Into the Wild

In the movie, there are several events that took place that helped you to understand that Christopher was trying to find his ideal self. He was no longer happy with where he was in live and needed to change things.
Christopher does all the things society expects of him. As a student, he goes to college and gets amazing grades. After college, he considers going to law school in order to continue conforming to society’s expectations. Eventually though he becomes tired of this. Instead of just finding a new role for himself he completely changes his identity. One could infer that by doing this he is trying to reach his ideal self. Christopher sets off on a voyage with no real destination at first. He changes his name to Alexander and finally makes the decision that he wants to go to Alaska. Alexander’s ideal self seems to be a person who isn’t concerned with materialistic things and isn’t interested in what society has to say. His parents had always expected a lot from him and his home live was not pleasing for him. Even before college, Christopher wanted to go on adventures and not be stuck at home. For Christopher, he had fallen short of what he expected for himself. This motivated him to want to get back to where he wanted to be. The self he becomes pushes him to connect not only with the wild but with people who all have interesting stories are real with him.
Alexander makes lists of things he has accomplished. I believe he does this as a sort of reminder of the things he has overcome in his time. Although personal strivings are suppose to be listed before they are completed one could link Alexander’s list to that concept. He documents these things to help him remember what he was able to accomplish. By doing so, it helps him to stay motivated even when things may not go as planned afterwards. Alexander was also able to boost his self-esteem. By completing activities like shooting his first moose and skinning it he felt more confident. It also helped him to develop skills that would allow him to better cope in the bitter Alaska environment. When Alexander first began his voyage he did not know the first thing about how to survive in the wilderness and relied on books and his ability to teach himself. If he had a low feeling of self-esteem in the beginning he could have given up and not attempted to find ways to overcome obstacles when they were presented to him.
One thing that I believe would have been very helpful to him was the ability to self-regulate. Alexander really had no good role model to help him learn the ropes of surviving in the wilderness. He was expected to teach himself which became very apparent when he first made it to Alaska. It took him several shots to hit an animal and he lost the first moose he shot to the wolves because he did not properly protect it from them. Even without this help from experts he does a very good job of teaching himself things.

Terms:
Society
Self
Ideal self
Role
Personal strivings
Self-regulation

The movie Into the Wild pictures a young adult named Christopher. Throughout the whole movie, Christopher is trying to find out what he enjoys. He is constantly learning about himself and moving from place to place. Chris seems to change while he is traveling, but I think he doesn’t want to stay in one place because he is scared that people might judge him for leaving his family. I am going to use table 10.1 in the textbook to evaluate Christopher on the six dimensions of psychological well-being and then explain how he could have improved his self-esteem in different situations.
The first criteria used to evaluate well-being is self-acceptance. I would place Chris on the lower end on the continuum on this criteria because he is not happy with his past. He dislikes thinking about it and is trying to run away to help forget all of the bad things that happened with his father. The second criteria is positive relations with others. I would put him somewhere in the middle of the continuum for this criteria because he makes friends very easily, but he never stays in one spot long enough to keep them. His sister was his only friend when he lived with his parents, but once he went on the road, he found Jan and Rainey, and Mads, and Tracey, and many others. He opened up to them easily because he felt like he had nothing to hide. Each of these friends even knew about his struggles with his parents.
The third criteria is autonomy. Christopher has a strong drive for control and freedom. He wanted freedom so badly that he was willing to give up the comfort of a college education and wealthy family just so he could make his own decisions. He also does not rely on other people and resists social pressures (like advice to go see his family). Because of this, he would rate very high on the continuum. The fourth criteria is environmental mastery. This skill deals with mastery and competence. There were many examples in the movie where Chris felt like he was competent enough to do tasks (e.g. farming and many other jobs). The only time where he was not competent and thought he was, was when he tried to cross the larger river and fell in. He misjudged his ability to cross the river. Because this was the only situation where he misjudged his ability in his environment, I would rate him fairly high on this continuum.
The fifth criteria is based on of someone’s purpose in life. A high scorer will set goals and feel directed in one way. Chris feels no direction but mentions moving to Alaska several times. Chris would be placed very low on this continuum. Finally, the last criteria is personal growth. Someone who is a high scorer can realize their own potential and can see improvement over time. Chris never really sees potential in himself and is constantly trying to run away from everything. He would score very low on this continuum.
One situation where Chris could have improved is his area of self-acceptance. If he could have found a way to accept himself as he is (like when he spends time in the old man’s shop), he could have been happier and gained self-esteem. Another way he could have improved would be improving his relationships with others. He could stop running from everyone and make some close friends. One more way he could improve is if he worked on his purpose in life. If he would find something that he is good at besides leaving people, he could start helping others and find his so call purpose. Finally, Chris could stop running away and see his skills with being around people and helping to develop them. If he did all of these things, he could have improved his happiness, been more productive, and increased his self-esteem. He does better as the movie progresses and he wants to go home, but he loses hope again and again until the end. He did not follow the role that everyone else wanted him to follow and went against society.
Terms: Self-acceptance, positive relationship with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, personal growth, role, society, and self-esteem.

