Billy Elliot

Billy Elliot has multiple ties to chapter fifteen and growth motivation. It’s clear from the very beginning of the movie that Billy has had to grow up and mature a great deal for his age by taking care of his grandmother and keeping his father and brother happy since his mother passed away. One way in trying to please his father, Billy does boxing. It’s clear that he doesn’t like boxing at all, in the way he moves before fighting with the other boy and how upset he was when his coach told him he couldn’t leave until he hit the bag correctly. His attention is clearly caught when he goes to give the keys to the dance instructor. Eventually Billy joins in with the girls, and you can see that the dancing has sparked something inside of him. In holism, when one part of a person is upset, the whole being is upset. When Jackie finds out that his son, Billy has been dancing rather than boxing, Jackie gets extremely upset with Billy and makes him come home. Not only does this disapproval by his father upset Billy, it hurts him because he feels as though he can’t express an important part of himself. As previously mentioned, dancing clearly helps Billy fulfill parts of him, pushing him to actualization. His ideal self is being a dancer, but he has the obstacles of his father and brother in his way of a dancer becoming his actual self. Billy makes it clear that his ideal self is a dancer by always asking his friend, Michael, questions about whether or not being a dancer is something that he can do. Michael also always asks Billy questions, while also seeming to innocently taunt him, about tutus and typical dancer type things. When Michael does this, Billy always finds a way to defend male dancing. Not only does Michael giving Billy crap for dancing effect is ideal self, it also impacts deficiency needs. Deficiency needs are the physiological needs that require satisfaction before moving on to the psychological, growth needs. Deficiency needs are esteem and belongingness. Billy finds a belongingness when he’s dancing and when he works with Mrs. Wilkinson on his dancing, however he still has low self-esteem. Billy’s low self-esteem is apparent in his interactions with his friend Michael and always asking questions to help justify his dancing while being a boy. It’s also clear in trying to hide it from his family, as he thinks they will be ashamed and no longer let him dance. When Mrs. Wilkinson comes to the house to let the family know about Billy missing his audition, Tony is completely upset because he doesn’t believe his brother would do such a girly thing by dancing and that it’s embarrassing. This reaction causes major issues for Billy’s esteem in that he doesn’t want to dance because of the embarrassment. Though Billy’s deficiency need of esteem isn’t being met, he provides evidence that not everyone progresses through the stages of needs in the same order, as he continues to work on his growth need of becoming a better dancer. In the scene where Billy is caught in dance class by his father, Billy is clearly taking a hint that he needs to stop dancing to make his father happy. Then his feedback system is reinforced when he sees his brother, Tony, upset his father with what he was doing. Jackie gets so upset that he hits Tony, and Billy sees this happen. This scene gives Billy feedback via an outside source by seeing what may occur if he continued to dance, which didn’t make his father proud.

Terms: Feedback system
ideal self
actual self
esteem
deficiency need
growth need
holism
physiological need
belongingness
psychological need

One of the major points in chapter 15 is how to effectively encourage growth. There are six behaviors listed: Make growth choices, be honest, situationally position yourself for peak experiences, give up defensiveness, let the self emerge, and be open to experience. These behaviors are six ways, listed by Abraham Maslow, that encourage growth. In addition to these, Maslow encouraged positive relationships to assist self-actualization. In the film Billy Elliot, an eleven year old boy in England is raised by his widowed father and his older brother. The household displays mostly masculine behaviors and anything else is frowned upon. Billy ends up finding a ballet class and quickly finds that he is very talented.
When someone makes a growth choice, they see life as a series of choices. When people take a step backwards (regression and fear choices), they are moving away from self-actualization. An example of this would be when the father does not want his sons to make changes in their traditions of coal mining and boxing simply because he had enjoyed it. When he expresses this, he is saying that change is bad and not to challenge yourself with new things. An example of where a growth choice is made is when Billy goes to the ballet classes again and again. When someone is being honest, they are taking responsibility for their choices and embracing their differences. An example of this is when Billy’s father finds him and his friend dancing in the warehouse. He looks very upset and Billy starts to dance sporadically and shows his dad what he has been doing with his free time. In this situation, Billy doesn’t hide or try to make excuses, but he is honest and shows his passion. When situationally positioning yourself for peak experiences people find what things they are good at and what things they are not. In these situations, people eliminate things that they are not good at. This is obvious in the film when Billy finds Mrs. Wilkinson and starts dancing. He eliminates his boxing practices and replaces them with something he is great at (ballet). When a person gives up their defensiveness, they first find out what ways they are defensive and when they exhibit these behaviors. Next, they find another, more productive way, to solve these issues. The previous situation can also apply here. Billy notices his father watching him dance in the warehouse and, instead of becoming defensive (denial or reaction formation), Billy finds a very productive way to relieve his anxiety; he dances. Letting the self emerge includes the stoppage of letting the outside world affect who you are. When doing this, people shut out the world and focus on who they want to be. Billy, again, shows this when he makes the conscious decision to dance even after knowing how his family would be affected; because his family included a lot of respected coal miners, the consequences of a feminine boy in the family could be even worse. Billy’s father was probably scared of the reaction from his coworkers. Finally, being open to one’s experiences includes being fully attentive and concentrated to fully absorb a situation. People who are open to their experiences are also spontaneous and original. Even though it doesn’t seem like it, Billy’s father becomes more open to the idea of him dancing as the movie progresses. After he sees billy dancing in the warehouse, he runs to Mrs. Wilkinson’s house to ask how much the class costs. He is working towards self-actualization in this way.
Terms: Make growth choices, be honest, situationally position yourself for peak experiences, give up differences, let the self emerge, be open to experiences, encouraging growth, Abraham Maslow, and Self-actualization.

