – one who continued working in the mines throughout the strike – or not. The miners were measured up against each to see who was socially acceptable during the strike – not a “Scab.” Growth-seeking was also seen in “Billy Elliot.” It is when personal strivings are centered on learning, improving, and reaching personal potential. Billy is a perfect example of someone who is growth-seeking. Billy wants to learn and improve in his dance and ballet. He strives to reach his personal potential by going against his father and brother’s wishes as well as through practicing at home and in-between practices. Billy pushes himself and is growth-seeking as he is accepted into the ballet school and continues to dance throughout his life until the final movie scene in which he partakes in the ballet, Swan Lake. Hedonic well-being is the experience of pleasure and absence of problems. When Billy is telling the school board why he dances, he reflects that it is a source of pleasure and that he has an absence of problems – as if he was free and flying. Eudaimonic well-being is the experience of seeking out challenges, exerting effort, being fully engaged and experiencing flow in what one is doing, acting on one’s true values, and feeling fully alive and authentic. This can be seen in the movie through Billy as well. Billy definitely (either unconsciously or consciously) was seeking challenges when he began to dance. He exerted effort and was fully engaged in learning and improving his techniques and skills of ballet/dance. Billy was acting on his true values as he did not care what his father or brother thought of him dancing, he knew he wanted to dance and did not let anyone stop him or his dreams. Thus, Billy felt fully alive and authentic through his dance – when he was in his beginner class through his performance of Swan Lake in the final scene of the movie.
Terms: implicit motivation, implicit, suppression, ego defense, self-actualization, Hierarchy of Needs, growth needs, autonomy causality orientation, validation-seeking, growth-seeking, hedonic well-being, and eudaimonic well-being
Billy Elliot is an interesting individual in the movie. He is motivated to do something that is uncommon for men to do where he is from, ballet. He says that when he dances he has no worries and slowly disappears. This is obviously something that he didn’t experience boxing. I want to express some important concepts that I feel fit in with the movie.
The first is suppression. You first see Billy using suppression in the beginning of the movie when he first watches the girls dancing. He is fascinated by it but yet you can tell he tries to bury the thought and not take action on it. Obviously this didn’t work for him just like it doesn’t work with a lot of individuals who try it. When someone tries not to think about something they often think about it. It is like someone telling you not to think of something. Once they say don’t think of it, you think of it. Billy’s thoughts were not overridden by his suppression and they took control. Billy started to embrace his thoughts and act on his urges by going to ballet class.
The six stages that encourage self actualization are also fulfilled in the movie. The first one is make growth choices. Billy watched the girls do ballet and felt something that he never had before. He was drawn to it and he made a choice to act on it. He didn’t let fear of the progress stop him, he embraced it.
The second stage towards self-actualization is being honest. Billy was honest with himself. He didn’t keep trying to suppress his feelings toward the ballet he acted on it. He knew that this would make his dad and brother angry but he didn’t let it slow him down. He was honest with himself.
The third stage is situationally position yourself for peak experiences. Billy did this by quitting boxing. He realized that he wasn’t any good at it and stopped doing it. He did something that he found himself to be good at which was ballet. Not only was he good at ballet but he enjoyed it. Because of these two things, Billy spent most his time doing ballet.
The fourth stage is giving up defensiveness. This is what Billy did toward the end of the movie by telling his dad and being comfortable with it.
The fifth stage is letting the self emerge. Billy seemed to be doing this from the start. Once he saw the ballet he couldn’t stop thinking about it. Even though his dad found him in class and scolded him, he ended up going back. He ignored what people told him he needed to become and became what he wanted to.
The sixth and final stage is to be open to experience. This is was Billy did from the start as well. There were no boys in the ballet class but yet Billy went right in and practiced. He didn’t let his shyness or defenses hold him back. Billy seemed to have covered all six of these stages in some way or another in which help him become who he truly was. This was hard at the beginning since Billy wasn’t getting any encouragement but once his dad came to realize it was OK he was encouraged to grow and fulfill his feelings.
This movie is shows feelings, emotions, and motivation in every scene. It elicits someone to think about their own life and whether they are doing what they want and are fulfilled with it.
Terms: elicit, emotions, motivations, experience, growth, suppression, embrace, self actualization
Throughout Billy Elliot it seems that the main character, Billy, is on a quest for self-actualization. Self-actualization is the top tier of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, and is the mastery and use of one's skills and the development of their potentiality. Billy is criticized by his father and brother for wanting to dance, yet he is intrinsically motivated, or motivated by interest or enjoyment in the task, to develop his dancing abilities because it makes him happy and allows him to exercise his autonomy. In this regard, Billy shows growth-seeking behavior instead of validation-seeking behavior, which is when an individual acts in ways that generate social approval, rather than in ways that make the individual happy.
When Billy first enters his ballet class, he seems to experience psychological incongruence, which is when an individual denies or rejects personal qualities they have. At first he is not sure whether he wants to experiment with ballet, but eventually he begins to open up to it and eventually reaches psychological congruence, or a state of acceptance of his natural abilities and desires, when he accepts ballet dancing completely.
Feedback seems to be an important concept in this movie, as Billy is constantly receiving conflicting feedback from important people in his life. Feedback is an important part of self-actualization, as it can motivate an individual to either pursue what makes them happy or discourage them. In the film, Billy is constantly receiving feedback against his ballet activities from his father and brother, who are manly men who would rather see him in his boxing classes. Their criticisms are very disheartening for Billy, but luckily he had the feedback of his dance teacher to keep him motivated.
Throughout the movie Billy is faced with the decision of putting others happiness and approval before his own, but in the end he chooses to pursue what makes him happy instead of seeking the validation of those around him. By doing this, he is able to achieve self-actualization by becoming a dancer as an adult, able to live a happy life without regrets.
Terms: Self-actualization, Intrinsic Motivation, Validation-seeking Behavior, Incongruence, Congruence, Feedback.
I enjoyed watching Billy Elliot; I think it was a positive movie to watch. Billy Elliot had a lot of aspects that related to both chapters 14 and 15. The first thing I would like to address was I noticed that Billy’s mother had passed away and although Billy still thought of her, his father seemed to not think about her at all. According to the book suppression is the process of removing a thought by way that are conscious, intentional, and deliberate. I feel like the father was going through suppression with his wives death. He knew that his wife had passed and she was no longer with him but he didn’t acknowledge her, in the movie I felt like he pretended she was never there. There a quite a few scenes that I had in mind showing the father suppressing the memories of his wife. When Billy was playing the piano the father told Billy to stop and Billy’s response was mom would let us play and the fathers reaction was upset he shut the piano top down and left the room like he didn’t want to think about his wife. Another was when the father had to break down the piano for fire wood, Billy stood by and watched and he asked his father whether or not his mother would mind, one could tell how upset Billy’s father is with the mention of his mother. Billy’s father remembers Billy’s mother but he decided to push those memories deep down so he wouldn’t think of them unless someone mentioned her or triggered those memories. Along with the suppression of his wife Billy’s father also used defense mechanisms his main one he used was projection. Projection is attributing one’s own unacceptable desire or impulse onto someone else. Billy’s dad showed frustration with the lack of job and the death of his wife. Little things made him angry but he always took it out on Billy. The scene where Billy’s father and Billy’s brother get into a fight, afterwards Billy was standing there and his father started to yell and curse at him. Here I thought this scene expressed Billy’s father’s projection defense mechanism. I think another example would be when the father and brother were at the store and they saw one of their co-workers there; they started to harass him because he decided to go back to work even though the strike was over. The father and brother were upset at the strike and they turn their anger towards the people who jumped ship and went back to work. In chapter 15, it discusses self-actualization needs, within these needs are a need for growth; I believe this is what Billy experiences the most in this movie. With this topic I would like to address the ballet interview Billy had. Billy was asked how he felt when he danced, he mentioned that it feels good to him, it feels right, once he starts dancing he can’t stop, and when he dances it seems that all his problems go away. Growth need is longing for a sense of wholeness, aliveness, uniqueness and meaning. Billy has a desire and need to dance, once he started taking ballet lesson he felt like he found his true self, he found what brought pleasure to him, what he was missing in his life. Throughout the movie, different scenes suggested that Billy really enjoyed dancing; the audience could see it in his facial expressions and his passion when he danced.