Into the Wild is a movie in which Christopher McCandless or his traveler name Alexander Supertramp goes on an adventure into the wilderness of Alaska for two years without any connections or temptations from the outside world and his goal is to submit himself into the wild and find his true self and leave his old ways behind. The self is a person’s being that makes them different from others. It’s what separates us all in unique ways. Regarding the self there are components that have high and low scores that help refine the self and who we become. These components are self acceptance, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth. All of these factors are prominent in Into The Wild and definitely on the journey we see Christopher/Alexander experience.
The first component that is prominent in the movie is self acceptance. Self acceptance is when we possess a positive attitude towards the self, accepts the complexity of the self, and makes you feel good about the good and bad qualities in the past, present, and future. An example of this is when Chris decided to go on this journey, he didn’t tell his family he was leaving and in fact he really didn’t want to be found. So in that aspect I would say that he scores low on self acceptance. Because people who score low on self acceptance Have a few close, trusting relationships with others, find it difficult to be warm, open, and concerned about others, is isolated and frustrated in interpersonal relationships; and is not willing to make compromises to sustain important ties with others. Christopher exhibits all of these traits.
The second component that is prominent in the movie is autonomy.Autonomy is the ability to act on our own without the pressures of the outside world to think and act in certain ways. Into the Wild is the ultimate movie focused around autonomy because Christopher burned all his money, material things, etc on his way into the wild so that way he could make his own choices just based on his thoughts and what he thought was right. By not having the pressures such as money, cigarettes, socialization, and various other things he was able to become at one with the wild and find who he was. So in this category I think he scores high in autonomy because he makes decisions for himself and doesn’t have outside influences.
The third component that is prominent in the movie is environmental mastery. Environmental mastery is just what it sounds like, the ability to have competence and control your environment around you. Environmental mastery is a key concept in Christopher;’s ability to survive in the wild. He is able to hunt, live out of a van, start fires, until he dies on his own account, I believe he scored high in environmental mastery. A person that scores high in environmental mastery has a sense of mastery and competence in managing the environment; controls complex array of external activities; makes effective use of surrounding opportunities; is able to choose or create context suitable to personal needs and values. Like stated earlier until Christopher passses away he took care of himself in this tundra out of a van and hunting and using fire to keep warm during his time.
The fourth component that is prominent in the movie is purpose in life. Purpose in life is when we have these goals and a sense of direction, having that meaning in life. I think Christopher had many purposes in his life, or things that gave him a meaning in life. I would say his first meaning in life was to protect his sister when his parents started getting physically abusive towards each other. This is a purpose in life simply because this had his sister be in a safe place when his parents were too busy fighting and not raising their children. His second meaning in life was to leave all of his bad influences behind and find his true self, that is why he started on this journey into the wild. I think this would be considered a meaning in life because his end goal was to become one with the wild and such.
The fifth and final component that is prominent in the movie is personal growth. Personal growth is a feeling that we are never done developing because of new experiences. While I think Christopher did grow as a person, I am not sure that I would consider him to have personal growth. Sure, he went in the wild and eliminated all resource other than what was on the land to survive. Which is very brave and very humbling that he did that but I do believe that he didn’t inside grow much as a person because he didn’t have to confront his family and peers because he was out in the wild he was alone with his thoughts.