Billy Elliot is a film that follows the title character as he attempts and eventually succeeds in becoming a professional ballet dancer. The film, taking place in 1980’s England, follows Billy trying to overcome the various challenges presented in being a straight boy that wants to join up in a profession that is predominantly associated with females and homosexual males. Among these challenges are his father, Jackie, and his brother Tony, who see ballet as effeminate and unsuccessfully attempt to get Billy to join a boxing class to “man” him up. Mrs. Wilkinson, the ballet teacher, is Billy’s only real positive role model, though Billy sees her as more of a controlling and authoritarian teacher until he perfects his pirouette and she shoots him a sly smile. After witnessing Billy’s dancing, his father changes his mind and instead changes his every action to help Billy achieve his dream. After attempting to scab for work in the mines, his father instead sells his deceased wife’s jewelry to pay for Billy’s audition. At the audition, though he assaults another participant, Billy performs, is accepted, and the movie skips ahead twenty-five years with Billy dancing in Swan Lake.

Examining Billy’s actions and behaviors closer using the concept of Rogerian Actualized Tendency, we find a textbook example of growth motivation. According to the humanistic perspective, actualized tendencies are the innate, quietly motivating presence that pushes an individual to their genetically predetermined best. Billy, therefore, was genetically predetermined to be excellent at dancing. Without any training, he holds up with the girls in his class who have been training their entire lives, and Mrs. Wilkinson takes notice of this. However, Billy had plenty of “struggle and pain” to go through to achieve this potential. Like the nine-month-old infant learning to walk, Billy had to take the baby steps to master the art he wished to perform.

Though he was good, he was unpolished and unpracticed, and so he had to learn the basics in a class of younger girls. No better scenario illustrates the “struggle and pain” concept as learning the pirouette. Upon failure and ridicule by his teacher and classmates, Billy privately practices in his bathroom. He is visibly struggling, he falls down repeatedly, and even ponders quitting altogether, but he keeps persisting until he finally perfects the pirouette. His facial expression after completing this first pirouette conveys the perfect example of his following organismic valuation of the process. His smile and brightened expression after the prior scenes of his negative, narrowed face of concentration shows that he very obviously valued that one perfect pirouette as a growth-promoting process, therefore as a positive process. He is then further motivated to attempt the same persistence with other dance moves, because the positive valuation would give, as the book puts it, the “green light” to the dancing persistence, increasing approach behavior.

This then created a positive feedback situation with Billy’s dancing education because he would be more prone to approach new and more challenging moves. He would then go through more “struggle and pain,” falling and pulling tendons as he practiced the moves over and over. However, upon successfully completing the move, he’d feel that same positive feeling over again, motivating the next approach of a new move, repeating this process over and over until he was prepared for his audition/more advanced classes.

And, while a bit out there, I’d like to propose that his father and Tony helped to further motivate Billy to dance even more than Mrs. Wilkinson did. They provided a sort of reinforcement of Billy’s behavior by attempting to control it. They showed Billy what they would like him to do, signing him up for boxing classes, providing Billy a chance to pursue a condition of worth as opposed to internal organismic valuation. They showed Billy the easier road with their conditional positive regard, and this allowed Billy to compare both situations.

Either Billy would have to continue motivating himself, as no one in his family would support his decision to continue ballet, and use the more adaptive method of organismic valuation, or he could receive motivation from his father and brother and join the boxing class, choosing the maladaptive motivational method of conditions of worth. Fortunately, Billy chose the former and continued to motivate himself, rejecting his father and brother’s proposition. By providing Billy a possible future self, his father wound up motivating Billy to further pursue his dreams, a more powerful motivator than a slap on the head and a sly smile after a snarky remark that Mrs. Wilkinson
provides.

Terms Used:
Possible Self – Pg. 273
Growth Motivation – Pg. 422
Rogerian Actualized Tendency – Pg. 425
Conditions of Worth – Pg. 427
Unconditional Positive Regard – Pg. 428
Conditional Positive Regard – Pg. 428

From the film Billy Elliot, it was easy to see ballet as being a part of Billy’s positive psychology. I say this because Billy is self-determined, has natural talent, and enjoys practicing ballet. Although Billy could experience happiness and satisfaction in front of the other ballet dancers and his teacher, as soon as Billy would leave the gymnasium where ballet took place weekly, Billy would feel a sense of regret. When Billy’s father catches Billy in the ballet room instead of the boxing ring, he forces Billy to stop dancing, as it was “what girls do”. As Billy tries to stay away from ballet, he experiences a growing need for it. Billy becomes restless around his house and in the streets of the city and can be easily seen dancing and be practicing his form. In order to become successful, Billy had to experience self-actualization if he wanted to gain fame. Billy depended on himself and open up to the idea that he was going to continue ballet dancing even if he did not have his family’s support.

During the film, I think that Billy is juggling his physiological, safety and security, love and belongingness, esteem, and self-actualization needs all at once! What a mess. Billy experiences the growth and survival need of his physiological and safety and security needs, as his father and brother were the only income in the household. Eventually, you see a segment where Billy’s father ends up smashing his deceased wife’s piano and has to burn it in order to keep his family warm in the winter. Billy’s father makes Billy feel ostracized for having the desire to do ballet and feels embarrassed and ashamed of Billy. On the other side of the coin, Billy’s father favors his eldest son, Tony, as Tony has followed in his father’s footsteps to become a miner (look where that got him). This leaves Billy feeling as though he doesn’t belong in his household, or the city he lives in—bringing down Billy’s self-esteem.

Thankfully, Billy’s teacher allows Billy to take ballet classes with her for free. Mrs. Wilkinson encourages growth in Billy to continue ballet in order to try out for a position in a ballet academy in London. Billy feels a sense of stress and anxiety-provoking feelings because of where he comes from and the lack of time Billy had been practicing ballet. As I was watching I was also curious if Billy felt the pressure to also become a “provider” for his family, and would be able to do so by becoming a well-known male ballet dancer. When the film shows Billy getting into the ballet school, the film ends by showing Billy as a star performer within the Swan Lake as Billy enters the stage confidently, we can see Billy has had an “emergence of self” moment. Billy in return feels acceptance and love from his family that was at the show watching the performance.

