The Meyerowitz Stories

The Meyerowitz Stories follows the misadventures of the title Meyerowitz family. Son Danny moves in with his father, Harold, after separating from his wife. The family is also comprised of Maureen (Harold’s third wife), Jean (younger sister), Matthew (younger brother), and Eliza (Danny’s daughter). Other characters include L. J. Shapiro, another more successful artist that is close friends with Harold, and his daughter Loretta, Danny’s love interest. The main story follows the very disconnected family coming back together after many years of contempt and infighting. This is ultimately achieved following Harold coming down with a subdural hematoma, and his children banding together to help care for him. The movie concludes with Danny, having almost left for California, being shown the sculpture that Harold had made especially for him ironically titled “Matthew.”

Looking at this film from a social needs perspective, the character that truly stands out the most is Harold, but I would like to sidetrack a bit with Matthew. Matthew, Danny’s younger step-brother, is a successful financial advisor who has managed to make enormous quantities of money. I believe he is the perfect example of the power of a quasi-need, as it shows how, though money is not an inherent need, and without money we can survive, Matthew still feels more motivated by money than anything else. So much so that Matthew curses his father’s car as Harold leaves because Harold has chosen a life of art over a life of monetary success. Money is an example of a (sometimes) chronic quasi-need, as an ordinary quasi-need is highly temporary and situationally-induced. However, Matthew does not need money for any reason, he simply feels he needs more. Instead of satisfying any other Social Need, Matthew wants money. He doesn’t look for further affiliation with any of his family members or friends. He doesn’t attempt to create more intimate relationships with his father, as he brags as his father drives away. He may have earned some level of achievement and power with his wealth and position, but I do believe that those were side effects of the money-acquiring.

Moving on to Harold, he was almost child-like the entire movie, and personally I would not want to see Dustin Hoffman any other way. He just portrays young old man so very perfect, and it makes me giggle, whether he’s running down the street from an art show or taking advantage of the generosity of his children in restaurants. Centering on Harold, I would like to attempt to push through all four of the social needs as expressed through the character of Harold, seeing as Matthew fulfilled the quasi-need slot like a glove.

Achievement, the first of our focuses today, is defined as our book as, “Success in competition with a standard of excellence” (Pg. 175). A ‘standard of excellence’ being a challenge to a person’s competence that ends in an objective outcome of success/failure. To focus on the portrayal of Harold in relation to Achievement, I’d like to point out the invitation to the group show that Harold was invited to. This invitation is a picture-perfect example of a standard of excellence for Harold. It offers him the motivation to partake, to have people look at and appreciate his art alongside his well-respected peers. It offers an opportunity for Harold to show off his competence to others, as he is no slouch when it comes to art, and this exhibition would display it for all to see. However, Harold still takes a path of avoidance. Using the Integrated Model for Achievement Behavior, I believe we can see what exactly went wrong in this scenario. Though the situation provided ample motivation and competency, Harold must have had too great a fear of failure. If too strong, this fear could promote the opposite reaction, to paraphrase the book, it causes Harold to experience the other side of the sword. Instead of feeling motivated and ready to show off for the world, Harold feels anxious and fears the judgement of others. As such, he refuses to partake, using the performance-avoidance goal approach. Only instead of using minimal effort to avoid humiliation, Harold withdraws all effort and avoids the situation entirely to avoid complete humiliation.

For affiliation, I believe that Harold had a very strong affiliation need. He is an artist, and as such, his life exists, or did exist, in the public eye. He wants people to talk about him in a good way, to stay on the good side of people. Affiliation is a deficiency-oriented need that arises when a person feels socially scorned/disapproved/rejected. This is perfectly displayed in the first instance of Harold running away from his problems. This instance is from Mr. Shapiro’s art exhibition. The running away behavior is motivated by his affiliation need, believe it or not. While an affiliation need is satisfied by the approval/acceptance in social situations, Harold realized that he was old news in the art world. Barely anyone recognized his name, and he realized he had fallen out of favor. His affiliation need became involved because he felt the deficiency in social acceptance. He was isolated from the world he had so long been a part of. Feeling rejected, Harold childishly used the ultimate avoidance-oriented behavior: Running away. This behavior occurred because Harold was so overwhelmed by the feeling of rejection that he simply could not cope. His brain went in to such an anxiety-controlled state that his fight-or-flight (mostly flight) system got the better of his psychological cognition and he wound up running down the street with Danny following close behind.

As for his intimacy need, this is perfectly demonstrated through the creation of his infamous “Matthew” sculpture. An intimacy need is a need that arises and is satisfied in areas of relationships and the development of warmth and reciprocity within those relationships. Harold was human, and he desired these highly intimate relationships. He wanted to connect with his kids, but he just did not have the correct way of doing this. As such, he used the only means that he knew how: Art. He was good with art, and art was his main method of communication with the rest of the world. So, instead of using words, he created “Matthew” to tell Danny exactly how much he cared for him. However, this need was never really satisfied until the very end when Eliza revealed the sculpture to Danny. Danny misread his father’s ironic message of love, and had hated the sculpture, thinking it was his father openly stating that Matthew was his favorite child. As such, Danny and Harold did not develop the intimate relationship Harold had hoped would arise from the sculpture, and the reciprocal warmth did not occur. However, on their journey, they began to connect more and more, and the fact that Danny lived with Harold for a short time increased their chats and increased the chances for intimacy building. These little instances of exposure helped build Danny to the ultimate culmination of the “Matthew” statue, which he finally realized was his father saying how much he truly cared and wanted a relationship with him. Though the film ends before the warmth of the relationship blooms, it can be assumed that this warmth was achieved because you can’t have a movie end on such a sad note, this isn’t Romeo and Juliet.

Finally, Power. Harold, I believe was not a very high need individual for power. I suppose an argument could be made that his art was the symbolism of his power. Since his art, at one point, made an impact on those around him, allowing him to establish some minor form of power on the public, then he would have established influence over those affected individuals, who would then go on to recommend his art to others, spreading his power further. However, I failed to see how he really exerted control over anyone’s life, least of all with his art. Perhaps in a fatherly sort of way, but I don’t believe that really constitutes the real aggressive power the book describes. The four major conditions required for high power satisfaction were not satisfied by Harold, leading me to further conclude he did not really have a need for it. He did not seem to really take control of any situation, instead sitting in the background (low Leadership). He did not portray a great deal of aggression to get what he wanted (Aggressiveness), he did hold an influential position at one point in his life as an art professor (exerts control/influence on students) which was obviously lost considering his low impact at Shapiro’s show (Influential Position), and he was not into “prestige possessions” (Should I really say Prestige Possession right after having said “prestige possession?”). He was a man who chose his art and his happiness over the material possessions that a high-power need individual would use to elevate themselves over others in a meager show of power/dominion.