Key Concepts
Self
Self Acceptance
Autonomy
Environmental Mastery
Purpose in life
Personal Growth

Into the Wild tells the story of Christopher McCandless. McCandless essentially abandoned his life; getting rid of all of his possessions and money and not making his family aware of his intentions and whereabouts. He feels as his life is missing something and decides that this is the best route to find what he is lacking. Throughout the movie, he spends time getting from place to place using his car which he loses to a flood, hitch hiking, kayaking, and by hopping from train to train. He runs into a couple named Jan and Rainey who are struggling as well. He does his best to console them and moves on with his journey. He later runs into them again and their daughter Tracy is present. She shows interest in Christopher as a potential lover, but he is not interested as she is underage. He continues his journey and runs into a man named Franz in California. He and Franz become good friends and Franz teaches McCandless leatherworking. In learning this, he begins to carve out pieces of his journey onto his belt. To the dismay of Franz, he leaves again and continues towards Alaska. When back in Alaska, he finds that nature can be harsh and that the only way to find true happiness is when you have others right there to experience it with you. He then decides that he wants to go home, but finds that a creek he had previously crossed became fast moving and dangerous due to the extra water from the snow melting. In trying to survive back at the bus, he eats a plant that is poisonous and starves. He is able to leave a note for his family to see however.
I believe that Christopher struggles mightily with self-acceptance. He only can see possible selves as versions of himself that are happy and this motivates him to go on this journey. The reason that the difference between his current selves and possible selves bothered him so much was that it created cognitive dissonance. He felt bad about the life he was living and wanted to fix it. Ultimately, this took him away from his family and the comforts of life which he enjoyed for a while. Sadly, he allowed himself to get to caught up in the process and didn’t account for the possibility that he may want his life to go back to the way it was or at least a slim resemblance. His lack of knowledge from being in the wilderness eventually took a toll on him and when he realized that he really did enjoy how happy he has been in the wilderness and free, but he wanted someone to share that happiness with, it was too late for him. His journey to find his ideal self ultimately cost him his life shortly after he realized the life he wanted to live.
This movie was interesting to me because I feel like it tells the story of a lot of people who are going through a hard time in life and are struggling to find themselves. So many people look for their purpose in life and make large, somewhat costly decisions trying to find that purpose. In the case of McCandless, sure he found that he was happy in nature, but ultimately, he wanted someone to share his happy moments with and he didn’t need to go to the lengths that he did in order to figure this out. Self-acceptance is hard to come by, but is very crucial to happiness and having a version of self that is closer to an ideal self. Many people get stressed or sad and lose track of their self and obtain cognitive dissonance through poor self-acceptance. This often leads to big decisions, maybe not as big as the one that Christopher made, but big decisions that can often be life altering. This movie was inspiring in a way as it showed a man who was chasing happiness, but sad in a way that he lost his life chasing his happiness when it could have been found right where he was had he been able to take time and learn to accept himself. This movie made me think about how often people give up on where they are in order to chase a possible self that they think will make them happy, and how big of a gamble that really is. We see cases all the time of where people took a chance and their lives changed completely for the better, and there are cases that end like this one. This movie does a wonderful job of showing how much of a motivator self can really be.
Self-Acceptance
Possible Selves
Cognitive Dissonance
Ideal Self
Purpose