Terms: Suppression, Defense Mechanism, Projection, Self-actualization, Growth need
Billy Elliot was a good movie about following your dreams no matter what other people think. The overview of the movie is Billy is a young boy who is pushed to be a boxer by his father and brother (Tony). Billy does not want that and is more interested in ballet. He becomes good at it and finally his family accepts him as a dancer. They help get him into a big dance school, and Billy becomes famous.
This movie shows a lot of concept from Chapter 15. The whole movie Billy is trying to figure out how he can do what he loves and still belong to his family. This is him finding his ‘self actualization’. Self actualization is when a person realizes that their talents make them who they are. For a long time Billy does not realize how talented he is and does not see himself for who he is and what he is good at. This is called incongruence he was rejecting who he was. Finally he realizes that he is a very good dancer and ignores what other think and follows his dreams. When he danced around the neighborhood and showed everyone who he was this was his moment of congruence. This was also the moment of emergence of self. Billy understood that he wanted to dance no matter what anyone thought or said.
By going against the crowd Billy was very brave and paid off in the end although it was very hard on Billy throughout the movie because of the rejection his father and brother showed him. Billy showed he was a self defined person by not caring about what others said and focused on what he wanted internally. He did not give into a stereotype or what people though his gender should or should not do. He was very intrinsic motivated listening to what he wanted to so and not having to be told to dance. This is also showing how much autonomy he had by dancing when he wanted, where he wanted, and how. He did not listen to others putting him down but went after his goals.
The book talks about positive psychology which I had never heard of but is demonstrated a lot during the movie. Positive psychology is look at a person strength rather than weaknesses. This helps a person be happier and try more things. Rather than thinking they can’t they think that they can? Billy knew he was a good dancer after awhile and knew he was a bad boxer. He did not focus on his weaknesses but on his strength. This helped him to overcome the obstacles set in front of him.
Billy Elliot is a great example of eudaimonic well being. Eudaimonic well being is seeking out challenges, exerting effort, finding flow (not too hard or too easy), feeling alive, and acting on values (443). Billy does all of these things. He has to work at ballet and when he is dancing he finds his flow and loves the feeling. While dancing he feels alive and free like everything else disappears. By being true to himself he found well being and by finding his well being he discovers who he is.
I really liked this movie and I know that the brother and father we not the main character but they played such a big part of the story. They were so against Billy dancing and hated him for it. Yet they came around. Billy did not seem like he needed his family to support him but he wanted it. I have two scenes that stood out to me throughout the movie. One was Billy getting mad and dancing through the streets after his dad found out he was dancing. The other was when the father went back to work even though people were on strike. People called him a scrab and hated him for going back to work. His other son Tony was even mad. In the middle of the work place as Tony is yelling at him, the father breaks down and says he has to make money so Billy can dance and have a future. The father had realized how much potential Billy had and was going to go again society and go back to work. He was driven to make money.
I really liked Billy Elliot and I want to see the musical of it. The movie really showed that a person needs to so what they want to so and follow their goals. A person cannot follow society and always do what they are told. By stepping out of his comfort zone, Billy found out who he was and accepted himself as a dancer. Dance got him a great future and out of poverty.
Terms: self actualization, incongruence, congruence, emergence of self, self defined, intrinsic motivated, autonomy, positive psychology, eudaimonic well being, flow, drive.
The movie, Billy Elliot is a story based on a young man going through self-actualization. He is brought up in an era of violence and masculinity with the natural impulse to become a dancer. He first finds his motivation by impulse to engage in a dance class. During his journey to gain ambitions to become a dancer Billy overcomes many obstacles and discovers true growth. This movie can be analyzed through many concepts of chapter fifteen and fourteen in our text.
From beginning to the end Billy experiences internal conflict. He is impulse driven at first, yet still builds against his desire to dance. Over time His development of self and ego gives him the independence to give in to his intrinsic motivation. Billy experiences motive, attitude, emotions and attitudes through implicit motivation. He struggles to understand his motives to dance because he is not experiencing conscious motivation, and is unaware of why. In the beginning I am sure if Billy could pick what he was motivated most to do it would be boxing, however, his impulse gets him to dance. It is presented in the movie that his motive is linked with emotional experiences rather than learned values. The inter conflict that Billy maintains is an example of conscious violation. Suppression gives Billy enough time to discover his true love for dance, but just like the text say suppression is never alone, and most likely leads back to thoughts reappearing. The ego of Billy begins to develop in this time. He gains an ambition based on his ability. His maturity and adjustment leads to his success.
Billy begins to master the technique of dance and continues to gain a more developed sense of his ideal self. The text states that personal growth is the ultimate force of motivation, and I believe that this movie proves that. During this time Billy receives negative feedback yet still can focus on the main incentive of going to the Royal School of Ballet. He soon leaves behind all timidity and starts to self-regulate. One main example of this is when his father catches him dancing with another friend. He first is in shock, but then leaves it all behind and shows his father that he is an excellent dancer. This is also an example that Billy has realized his talent and no longer is dependent. Despite Billy’s Deficiency needs not being met in the beginning, towards the end he experiences safety and belonging. This all provides Billy to energize his main goal and talent. In the text Maslow states that less than one percent experiences self-actualize. He stated the reason for this is nonsupport from oneself as well as the environment. This made me think of how rare Billy Elliot’s case was. Billy’s self did emerge as a whole through personal development and support. He also experienced self-worth and hedonic happiness, without these features I do not think he would have excelled in congruence.
Key Terms: Ego Development, intrinsic motivation, drive, impulse driven, implicit motivation, motive, conscious violation, suppression, worth, personal development, feedback, deficiency needs, self-actualize, experience, congruence, relatedness,
This was the first time I had ever seen “Billy Elliot”, and I thought that it was a pretty good movie! I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to tie in so many concepts from the textbook and lecture to the movie.
One psychological concept that was apparent throughout the movie was implicit motivation. According to the textbook, implicit motivation refers to all those motives, emotions, attitudes, and judgments that operate outside a person’s conscious awareness and that are fundamentally distinct from self-report motives, emotions, attitudes, and judgments (p.399). Implicit motivation describes motivational processes that are indirect, implied, or not well understood. The idea of implicit motivation can be seen in the film when Billy wants to dance instead of taking boxing lessons. He is not sure why he wants to, but some unconscious and implicit motive pushes him to follow through with it. Even at his ballet audition towards the end of the film he is not able to tell the judges exactly why he wanted to take up dancing in the first place. This is because the motivation was indirect and was outside his conscious awareness.