Self-Actualization
Growth Need
Positive Psychology
Maslow’s Need Hierarchy
Encouraging Growth
Emergence of Self

Obviously we see a conflict between Billy’s inner nature and the cultural priorities expected of a adolescent boy of a working class background in the depressed north of England in the 1980s. His early exchanges with Debbie about whether boys can/should participate in ballet, show that he has already internalized that ballet is not masculine, at least not for heterosexual men (not long after, he tells Mrs. Wilkinson, “I feel like a sissy”). And yet Billy is clearly drawn to dancing. Even before the ballet class moves into the boxing gym Billy trains at, he is swaying to the music on his brother’s records. His father sternly pushes him to participate in the boxing classes despite an obvious lack of interest on Billy’s part. His father, who watches Billy’s boxing, should be able to see that Billy’s heart is not in it, but he cannot accept it until much, much later in the move. Discrepancies between one’s inner nature and the cultural norms lead to maladjustment (and resulting increased levels depression, anxiety, and other psychological disorders) if latter overrides the innate persona and motivation. As Maslow contends, we have an innate drive to self-actualize, but rarely do we see people achieve self-actualization. Sometimes it is the result of lack of more basic deficiency-oriented needs, but even when these are met so that we can attend to the growth-oriented needs, we distract away from these because of external expectations powers to misdirect our path towards more societally-accepted paths for us.

Billy clearly has a strong intrinsic motivation to persist despite the threat of sanction by his father and others. The extent to which he hides his ballet shoes, covers his not being where his father expects him to be in order to dance, takes a library book, sneaks in opportunities to secretly practice wherever he can find it, and keeps trying despite frequent mistakes all show great perseverance. Still there seems to be the kind of near match between Billy’s potential and the challenge of mastering the techniques demanded of a ballet dancer that give him the satisfaction to experience the positive reinforcing dopamine rushes when he finally succeeds in nailing a technique he has struggled with. When he finally completes the turns, we see evidence in his facial expression that he is experiencing pleasure of mastery, and that is reinforced by Mrs. Wilkinson’s subtle, begrudging approval of his accomplishment. Even when Braithwaite tells Billy he looks like a poof, Billy’s glow of pleasure is not undermined (instead we see a determined face followed by happy playfulness on his way home from class that day). He has perhaps even gained enough confidence (mastery belief) through his success at overcoming the obstacles to his continuing to dance, that he is only temporarily cowed by his father’s attempt to ridicule his behavioral choices and end the ballet, as Billy seems to recover from the initial shock of being caught in class to forcefully dispute his father’s arguments against the acceptability of a boy pursuing ballet.

Mrs. Wilkinson tends to use negative reinforcers to motivate the students, sprinkled with occasional approving comments as positive reinforcers. Fortunately, Billy does not need much external reinforcement, and this likely contributes to his embracing his creativity to develop his own style rooted in his lied experience, to his growing sense of autonomy to march to his own inner sense of self rather than cultural expectations, and develop the conceptual understanding to go beyond mere technical mimicry of the dance techniques (again related to his creating and modifying the moves into something his own). Instead of the loss of creativity and interest that often comes when external motivators are employed in an activity in which the individual had innate interest in it, Mrs. Wilkinson’s sparse use of external motivators and the absence of other external rewards (as few approve of his behavior or appreciate his accomplishments much of the movie), Billy’s love of dance allows him to continue to experience the well-being associated with being challenged and growing in an activity that is driven mostly by his internal motivational energy. Billy also uses the dance as a way to express his frustrations (think of the scene where he is dancing around his neighborhood to “A Town Called Malice”), his defiance (when his father walks in on Billy and his tutu-wearing friend dancing at Christmas time), and his joy (when he dances home after a good practice near the beginning).

Billy finally breaks down his father’s resistance. The war between his identity as a father and the cultural norms of a working class heterosexual man finally breaks on the side of the father role and a desire to nurture the obviously impossible to stifle dreams of his younger son. He still does not give up his pride as being able to provide by refusing the charity of Mrs. Wilkinson, which forces him to break the picket line and join the strike breakers to earn the money to pay for the travel to the London auditions. In part it is the discomfort of the discrepancy between Billy’s dads behavior and what he knows his dead wife would have wanted for Billy that seems to play a corrective motivational force that tips the balance from opposing Billy to embracing Billy’s dream and enlisting Tony, George, and ultimately the neighborhood to support Billy’s trip. The energy put into opposing Billy and enforcing the cultural priorities is then freed to be redirected into support for Billy and challenging the narrow-mindedness of those priorities. This mends the disconnects in the family and draws them closer, fulfilling their need for relatedness and intimacy of social bonds (this is especially captured by the scene in which Billy pushes his father off the fence after he is accepted and decides to go, and the embrace at the departure at the bus station).

Goal setting is another theme. While Billy enjoys ballet, the explicit, specific goal of succeeding at the upcoming Royal Ballet School’s tryouts increases the intensity of Billy’s and Mrs. Wilkinson’s efforts. While there is not a formal goal planning process, we see elements that contribute to successful goal achievement, including breaking the goal down into smaller steps (like developing a routine idea, mastering the movements necessary for it, and after missing the local tryouts, raising the funds to make it to the London tryouts). There is a clear end point and time period, there is a good deal of feedback to allow Billy to help in the goal-striving process, and there is acceptance by Billy of the goal rather than the goal being just externally provided by Mrs. Wilkinson. There is an element of flow expressed about his dancing when he answers the last question at his tryout. He describes a dropping away, losing himself, and becoming integrated with the dance (it’s like electricity).

In the end, we do not doubt that Billy will keep dancing regardless of whether or not he is accepted to ballet school as long as he can stay in touch with his inner nature. We also see that his family goes through their own transformation at seeing one of them really grasping at that rare self-actualization that Maslow and the humanists describe as our innate potential. Even as dad and father go back to work after the failure of the tragic miner’s strike, Mrs. Wilkinson returns to teaching, they are changed by one among them has grasped at their potential, stayed true to his personality and nature, and done the hard work to realize their potential. That and the soundtrack was incredible!

Terms: self-actualization, inner nature, cultural priorities, maladjustment, Maslow, needs hierarchy, growth-oriented needs, deficiency-oriented needs, intrinsic motivation, persistence, mastery belief, dopamine, positive reinforcement, corrective motivation, relatedness, intimacy, goal-setting, goal-striving, feedback, goal acceptance, flow.