Terms Used:
Quasi-Needs – Pg. 173
Social Needs – Pg. 174
Achievement – Pg. 175
Integrated Model to Achievement Behavior – Pg. 178
Performance-Avoidance Goal – Pg. 185
Affiliation – Pg. 192
Intimacy – Pg. 192
Power – Pg. 195

In the movie (The Meyerowitz Stories), all of the characters display a social need at some point. Some of the family members have very similar social needs (Danny and Jean’s need to impress Harold). Others have quasi-needs that are like the polar opposite (Matthew’s need for money). The chapter discusses one of the social needs; that need is achievement. Achievement is also seen in the movie over and over again. All three types of competitions are also seen in the movie: Competitions with a task, competitions with the self, and competitions against others.
An example of a competition with a task would be when when Harold is trying to complete new art. He wants to complete the task. It is a competition against the wood that he was trying to sculpt. An example of a competition with the self would be when Matthew was trying to sell a place. He could have been trying to do this to make more money than he had before. Finally, examples of competitions against others are shown most often. The siblings are constantly fighting for the attention of their father and even go as far as not telling the others when their dad wakes up at the hospital.
Harold shows his need for achievement when he was invited to the public showing. At first, he did not want to share the space. Once he got the opinion from Danny saying that his work might be worth more money after the show, he thought that it sounded like a good idea. Harold had his own standard of excellence and was frightened that the other art would take attention away from his own. He satisfies his need for achievement by accepting the show because it is better than none (which is where he has been at for a long time).
Affiliation is another need that the chapter discusses. This need says that people have a social need to be involved. This is shown really well when Matthew comes back from his job. He hasn’t seen his family in awhile and doesn’t want to feel left out when Harold goes to the hospital. He goes to visit to try and satisfy his social need to be involved.
Another need that is discussed in the chapter is intimacy. We can see the need for intimacy in several scenes. The first time is when Matthew is talking to his child. The child says over and over again that they miss Matthew and wanted to see him again. Because Matthew continues to videochat with his wife and child, he shows intimacy need. He also says that he wants to go back to them many times. Another time intimacy need is seen is when the children find out their dad might not live. They all cope in similar ways, but each one tries to get time alone with him to tell him how much they love him. They satisfy their need for intimacy by staying close to their father before he dies.
The next need that I will address is power. The character that relates to power the most is Danny. Danny has been living in his brother’s shadow while being closer with his dad. He always wanted his dad’s approval. Danny did his best to impress his dad by doing everything his dad would want him to do. In the end of the movie, Harold asks Danny to stay with him and not go to L.A. Danny throws a plate onto the ground and tells his dad he was going anyway. With this act, he displays his dominance and tries to have as much power as possible. Danny satisfies his need for power by asserting himself over his dad for the first time.
Terms: Social needs, Quasi-needs, achievement, Competitions, Intimacy, Power, Standard of Excellence, Affiliation

The Meyerowitz Stories is a movie about a family and siblings coming together after the event of their father falling ill. They have been apart from one another for many years due to fighting, competition, and contempt. The children are all on different levels of the social needs of affiliation, intimacy, power, and achievement. Harold is the father of all the children and is an artist. His children are Danny (his son), Jean (his daughter), and Matthew (his son). Other characters included Harold’s third wife Maureen. When Harold is in need of his children’s aid, they must get together to help care for him. This comes with many challenges for each of the siblings.

When looking at the social needs a human has, achievement can be seen in many scenes throughout the film. For example, all the siblings showed their need for achievement at some point in the movie as their standard of excellence was based on their father’s approval. Danny showed high levels of achievement needs with regards to his business that he owned. Opening his own business satisfied his high achievement need, such as chapter 7 of the textbook discusses entrepreneurship as a typical displayed behavior of these high need individuals. The character of Matthew was presented as the son who had the talent but not the ambition to use it. This could represent a lower rating on the achievement need than compared to his brother Danny, but also could also suggest that Matthew is an entity theorist. When chapter 7 of the textbook discusses implicit theories, an entity theorist is someone who holds the belief that we are all born with certain talents and qualities that are not likely to change. With this belief of “you either have it or you don’t,” there is not much room for improvement or effort for enhancement. This can be represented by Matthew since he does not attempt to put much effort into his talent.

The next social need that was expressed in the movie was the affiliation and intimacy needs. These needs can be seen in how both Matthew and Danny were interested in continuing to deepen the bond with their children. This interest could be more representative of their intimacy need because it is more about the quality of the relationship with the other person rather than the acceptance, such as with affiliation needs. Affiliation needs, on the other hand, can be seen in Harold within the scene where Danny is about to go visit Matthew, but Harold insists that instead Danny stay and care for him. This can represent affiliation needs rather than intimacy needs in the way that Harold is not trying to develop a relationship deeper nor is he caring about the needs of Matthew, but instead only caring about Danny staying and choosing Harold over Matthew. The social interaction attempted to avoid loneliness, and could be seen as needy, which represents Harold’s need for affiliation.

The last need is the need for power. I believe that Danny is the character that represents this need to greatest. For example, when Harold asks Danny to stay with him, Danny shows aggression when he throws the plate. This aggressiveness is one behavior that was discussed in chapter 7 of the textbook as being motivated by the need for power. This scene also represented Danny’s desire for impact over his father. By throwing the plate, Danny created an impact that allowed him to establish power for the first time with his father.

Terms:
Social needs
Achievement
Standard of excellence
Intimacy
Affiliation
Power
Entrepreneurship
Implicit theory
Entity theorist
Impact

In Chapter Seven of our textbook Understanding Motivation and Emotion it talks about our social needs as human being that we need to fulfill if we want to thrive behaviorally and with our environments that we interact with each and every day. According to the text there are four main social needs. They are achievement, affiliation, intimacy, and power. All four of these needs were illustrated in the Meyerowitz Stories. Which is a movie about the crazy and dysfunctional lives of the Meyerowitz family, more specifically half brothers Matthew and Danny,which is all kept together by their artistic dad, Harold.

The first social need I would like to discuss is achievement. Achievement is when you do something well to show personal competence. An example of this in the movie is when Harold would say “this is my protest”. Harold would say this when his competence or autonomy was being challenged. To narrow down my example, when Harold and Matthew are in the fourth restaurant on their lunch adventure during Matthew’s story, they got assigned a bigger table because of the restaurant's owner being a client of Matthews. So there was a perceived couple sitting next to them that kept placing their items, such as a wine glass, on their table. So Harold would say, “ This is my protest” then he picked up the wine glass and drank the other person’s wine. I think this is an example of achievement because by Harold giving his protest to each situation, he can make each situation depending on his actions cater to his social needs. This also shows, as much of the movie that Harold has a high achievement level not only for autonomous decisions but for his work as an artist.

The second social need I would like to discuss is affiliation. Affiliation is the need to please others and gain approval. An example of this in the Meyerowitz Stories is when Danny stayed with his wife until Eliza (his daughter) goes off to college so that way Danny could please his parents and not get a divorce like his dad got multiple divorces. This need to not get a divorce was important to Danny because he wanted to get approval from his parents by Danny not becoming his father and getting a divorce. Which in many ways is admirable but could have been damaging for Danny’s mental health and overall just raising their child with a facade of having the family that always will get along just to get a divorce later. Again I think this shows affiliation because Danny felt the need to please his parents, just like to a degree we all do, so he didn’t get a divorce until later when it would be less frowned upon. I believe this illustrates that Danny has a high level of Affiliation because he seems to put others before himself.

The third social need I would like to discuss is intimacy. Intimacy is the need for warm and secure relationships in our lives. There were two examples of a secure relationship. They were Danny and his daughter Eliza, and the two half brothers and their dad Harold. Danny and Eliza, even with the separation of parents, got along really well. They would check in on each other, make sure that they are all okay, you could tell that they were really close even when Eliza went off to college towards the beginning. She was still willing to step out of a concert to talk to her dad which really exemplifies the level of closeness they had with each other. All of those same categories go along with the dad and the two children, Danny and Matthew. Danny and Matthew, while doing it at separate times would still make time for their dad and do things for him. It showed that all in all the Meyerowitz family, while dysfunctional did have warm and secure relationships most of the time, which illustrates a high level of intimacy.