Another concept that I noticed in the movie was that of suppression. Suppression is obvious toward the beginning of the film when Billy discovers that he wants to dance, but has issues accepting that fact because it is against social norms and he is worried what others will think of him. He wants to try and suppress, or not think about his desire to dance, which ultimately did not work. The textbook says that suppression generally does fail, which is consistent with what was seen in the movie.
Ego defense could also be seen throughout the movie when people would judge Billy or think that he is gay or weird for choosing to take dance lessons over boxing lessons. Billy would use defense mechanisms such as displacement, which is releasing one’s anxiety against a substitute object when doing so against the source of the anxiety could be harmful, rationalization, which is justifying a disturbing or unacceptable thought or feeling by selecting a logical reason to think or feel that way, and humor, which is the capacity to not take oneself too seriously, as in accepting one’s shortcoming and talking about it in a socially acceptable way (p.408). These defense mechanisms worked to defend Billy’s ego until he could finally accept the fact that he loved to dance and he didn’t care who thought he was weird for it.
It could also be said that Billy was working toward a final goal of self-actualization in the movie, which is an inherent developmental striving. Billy was going through the process of leaving behind timidity, defensive appraisals, and a dependence on others that is paired with the parallel process of moving toward courage to create, make realistic appraisals, and achieve autonomous self-regulation (p.421). Autonomy and openness to experience are two fundamental parts of self-actualization, and it was evident that Billy was heading toward achieving both of those as he grew to love his dance lessons, auditioned at the royal dance school and was accepted in, and finally moved away from his family so that he could follow his dreams. In the end of the film, it actually shows Billy as being the star of a big ballet performance, which made me conclude that he really did achieve what he wanted to.
Congruence is another concept from the textbook that can be used to describe Billy in the film. This means that Billy accepted the full range of his personal characteristics, abilities, desires, and beliefs (p.430). Billy was constantly moving toward identifying with internal conditions of worth, which meant that he was following his inner guides. He lived in close and confident relationship to the organismic valuation process, which meant that he trusted his inner direction. If more people did that, there would be more fully functioning individuals in the world. Billy was also a growth-seeking individual, which means that he centered his personal strivings on learning, improving, and reaching personal potential. Being a growth-seeking individual has better outcomes than if you are a validation-seeking individual.
Other concepts from the textbook that could be seen throughout the movie were that of emotion, the need for competence, and sexual orientation. Emotion could be seen from the very beginning of the movie all the way to the end of it. The movie was full of emotions like anger from Billy’s dad and brother about the strike, sadness from Billy thinking about his mom, fearfulness from Billy auditioning for the ballet school, and happiness from Billy dancing and making it into the dance school. The need for competence was also seen throughout the movie because Billy wanted to dance, but he also wanted to live up to his dad and brother’s standards. He wanted society to view him as a regular boy. This is why he held up the façade about taking boxing lessons for so long while he was actually taking dance lessons. After a while though, he finally realized that his family would love and support him through anything, and that he was able to be himself without others judging him or thinking he was odd. Finally, sexual orientation was seen in the movie when Billy’s best friend admitted to being gay. Billy came over to his house one day and he was wearing his sister’s dress and was putting on makeup. His friend kissed him on the cheek and asked Billy to keep his secret. Obviously, Billy’s friend had a homosexual orientation, whereas Billy was heterosexual.
All in all, I thought that “Billy Elliot” was a good movie that was full of different examples of concepts from the textbook. I enjoyed the movie and had an easy time relating all of the different ideas and concepts.
Terms: implicit motivation, motive, emotion, attitude, conscious awareness, unconscious, suppression, ego defense, defense mechanisms, displacement, rationalization, humor, goal, self-actualization, autonomy, openness to experience, congruence, internal conditions of worth, organismic valuation process, fully functioning individual, growth-seeking individual, validation-seeking individual, need for competence, sexual orientation, anger, sadness, fearfulness, happiness
I have heard about the movie Billy Elliot before but I have never seen it. I thought it was interesting at the beginning and towards the end, but I didn't really enjoy it during the middle. I wouldn't watch this movie again, but it definitely fit in well with a lot of the concepts covered in Chapters 14 and 15.
Billy Elliot is enrolled in boxing which takes place in the same gym that ballet practice is taking place. Billy slowly starts paying attention to the ballet and is intrigued by the idea of it. Billy begins to discover his emergence of self. This is when you begin to realize what your likes and desires truly are and not just what you're trying to like for others. Although it takes most of the movie, Billy’s dad eventually discovers his emergence of self and learns to accept that his son wants to dance and is good at it.
Congruence is when you learn to accept your passions and desires. Incongruent is where you don’t accept your passions and desires, or maybe somebody else. Billy accepts his congruence of dancing, even though the people around him are telling him that he shouldn’t be doing it. His father and his older brother both learn to accept Billy’s passion and their incongruence turns into congruence.
Ego defense is when a person who is trying to learn everything is vulnerable to the experience. This is displayed by Billy when he is boxing. He goes to practice, however he doesn’t seem to enjoy it and we see him get knocked down by a teammate. Billy also demonstrates this when he decides that he wants to start dancing. Denial is a stage that happens in ego defense, which we see Billy’s dad demonstrate because he is refusing to recognize the external reality. He is just seeing his son as wanting to do a girls activity, but doesn’t notice that Billy is good at it and that he enjoys it. Sublimation is another step in this which means that you accept the unconscious impulses but effectively channels the impulses into socially beneficial outlets. What this is saying referring to this movie is that Billy and his dance teacher are not giving up when everyone is against Billy dancing. They fight for him to be able to do it and eventually make it so that it’s socially acceptable. We see at the end when Billy is an adult, he is at a performance and it consists of all men who are dancers.
Ego effectance with an individual competence is dealing with environmental challenges. Billy’s father is on a work strike with the rest of the town and he has to figure out a way to provide food for his family. Billy dancing costs money and before his dad approves of it, he doesn’t want to pay for Billy to dance. However, when he learns to accept it later on in the movie, we see Billy’s father going back to work so that he could make enough money to send Billy to send Billy to dancing school.
Self-actualization is the process of leaving behind timidity, defensive appraisals and dependence on others to move forward towards courage to create and make realistic appraisals to achieve the goals. Billy demonstrates this throughout the entire movie as he keeps going to dance even when his father, brother and other people are against it. Even after his father hits him after they get in the screaming argument, Billy still aspires to be a dancer and doesn’t give up.
The last thing I want to talk about is helping others. Most people think that helping others means fixing them, but that’s not necessarily true. Helping others means letting people explore what they want without judging them. Billy’s father and brother eventually do this when they allow Billy to dance and don’t get angry about it. Billy helps his friend Michael by not telling anyone about Michael’s homosexual secret. He also suggests dance to Michael and teaches him a few moves. Billy’s dance teacher helps Billy by letting him dance for free the first time and for doing individual lessons with him. She also helps him by coming to his house to defend him against his father and brother.
Terms: Emergence of self, congruence, incongruence, denial, external reality, sublimation, ego effectance, self actualization, goals, individual competence, helping.