Billy Elliot follows Billy as he struggles to become a ballet dancer despite societal pressures to do otherwise. At the beginning of the movie, Billy partakes in validation-seeking. He participates in boxing even though he clearly does not enjoy it. He feels pressure from his father, brother, and his peers to act a certain way that has been preconstructed for him. Due to this, Billy experiences incongruence with his identity. So, to alleviate the discrepancy he feels, he secretly joins the ballet class. Billy’s condition of worth is seriously affected by his decision to join ballet. His father seriously opposes his involvement in the class. He fears what his peers will think of him and how his image will be comprised as a result of his son’s dancing. Jackie punishes Billy with anger and by banning him from dancing. Instead of supporting his child, he values societal standards more than Billy individuality and makes Billy feel conflicted when he had just discovered something that made him feel right. After Jackie sees Billy dance, he completely changes his behavior. He offers Billy unconditional positive regard. He risks bodily injury to go back to the mines and work so Billy would have a chance at the ballet school. Jackie’s support helps Billy feel congruence within himself. He feels supported and loved for who is really is and feels he does not have to hide his identity.
Billy strives towards self-actualization. He joins the ballet class even though he knew he could be potentially make fun of for doing it. By opening himself to the new experience, he is able to embrace who he really is. In his home life, all of Billy’s deficiency needs are not necessarily being met. With his brother and dad on strike, his grandmother too old to work, and his mother gone, Billy does not have food or job security. He still feels somewhat conflicted in what he is doing, and this shows in his relationship with Michael. Michael embraces opposition to societal norms which helps Billy find esteem and more importantly belonging with him. Despite his deficiencies, he embraces his growth needs. Dancing makes him feel whole and alive and they fulfill his personal potential. In this, he experiences actualizing tendency and his true self emerges; one that is full of happiness and life. Throughout his journey to let his true identity free, Mrs. Wilkinson supports him unconditionally along the way. She becomes his friend throughout his journey and every time he feels like quitting, she is there to support his dream and push him towards it. With her, Billy is able to find belongingness and unconditional positive regard. She helps model Billy into a better dancer and shows him that it is alright to be himself.
Terms: Self-actualization, unconditional positive regard, conditions of worth, congruence, deficiency needs, growth needs, validation seeking.

Billy Elliot is a young boy who finds out that he has a passion for dance. The movie follows his story as he struggles to make his dad proud of him.

When Elliot is participating in boxing he hasn’t yet experienced self-actualization. One of the deficiency needs that is apart of Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Elliot is lacking is love and belongingness need. Throughout the movie, especially the beginning, Elliot’s family are for the most part pretty rough on him. You can also tell that in the beginning of the movie that Elliot lacks a sense of belongingness when it comes to making friends and participating in boxing. I thought the scene when he is talking to his friend outside and other kids were walking in was a perfect example of how he doesn’t fit in. The first kid softly pushes him and every other kid that walked in quickly walked into the building with no eye contact or words being said. When I used to participate in activities like golf or track I also failed to acquire belongingness needs because I was terrible at the sports and didn’t find either exciting. Because I was terrible and didn’t experience a rush of excitement, I felt like I didn’t belong and decided to find other things to do that would help fulfill my love and belongingness needs.
When Elliot begins to start taking dance lessons and finally finds something that he is good at something and that he loves to do, he starts to feel a sense of belonginess because his love and belongingness needs are being satisfied. Not only are his love and belongingness needs being satisfied, but also his esteem needs are slowly being met. Without dancing Elliot most likely would still feel like insecure, isolated, or inferior. Because of dancing Billy finally “feels a need to fulfill personal potential” (Reeve, 423). Billy can now finally focus on fulfilling his growth needs or self-actualization needs which will “provide energy and direction to become what one is capable of becoming” (Reeve, 423). There is a sense of wholeness and aliveness, in Billy’s life after dancing came into his life.

While watching the movie I noticed that Billy is more of a validation-seeker than a growth-seeker. During social interaction, validation-seekers “often use internal situations to test or measure their personal worth, competence, or likeability” and their peers “are seen as sources of external validation and as social yardsticks to which to measure one’s personal worth” (Reeve, 434). Positive outcomes tend to leave validation-seekers feeling “accepted or validated” (Reeve, 434). An example of a positive outcome in the movie is when Billy has shown improvement and his ballet teacher tells him that he should take private lessons with her and try out for some ballet school. Her telling him that he was good enough to try out for a ballet school left him finally feeling accepted and validated. Another distinction that I noticed with the textbook and movie was how people who strive for validation “the more likely they are to suffer anxiety during social interaction, fear of failure, low-self-esteem, poor task persistence, and high depression” (Reeve, 434). When something goes wrong Billy tends to experience high anxiety and usually gets very frustrated. He also is scared of how his father thinks of him and wants to make him proud.

Maslow’s Need Hierarchy
Love and Belongingness Needs
Deficiency Needs
Self-Actualization
Self-Actualization Needs
Growth Needs
Growth Seeking
Validation-Seeking

Billy Elliot is a film that follows the main character, Billy, as he pursues his dream of becoming a professional ballet dancer. This journey is especially difficult for Billy as ballet is a female dominated endeavor and males that do take part in the art of ballet are often seen as being homosexual or far too feminine. As a result of ballet possessing this feminine aura the people close to Billy react accordingly, in this case by attempting to get Billy to take up the sport of boxing in an attempt to make him more masculine. This attempt fails and later on Billy’s father, Jackie, witnesses how hard his son is working to perfect his ballet skills and has a change of heart. Jackie then proceeds to help Billy pursue his dream by selling his deceased wife’s jewelry and working extra in order to generate enough cash for Billy’s very crucial audition. Billy performs well at the audition despite some mishaps, gets accepted, and the movie concludes with a scene in the future of Billy dancing in Swan Lake where he has finally achieved the lofty goal he had set for himself so many years ago.