The last social need referenced in the text is power. Power is having an impact on others. An example of this in the moving is when Danny left Loretta at the art gallery, even though he seemed very interesting, because his dad, Harold, wanted to leave. This example shows that Harold has power over Danny because Harold wanted to leave. I think this is a perfect example of power because parents typically have power over their children for a majority of their lives. This illustrates that Danny has a low power level and Harold has a high power level.

Key Terms
Social Needs
Achievement
Affiliation
Intimacy
Power

For chapter seven, the film that will be reviewed is Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories: New and Selected. This movie is a comedy-drama that focuses on the dysfunctional family relationships between Harold Meyerowitz and his three children, Jean, Danny, and Matthew. Throughout the film, social needs for each of the characters are addressed as they traverse needs for achievement, affiliation, and power. In this blog post, I will review how these needs are presented in the film and their connection to course concepts from chapter seven.

Firstly, the need for achievement is primarily seen in Harold’s desire to be recognized for his art. In his prime, Harold was well known for his sculptures and worked as an art professor at Bard. Although his children work to get him included into a Bard faculty art show, Harold refuses to take part because it does not meet the standard of excellence that he is trying to fulfill. This lack of achievement is compounded on the success of Harold’s acquaintance, L.J. Shapiro. Due to developmental influences, Harold compares himself to Shapiro and feels inadequate and, in turn, unaccomplished. In the end, Harold allows his work in the Bard faculty group show but does not feel the level of achievement that he would have if he had succeeded in having his own retrospective.

Secondly, the need for affiliation is addressed through Harold and Matthew’s interaction with Julia and the connection between Loretta and Danny. In the film, it’s clear that the Meyerowitz family struggles with affiliation and that they lack strong interpersonal networks. Due to this, Harold and Matthew become uncomfortable when conversing with Julia, Harold’s second wife and Matthew’s mother. Julia is open with them about her feelings and how she regrets not being a better mother to Harold’s children. This directness makes Harold and Matthew uncomfortable because their low need for affiliation makes them perceive openness as constricting. On the other hand, Danny shows a higher level of affiliation when interacting with Loretta. Due to Danny’s divorce at the beginning of the movie, it is clear that he has struggled with affiliation but also that he may have a void to fulfill now that the need is no longer being fulfilled by his ex-wife. Similarly, Loretta leaves a relationship by the end of the movie leaving her open to someone new to help with this need. This leads Danny and Loretta together and they decide to travel together to California.

Lastly, the need for power is addressed by learning about Jean’s sexual harasser. An interesting expression of the need for power is presented when Jean explains that a family friend sexually harassed her as a child. Sexual harassment is almost always a result of a need for power over another person and is accomplished through impact, control, and influence. Jean’s harasser used his sexual advancements to establish power over Jean, used his control over her to maintain power, and used his connection to her father to influence positive views of him and help him to restore power.

Throughout this blog post, I have reviewed the social needs in chapter seven and how they relate to the needs presented by the various characters in The Meyerowitz Stories: New and Selected. The social needs of achievement, affiliation, and power are seen in the film through different interactions made by the cast of characters. As the film progresses, some needs are fulfilled, and others are left incomplete, accurately representing the presence of social needs in everyday life.

Terms:
Social Needs
Achievement
Affiliation
Power
Standard of Excellence
Developmental Influences
Interpersonal Networks
Impact
Control
Influence

Matthew expressed affiliation in many different forms during the movie. Before Harold’s subdural hematoma, Matthew was very distant from his father and his two half-siblings, because he lived in California where he started his own private business: which developed into an acquired need. I say this because the movie portrays Matthew’s relationship with his young son through FaceTime only. This conveys that Matthew is “too busy” with his work, and making money, rather than building a relationship with his son at home. Matthew sees himself as secured with money due to the positive effect of working hard and building a business (high affiliation strivings). However, after Matthew yelled at his dad for not taking up a career that would bring him money and fortune, their goodbye ended in Harold sitting in his car as Matthew screamed at the vehicle. After having a goodbye, and Harold’s brain trauma, a switch seemed to flip in Matthew. Matthew paid for a double single room for his father at the hospital so he could be there with his father. Matthew’s relationships with his half-siblings, Danny and Jane seemed to grow close. The three siblings began spending quality time with each other not because they had to, but because they all wanted to.

An example of the quasi-need achievement is best seen through Harold. Harold was a well-known artist who created sculptures in the heart of New York City. Harold was able to be successful during the peak of his career, however, Harold ended up retiring, which lead people to forget about him as an artist. Harold’s son Danny set up a time where Harold would be able to participate in a group showing of art, however, Harold felt that his work was too good and that he deserved his own personal showing. Harold was invited to his friend AJ’s private showing of current pieces that was up to sell within a gallery. When Harold arrived and introduced himself to people at the private showing, it was apparent that people had forgotten or never known of Harold’s work. Before the showing had even begun, Harold left out of embarrassment and shame. Harold had not met the standard of excellence that was set within the sculpture community and was not recognized for his work and efforts.

The character that portrayed power within the film was Danny. For a long time, Danny was held as second best in comparison with his brother Matthew. Danny had been a skilled musician, which I would have thought his father Harold would appreciate as an artist himself. Danny does not make the best career out of being a pianist, and after his divorce with his wife moves in with his father and his father’s wife. Throughout the movie Danny doesn’t show a large about of power but I found it to be almost symbolic at the end of the movie when Danny finally stands up to his father and does what he genuinely wants to do—not being influenced by his father’s pressure for Danny to stay with him in NYC instead of going to California.