Two concepts that seem opposite from each other, but both of which I see in Billy’s character are growth-seeking and validation-seeking. When people identify with and internalize conditions in society that are worthwhile, quasi-needs emerge. A quasi-need emerges to the extent that an individual needs social approval during social interaction. Valuing yourself along the lines of societal conditions of worth will lead people into processes of validation seeking. During social interaction, people who need external validation often use interpersonal situations to test or to measure their personal worth, competence, or likeability. This means that other people and relationships are seen as sources of external validation and how to measure someone’s worth. When there are positive outcomes, there is generally a feeling of being accepted for a validation-seeking person. Billy’s character is interesting because I think that he does seek the approval of his father, because he hides his dancing. However, when his father found out, Billy immediately stuck up to him and said that he liked ballet and defended it. In contrast to validation-seeking, growth-seeking individuals center their personal strivings around learning and improving. When someone is looking for growth rather than validation, they adopt a pattern of thinking in which situations and relationships are seen as opportunities to growth and learn. Positive outcomes from interpersonal interaction generally leave people feeling both validated and like they have grown. The difference, however, is that negative interpersonal outcomes and failure are simply seen as areas that have a need for improvement.
Another obvious motivational concept that Billy goes through is goal setting. Throughout the movie he is practicing for his audition get into a dance school. Goals generate motivation by focusing attention on the discrepancy between their present level of accomplishment and their ideal level of accomplishment. Plans and goals rely on discrepancy as their driving motivational force. There are two types of discrepancies that exist. Discrepancy reduction is based on the discrepancy-detecting feedback that underlies plans and corrective motivation. This means that some aspect of the environment provides feedback about how well or how poorly a person’s current performance level matches up with the ideal performance level. The second type of discrepancy is discrepancy creation. This is based on a feed-forward system in which a person looks forward and sets a future, higher goal. The person deliberately sets a higher goal, an ideal state, and does not require feedback.
Many characters in this movie help each other. Interpersonal relationships become constructive, helpful relationships with they function as an arena where people can become more mature. Helping, our book says, does not involve an expert rushing in to solve the problem, to fix things, to advise, or to mold or manipulate people in some way. The woman helps Billy with his dancing. Billy helps his friend through discovering his sexual orientation. After Billy’s father and brother accept his dancing, they both help raise money to get Billy to his audition.
Terms: growth-seeking, validation-seeking, quasi-needs, goals, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, helping
Billy Elliot is a movie about a boy who discovers his hidden passion for dancing. I did not enjoy this movie very much; it was definitely not something I would normally watch. The movie really goes along with chapters 14 and 15 which talk about unconscious motivation and growth motivation and positive psychology. In chapter 14, I think it’s important to look at the main points that are made in the chapter. The chapter focuses on psychodynamic perspective, the unconscious, psychodynamics, and ego psychology. I thought Billy’s desire to become a dancer steams from his unconscious mind. As we know from our book, the unconscious is our hidden emotions, desires and urges. Billy seems to struggle with his actual self and his desired self. His actual self is living through his father trying to become a boxer but his desired self is to become a dancer. I would say even experienced repression by trying to hide his feelings towards dancing instead of expressing his true desire. This is because he didn’t want his father or brother to know about his true desires.
I thought a good topic from chapter 15 to apply to this movie was self-actualization. Self-actualization is an inherent development striving. Basically your leaving what holds you behind in order to achieve what makes you happy and to experience autonomy. I thought this main point of this movie was to explore the things that you like in life and not to be held down by other people’s roles they might have for you. It’s really about breaking barriers as well. The two main points of self-actualization theory are autonomy and openness. Autonomy is moving away from heteronomy and toward an ever-increasing capacity to depend on one’s self and to regulate one’s own thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Openness means receiving information such that it is neither repressed, ignored or filtered, nor distorted by wishes, fears, or past experiences. Billy experiences autonomy when he starts to fulfill his desire to become a dancer. At the same time he experiences openness by trying something that is mainly considered something a girl would do in his society. Another sign of openness is when Billy learns that his best friend Michael is gay. His openness to accept his friend for that not fall victim to what society or even his family would say shows his willingness to make
decisions for himself, which again is autonomy.
Congruence and incongruence describe the extent to which the individual denies and rejects or accepts the full range of his or her personal characteristics, abilities, desires and beliefs. These concepts in chapter 15 can relate to the desired and actual self as well. Incongruence in Billy’s character can be seen when he misses his dance audition because he is conflicted with his desire to dance but also to not let down his family. Obviously his attitude changes to congruent when he accepts the invitation to academy to become a dancer.
Another concept that fits well with this movie is Maslow’s Need Hierarchy. There are five steps to needs which are physiological needs, safety and security needs, love and belongingness needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs. The first four steps can be labeled as deficiency needs. We need deficiency needs because they stunt our development growth. Growth needs are the need to fulfill personal potential. Most of the movie deals with Billy exploring his growth needs. For Billy, his growth need is dancing in which he ultimately wants to be part of as a group. When deprived of growth needs a person’s world seems like it is falling about. Hence Billy’s struggles when he doesn’t dance because he’s afraid of what his family will think.
Terms: congruence, incongruence, autonomy, openness, actual self, desired self, unconscious, repression, Maslow’s Need Hierarchy
Billy Elliot is a great movie for these two chapters, especially Chapter 15. Billy definitely embodies the six behaviors that encourage self-actualization, shown on page 425. The first behavior in the book, Making Growth Choices, is evident when he decides to participate in Mrs. Wilkinson’s ballet class after staying after to work on his boxing, which is what his father, Jackie, and his brother Tony would rather have him do, as boxing is a boy’s sport. Billy shows the second behavior, titled Be Honest, by daring to be different and potentially unpopular by participating in ballet even after his dad finds out and practicing in secret with Mrs. Wilkinson. He then takes responsibility for his actions after Christmas, when his father catches him practicing with his closet-gay friend, Michael, and Billy shows his father that he is actually really talented. Billy does the third behavior, titled Situationally Position Yourself for Peak Experiences, by getting ready to go audition for the ballet school in London. The fourth behavior, Give Up Defensiveness, is characterized by Billy after his brother’s arrest, when Mrs. Wilkinson comes to the house after he missed his audition, and his brother tries to make him dance, and he says no, but then continues to dance in the street and elsewhere. He also bucks up and practices more with an increased determination, and then when he does show his dad, his dad pawns off the remainder of his wife’s belongings to get Billy to the audition for the ballet school. The fifth behavior, titled Let the Self Emerge, is characterized by Billy when he talks to the judges at the audition and tells them that he loses himself when he dances and feels free. He listens to himself and his own personal interests and then goes on to aspire to who he wants to be when he performs in the Black Swan. The sixth behavior, Be Open to Experience, is evident in Billy when he dances, because he is fully concentrated on what he does and fully immerses himself into dancing. Billy also demonstrates self-actualization because he wants to do something different. Self-actualization is when someone strives to be good at something in their life. Billy also shows autonomy because he wants to dance when he wants to dance, and that is what autonomy is, doing what you want when you want to. Billy also exhibits actualizing tendency when he tries out ballet. Actualizing tendency is what guides us to actualize, maintain, and enhance the self while challenging us to explore new things. Billy has many conditions of worth through this movie. Conditions of worth is what someone is told from birth what is right and wrong, and parents influence a child in this by using positive regard. Positive regard is broken into two categories: Conditional positive regard and unconditional positive regard. Conditional positive regard is when a parent praises a child for following what the parent wants and values, while unconditional positive regard is when parents love their children no matter what. Billy’s brother and father at first don’t like that Billy is breaking the mold by not continuing boxing and instead picking up dancing, and his father even hits Billy for it. However, towards the end of the movie, Billy’s father Jackie shows unconditional positive regard by selling his wife’s stuff and almost going against what he believed was right and going back to mining during the strike. Billy has a very high congruence for himself, while his friend Michael shows incongruence. Congruence is when someone accepts themselves for who they are, while incongruence is denying or rejecting who you are. Michael is a closet homosexual, and only shows Billy that he cross-dresses and puts on lipstick. Billy isn’t afraid to dance in public and in his house and everywhere. Billy is also very intrinsically motivated because he dances because it’s his choice, and what he wants to do. No one tells him to do it, and he just does it because he wants to. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is evident throughout the whole movie. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs identifies the needs of people and puts them into a period from most basic to most advanced. Physiological needs are struggled to be met because Jackie and Tony are striking at the mines, and they have to destroy the piano to heat the house and keep them warm. Physiological needs are the basic needs that humans have to have to survive; namely food, shelter, clothing, water. Safety and security needs are shown with all of the police forces all around and rushing around and the riots that Billy isn’t living in a very safe place. Safety and security is pretty self-explanatory, if someone feels they are safe in their neighborhood or not. Love and Belongingness is evident all throughout this story, and whether or not those needs are being met. For Mrs. Wilkinson, her failing marriage drives her into doing dance and to help Billy out. Billy struggles for love and belonging because his mother passed away and his father is relatively harsh to him. Love and Belongingness is the desire and need to be loved and cared for, and to be in a place where you feel like you belong. Esteem needs are met when Billy dances in the streets and shows real passion for ballet and tap. Esteem needs include things like self-esteem and personal growth. Finally, we have already talked about self-actualization, which is what Billy realizes at the end of the movie.