I’ll start my analysis by looking at what Billy sought out to accomplish. Of course, we know that Billy wanted to become a very good ballet dancer, but deep down I’d claim that Billy wanted to grow as an individual and discover who he truly is as a person. Billy knew that he didn’t want to be a boxer, even though his father and brother expressed some very conditional positive regard towards Billy when he attended the single boxing session. Billy was on a quest to define himself and steer clear of how society and other external factors were attempting to define him. Billy wanted to become more Billy and becoming more Billy meant striving for growth as I believe that the film showcased Billy as being a growth-seeking individual rather than a validation seeker. If Billy was a validation seeker he would have tried really hard to become a good boxer in an attempt to please his father and brother. Billy chose to do the opposite by leaving the boxing idea behind him in pursuit of the less socially popular, yet personally important, goal of honing his skills as a dancer. Billy chose growth over conforming to external ideals.

I’d like to focus in more on the point where Billy decides to really practice the art of ballet over the sport of boxing as I view this as being a rather pivotal point in Billy’s life. When Billy decides to take take part in the ballet class he is witnessing he is experiencing an emergence of his true self. What we know from the textbook is that self-emergence is an inherently stressful and anxiety provoking process due to it forcing the confrontation of the insecurities that accompany personal responsibility. Billy takes the responsibility of becoming a good ballet dancer up all by himself and to some extent he knows that others won’t be very fond of the idea. With Billy’s newly added responsibilities come a host of insecurities that arise. Will his father still love him? What will his brother and friends think? In order for Billy to discover his true potential he must combat these insecurities and overcome them so that growth can proceed. As the film showed, Billy eventually garners the support of the entire community as he pursues his London audition. Billy overcame the obstacles in his path and pirouetted his way to becoming more Billy.

...

Terms Used:
Conditional Positive Regard
Self-Definition
Social Definition
Growth Seeking
Validation Seeking
Self-Emergence

The movie Billy Elliot follows a young boy who falls in love with ballet but struggles with the social norms from peers and his family. There were many concepts from chapter 15 that were clearly evident in this film. Personally, this movie is one that I enjoyed more than some of the others. The chapter first highlights self actualization which is the process where you find out who you really are. You realize your full potential and true wants and desires. Throughout the film we see just how Billy finds himself. He realizes that he actually does have the talents necessary to be a a good dancer and decides to take lessons and practice in secret at home. WIth dance being something so negatively viewed when boys or men are involved, we see in the film how upset and disappointed Billy’s father is when he catches on that Billy has been dancing. WIth the concept of autonomy, we see how Billy decided that he wanted to do something for himself and continue dancing. With practice being the main component, he had the motivation, through positive psychology, to continue doing what he loved. He was able to be autonomous and practice. He did so at home, in the bathroom, his bedroom and continued in the mirror so he could learn his moves when going to class. When he finally is able to learn the proper move, his teacher or coach rewards him with a positive boost in his moral and mood, but continues to show him that more is to be learned and that he is still doing very well. When learning a new dance move in ballet, we see through Billy’s emotions and nonverbals, just how difficult and mentally draining it can be. With the concept of openness we are able to see that Billy learns new moves. When he learns he gets the reward from his coach and the dopamine sent to his brain and then the desire was created to want to continue. He also experienced what chapter fifteen called holism. This concept is when the individual as a whole has the desire and motivation to do something. A real life example of this is hunger. When we are hungry, we would say that our stomach wants food so we feed ourselves to stop the pain. With holism we say that we as a human have the need and want for that food and that is why we go out and eat. For Billy, we see how holism is evident in his desire for ballet and to eventually compete in the Royal Ballet audition. He has the full desire as a human being and as a whole to do what he loves. He understands his brother and fathers disapproval but he knows what he wants and gets the motivation from within himself and friend Michael to push himself to be successful. Overall, this movie shows that you have to do what you want with your own life to be happy. Sure it is great to have the reward at the end from peers, family, and friends. But we all need to find our group of friends that are going to motivate us to be happy, even though they may not have a strong interest in that subject. This film highlights this and I think more people should step out of the norms that they are forced into and do what makes them happy.

Terms
Self Actualization
Positive psychology
autonomy
motivation
holism

Chapter fifteen was about growth motivation, self-actualization, and how positive psychology and humanistic psychology can help motivate [or deter] behavior. Billy Elliot is a film that includes almost all the key points of this chapter and exemplifies them in a positive light. This film is about an eleven-year-old named Billy and his dysfunctional family life. Growing up with his widowed father, brother, and grandmother, he must mature very early on to help care for them. His father and brother are currently on a strike from their jobs and decide that Billy should take boxing to be more like his grandfather. Once he attends a couple of lessons, however, he realizes that it is not his thing and he begins sneaking into a ballet class taught in the basement. When his father finds out he reprimands him and shames him for being a “poof”. In the end, his father realizes how talented Billy is and throws all his resources into helping him get into a prestigious ballet school. At the end of the film, Billy is shown years later attaining his goal happily, and becoming a world class ballet dancer.
The first thing in the movie that I noticed in the film was Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. While the book states that younger people tend to only need the lower levels, Billy is very mature for his age and often needs the higher levels, including esteem needs and self-actualization needs. Billy faces esteem needs when he realizes that boxing doesn’t make him happy, ballet does. Ballet is the one thing that Billy does that makes him feel [as he quotes] “like electricity”. Dancing lifts Billy’s self-esteem, first for himself showing a high level of autonomy, and ending when his father accepts his dancing career. Autonomy is mentioned first in chapter seven but brought back in chapter fifteen in terms of self-actualization and describes when people begin to depend on their own thoughts and beliefs. Billy experiences autonomy when he strays from boxing that his family wants and instead goes for what will make him happy. He also develops when we see that he experiences a level of openness, contrary to what his family feels. He experiences openness in the fact that his best friend is gay, and that is something that his father and brother do not seem to accept. They came down on Billy for being what they called a “poof” when they found out about his dance lessons, however Billy knew that ballet was what made him happy and never represses or ignored his feelings such as his father did. Both key points make up self-actualization, something that the book says is important for developmental growth. Billy leaves behind his timidity, dependence on his family, and being defensive to make himself happy, meaning that an eleven-year-old boy can experience self-actualization. He also experiences growth needs, which are defined by “providing energy and direction to become what one is capable of becoming” (page 423). For example, Billy is a dancer and he must dance, much as a painter must paint or a doctor must help people. By realizing his potential and striving to do better, he is fulfilling his growth needs. We see this as he begins private lessons and in the end is accepted into a prestigious school for dancing. In the end, Billy faces congruency with his dancing and his abilities and beliefs, in turn helping him become a fully functioning adult.