Throughout the entire film Christopher is attempting to find his ideal self because he was unhappy with his present self and wanted to change. At first, Christopher conforms to society and their expectations. Christopher has a strong identity with his present self because of how he does what society thinks he ought to do in order to fit into the culture. Once Christopher decides to live in the wild, his identity becomes condensed because he no longer wants to please or be a part of society. He decides to destroy his credit cards and identification documents in order to change his name and find a new identity.
Christopher’s self-concept is at a moderate level because the societal feedback he is receiving admires his academics while he internally is tired of his life and does not care that he has good grades. I think going into the wild, Christopher had a higher sense of self-concept and overestimated his ability to thrive in the wild. Christopher’s self-schema generated motivation in his present self to be able to leave everything behind him to move toward his desired future self. His possible self in this case was a man in the wild, meaning his goal was to survive in the wild away from society and modern civilization. This ended up creating a new self-concept in Christopher because he realized how harsh nature can be once he got over the beauty and calmness of being alone.
Christopher tried very hard to present a consistent self. I noticed this when he realized that by taking the train, he was still relying on modern civilization. Once he came to this realization, Christopher got off the train and decided to find his own way to travel to his destination. He also dressed and looked the part as someone who is surviving off of the land. This helps other people see him as he sees himself. I think a main reason that Christopher cut off contact with his family during this time was because they would create contradiction with his consistent self-view.
Cognitive dissonance arises in the film when Christopher decides to re-enter into society and go back to his family and civilization. This uncomfortable psychological state occurs because Christopher realizes that he needs human interaction to be happy. However, when he starts to make his way back home, he realizes that he cannot get home because the stream he crossed on his way had grown too big for him to cross back over. Christopher wants to go home, which is his cognition, and he has no way home so he returns to his bus, which is the behavior. To reduce the dissonance, he continues to find a source of food rather than only thinking about returning home. The importance of finding food overpowers the importance for relatedness, which is how the cognitive dissonance was reduced.
Christopher has self-determination, or autonomy, to successfully turn away from society and begin a new life by starting from scratch. He goes into the wild with only a couple material items and skills from previous experiences in his life. However, Christopher learns new skills along the way, such as leather making, which gives him a sense of competency when he successfully makes an intricate belt. The most important lesson I think Christopher learned was that full psychological well-being requires relatedness with other, rather than just competency and autonomy.
Terms:
Ideal self, present self, identity, self-concept, feedback, goal, consistent self, cognitive dissonance, relatedness, autonomy, competency

Here is the URL of the article/interview with Christopher's sister if anyone wants to read, it's pretty interesting.
http://www.newsweek.com/decades-after-christopher-mccandless-went-wild-his-sister-tells-full-story-284347

During the movie Into the Wild, Chris displays a low level of autonomy during the beginning of the film as he is attending college and earning good grades, all while being a student-athlete. After Chris graduates and has a celebratory dinner with his family, it seems as if Chris take a 180-degree turn. While watching the scene of Chris driving through the desert, I assumed he was driving to his parents’ house. The following scene shows Christ abandoning his vehicle and burning the money in his wallet—in this case, Chris displays high levels of autonomy and goes against society’s views of money being power and seeing a vehicle as a need to succeed in society.

Chris’ self-schema appeared to be motivated by transforming from his present self, into the self he wanted to be. Chris began his journey of backpacking across the United States and did not mind working jobs for quick money that most people in society would deem as undesirable (McDonald’s and Farm hand). Chris was torn when receiving his check from the farm, as he thought that he was enjoying his journey and experiences more when he was penniless. Chris begins initiating behaviors that direct him towards his ideal location, Alaska. Chris begins training the areas of his life such as catching game and dressing animals caught in the wildlife versus having a minimal effort to get food when hungry. In the movie, it appears that Chris displays a consistent self, as he is going against the grain of society by living in nature with a tent, a bag of rice, a change of clothes, and a gun. Chris ensures this appearance by hanging out with people who also believe in living off of the Earth’s land versus materialized belongings (Rainey, Jan, and Tracy). Whereas most people who display a consistent self with symbols of nice cars, name brand clothes, and big houses. All of the things that Chris’ parents display in order to present a fake consistent self. An example of Chris displaying self-concordance goals is when he begins working out daily in order to physically prepare himself to live off of the land. Chris begins working out not because he has to, but because he wants to be resilient against the unpredictable events that could arise—like eating the plant that was inedible.

Towards the end of the film, Chris beginnings showing signs of a lack of self-control. When Chris realizes that he wants to venture away from the bus and cross the river, the river is flooded from the rainfall and melted snow accumulation. This leads Chris to enter a state of panic and loneliness—not being able to have control of good coping strategies. While Chris now sees his stay on the bus as a necessity, not a choice, he soon becomes hungry as he is unable to catch game and is out of rice. After Chris ate the inedible plant, he becomes week and continues to lose his sense of self-regulation that he had once had in control.