Throughout the Meyerowitz Stories, we can see different proponents of social needs within the various family members. The social needs are achievement, power, intimacy, and affiliation. Nearly each family member displays some level of achievement. Matthew has a very high desire to achieve. He is constantly working. Even when his father is in the hospital, he works on papers or takes work calls. Everything relates back to his work life. He wants to succeed and to be the best at his job. He has high levels of tendency to achieve and low levels of tendency to avoid failure. He even pursued entrepreneurial ventures as he created his own business. Matthew is very intrinsically motivated and the goals he pursues are those of mastery goals.
On the other hand, his brother Danny does not display a high level for achievement. In some of the final scenes, he states that performing piano was like walking on broken glass and that the cost of it was not worth the reward. His goals are performance avoidance goals. Danny has high levels of tendency to avoid failure. He does not want to appear as a failure in his father’s eyes. In this regard, Danny is very extrinsically motivated. His achievements come from others pushing him to do well.
Harold, Danny and Matthew’s father, is extremely motivated to achieve and also to avoid failure. To him, life is a competition and despite his success, he will never do enough because the goals he pursues are performance goals. When he goes to LJ’s opening, he sees it as an attack on his achievements and speaks very negatively of LJ’s accomplishments. To Harold, he has not achieved enough in comparison to LJ and it threatens him. In one of the last scenes, Loretta states that Harold has done so much in his life such as teaching, creating art, and having three children. In the last scene, Eliza and Robin find a piece of Harold’s art at Bard. From an outside view, Harold has done very well and is an accomplished man, but to Harold, he can always do better.
Eliza shows the need for affiliation and intimacy. She always has a boyfriend. Directly after breaking up with Marcus, she begins to date Robin. She and her dad, Danny, have a very close relationship. They are very comfortable with each other and she is open and honest with him. When she begins her freshman year at Bard, she immediately surrounds herself with new friends. Danny also shows the need for intimacy and affiliation. When Eliza goes off to university, he calls her. She is his emotional support system and without her, he has no one, especially since he is going through a separation with his wife. Danny fears being alone emotionally which is why he tries to get close to his father. He looks for love and attention from his father even though Harold has made it exceptionally clear that Matthew is his favorite child.
Harold displays an incredibly high desire for power. At one point in the movie, one of his children asks if his art is even good since they have been brainwashed by him. Harold tries to control his children and influence them. In one scene, Matthew and Harold go to three different restaurants just because Harold wants to. He controls Matthew, forcing him to conform to his plans. Before he retired, he held a job as a professor, allowing him to impact and influence his students. Not only was he able to push his agenda and way of thinking onto his children, but he was able to do the same to hundreds of students. Harold shows moments of aggression as he and Danny scream at their pool game and he breaks the cue. Near the end of the movie, he tries to manipulate Danny into staying with him while he recovers.
At the end of the movie, each sibling is attempting to refrain from returning to normalcy and makes changes in their lives to satisfy their various needs. Jean begins to star in some of Eliza’s movies. Matthew promises to make an effort to keep in better contact with his family. He also states that he wants to break some of his father’s power over him and be a better and more present father for his son, Tony. Danny is also trying to break his father’s power over him by leaving him and going to Los Angles to see Matthew. He also sees Loretta and begins to initiate a relationship with her. Even though their dysfunctional father was the reason none of them had good relationships in the first place, his hospitalization helps them to become more intimate.
Terms: Power, tendency to achieve, tendency to avoid failure, intimacy, affiliation, achievement, mastery goals, performance goals, aggressive, performance avoidance goals, intrinsic, extrinsic.

A big topic that I saw present within nearly the entire movie was Danny’s need for affiliation. Affiliation, by definition, is not related to extraversion, sociability, or friendliness. Instead it is the deeply rooted fear within oneself of interpersonal rejection. When people are high in the need for affiliation they are mainly forming relationships with others in order to avoid negative emotions, like loneliness or disapproval. With these concepts in mind, I believe Danny has a very high-need affiliation. The first example I would like to look at is his lack of a parental influence growing up. Danny’s father wasn’t much of a father figure to his or his sister, Jean, but he was very much present in Matthew’s life. Danny’s big brother was all his father could talk about throughout their child and adult lives. It was Matt this and Matt that and rarely ever did Harold give Danny and Jean a second thought. Danny’s high-need affiliation thus partly comes from social deprivation as a child, the principal condition that involves a need for affiliation. As a child Danny was lonely and rejected and felt separated from the family. These emotions continuously raised his social need and resulted in him having a high-need for affiliation. This high need for affiliation as an adult results in him wanting to spend as much time as possible with his daughter so that he doesn’t feel lonely, and spending time with his dad in order to receive the approval and acceptance that he didn’t get as a child.

Shifting gears to focus on Matthew, I believe that he shows a very high level of achievement need. Achievement is the desire to well relative to a standard of excellence. This involves any challenge to a person’s sense of competence that end with an objective outcome of success versus failure. There are two ways to react to this concept of standard of excellence. The first is if the standards excite us we will typically respond with a type approach emotion and behavior. On the opposite side of the spectrum, if the standard brings us anxiety, we respond through avoidance emotion and behavior. In regards to Matthew, he typically responds to achievement through with an approach response rather than an avoidance response. This is present within his job for the most part, and slightly with the relationship with his father, no matter how constrained it is. I believe developmental influences are also at play within Matthew’s high need for achievement. Growing up, their father places a high value on achievement, and because he mostly focused on Matthew, that value was then internalized within Matthew as a teenager and into adulthood. Also along with the idea of developmental influences, we have pride or shame. These emotions are not genetically built into people, which means our level of pride or shame comes from our developmental history. For Matthew, he has strong history of success and mastery within his business skills, which results in him being prideful. For Danny, he has a strong history of failure, within quitting the piano, separating from his wife, and quitting his job, which results shame. These two emotions came about for these men through developmental influence, where one developed a pride-prone standard of excellence and the other developed a shame-prone standard of excellence.

The last person I believe needs to be addressed is Harold, the father of Danny, Jean, and Matthew. Harold had a low-medium need for achievement, but also a low-medium need for power, and I would like to focus on power. Power is the need to impact, control, and influence the people in one’s life. People who want power have a take-charge personality with a need for status and a reputation. All of these characteristics are present within Harold in some sort of fashion, for the most part, within the reputation he has with his children. His need for power is mostly shown when Matthew admits to the family in different ways that because of Harold’s need for power, it resulted in Matthew not really wanting a relationship with his father, and only keeping it because he is his dad.

Terms: Affiliation, High-Need Affiliation, Achievement, Standard of Excellence, Developmental Influences, Approach and Avoidance Behavior, Power

The Meyerowitz family displays many examples of achievement, affiliation, intimacy, and power throughout this movie. A common quasi-need I noticed throughout this movie includes the need for money. It seems as though throughout the whole film; the characters were continually talking about their lack of money. Danny needs money to send Eliza to school and Harold and Maureen need to sell their house because it is too much money for them to upkeep. For Harold, the need for money is eventually met when Matthew comes in.
Personally, I feel like Harold is the best example in the movie because he shows many traits pertaining to each social need. Harold is low in intimacy, which can be seen in most of his relationships. Many of his relationships seem like he only talks to the family member because they are family. For example, his relationship with Maureen does not seem very loving or affectionate. However, I think Harold is high in affiliation because he seems to care a lot about what people think. If people see his artwork in a group show, he feels that they will think that he is a washed-up artist. When Harold and Danny go to Shapiro’s art show, Harold feels left out while Shapiro is talking about the guest list for the dinner he is throwing after the show, which Harold is not on. Another example of Harold feeling left out is when Shapiro stops talking to him to talk to other people and get pictures, which Harold is not a part of. I would say Harold has performance goals over mastery goals because he wants recognition for his artwork. Although Harold talks about how he is intrinsically motivated to do his artwork and how he feels that his pieces he is making now are some of his favorite pieces he has ever made, he is trying to sell his artwork while taking praise and recognition for his past sculptures. I think Harold has a high achievement rating because he feels competent in his artwork. However, this is being changed because he is beginning to realize that people do not like his sculptures as much as they used to. I also think Harold is low in power. To me, it seems like Harold is walked all over by Maureen and his children and just goes with the flow rather than trying to assert any sort of dominance.
A great example of powerful characters in this film would be Matthew and L. J. Shapiro because they are both well-off financially, which means they have high achievement needs that have been met. They also show a lot of competence and entrepreneurship because they are both good at what they do and prefer challenging, independent work. Matthew uses prestige possessions to show off his money in the sense that he is very open about being able to afford the expensive restaurant where his father was complaining about prices. Matthew probably does this because he was not wealthy as a child, but now that he has money, he likes to make sure that his family knows he is wealthy. I would say L. J. Shapiro has sacrificed intimacy for power. Loretta was talking to Danny at the art show about how she wishes she were more like their parents because they have intimate relationships with their children than their parents had with them. This shows that L. J. did not attach himself to his family and worked by himself in order to become a powerful artist. Additionally, it seemed to me that L. J. distanced himself from Harold, whom he had an intimate relationship with, once Harold’s career as an artist began to go down. He invited Harold to this art show probably to show Harold how well he is doing.
I think an entity theorist would agree with the song that Danny and Eliza sang together in the film. The two were singing about how Eliza was a genius girl who has always been good at math. I think this shows Eliza having performance based goals rather than mastery goals because she has never had to learn how to improve to be successful academically. Danny and Eliza are essentially noting that Eliza has a fixed amount of intelligence as she has always been a genius.
Terms:
Achievement, affiliation, intimacy, power, quasi-need, social need, performance goal, mastery goal, intrinsically motivated, competent, entrepreneurship, prestige possessions, entity theorist