Hierarchy of needs
Esteem needs
Autonomy
Openness
Self-actualization
Growth needs
Congruency

Billy Elliot is a movie that focused mainly on a character named, Billy, as he chooses dancing over boxing and how he experience happiness as well as his personal needs are met after he changes his behavior. Billy is self-determined, has natural talent, and enjoys practicing ballet. Although Billy could experience happiness and satisfaction in front of the other ballet dancers and his teacher, as soon as Billy would leave the gymnasium where ballet took place weekly, Billy would feel a sense of regret. It’s clear that he doesn’t like boxing at all, in the way he moves before fighting with the other boy and how upset he was when his coach told him he couldn’t leave until he hit the bag correctly. His attention is clearly caught when he goes to give the keys to the dance instructor. In holism, when one part of a person is upset, the whole being is upset. When Jackie finds out that his son, Billy has been dancing rather than boxing, Jackie gets extremely upset with Billy and makes him come home. While he has a roof over his head and food on the table, his father and brother disapproval of dance and overall hostilities leave Billy lacking in love and belongingness. Billy depended on himself and open up to the idea that he was going to continue ballet dancing even if he did not have his family’s support.

Moreover, when someone makes a growth choice, they see life as a series of choices. When people take a step backwards (regression and fear choices), they are moving away from self-actualization. An example of this would be when the father does not want his sons to make changes in their traditions of coal mining and boxing simply because he had enjoyed it. The overall goal of this is to show what actions lead to experiences of well-being, to the development of positive individuals who are optimistic, and to the creation of nurturing and thriving communities. Billy has a talent and could use that talent to get into a school, this is a huge demonstration of the thriving Billy could do in his life because of dance. An example of this would be when Billy is talking to Debbie about taking ballet classes and he says that he has to take boxing classes.Billy is rejecting his ability to be able to dance because it is against the gender stereotypes of men needed to do “manly” things. I say this because Debbie tells him that he is a priss doing ballet until he becomes a man doing ballet.

Furthermore, after attempting to scab for work in the mines, his father instead sells his deceased wife’s jewelry to pay for Billy’s audition. According to the humanistic perspective, actualized tendencies are the innate, quietly motivating presence that pushes an individual to their genetically predetermined best. Billy, therefore, was genetically predetermined to be excellent at dancing. His smile and brightened expression after the prior scenes of his negative, narrowed face of concentration shows that he very obviously valued that one perfect pirouette as a growth-promoting process, therefore as a positive process. They showed Billy what they would like him to do, signing him up for boxing classes, providing Billy a chance to pursue a condition of worth as opposed to internal organismic valuation. He is not ignoring that he has potential as a dancer. Everything that is going on in Billy’s life is leaving him to not have his hierarchy of needs met. According to our chapter Maslow’s hierarchy of needs include, physiological needs, safety and security needs, love and belongingness needs, and lastly self actualization needs. Billy has his physiological needs being met since he has a home and food. He is also safe and secure, but is lacking love and belongingness.

There is a clear end point and time period, there is a good deal of feedback to allow Billy to help in the goal-striving process, and there is acceptance by Billy of the goal rather than the goal being just externally provided by Mrs. Wilkinson. There is an element of flow expressed about his dancing when he answers the last question at his tryout. We also see that his family goes through their own transformation at seeing one of them really grasping at that rare self-actualization that Maslow and the humanists describe as our innate potential. Finally, being open to one’s experiences includes being fully attentive and concentrated to fully absorb a situation. People who are open to their experiences are also spontaneous and original. Even though it doesn’t seem like it, Billy’s father becomes more open to the idea of him dancing as the movie progresses. After he sees billy dancing in the warehouse, he runs to Mrs. Wilkinson’s house to ask how much the class costs. He is working towards self-actualization in this way.

Over, I think this movie showed many great example of what chapter 15 discussed this week. The main character of the movie portrayed many examples of how his way of changing his behavior had a huge impact on him and his personality and how this decision made him a very happy person. We all know how he wanted to be a dancer and never really liked boxing. I can definitely apply some of these aspects in my life and start making different situations and I know for sure that I’ll also become a very happy person. I would also say that this is very important to do not just to feel happy but, to experience different things in the future.

Terms Used:
Self-Growth
Decisions
Self-actualization
Melsow
Needs
Self-determination

Jon Lutz - section 01

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs are influencing the Elliot family throughout the film. The sequence of deficiency needs preceding growth needs especially plagues the Elliots in the first two acts. Being only eleven years old, Billy is slightly insulated to the struggles of the strike, but his father and brother take lumps to their well being. His father becomes irate when he thinks Billy is wasting the money that he is “busting ass” for on ballet lessons. His brother gives him grief for having played his records. They have little enough that a scratch on a record is enough to chastise his brother. Times become so desperate that they burn the dead mother’s piano. In this scene the limitation of deficiency needs are displayed. The father openly weeps on Christmas, showing that it takes more than warm shelter and food for to maintain sufficient well being.

The motivational energy of growth needs are demonstrated first and foremost by Billy. He faces and surmounts nearly every physiological need, which under the hierarchy of needs are powerful deficiency needs. He dances despite the cold. He uses what little money his family has to pay for lessons, potentially risking food and shelter. He chooses dancing over a romantic relationship and often against the physical discomfort a strenuous dance routine inflicts. In the scene where he dances angrily against the brick wall he sits on a toilet in a failed attempt to subdue his dancing. He doesn’t literally have to use the bathroom but it is a blatant use of metaphor suggesting that Billy’s compulsion to dance is greater than even his most basic urges. The payoff of nurturing their growth needs manifests in the glowing displays of happiness and wellbeing in both Billy and his father when Billy is accepted into the ballet school. Through financially and physiologically the father is in no better position than at Christmas, he appears much happier.

The father’s decision to cross the picket line is testament to the superiority of intrinsic motivation over extrinsic motivation. Until he aligned with Billy’s goal of ballet, the father’s only motivation to betray the union was the extrinsic motivation of money. Against his internalized self-concept of being a union member and all the attached social pressure, he was willing engage in dangerous protests and even shame “scabs.” Both are trumped as soon as he realizes how serious his son’s desire is for ballet. His identity as a father and the perceived well being of letting his son become self-actualized is too powerful.