AUTONOMY
SELF-SCHEMA
CONSISTENT SELF
SELF CONCORDANCE
SELF REGULATION

Into the Wild follows a young man named Christopher McCandless in his hitch-hiking journey of self-discovery from the big city of Atlanta, Georgia to the wilderness outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. To a certain extent, Christopher is given a second chance at life. He redefines and recreates his self (self-concept), relates his self to his society and others (identity), discovers and develops personal potential (agency), and manages or regulates his self (self-regulation).
In the beginning of the movie, Christopher McCandless did everything that his parents (and society) expected of him. Christopher’s self-schema at the very beginning was intelligent, athletic, and wealthy. Self-schemas are cognitive generalizations about the self that are domain specific and are learned from past experiences (pg. 268). Christopher was a top student and athlete at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia and had big plans to attend Harvard Law School with his $24,000 in savings. However, Christopher was experiencing cognitive dissonance with his self. At this point in Christopher’s life, he did not know his self-concept. A self-concept is an individual’s mental representation of themselves, which is constructed from life experiences. “The self-concept is a collection of domain specific self-schemas” (pg. 269).
Christopher was raised and taught to behave a certain way, but it was not consistent with his beliefs about his true self, or identity. “Identity is the means by which the self relates to society, as it captures the essence of who one is within a cultural context” (pg. 279). Instead of continuing his education to pursue a career as a lawyer, Christopher destroys all forms of identification, donates his life savings of $24,000 to a charity that fights hunger, and begins his two-year long journey to live in the wilderness to find his possible self. Christopher McCandless decides to take on a new identity, Alexander Supertramp. His new identity is created through his journey and meeting others that are like him, “rubber tramps” or “leather tramps” (people who wander from place to place by car or by foot). Alex is able to behave in a way, in the wild, that is able to remove his cognitive dissonance and restore/recreate his identity.
Chris/Alex has a “source of motivation that underlies agency as it spontaneously energizes people to pursue their interests, seek out environmental challenges, and exercise their skills, and develop their talents” (pg. 282). He does all of this. He spontaneously decides to give up his life as Christopher McCandless, live in the wild, learn to hunt and clean his catch. He overcomes his fear of water and learns to kayak down rough waters. Within his new identity, Alex creates friendships and shares happiness with people who are like him.
Alex is able to manage and regulate his self by writing in a diary and creating a numbered list of all the things he has accomplished since leaving society behind and surviving in the wild. “Self-regulation is the metacognitive monitoring and evaluating of one’s ongoing effort to attain the goals one seeks” (pg. 289). Self-regulation is a continuous process that involves forethought, action, and reflection. By writing down his accomplishments and everything that happens from day to day, Alex is able to continue to stay motivated. Unfortunately, he mistakes an inedible plant for an edible plant and becomes poisoned weak, starved, and dies.

Terms used:
Self-concept
Self-schemas
Cognitive dissonance
Identity
Possible self
Agency
Self-regulation

Into the Wild follows a gentleman that struggles to identify who he is as a person. Throughout his life, he’s been following what society and others want for him. He gets good grades, is respectful, and wants to be special. Later on in the movie, he decides that it’s time for a change and goes on a sort of spiritual journey to understand who he is. The book uses the term “self”. When we try and find out what we are in life or why we’re put here we try and understand the self. Trying to relate the self to society, we think about how we want to relate to others as well as what place we wish to occupy in the social world. Chris decides to find himself in a world of followers instead of leaders.

In this movie, Chris decides to seek out who he wants to become. Before he made a move, he was an astounding scholar getting excellent grades, and was on track to graduate. But deep down he knew that was not the life that he wanted to live. Society’s norms for college dictates that most people are expected to go to college let alone high school. They expect degrees in fields that you want to major in and do for the rest of your life. Many people don’t fit that category and want to be something else. This is the route that Chris follows. In his journey, he actually burns his social security card to fully become someone else! That’s some commitment if you ask me.