Terms: Actualizing tendency, self-actualization, autonomy, make growth choices, be honest, situationally position yourself for peak experiences, give up defensiveness, let the self emerge, be open to experience, conditions of worth, conditional positive regard, unconditional positive regard, congruence, incongruence, intrinsic motivation, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, physiological needs, safety and security needs, love and belongingness needs, esteem needs
This movie is about a kid that begins his story in a small coal town in the UK. He lives with his dad and older brother who are both on strike against the coal corporation, he also has a grandmother and it seems they lost his mother recently (which I think has an underlining meaning the rest of the way); this leads me to Billy (main character) who has been sent to “boy school” which is essentially boxing classes to toughen him up. During Billy’s first fight you can tell that his mind was wondering from the ring (as a ballet class just entered and was playing the piano) as he began to dance (his movements reflected those of the piano) around the other boy until the other boy proceeded to knock him out. Later after the coach told Billy he was not allowed to leave until he figured it out; once again Billy’s subconscious began to linger and started showing what is called a shadow phenomenon which is believing the unconscious constitutes the primary process while the conscious mind is merely just a second thought. We see this deepen as the movie progresses and notice that Billy himself rejects the notion the first two times he goes to dance class, and evidently refuses to pay the 50(something) as he exclaims he is not a puff. We can consider what Billy is experiencing is an implicit motivation, are motivations, emotions, attitudes and judgments that operate outside a persons consciousness. Furthermore directing Billy’s mindset and motivation towards the postulate of dancing as unconsciously he knows he is good at it. We can also see that Billy was being very aware and mindfulness of his environment, knowing that dance was something of interest, subconsciously projecting his mother unto himself.
Using the same scene I would like to progress through psychodynamics. We can clearly see that Billy has an Id and it is dancing. And Id is a motivation that is unconscious, involuntary, impulse- driven, and obeys the pleasure principle (being obtain pleasure and avoid pain, do so with all costs and no delay). When Billy rejected paying for the first dance lesson he was experiencing what is known as repression, and essentially it is what this person thinks it respectable in public, or a security guard that turns down most unconscious thoughts. Here comes the history making as Billy by repression, thinks he needs to suppress his thought of ballet and get rid of it entirely. As we all know that purple elephant regardless of the scenario is instantly etched in to your mind regardless of how hard you think of something else, the trunk will undoubtedly peek through with ginormous feet and finally the purple comes to light. Suppression is a thought that merely a person wants to rid of, by conscious, intentional or deliberate ways. Though like in the movie and with the purple elephant suppression does not work rather it may very well manifest the thought and create a unconscious motivation towards it.
Terms: Shadow phenomenon, implicit motivation, mindfulness, Id, pleasure principle, Repression, suppression
Billy Elliot was a hit for me. I watched the trailer first to see what I would be watching, and got interested right away. It’s definitely a very sweet and inspiring movie, where a little boy is reaching for his dream of being a ballot dancer. First term I’d like to discuss from the chapter is incongruence and congruence. These basically mean either rejecting or accepting your own personal beliefs. Billy contemplates whether to continue with boxing, a sport his Father is a fan of, or accept and appreciate his calling for ballot. Here we could also use the example of how Billy’s Father, at first rejected the idea that Billy wanted to be a ballot dancer, he told him that he should look into being a wrestler, boxer, or football player, because those are stereotypically more masculine sports and activities to pursue, whereas ballot is more feminine. Eventually, even with his own beliefs, Billy’s Father turned his opinion about ballot around, and started to believe in his son, and know that ballot was the right path he needed to go on, so he started to support Billy, he even told his original ballot teacher, that he appreciated everything she’s done, but now it’s his turn as the Father to step up and be the one responsible for letting Billy have a chance of making it into that school. So his congruence came into play first, in a negative way, when he found out what Billy wanted to do, but eventually his own personal beliefs changed, and he was able to accept, not reject, Billy becoming a dancer.
Billy was able to fulfill his self-actualization. At first he faced some tough spots, where both his Father and brother didn’t agree with him dancing, they were actually quite opinionated about it, his brother yelled at Billy’s teacher saying if he doesn’t dance right now on the spot, then she needs to leave, otherwise he’d gladly deal with her. However, both Billy’s brother and Father jumped on board with Billy, eventually, but first Billy was the one responsible of giving himself positive regard, that allowed him to look past the negatives towards being a boy and taking ballot lessons, and he was able to focus on and devote his time to ballot. I really enjoyed watching him dance in the streets, he was carefree and didn’t care who saw him. You could tell his self-actualization was growing stronger and stronger and he no longer cared about what outsiders thought of what he was doing, as the movie progressed to the end.
After Billy performs in front of the Royal Ballet School panel, he was asked a question of how he felt while performing. His response was how he felt like flying, becoming lost in the dance, after he felt the beat, and how he felt the electricity the whole time. From his response you could say that he experience eudemonic well-being. The definition is, “seeking out challenges, exerting effort, being fully engaged and experience flow in what one is doing, acting on one’s true values, and feeling fully alive and authentic.” (pg.443) Billy had to go behind his families back, and take these lessons and had to show effort into achieving his goal of learning ballot, instead of continuing with boxing. This is also where his value comes to play with what direction he chooses to go on with ballot. When he mentioned how lost he became in the dance, that brings out the feeling of how he experienced flow. Lastly, when he mentions the electricity he felt to the judges, you can tell dancing is what helps makes him feel alive. These are all qualities that someone who was expressing a eudemonic well-being would possess.