Chapter 7 talked about the main social needs that we as humans have. These needs are achievement, affiliation, intimacy, and power. The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) has a wide variety of characters who have an even wider variety of their levels of social needs. I will be rating some of the main characters on a scale of low, medium, and high for their social needs and then I will be providing examples from the film to give my reasoning. The first character that I will analyze is Danny. Danny is one of their father’s “forgotten” children and he is a father himself. Danny is low in achievement. This is due to the fact that he does not care about what he has/has not accomplished in his life. He is very content in the way his life is except a little part of him wishes that he had accomplished something in order to get more attention/affection from his father. Danny is at a medium for affiliation. He is extremely high in maintaining a relationship with his daughter, but he does not care a whole lot about restoring relationships with his brother, Matthew, and his father, Harold. Danny is at a medium for intimacy. He has the ability to have close and warm exchanges with other people, but it depends on the person. He can do it with his daughter but not his father. Lastly, Danny is medium in power. He is not set out to control the world, or anything really in his life. However, there are certain things he wants power over such as his father not selling their house and certain decisions about his daughter, Eliza. Eliza is a freshman at Bard University which is the university that Harold, her grandfather, was a professor at for many, many years. Eliza is high in achievement. She has her own standard set for herself with making her films and she aims to achieve her goals. Just like achievement, Eliza is high in affiliation. She maintains close and meaningful relationships with all the people that she cares about in her life. She is also high in intimacy which you can clearly see in the way that she is always touching her boyfriend when they are together. Eliza is also high in power. She knows what she wants in the world and she has a very strong head on her shoulder to accomplish it. Next on the list is Harold. Harold is a borderline alcoholic semi-absentee father of Jean and Danny but was a fully present father to their half-brother Matthew. Harold is high in achievement. He was a hungry and driven artist his entire life trying to become famous. Because of this he is low in affiliation. He has troubles maintaining relationships with everyone in his life which can really be seen in the fact that he has many ex-wives. Harold is low in intimacy as well. He is not a lovey-dovey, touchy-feely kind of person. Harold is high in power. He spent his whole life trying to make the world he lived in exactly what he wanted it to be. This also comes out through his slight alcoholism. Since he is retired and not famous he may feel some power over his live slipping and is trying to harness that through the feelings that he gets from the alcohol. Jean is kind of a background main character. She does not speak a lot but from her actions and the few times that she does speak I was able to analyze her. Jean is low in achievement. Similar to Danny she has not achieved much in her life if anything at all and she is content. Jean is medium in affiliation. She does not have a whole lot of close relationships but I do not think that it is for her lack of wanting to have those kinds of relationships. Jean is also low in intimacy. I believe that this is due to the lack of close relationships that she has. Lastly, Jean is low on power. She never tries to make the world she lives in anything that she wants it to be. Last but not least is Matthew. Matthew is the half-brother of Danny and Jean who got all of the attention of their father, Harold. Matthew is high in achievement. He used his father’s success in order to set a standard for him to meet with his career and made it his life’s work to be more successful than his father. Matthew is medium in affiliation. The types of close relationships that he has are only via his business work. He has no close relationships with his brother, sister, mom, dad, or even his own son. As one would expect, Matthew is low on intimacy. Similar to Harold he does not show affection. Finally, Matthew is high in power. In order to make himself more successful than his father he needed to control everything in his life to meet that goal.

Key terms: social needs, achievement, affiliation, intimacy, power

Chapter seven defines the social needs that we experience as human beings, and includes what specific social needs we encounter every day. These needs that we hope to fulfill and succeed in help us flourish in our environments and learn how to interact well with each other. The four main social needs listed in the text, include achievement, affiliation, intimacy, and power. These needs arise from the experiences of an individual and the unique history of the individual’s developmental, cognitive, and socialization skills. In the Meyerowitz Stories, each of these needs is displayed through the character’s interactions with each other and the chaotic, unpredictable behaviors they each exhibit.

The father of the Meyerowitz family, Harold is a quirky sculptor who has two sons and a daughter. Danny is the eldest brother of his two younger half siblings, Matthew and Jean. Throughout the movie, these three are forced to become closer as their father, Harold becomes ill. In this change of relationship dynamics, each individual’s social needs develop over time.

For example, the social need of achievement is displayed through the incident at a restaurant that Harold and Matthew go to and eat at. When they arrive, they are moved from a small table to a bigger table because of Matthew’s business relationship with the owner of the restaurant and Harold repeats the phrase, “this is my protest” because of his insecurities in how his competence or autonomy is challenged by his own son. Harold’s competence and achievement in his own work as an artist is where his needs are most likely to be met but outside of that he protests multiple different situations where his achievement is not naturally recognized.

The movie also portrays the social need of affiliation through Danny’s character more so in other character, because there are many situations in which Danny is so clearly standing in the shadow of his brother, Matthew’s successful career. Danny seeks to find a way to gain approval from his father and fit better in the family’s various accomplishments and successes by dreaming about going into music since his father does art for a living and his brother work’s with musician’s. In this desire for affiliation with his brother and father, he has difficulty because of Harold’s evident approval of Matthew’s success and naming a piece of his art after Matthew.

A clear representation of intimacy in the film is seen in Danny and Eliza’s relationship. As a father and daughter, they already hold a unique level of intimacy but the security of their relationship shows despite the recent separation of Danny and Eliza’s mother. They communicate with each other in a way that shows that they are curious about how the other person is doing and care to stay in close communication with each other. In contrast, Matthew seemed to have a lower level of need for intimacy because he was content with where his relationships with his family were at already but as the relationships within the Meyerowitz family change throughout the movie, Matthew’s need for intimacy slowly increases as he naturally becomes closer to his brother and sister and father.
The social need of power is seen in Harold and the kind of social power he has over Matthew, Danny, and Jean. The decisions and wants Harold has have more power over the decision and wants that his children have because Harold has the ability to make a bigger, long-term impact on each of their lives.