Chris shows a high score of autonomy throughout the movie. Autonomy is being able to do things on your own without people telling you what to do or how to do it. Chris decides to just throw away his old life to show that no one can tell him what to do any longer. This is a large commitment that makes him autonomous. He left behind everything for a chance to become someone else. In the wild he proves he’s autonomous by surviving in a van while doing everything by himself. Chris also scored high on environmental mastery. When one scores high on this, they are competent and can control the environment around them. He proves his environmental mastery by living in the wild until he dies. There were many challenges that he faced out there, but was able to conquer it all through wits and mastery of self.

This movie showed many of the concepts highlighted in chapter 10. This chapter was one of my favorites because defining one’s self is very difficult to do and can take years to fully understand. If I could make a power move and do the same thing Chris did, I probably would honestly. But I don’t have high scores in environmental mastery and autonomy, sadly. The textbook shows that having high scores in the six dimensions of psychological well-being is good. I don’t think I have high scores in most of them, which I will work to change.

Terms:
Self
Identity
Autonomy
Environmental mastery

The movie that went with chapter 10 was called, “the call of the wild”. This movie takes the viewer through the story of a guy named Chris who graduated college and did not want to comply with the expectations of society and his parents. He decided to travel the world with no money and continually being on the move to new places. Self-schemas was a major idea in chapter 10 and was defined as, cognitive generalizations about the self that are domain specific and are learned from past experiences. Chris grew up with an abusive father and was able to witness what an unhealthy marriage was from his parents. This is the biggest motivator behind why Chris did not want to go to school, and did not want to go through life and end up like his parents. He was able to see that money did not being happiness and made a choice to choose a different lifestyle. Choice was a major theme in chapter 10, and this is exactly what Chris is representing with his decision to not go to college and follow his dreams. The book talks about how people often get stuck in a state of dissonance with which choice to make. I believe that Chris probably felt this, but eventually decided to do what he felt was right for himself. I think that Mr. Franz can show cognitive dissonance in his life. He believes that he is happy and living a full life, when in reality he sits at home and works all the time. Chris got him to make this realization when climbing a mountain. I believe that Chris making the decision to go travel the world, and not be stuck in the wants of his parents is representing possible selves. This concept is defined as what we build, including our visions of who we dream to become eventually, and who we fear to become. Another key idea in chapter 10 was the idea of roles. A role consists of cultural expectations for behavior from specific individuals, and it is what is expected from them. Chris’s parents believed that Chris had a role at the law school he was going to start going to. They believed that he needed to look and play the role of a law student, and wanted to get him a new car to show that role was being fulfilled. Personal growth was shown through this whole movie with a variety of characters. Personal growth is the feeling that we are never done developing into the person we are because of new experiences. I believe that Chris showed personal growth by doing what he wanted to do, and not just going with what his family wanted to do. He was able to form new bonds and relationships with people along his journey that could contribute to his personal growth. I think that Chris’s parents were able to go through personal growth after Chris left. Even though it was to late, they finally were able to see what they had been missing and what was important in life. Self-regulation was shown with Chris at the end of the movie when he writes a note saying he is happy with how far he came. Chris ended up dying, but in the short period of his journey he was able to complete many adventures that he had planned. Self-regulation involves forethough, action, and reflection. These were all concepts that Chris dealt with before, during, and as the end came near. Overall I really liked this movie.

Terms:
self-schemas
cognitive generalizations
self-regulation
cognitive dissonance