Billy also shows great intrinsic motivation to achieve his goal. Luckily his motivation leads him to adopt many effective mastery oriented techniques. He seeks out an expert model to observe like the ballet book he steals from the library. He finds a mentor to get reliable feedback, Mrs. Wilkinson. Mrs. Wilkinson proves to be a good mentor. Her language is very informationational and process oriented. She shouts often but always in reference to Billy’s technique. He received much worse feedback from his boxing coach, who degraded Billy with unproductive language. Mrs. Wilkinson even joins Billy in dancing, legitimizing her position as an expert and helping Billy identify as a dancer himself.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Deficiency needs
Growth Needs
Wellbeing
Physiological needs
Self concept
Self-actualization
Mastery oriented approach
Expert model
Feedback
Process oriented language

Billy, a young boy who comes to understand himself and that he is a dedicated dancer who wants to follow his passion. As he searches for his purpose and identity in life, he creates goals for himself and uses his intrinsic motivation to work on his social needs and possible self. He struggles with the feedback that his father gives him, still only striving for his appraisal. Billy works incredibly hard to show his father how happy he is when he is dancing and soon is able boost his self-esteem. He realizes that he does have talents that are worth dancing.
Two fundamental that make up self-actualization are autonomy and openness. Both of these features allow the induvial to leave behind weak characteristics and obtain positive ones. Before Billy was able to get his father to see in on his passion, he still never gave up and always looked at his possible self and used those goals to take away the negative aspects that were affecting the way he thought about self-actualization.
Billy looked past quasi needs, which are when an individual needs social approval during a social interaction. Billy’s father heavily disagreed with his involvement in dance because he thought it was against societies rules that boys, especially his own son, could not take part in ballet. Before watching the movie, I watched the trailer on YouTube to get a general idea of what the film was going to entail. There was a scene when many adults in Billy’s life reacted to “ballet?!” When Jackie approves of ballet after he is able to see him perform, Billy is able to feel congruence though his father’s support.
Billy uses validation-seeking and we know this because of the scene with his instructor recommending him to try out for the ballet school showed a huge step for his improvement. He was “validated” to know that his ballet was finally appreciated and not knocked down since he was a young boy in a ballet class filled with girls. After hearing this from his teacher, he was able to loosen up instead of reacting to every situation with high stress and low self-esteem. I think most of this reaction comes from self-emergence and the stressful and anxiety provoking process due to confrontation and insecurities. Billy was no doubt insecure about himself most of the film and with the responsibilities that he had to take on, he was strong enough to be successful in the art ballet.
It is interesting to see Billy grow comfortable with his own desires and talents. After realizing that his father is on board with him, he no longer has to worry about picking boxing or ballet, because one clearly has meant more to him for a long period of time now.

Identity
Intrinsic motivation Possible self Appraisal Self-actualization Validation-seeker

The movie Billy Elliot gives a great example of what it looks like to realize your full potential. Billy, a young boy whose father wants him to be a boxer, discovers he loves to dance. However, his father does not want his son to be a dancer because that is not “manly”, but it is what Billy is passionate about. Self-actualization as defined by the book is an inherent developmental striving. It 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 (pg 421). Billy shows us what it means to leave behind timidity and dependence on others when he dances in front of his father. This is an important moment because Billy’s father is the main person keeping Billy from his dream of dancing. Billy then moves forwards to create and achieve autonomous self-regulation when he leaves his family to study dance.

Billy is a great example of how he transitions from validation seeking to growth seeking. In the beginning of the movie, he takes boxing lessons because that is what his father wants him to do. However, as the movie progresses, Billy begins to lose interest in his father’s validation and he decides to do as he pleases and dance. This is important, especially at Billy’s young age, because most people engage in validation seeking behaviors their whole life and never truly follow their passion. Billy’s motivation to dance is mostly all intrinsic; he surely does not rely on any extrinsic motivation from his father to pursue dance.

Maslow’s need hierarchy is relevant to Billy Elliot because Billy needs to feel love and belongingness before he can experience self-actualization. Without his father’s acceptance of his love for dance, Billy does not feel as if he can pursue his passion; he feels restrained. While self-actualization comes last on Maslow’s need hierarchy pyramid, it is just as important as the four components below it. Yes, food, shelter, safety, and security are all needed to physically survive; however, self-actualization is needed to be truly happy with oneself and one’s life. Sadly, it is believed less than 1% of people ever reach self-actualization. I like to think that Billy is in that 1%.

In this movie, Billy’s dance teacher, Mrs. Wilkinson, gives Billy the freedom to learn. As a dancer, I can say with confidence that Billy was not a good dancer at first because he lacked technique and basically everything else. He did, however, have lots of passion. His passion for dance is what drove him to practice everyday anywhere he could. His teacher, although stern, did not tear Billy down. Rather, she acted as a facilitator in the class room in order to encourage and support Billy’s needs, desires, and interests. In fact, she is the person who first brought up the idea of auditioning for the ballet academy. It is because Mrs. Wilkinson saw potential in Billy, that he then saw it in himself.

TERMS USED:

Extrinsic
Freedom to Learn
Growth Seeking
Intrinsic
Motivation
Self-actualization
Self-regulation
Validation Seeking