Terms:
Social needs
Achievement
Affiliation
Intimacy
Power

This movie goes along the lines of everything that we have just read about in chapter seven. The Meyerowitz Stories follows the messy life of the Meyerowitz family. The first son, Danny, has issues with his wife and ends up living with his dad, Harold, who he is constantly trying to impress. The daughter, Jean, is similar to Danny in the way that she constantly strives for attention also. The other son, Matt, is a very well off business man, who unlike his brother and sister, does not feel the need to impress Harold. Basically, throughout the entirety of this movie, all of the needs we read about are shown. The needs that you can see throughout this movie include affiliation, intimacy, power and achievement.
The first social need that is shown in this movie is affiliation. Affiliation can be defined as pleasing others to gain approval. When Danny’s daughter goes to college, he decides that this is an okay time to divorce his wife that they had been wanting. Danny’s dad went through multiple divorces while he was growing up, so he did not want to be like his dad. He wants to gain the approval of his dad. Not only does he want to gain approval of his father, I assume that this is also something he wants to gain approval from society. If he has multiple divorces like his dad, it might not look very good, so he waits until his child is all grown up into an adult, and then fully divorces his one wife.
The next need that is shown in this movie is intimacy. In the book, intimacy can be defined as the need for warm and secure relationships. Danny and his dad got along, but their relationship did not seem very warm and secure. At the beginning of the movie, Harold talks about reaching out to Matthew, and it seems as though Danny is almost jealous of this relationship. Danny is constantly doing things to please his father, and only wants a close relationship with him. Danny also just wants a constant relationship with everyone. You can see this with his daughter and with Matthew as well. He stays in close contact with his daughter calling her and talking through their problems. With Matthew, the case is different though. Matthew has a very low need for intimacy. This comes along with people who are leaders and strong businessmen. He constantly rejects the idea that they are even brothers. For example, when Harold says things like “oh your brother says….”, Matthew immediately jumps in and replies “half brother..” This illustrates that he does not want that close connection to Danny.
The third need that is show in this movie is the need for power. In this film, power is shown a lot through Harold and Matthew. Both of these characters are fairly strong, and not too intimate. While at dinner, which it seemed like neither really wanted to go to, there was the incident with the jacket. When the man next to their table starts placing his things on the table, Harold gets upset. He wants to feel in control and get these things off of “his” table. He gets angry and upset and says he wants to “punch this man in the nose.” After the man leaves, Harold accuses him of stealing his jacket. He wants to be in control, so he sends Matthew after him to claim the jacket that this man apparently stole. The jacket was not Harold’s, and he did not even seemed bothered by the fact that Matthew went chasing after this man, because he was still in control.

Terms used: power, achievement, intimacy, affiliation, social needs, control, influence,

The film, The Meyerowitz Stories has a few concepts from chapter seven scattered throughout the movie. The chapter begins with explaining needs and elaborates on the concept of psychological, social and quasi needs. In the film we see quasi needs, the desires that we see as being needs, being exemplified. We see that one of the main characters, Danny, has the quasi need to figure out what he is doing with his life. Just coming out of a divorce, daughter going off to college, and now moving in with his father and step mother for a brief period. He has the quasi need to want to better than his brother Matthew who seems to be the better brother at the beginning of the film. With psychological needs we can see how Danny has the psychological need to find happiness. He mentions to his daughter that although it seems like a rough time, he is kind of excited to be able to live with his dad because he will have the chance to catch up and talk. He also, in the movie, displays his desire to find meaning in what his father is doing and making staying connected with his daughter and family. With social needs we see that Danny wants to connect with his father. He tried hanging out and inviting himself to outings with his dad but in return gets subtly rejected.
With the character Matthew we see that he personally has the quasi need to be with his dad when visiting New York. We see this by how he is kind of in a rush when visiting and kind of feels bad for his dad when he ends up getting sick. He also has the social need to eventually rekindle his connection and relationship with his brother after spending time in the hospital with their dad and also doing damage to the car of Paul Epstein when they found out why he did with their sister named Jean.With psychological needs, we see that Matthew has the desire to make his father proud. We see this when he and Harold (the dad) are at lunch and Matthew tries multiple times to express his success with his company to his father but is also subtly rejected in conversation.
Along with needs we see in chapter seven the concepts of achievement and in this section there is a topic of affiliation. This is seen as the ability to belong to a particular group. Rejection when reaching out to find affiliation can be a terrible experience. In the movie I feel this concept is highlighted greatly. We see how Harold, as expressed by his children, has always wanted to be only success. He has pushed down the ideas thoughts and successes of his children to put himself at the top. Matthew expresses this when he says that Harold praised him so much that it ruined him. He means this by expressing that he always had something to chase and it was never going to be good enough and Harold would, in the words of the film, make Matthew feel like a piece of shit. With affiliation we see how Matthew strived to belong to a group that was going to better him but no matter what his father would never let anyone surpass his possible success and current success. Through these scenes we also see the concept of competition. This concept in chapter seven expresses how competition can express both positive and negative behaviors. We see how Matthew did the positive and created his own company and became successful. On the contrary with his father as the competition we see aggression and negativity towards his father because of their past. With the term of power, we see how Harold has always had a sense of power over the lives of his children due to the fact that he puts the two brothers against each other all of the time and still both cannot be as good as him.

Terms
Social Needs,
Psychological Needs
Quasi Needs
power
competition
Rejection
Affiliation

This movie has character’s that all demonstrate a social need at some point. Social needs can be divided into four sub categories, including achievement, affiliation, intimacy, and power. The social need that stands out in this movie is achievement, the desire to do well on a standard of excellence. The movie is following relationships between brothers, as well as relationships with their father. The brothers have competition against each other to gain their father’s approval. Harold is the father and his children’s names are, Danny, Jean, and Matthew. The first sign that shows Harold is not achieving his idea goal, is when his artwork will not sell. Being famous and doing well in the art world was a quasi need for Harold. Harold displays power throughout the whole movie, and certain parts stood out to me. I thought the part in the movie where Harold tries to control his kids was when they were looking for a restaurant. This was shown when Harold and Matthew go to three different restaurants before settling on one. Harold was able to show his power in this one situation, like he does through the whole movie. Danny showed low levels of achievement in many ways starting with when him and his wife got a divorce. Danny also use to teach piano and that didn’t workout, showing repeated fails in his life. Danny dies show affiliation after he moves in with his father, our book discussed the need for affiliation and intimacy as being in close and positive relationships and restoring interpersonal relations. Danny saw this opportunity as a way to restore his relationship that he failed to make as a child. I think that Danny’s affiliation changed drastically from when he was a child, and this is because of everything he went through in his childhood. Danny has a very obvious relationship in his life that demonstrates intimacy, and this is with Eliza. The next brother, Matthew, is a good example of showing quasi needs. Matthew’s job shows a life with money, and this money lead to him feeling that he has power. Power is defined in the book as the desire to have control, influence, and impact on everything and everyone around an individual. This was shown by having the money to do whatever he pleased and control his desires. I think that this need Matthew has for money and the power that it brings is something that many people in our society today deal with. Jean, the daughter, was harder to see these needs from since she was not as recognized. Towards the end of the movie we were able to see her desire and need for intimacy. Jean cares for her family and shows a lot of her warmth towards Eliza. Jean also shows this intimacy when she is caring for her father, because he once cared for her. Overall this was a movie had a lot of characters that showed different aspects from chapter 7, and it was easy to draw these from individuals with different personalities.