Overall, I really enjoyed this movie. We not only got to see Billy grown and be confident in what he’d like to pursue, but we were able to see both his Father and brother change their opinions about ballot (something the both of them had no prior knowledge about) and they were able to overcome their own opinions about it, and support Billy. The last scene where they are all older was really sweet to me. You can see that through the years, they kept in touch and are Billy’s if not biggest, close to second biggest supporters, especially when Billy’s Father told the guy who helped them to their seats, “Tell Billy his Father is here.” When Billy gets word that his family is here, he smiles, and you can see on his face he relaxed a little more and was ready to perform for the crowd and his family. I will definitely be looking into buying this movie sometime in the near future; it was very inspiring for me to watch.
Terms: incongruence, congruence, self-actualization, eudemonic well-being
One concept that came to mind after viewing this film was self-actualization. According to the textbook, self-actualization is an inherent developmental striving and a process of leaving behind timidity, defensive appraisals, and dependence on others. Billy was able to accomplish self-actualization throughout the film by using six behaviors mentioned in the text that encourage self-actualization. The first behavior Billy utilized was making growth decisions, which means he made choices towards progression and growth versus regression and fear. Despite knowing his father wanted him to box, Billy made the choice to join ballet – even though it was criticized by virtually everyone around him. This choice helped Billy progress and achieve self-actualization. The second behavior Billy conducted in the film was being honest, which basically means be true to yourself. For example, Billy dared to be different because it’s what he truly wanted. He was being true to himself and disregarding the opinions held by others. The third behavior Billy utilized was peak experiences. For example, he stopped going to boxing and started going to ballet instead because ballet is what made him happy – not boxing. The fourth behavior Billy utilized was giving up defensiveness. For instance, there comes a point in the film where Billy is no longer ashamed to hide his love for ballet from his father and he dances in front of him in the empty gym – which leads to his father accepting it. The fifth behavior Billy utilized was, letting himself emerge. Rather than listening to those around him, Billy listened to his own personal interests and looked to follow his own aspirations. This behavior can also relate to how he describes the way dancing makes him feel. He emerges himself so far into ballet that it makes him feel as if he disappears. Lastly, Billy was open to experience. For example, when he first watched the girls on the other side of the gym practicing ballet you could tell he was intrigued but reluctant to show how interested he was. However, he still gave it a shot which proved to be beneficial. Therefore, Billy worked to lower his incongruence and increase his congruence, which means instead of denying his personal qualities he opened himself to experience and personal growth.
Another concept from the text that stood out to me in the film was suppression. Suppression occurs when an individual tries removing a thought by ways that are conscious, intentional, and deliberate. In the film suppression is evident in Billy’s father. There are numerous scenes in the film when you can tell Billy’s father is trying to get the death of his wife off his mind. One example is when Billy is playing the piano and his father tells him to stop. It is evident that the piano makes Billy’s father think about his wife. Another example is when Billy’s father is chopping the piano for fire wood and Billy asks his father what his mother would think and his father snaps back that she isn’t here anymore. You can tell that Billy’s father is still bitter about the death of his wife and tries to suppress the memories of her, however, as the text states the ability to stop a thought is beyond the human mind.
All in all, the film Billy Elliot can be described as Billy’s journey to reach self-actualization. Billy is intrinsically motivated to dance and engages in ballet against all odds. His persistence with ballet even eventually leads to his father and older brother approving it; which at the beginning of the film seemed doubtful. I think this film was inspiring and sends a positive message to viewers that we should all explore opportunities we’re interested in rather than only engaging in opportunities we know are supported by those around us.
Terms: self-actualization, growth, peak experiences, incongruence, congruence, suppression, self emergence, intrinsic motivation
Billy Elliot was a very interesting movie to watch from a motivational stand point. Billy and his father stood out to me the most because they went through several changes. During the entire movie we see Billy trying to become self-actualized. This is the process of leaving behind timidity, defensive appraisals, and a dependence on others that is paired with the parallel process of moving toward courage to create, make realistic appraisals, and achieve autonomous self-regulation. All Billy wanted to do was have the freedom to make his own choices without others interfering and giving him a bad time. Billy was able to become self-actualized once his father realized he was wrong for not letting him do what he wanted to. His father supported him which gave him the courage to audition.
Billy had a high sense of autonomy and all he wanted to do was make his own decisions that would make him happy. However he did not want to disappoint his father, brother, or dance teacher. At the end all of these people supported Billy and helped him achieve his goal. We also see Billy struggling with what he wanted to at the beginning of the movie, should he box or dance? This expresses the idea of congruence, which is the extent to which the individual denies and rejects or accepts the full range of his or her personal characteristics, abilities, desires, and beliefs. It was challenging for Billy to accept what he wanted and what he enjoyed to do because he knew his family would not accept it. Billy grew up being taught what a young boy is supposed to like, which is boxing. Thus this caused him to begin to sneak into dance classes because he knew if he asked his father he would not be able to.
An important concept that occurred in the movie that helped Billy was the idea of helping others. Interpersonal relationships become constructive, helpful relationships when they function as an area that allows people to become more mature, better integrated, and more open to experience. This occurred for Billy’s dad and brother. At first they did not support what Billy wanted to do because they did not think it was appropriate for a boy. Once they realized how much it meant to Billy and how he needed their support they helped him accomplish his goal.
During the entire movie we see Billy trying to figure out who he is and who he wants to be. This concept is known as self-definition and social definition. These are process related to how individuals conceptualize who they are. Billy struggled with supporting who he thought he was because his family did not support him. However he always knew who he was and who he wanted to be when he got older. This motivated him to try to get his family to support him because he needed their help so he could support who he thought he was. Billy is a very optimistic individual and this was shown through his dancing as well as in his interactions. Optimism that is associated with what one expects to unfold in his or her immediate and long-term future. Billy always knew he would end up being a dancer it was just a matter of when it would occur.
Overall Billy Elliott was very interesting and expressed several concepts from the book. Billy and his father were very interesting to watch how their relationship developed into what it was in the end. I think Billy would have become a dancer no matter what his family said because that was what made him happy and feel like himself.
Terms: autonomy, self-actualization, congruence, incongruence, helping others, self-definition, social definition, optimism.
Billy Elliot was about a young boy who starts boxing, but soon realizes that he would rather be taking ballet with the girls on the other side of the gym. Billy realizes that he really is not too great at boxing, but he seems to have a talent when it comes to ballet. However he lives with his father, brother, and grandmother. His father and brother are not too supportive when it comes to Billy participating in ballet.
I had never heard of Billy Elliot until this class and I was not a huge fan. I thought it was kind of slow for my taste, but I did like the ending. I am a sucker for happy endings. There were some good examples from the movie from chapters 14: Unconscious Motivation and chapter 15: Growth motivation and positive psychology.
I think that at first Billy tried suppress the idea of wanting to dance because he was going against what was supposedly normal for a boy. He had the urge to dance and he was actually naturally talented when it came to dace, but he suppressed the urge because he was scared of what his dad and his brother would think. The book talks about the ego always being in state of vulnerability. Billy must defend his ego when he put himself out there and was vulnerable to ridicule about wanting to dance. There are many different forms of defense. In Billy’s case he used denial and tried to pretend like he did not want to do ballet at first.
Billy had to come to a self-realization. Meaning he had to realize what it was he was good at and what he wanted to do with his life. He came to that realization when he decided that ballet was what he wanted to do and what he was good at. He had to stand up to his father and make his father realize that ballet was what he wanted to do.
Billy also finds congruence, meaning he realizes and accepts that he wants to be a ballet dancer. Billy had to come to terms with this himself before he could stand up to his dad and make his dad realize that he wanted to be a dancer and that he was good at it.