The movie Billy Elliot follows the life of the extremely talented eleven year old Billy Elliot. Billy lives with his father and brother, who are very into boxing. Billy is different than his family, though. He finds himself loving a new dance class, and decides to keep it a secret from his father and brother. This movie has a great deal of ties with chapter fifteen and growth motivation.
In the beginning of the movie, you can see Billy struggles with boxing. It is evident that he only does it to please his father. This is Billy showing he is seeking validation. He could care less about if his boxing improves, he just wants to make his father happy. During the film, you can see how anxious he gets when he has to box and he just looks so sad. With dance, he keeps this secret to himself, until the secret spills eventually. He does this because it truly makes him happy and it makes him feel good. This is a prime example of growth seeking. He wants to grow because he truly does, not because anyone is forcing him.
At the climax of the movie, Billy’s father can be seen as unhappy with his choices. This thoroughly upsets him that he would choose to dance and does not like boxing. He does not have a high sense of openness for his son. He wants him to do things just as he tells him, and definitely not any differently. This creates a lack of autonomy in Billy. He feels he can not do anything for himself. Going out and deciding to go to dance lessons really helps with his autonomy. After some arguing, Billy’s father decides to open up a little bit more to the idea. He warms up and talks to the teacher about how much it will cost him and what not. This is where the father starts to grow. It is clear that he is struggling with this idea, but eventually comes to terms with what his son wants and needs. This can be seen throughout maslow’s hierarchy of needs. His son has the basic needs such as food and shelter, and now he needs to start building up that pyramid. He needs to be secure in himself and have love to grow.
Relationships in this movie are a bit rocky. The relationships that Billy has, are the ones that truly help him build who he is. He has more self actualization though these relationships. The relationship with his father and brother start off a little rough, but by the end, they have better relationships and they help him become an incredible dancer. The relationship with his teacher is what truly started his career. She even showed up when he missed his audition. These relationships play different parts, but they all help to build a sense of self actualization.
Terms used:
Self actualization
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Goal
Acceptance
Openness
Autonomy
Needs
Motivation
Growth seeking
Validation seeking

In the movie, Billy Elliot, concepts from chapter 15 are displayed through Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, autonomy, openness, deficiency needs, and growth needs. The beginning of the movie starts off with Billy taking a lesson for boxing and chooses instead to participate in a ballet class that was also going on. He continues to go to the ballet lessons instead of the boxing lessons and his father soon finds out from the boxing teacher that Billy has not been attending any boxing lessons. His father ends up finding Billy dancing at the gym and tells him that he has to stop dancing and is not allowed anymore dance lessons. Billy is already showing autonomy at this point in his independent decision to go to dance class and continuing dancing because he likes it and is motivated to learn despite his father’s preference. In comparison, Billy experiences lack of love and belongingness within Maslow’s hierarchy of needs because of the rejection and disapproval from his dad and brother. Not only do they disapprove of Billy’s dancing but they also end up treating him poorly.

While Billy’s brother and father refuse to support him and his dancing, Billy retreats to lean towards his dance instructor for support and encouragement. He goes to her house and when she drives him back to his house, she encourages him to keep going at it by offering him private lessons so he can get into a dance school. In these private lessons, Billy received criticism and correction from her so that he could get better, because he wanted to get better he showed a sense of openness to her feedback to work harder at correcting his form.

It wasn’t until later in the movie that Billy’s need for growth was satisfied. Once his brother and father were able to come around and finally give the support and encouragement Billy needed to get to his full potential, his dance instructor also added to that support by telling him that he was able to meet the requirement of a great dancer. This support increased Billy’s energy and direction towards becoming the dancer he wanted to be and grow into.

In Billy’s deficiency needs, his safety, belongingness, and self-esteem were quite low for most of the movie but there were specific moments of these needs finally being met. One example included when Billy’s friend opened up to him about his feelings for boys and Billy danced for him and shared his love for dance with him. In doing this, he had a sense of belonging and safety in that friendship. Another example is when Billy proves to his father how much work he’s put into becoming a great dancer and the skills and abilities he has developed through dancing. As his father witnesses this, he decides to not only accept Billy’s goal to become a dancer but fully support it by paying for more private lessons and getting in the union so that Billy could travel to his audition. His brother also chooses to be substantially more supportive of Billy, and when Billy is accepted into the school, his brother and father are both able to watch him perform and are excited for him.

Terms:
Autonomy, growth needs, deficiency needs, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Billy seemed happiest and whole while he was dancing, standing with pride and moving freely. Dance was his expression, challenge, and outlet. He even parallelled dancing with flying and electricity, saying that his whole body felt on fire while dancing, feeling like he disappears while moving to the music. Billy was intrinsically motivated to dance. Billy’s dad is intrinsically motivated to box. Tradition was an extra reason Billy’s dad wanted Billy to box; Billy’s grandpa boxed long ago. Also, Billy’s dad appeared to have trouble controlling his anger, and boxing was one way to channel his anger to a socially acceptable behavior. Boxing was acceptable until he punched his own son in the face during a disagreement. Billy’s dad hoped that by forcing Billy to box, Billy will grow to be intrinsically motivated in boxing. Instead, the extrinsic motivation made Billy less interested in boxing, especially when ballet was an accessible alternative. For awhile, Billy struggled with what to do because he knew his dad wanted him to box, but internally, he wanted to dance. He put on a facade, but he was not being true to himself when he was suppressing his love for dance. It took half of the movie for Billy’s dad to accept that dancing was important to Billy’s well-being, as well as breaking the family coal mining cycle and getting him on a more “successful” path.
Opposing Billy’s dad’s views, Billy’s mom had written a letter to Billy that discussed how proud she was of him, saying, “Always be yourself.” In holism, being yourself is part of being healthy and unbroken. Self-actualization is the process of leaving behind timidity, defensive appraisals, and a dependence on others, and by finally being able to attend ballet school, Billy took steps toward self-actualization.

Billy utilized the six behaviors that encourage self-actualization. He made growth choices, choosing to take dance classes and practice in his free time. He was honest and gave up defensiveness, eventually showing his dad his ability and passion for dance and being willing to be different than other boys (ballet dancing was not the norm). He situationally positioned himself for peak experiences, auditioning for the ballet school and becoming one of the star performers by the end of the movie. By being open to experiences (e.g. dance classes and the audition), he was able to let the self emerge and live out his passion.

Deficiency needs were portrayed throughout the movie: esteem needs (feeling good about himself), love and belongingness needs (feeling love from his father, brother, and grandmother), safety and security needs (brother avoiding the cops and trying to stay alive), and physiological needs (nourished, but very tight on money). Self-actualization needs, the growth needs, included autonomy (making own decisions about dance) and openness (trying to understand homosexual friend and trying to get his dad to have an open mind about dancing).

Terms: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, deficiency needs, self-actualization, growth needs, autonomy, openness, physiological needs, safety and security needs, love and belongingness needs, esteem needs