Terms:
Quasi need
Affiliation
Power
Intimacy
Social need
Warmth

The Meyerowitz Stories follows the story of three siblings named Danny, Jean, and Matthew. A lot of the film focuses on their relationships with each other as siblings and with their father Harold who they do not wholesomely get along with. Social needs in this family I would say high for Matthew and Harold, with Harold being high in achievement. During a part in the film, they go the the Museum of Modern Art for a friend and is at first not allowed to enter due to the event being an private party and throws out his name hoping that it will get recognized. His name does not get recognized and sort of in a way of shame starts to walk away before being let in by their friend. He is very uncomfortable during the event, and gets upset with his friend for not asking him to help host or plan the event. He eventually leaves claiming that the world has forgotten about him and his work. Achievement has two forms, mastery and performance goals. Harold would be categorized under the performance goal orientation, as he seeks to demonstrate or prove competence, display his ability, outperform others and to show that he is successful. He wants to be better than others, and in the situation where for everything that was related to art, since he is retired, he was ignored. His social need for achievement was ignored and neglected, and because of this affected his behavior. Social needs typically usually lie dormant until a situation is encountered where that need has to be satisfied. His son, Matthew and a common theme throughout the film is affiliation, the opportunity to please others and gain their approval. The children feel like they don't have the respect or approval of their father, and during the film they each try to find a way in doing so. The book says that “affiliation is the establishing, maintaining or restoring a positive, affective relationship with another person.” Harold during the film is onto his third wife, visits his second wife with Matthew. She laments saying that she wishes she could have been a better mother and wife. For Matthew, his affiliation because his father had remarried, and that his mother was not a good motherly figure could have impacted his social needs. People that are high in need for affiliation interact with others to avoid negative emotions like fear of disapproval and loneliness. This could be a reason why Matthew chose his career of being a financial advisor to rockstars. They have enough money to do whatever they want with, so whenever something is needed or taken care of financially he is the man that is called up to help. The reason that Matthew could have went to his mother is that since he was having difficulties with establishing a relationship with his father, that he could try with his biological mother as a way of seeking reassurance from others. During one point of the film Matthew takes his father to a fancy restaurant and Harold can not afford to pay, so Matthew insists that he will. He then proceeds to order a bunch of exquisite food that he normally probably not have eaten before, which could be another example of Matthew having an opportunity to impress his father.
Words: Achievement, Social Needs, Affiliation, performance goals, mastery goals.

This movie felt like a collection of case studies to be analyzed by therapists in training. Not a critique, but more that there is a whole lot of depth to explore in the major and some of the supporting characters. My focus will be on a contrast between the three siblings (or half-siblings for Matthew, as he keeps reminding us) and the patriarch of the family, Harold.

Harold seems to be very highly driven by the social need for power. He is driven to always be in the top position in any relationship he has. As Matthew puts it in one scene, “none of us took after you. You had to be the only artist in the family.” Harold gets snubbed by LJ at his opening, and runs him down to Danny. Harold has to run Julia, and her new husband, down to Danny. He is dismissive of his children’s accomplishments, as if they don’t count. When he is at the restaurants, he refuses to have lunch with Matthew because the host didn’t acknowledge him for who he was, and he obsessed over the man at the neighboring table putting some items on the corner of his table, as an intentional slight meant to elevate that man at Harold’s expense. Harold makes up aspects of discussions even to those who witnessed them in his need to appear admired, respected, and superior. It turns him into a joke, as those close to him see through the charade of his petty need to always appear in the up position relative to anyone else.

The children all clearly struggle with conflicting social needs. Danny struggles between a need for affiliation and its more healthy, positive twin, intimacy. He is willing to put up with his father’s emotional abuse in the hope of not being rejected by him. The deprivation-love aspect Maslow identifies with the affiliation need, can be seen in the disclosures that both Danny and his sister Jean were basically neglected by their father and step-mother. Danny wants respect and intimacy, but he appears too afraid to risk rejection from his father to stand up and demand a relationship that might lead to meeting his intimacy need. We see that he desires intimacy more than affiliation in the attempts at reconciliation, disclosure, and sharing of confidences with Matthew and Jean after their father’s health fails. But he has few models to help guide him from the more fear-based affiliation behaviors and a more genuine intimate relationship with his siblings. He attempts to develop a more intimate relationship with his daughter Eliza, but his lack of healthy models leads it to be more inverted, with the healthier, and more skilled Eliza taking on the parental role to Danny’s more needy child role. As the siblings stumble through attempts at intimacy, we see some evidence that they are developing skills to better meet this need and grow, in replacement of the more deficit-focused affiliation behavior demonstrated at the beginning of the movie.

Matthew struggles with intimacy, which he clearly desires with his father. We see hints of this in the hospital scene in which Harold says his name and says he is happy because all he really wanted was for Matthew to be there. But in their previous meeting, Matthew slips painfully between trying to insist that his father meet his intimacy need (he refuses to accept the emotional put downs that Danny does), and one upping his father at his own main social need (power) in the encounter as Harold gets in his car after the failed lunch and awkward interaction between Harold, Julia (Matthew’s mother), and Matthew. To Harold’s power-driven statement: “how could I be a bad father, look at how successful you are?” Matthew counters with we could never follow our interests and attributes to engage their artistic sides because Harold would not accept a potential rival in his offspring, to a shouting match over whether Matthew’s money makes him believe he can get away with a desire to punch his father and Matthew’s attempt to put his father in the down position with the “I beat you!” declaration.

Only one of the children really achieves their potential, and even here, it is more an attempt to beat his father at a game he can win (Matthew). Danny and Jean are given a great deal of freedom, but little in the way of explicit, realistic standards of excellence. The standards of excellence shift to whatever their father can use to justify his need for power. He humiliates his two older children in the process, and leaves them with low ability self-concept and undermines their innate motivations for competence. Matthew is given feedback which leads to higher ability self concept, but little independence by his smothering parents, what Matthew bemoans as his father’s focus. He gets the mixed message of having some artistic talent in the petty arena of mimicry, and denied any sense of efficacy in the area his father must remain the dominant member of the family in. He gives up, and choses instead to be successful in another arena, but while he has the trappings of success and a clear persistence and talent, we do not come away that this is really from a high achievement drive, but instead a need to find some way of proving himself in the need he sees as the only thing his father seems to value: power. But even here the power drive is ultimately unfulfilling, as it is his father’s love (intimacy) that is the need he desperately seems to be hoping to fulfill. None of the children seem ultimately able to tap into a mastery goal orientation that would lead to well-being through competence and achievement. Danny, cannot even take joy from legitimate musical talent, and never pursues that interest. It is harder to gauge with Jean, as her character is not as deeply fleshed out in the male-centered stories. Matthew gets some satisfaction from meeting some of his achievement needs, despite these not fulfilling his more important intimacy needs.

Terms: social need, achievement, affiliation, intimacy, power, childhood influences, ability self-concept, standards of excellence, mastery-goal, recognition, aggressiveness, status occupations, deprivation-love, Maslow, growth-orientation, fear of rejection, deficit.

Meyerowitz Stories was a strange movie, but I thought it illustrated the four aspects of social needs from chapter seven very well: achievement, affiliation, intimacy, and power.

Eliza showed her high achievement needs by making movies, her way of doing something well in order to show personal competence. Although the videos seemed weird to outsiders (and to me), she and her dad were proud of her movies and even included her aunt in a few, increasing relatedness. Danny believed in his daughter and gave her positive feedback, encouraging her, increasing her intrinsic motivation, and encouraging mastery goals. Eliza did not appear to have a fear of failure, was approach-oriented, and had high self-esteem, satisfaction, and vitality. She had high achievement needs, despite her father’s low achievement needs. Danny had never held much of a job, practiced avoidance, and had pretty much given up on his dreams of being a musician. There were multiple times where Danny’s role-models looked back and felt responsible for “messing up” Danny and Jean. For example, their ex-step-mom (Matthew’s mom) apologized for not being more nurturing toward Danny and Jean, believing it could have made a difference in how they turned out as adults. Since Matthew grew up with supportive role-models, Matthew was more likely to become high achieving, being a successful entrepreneur.