There was also examples of helping others in the movie because the dad and brother had to realize that the best way to help Billy was not by fixing him, but by accepting him. They needed to accept Billy just the way he was. It was not easy, but they both eventually came to terms with it.
Terms: suppression, Ego defense, denial, self-realization, congruence, helping others.
In the movie Billy Elliot, there were a lot of terms that we have learned about that could be applied to the film and the first one I want to talk about is extrovert. I think Billy is an extrovert because he was very venturesome and tried ballot even though he knew he could be made fun of for it. I also think he was very extrovert because he still hung around his friend who he found out was gay. I think Billy knew that hanging out with a friend that was gay and doing the ballet could look bad but he didn’t care. I think shows that he doesn’t care if it causes a negative out come and I think it shows that he has social dominance. I think another time when will showed that he was extrovert was when he was dancing in the gym with his friend and his dad came in, Billy stopped dancing for a moment but then just continued dancing and I think this showed social dominance.
Another term I would like to talk about that showed up in the film is sensation seeking. In the end of the movie Billy said that when he danced it felt like electricity. I think that’s why he danced everywhere he went. When Billy would dance he got a sensation that he never got any other time. I think another time in the movie when he showed sensation seeking when he went to the dance ladies house, even though he knew it could get him in trouble.
Another term I think was shown in the movie was deficiency needs. I think Billy needed his dad and brother to accept him and be supportive of his dancing. I think you see this many times in the movie when he is fighting with them. I think what his family thought about him also affected his self esteem in the movie when he was at practice and he told his teacher that he couldn’t do it anymore and freaked out on her in the locker room. I think his self esteem was so low that he just wanted to give up dance which is what he loved to do. Along with deficiency needs, I think the film showed growth needs. Billy knew he was a dancer and he needed to dance and get better. Billy knew his self-actualization was to be a dancer.
Terms: extrovert, sensation seeking, deficiency needs, self esteem, growth needs, and social dominance
Billy Elliot was probably one of my least favorite movies that we have watched for this class. I do think the acting is solid because they were able to accurately portray facial expressions and body language according to the character’s emotions. I specifically remember the dance coach driving away from Billy at the beginning of the movie before he fully starts the program. After the encounter, the coach drives away and Billy swings the stick he is carrying, clearly upset. I obviously don’t know what he was thinking for sure, but his facial expression (lowered brow and tightened lips) expressed anger. If I were to see someone with that facial expression, I would not attempt to approach them as their facial expression tells me they encounter will not be pleasant. As we learned in chapter 12, emotions are fairly universal. This benefits the human race evolutionarily by making it easier to distinguish who was an enemy and who was a friend. The facial feedback hypothesis supports the idea of facial expressions expressing universally the same emotions and that they are innate. A study described on page 342 revealed more evidence that facial expressions are universal and, even though they are obviously English, an American (me) was able to easily decipher the facial expressions being shown.
I probably would never choose to watch it on my own, but since it was assigned, there were definitely many elements of motivation and emotion found throughout the film. The most prominent theme in the film involves an individual attempting to complete a task (ballet) that is socially unacceptable for males in this culture. It appears this is a coal mining town and due to the norms in towns like this, Billy will not be accepted as a ballet dancer. Billy attempted to box, just like his father wanted him to, but ballet induced much more joy than boxing did and it induced eudaimonic happiness rather than hedonist happiness. Eudaimonic happiness describes a state in which the individual is genuinely happy. This concept consists of accepting new challenges, exerting effort, being fully engaged, feeling authentic, and alive. Billy, due to facial expressions and verbal cues, is much happier when he is involved with dance as opposed to boxing. Eudaimonic happiness can also be compared to self-actualization. After Billy first tried dance, he soon realized happiness would come from dance, not boxing.
There are a variety of reasons dance could assist the creation of happiness better than boxing. One reason is autonomy. Billy was able to choose his path when he embarked on the pursuit of improving his ballet skills. When one is able to choose their actions, they are significantly more productive and successful. This is according to the “Drive” YouTube video and the book also states the same information. He is able to “depend on himself and to regulate his own thoughts, feelings and behaviors” (421), which was displayed by his continuance with dance despite his father’s objections. Autonomy is also displayed to work against his desire to become a dancer when he and his coach are practicing together right after his dad punched his brother. Billy says something like “I don’t want to do these auditions!” He was just shown performing poorly and this is attributed to Billy not participating by choice. This is more anecdotal evidence from the movie that autonomy supports success.
As I just stated, if an individual is autonomous in his behaviors and thoughts, they are more productive and successful. This success can lead to another need being satisfied: competence. Being competent in a given activity reduces anxiety and satisfies the psychological need of competency. With this need being met, Billy is able to experience flow as well, which is described as “a state of concentration that involves a holistic absorption and deep involvement in an activity” (156). This occurs when someone is so involved in the given task that they find extreme pleasure and a sense of euphoria. This happens often with world-class performers and it is what makes them much better than the rest of us, according to Geoff Colvin, the author of Talent is Overrated.
This film also displays the inaccuracy of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The text revealed that there is “very little empirical support for the need hierarchy” (423) and the book further demonstrates problems with the five-level pyramid structure that represents his theory. In this pyramid, Maslow displays the order in which different needs must be met. Self-actualization needs (Billy is attempting to fulfill this by dancing) must be the final need met, after the rest of the needs which include love and belongingness. When Billy is at the kitchen table fighting with his father, he defies his father’s wishes and states his desire to continue dancing. He knew this would make his father very unhappy, but he knew that creating eudaimonic happiness and being true to himself was more important than satisfying his father’s wishes for his future.
Even though self-actualization or growth both describes the peak of needs, people also must fulfill social needs. Individuals experience incongruence if their desires do not coincide with the behavior society prefers and the individual attempts to conform to social norms. This can create stress, anxiety, and a sense of an unsatisfied need. People also have a desire to feel like they belong to something. Billy is also most likely deficient in this need because he is the lone male in the dance group and his family is very unsupportive to him. This is a hindrance to satisfying the relatedness need because most people want “relationships with others who really and honestly care for our well-being” (161). This is troublesome for Billy as he continually did not have the support of his family.
Terms: facial expressions, emotions, facial feedback hypothesis, joy, eudaimonic, hedonist, self-actualization, verbal cues, happiness, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, autonomy, flow, psychological needs, competence, holistic, social needs, incongruence, social norms, relatedness
I’m not a huge fan of the movie Billy Elliot. It could be because I had seen a live musical performance of it before I had ever seen the movie. I liked neither; and that’s not to say I don’t like musicals. I love musicals, probably enough for people around ME to also get on my case for following more ‘manly’ pursuits like they did to Billy when they found out he was taking dance classes…I like football. There. I’m saved. More to the point of the assignment (and not on my feelings of the movie or musical) there are some real motivational drives in behavior that have to do with psychology and emotion. One could argue, would Billy had wrapped himself up in dance as much as he had if his Mam hadn’t passed away…would he have needed to? He certainly wouldn’t have had all the raw emotional buildup and hadn’t have learned how to express his pent up emotion thru dance if this hadn’t been the case. Likewise, it was this emotional outburst thru dance that finally got his father to understand the talent that Billy had. It is my feeling that the very experiences of the movie stem completely from the death of Billy’s mom. Billy’s psychological and social need of acceptance and love that he craved and yearned for and was denied due to his mother’s nurturing that he was missing. He was needing positive regard from the parental attitude and since he was not getting that, he was forced to give himself good self-regard. This almost never works out in terms of self-worth and unconditional positive regard is needed in order to feel actual value and self-worth. Conditional regard (like his father and family give) implies rejection and can lead to the child trying to relearn and retrain himself in order to promote social inclusion in to the family. His father’s push of him to let out some angst and emotion thru boxing was more for his father to feel better about everything, I think, then actually seeing if it was something Billy would be in to; something proven once Billy ditches boxing, takes up dance and the reaction that decision elicits. I don’t think it was the money at all that they were angry for Billy using for dance, I think it was just a handy excuse they were able to use since they seemed ok with spending money on boxing lessons and would probably had been very upset had they known Billy was taking dancing lessons still from his teacher even though it was free. The dancing teacher I would guess was in the process of total burnout until she saw the raw talents of Billy. By doting on Billy and seemingly ignoring all her other pupils, she took on the role of giving Billy unconditional support so that his confidence sored; this lead to learning how to express his anger, emotion and frustration over his situation thru dance. In the end, however, Billy need the acceptance of the one person he needed it from in the first place, his father, and luckily got it and as the movie depicts, it ends up working out very very well for him 15 years later.
TERMS: psychological need, social need, acceptance, positive regard, parental attitude, social relations, self-regard, self-worth, value, unconditional positive regard
Self-actualization is based in autonomy and openness to experience, making it a major aspect of the film Billy Elliott. Even though Billy's family insists that he becomes a boxer, he finds he is much more interested in ballet and dance, which is an example of his autonomy. Autonomy is ones ability to act independently and make choices for themselves, and this is exactly what Billy does when he decides to start dancing. Openness is the other factor of self-actualization, and is the ability to receive information and feedback clearly, without editing, filtering, or deviating the information. Carl Rogers held a theory that individuals have an innate desire to self actualize, and that individuals peruse 'growth promoting experiences'- this is exactly what Billy did when it came to his dancing. Once he began dancing, he found he was both interested and talented at it, which caused a metaphorical green light as the textbook explains, drawing the individual to continue to seek out and participate in those behaviors.
Rogers presents the idea of 'unconditional positive regard' which describes an environment which encourages an individual to create expectations, interests, and definitions of success for themselves rather than based on social constructs. This is how Mrs. Wilkinson, the dance teacher regards Billy, she does not make fun of him because he is a boy who wants to dance (something that is commonly looked down on in society) instead she encourages his natural innate interests and abilities. On the other hand, Billy's brother and dad (initially) practices conditional positive regard, which means that they press social constructs and expectations upon the child effecting and manipulating the abilities and interests of the child. Congruence deals with an individuals acceptance of their abilities and talents, which is something Billy is able to maintain through dance even when his family tries to limit him.
Within the movie Billy learns to dance, and quickly becomes a very capable dancer at that. This is due in part because of the way Mrs. Wilkinson facilitated his learning, which is consistent with Rogers' idea that teachers in the traditional sense do not work. Instead of 'heaping information onto the students' as the textbook suggests, Rogers suggested that learning flourishes the most when simply nurtured, as well as “having ones interests identified, facilitated, and supported. This is because it is important for the individual to learn and discover for themselves through self-discovery and self-evaluation to most effectively learn.
Learning occurs best when the student seeks out the teaching, rather than forcing the teaching upon the student. In the case of Billy, he seeks out Mrs. Wilkinson and attends dance classes out of curiosity and interest, rather than because she tells Billy he has to go to class. Even when she begins preparing Billy for the ballet academy she does not force him to audition or work, she simply is there to teach him if he decides it is something he wants to do. Thus Billy is able to learn ballet exceptionally effectively, because it is something he is innately drawn to.
Terms: Self-Actualization, Autonomy, Openness, Unconditional & Conditional Positive Regard
I had never seen this movie before! It was interesting hearing the British accents. It took me a while to get used to them so I could understand what was going on!
Billy has a high sense of autonomy. He wants to make is his own decisions. At the same time he doesn’t want to disappoint is father or brother. Billy struggled at the beginning of the movie deciding whether he wanted to dance or box. In the end his father and brother supported his decision and helped him.
Implicit motivation is another concept used in the movie. Implicit motivation refers to the motives, emotions, and judgments that occur outside the awareness of a person. This was seen in Billy. He was trying to perform dance movements before he even knew he could dance when no one was watching him. He sometimes did this to help with his emotions to express how he was feeling.
Chapter 15 also discussed the idea of conditions of worth. When the movie began Billy thought his father and brother would reject his desire to learn to dance and of course he was right. When Billy’s father finds out he has been going to ballet classes instead of boxing class because they are at the same time he is mad! His father told Billy he will no longer pay for his lessons. Billy’s brother also rejected his dancing and yelled at Billy’s instructor when she stopped by the house.
Congruence is when you learn to accept your passions and desires. Incongruent is the opposite where you don’t accept your passions and desires. Billy accepted his passion and desire of dancing, even though everyone around him was against it. His father and brother came around to accepting his passion. Their incongruence turned into congruence.
The chapter starts off by talking about holism. Holism is viewing things as a whole or unbroken. In this view people are whole when their ideal self and actual self are similar. Billy starts off as “broken”, he wants to dance but knows he is going to be looked down upon by his father and brother as well as made fun of by many.
The chapter goes on to talk about self-actualization can be seen in this movie. Self-actualization is an inherent developmental striving. It is a process of leaving behind timidity, defensive appraisals, and a dependence on others. At first his father and brother didn’t agree with his decision to dance. He continued to dance even though he was criticized for it over and over. He had to give himself positive encouragement. He didn’t care who saw him dancing, he danced in the streets. It was obvious that self-actualization was becoming stronger in him; he gave up caring what others thought.
Suppression was another concept from the text seen in this movie. Suppression occurs when an individual tries removing a thought by ways that are conscious, intentional, and deliberate. There are many different times in the movie you can tell Billy’s father is trying to get the death of his wife out of his head. An example is when Billy plays the piano. You can tell from his father’s reaction that the piano makes him think of his wife. He even tells Billy to stop playing.
Another aspect from chapter 15 is the idea of freedom to learn. An example the book used was that teachers are facilitators who create an atmosphere conductive to learning. Billy’s teacher gives him support instead of actually teaching him. He also read ballet books on his own at home while practicing.
Ego defense is also demonstrated in the movie. At first Billy denies that he even wants to dance. He even blames the dance teacher for making him do it. When he was angry and nervous at the dance audition he slapped a boy who was just trying to help him calm down. These are defense mechanisms Billy used to protect his ego. Billy finds a way to handle his anxiety through the defense mechanism sublimation. Sublimation is when a person channels there stress into a creative and active outlet. In this case Billy uses dancing as his active outlet. It lets him get rid of his frustration.
Eudaimonic well-being is seeking out challenges, exerting effort, finding flow, feeling alive, and acting on values. Billy does all of these by working at his dancing until he finds flow. When dancing he feels free and alive. An example of this is when he is dancing down the street. He feels to free, he doesn’t even care where he is.
Although this movie wasn’t my favorite it represented many aspects that tied perfectly into the chapters we discussed.
Terms used: autonomy, implicit motivation, conditions of worth, congruence, holism, self-actualization, suppression, freedom to learn, ego defense, sublimation, eudaimonic.