Affiliation, feeling the need to please others and gain approval (in a negative way), was evident in Danny’s relationship with Harold. Danny wanted acceptance, approval, and reassurance from his father, but instead, his father focused his praise and attention on Matthew. Danny got Harold into the group show, made him a photo book, talked up Harold’s artwork, and pursued music (a form of art), yet Harold never really gave Danny much positive feedback for his good deeds, approval for being artistically inclined, or reassurance for his life direction. Instead, Harold focused on the negatives, questioning Danny about getting a job and finding a place to live, or asking questions with no real interest in the answers.

The intimacy need, wanting warm, secure, reciprocal relationships, was demonstrated well by the dynamics of Harold and his son, Matthew. At the beginning of the movie, Harold was very high in his intimacy need, speaking a lot about Matthew and naming his prized artwork “Matthew,” connecting it to an intimate memory that he shared with Matthew. One of Harold’s former students even mentioned that Harold used to talk about Matthew a lot during class. Matthew, on the other hand, was low in intimacy need. He didn’t want much to do with Harold and tried to give his dad limited time. The intimacy of the relationship was not reciprocal. After Harold almost died, Matthew worked more toward creating a warm secure, reciprocal relationship, even purchasing the “Matthew” artwork as a symbol of intimacy. When Harold eventually admitted that Danny was the one who helped him make the artwork, not Matthew, the intimacy of the gesture was tainted.

Power, the desire to have an impact on others, was evident in all three of the main men: Harold, Danny, and Matthew. Harold and Danny showed it in similar ways, being aggressive, getting angry, yelling often, and sometimes destroying things (like the car or the plate of cookies). Matthew channeled his need for power by telling people what to do (like writing down everything the nurse/doctors said), starting a new business so he could be the boss, and having prestigious possessions and experiences (spending lots of money at fancy restaurants and owning two phones). Jean, on the other hand, did not seem to care much about power, only chiming in when convenient and never wanting to be in the spotlight.

Terms: Achievement, intimacy, affiliation, power, personal competence, relatedness, intrinsic motivation, mastery goals

The Meyerowitz stories is a movie that shows the aspect of social needs in chapter 7 in great detail. The main characters include Harold, the father of the family and his three kids produced from different wives, Jean, Danny, and Matthew which are the Meyerowitz family. This whole family is always trying to one up each other and be better. They strive for social needs such as acceptance, companionship, belongingness, authority, etc. Each family member has their own personal lives and they all deal with all of their own daily life occurrences.

Achievement is shown in the way that Harold tries and wants to be a successful artist just like LJ and it is apparent that he is not satisfied that he is not. He always wants to be recognized for how great his art is from others. He believes that he has the competency to create such great art that should receive more credit. All siblings are actually high in achievement just in the fact they are all always looking for their father’s approval on things. Actually getting his attention is important for all of them, because he usually did not pay much attention to their achievements. Achievements are so important, because without them we would all be living the same lives without ever doing anything different or more important. Achievements also play a big role in keeping people motivated and wanting to do better for themselves and other in any way possible.

Intimacy and affiliation are shown in the film in the way that both Danny and Matthew try to get closer than they are with their children. They know they have good kids, so they want to be good parents for them and spend time with them. Danny’s daughter Eliza also always makes time to speak with her dad while she is away at college. They like to hear from each other and make sure that they are both doing okay. Matthew and Danny are both always there for their father when he needs them. They would spend time with him and take care of them even with their busy life schedules. It seemed like one of them was always in the hospital with their father as well so he wouldn’t be alone. They were usually there for him at separate times, but they did make sure that one of them was at least there with him. It also seemed like Harold enjoyed having at least one of them around since he was mostly alone due to his divorce and kids being grown.

Power is shown when Harold tries to convince Danny to stay with him and he smashes a plate after telling his father no after he had been trying to get his approval for so long. In doing this Danny had finally made a decision by himself and for himself after always doing things before and because of others. Also an individual that gets angry and aggressive when feeling out of power, means that they strive for it and need it to feel content. Matthew being the most successful and making the most money makes me believe that he is the highest in power as well. He is a business that tries to convince people of things that they should do such as trying to get his father to sell his house for money. He believes they more money that is made, the more status and power that one will have over others and to also do more for themselves.

Quasi needs are shown in the way that Matthew is always looking for ways to make more money. I think most of us can agree that there is no such thing as having too much money, but it’s not money he really needs for anything. He wants the money just to be in possession of, not because he needs it in order for him to survive. This is kind of like when an individual’s cell phone works perfectly fine, but they want the newest one that comes out. They could survive without it, but it is just something they want while thinking that they actually need it. With having a lot of money also usually comes power, because you have more of the ability over others to do what you want when you want. Matthew had even told his Dad that he was upset with him for choosing the art life and not choosing a career to make a lot of money. Overall, this family were all individually and collectively the epitome of trying to reach their social needs. They all spent most of their time trying to get approval and do things because of others rather than do something for themselves.

Terms:
Social needs
Achievement
Intimacy
Power
Quasi needs

The Meyerowitz Stories is about three children who have to come together in order to care for their eccentric father. The beginning of the film allows us to get to know the characters by showing Danny and his daughter who’s going off to college. The father, Harold, is diagnosed with a hematoma in the film and it’s around this time that social needs play the biggest factor while the siblings have to learn how to come together to care for their father while he’s in the hospital.
Achievement, affiliation and intimacy, and power play very large roles throughout the movie. One large example of achievement is Harold and his artistry career. He had a high need to be successful in his life, and constantly nagged at his children to get him into art shows or to admire his paintings. However, when he finally gets an open spot he throws a fit because he has to share the space. The only thing that causes him to give into sharing the space was the possibility of him making more money off of his paintings. In another scene, Eliza shows her family an inappropriate film and shows her high level of achievement with the goals that she sets for herself in college and with family.
Affiliation and intimacy are shown a lot throughout the film, as the entire movie revolves around family and family ties. Eliza’s story of going off to college shows she is high in both affiliation and intimacy. She surrounds herself with people and is seen with her boyfriend who she has no problem showing affection to. Harold was very low on both the affiliation and intimacy scales, because he was a very private man. He wasn’t close to his children or grandchildren, and it didn’t seem that he was affectionate with his wife. He also had three wives, which can go towards the theory that he’s low in each category. Danny is a medium in affiliation and intimacy, because he doesn’t do well in showing reinforcement and intimacy towards his father and siblings, but he lets it be known that he admires and loves his daughter.
The third social need showcased in the movie was power, where once again Harold is the frontrunner for it. Harold, throughout the film, is constantly seeking a larger reputation, more money, his own place to sell his art, etc. Harold is high in power, meaning that he focuses on leadership and success, however he also shows the aggressiveness and exhibits mood swings that are potential “side effects” Mathew also exhibits a high level of power, wanting to be a leader and in control of everything in his life. Harold and Matthew end up butting heads over a dinner evening neither of them want to attend, however Matthew also shows a tendency to avoid failure. For example, Matthew always feels as if he isn’t doing good enough in the eyes of his family, and because of this he doesn’t try as hard in order to avoid failing.

Achievement
Affiliation
Intimacy
Tendency to avoid failure
Power