Chris graduated college with good grades and sets off for another adventure where his parents are willing to help him because of all his hard work. While Chris is gone, his parents think they are sending letters to him to check in but not one of them is being delivered. Soon they find out he is nowhere to be found and there is absolutely no way to get ahold of him. He generously donated all of his money to a charity and destroyed his identification to change his name to Alex. He is forced to travel various ways like kayaking, freight train, or hitchhiking. When he arrives to his destination, Alaska, one of his first findings is “The Magic Bus” where he spends his time reading and hunting for animals. Chris turns up sick after he eats a toxic seed and dies from starvation.
Into the Wild was an interesting eye opener for me because stories like this are inspiring for someone who wants to travel the word and not have to worry about a money factor. It is not a realistic story for someone like me, but using my imagination, I enjoy hearing what other people act on to face challenges like this in life. This film portrayed Christopher as someone who only took on behaviors that were going to make his future something he looked forward to. He did not fall for tricks that would lead him into a path of doing something just because everyone else was doing it. He did not take on the identity of a typical honors student who had a large amount of money saved up. He had an unpredictable life that landed him exactly where he wanted to be until eating the toxic seeds.
The self can be extremely powerful when finding something you want to pursue and taking the actions to get there. For a consistent self, self-schemas direct the behaviors to confirm the self-view to convince that the behaviors acted on, are positive for the self-view. Self-schemas steer away from feedback that might disconfirm the self-view. Christopher’s self-schema started to become obvious to find his possible-self directly after he got dropped off in the wild. He was taking action and doing something that he saw himself doing. Though each day was unpredictable for him, he still knew the big picture and focused on his possible-self.
Christopher’s self-regulation consists of himself monitoring how his goal setting process is going. He planned his goals of managing the money that he was earning from picking up jobs along the way, learning from farmers how to kill and skin animals, and picking up tips from Jan and Rainey. Chris encountered many people through his journey that taught him lessons which helped him set goals for himself. These goals were never too far out of reach because they were situation specific. Each one would get him closer to his end goal of resting in Alaska.
One of the most interesting parts of chapter 10 that I wrote about earlier in the week was about how self-esteem really has nothing to do with the motivation to do something. I think in Into the Wild, Chris helped prove that from a different perspective. It’s not that he had low self-esteem and ended up making it to his “destination,” but it’s the fact that he didn’t show any high or low self-esteem behaviors at all. His personality was perfect for the identity he took on as this hitchhiker because he didn’t need confidence to get him to where he wanted to be. Before reading this chapter I would have thought that maybe it would make a difference if he had high self-esteem because it would give him a boost in confidence that he will someday overcome the sandstorms and the railroad police.

Identity,
Self,
Consistent-self,
Possible-self,
Self-regulation,
Self-esteem

This week's movie, Into the Wild, follows young man throughout his journey living off the land. Christopher graduates college with fantastic marks only to set off on an adventure living off the land. First off, I think it speaks volumes about Chris' self-efficacy that be believes he can go out and survive off the land without anything else to aid him. It shows what he believes he is capable of. However, I wonder what Chris' self-schema was like when he developed this plan to go out on his own. What did he envision in his mind when he dreamed about taking off on his own, with nothing but the supplies he could carry and the land to help him survive.

Chris' identity is extremely interesting. Being raised by a very wealthy, powerful, and intelligent family, they had a certain idea of what they wanted their son to be when he grew up. Chris seemed to fill the identity his parents wanted for him through college until he couldn't take it anymore. Chris decided to set off on his own and escape society in order to pursue the identity he wanted for himself. His parents raised him in a household where he constantly watch his parents feud. The more power, wealth, and intelligence they obtained, the more Chris felt their perception of life was tainted. He did not want that for himself, so he ran away from it all. When it came down to it, he realized his self-concept was not that of what his parents concept of him was. He did not want to fit the mold they had set for him any longer.

Throughout Chris' journey we see the identity he has always wanted. Chris has always wanted to feel free of society and the imaginary chains it puts on a person. Chris has moments where it is clear he has achieved his desired possible-self. One instance of this is when Chris successfully kayaks down the Colorado river. He raises his arms and screams in joy, this is a clear moment when Chris feels like he has achieved his true identity.

Chris' self-concept and ideal self soon change though. After enough time away, traveling across the wild terrain of every place he visited, Chris realizes that his true happiness can only be found if he is experiencing it with others. This is also evident throughout the movie, seeing as Chris seems much more content with life when he is with one of the various new friends he made along his adventure. Chris then decides it is time to return home. However, Chris soon realizes that nature is very unforgiving as well when he begins to run out of supplies. When Chris begins to fall ill after unintentionally poisoning himself, he longs for a new identity. He wishes he could rejoin his family and experience the joys of life with the people he cares about. I also think part of the reason Chris longs to go home is that he has spent enough time away from his family to forgive them for his upbringing. These are sadly the things Chris was imagining as he died alone in the wild. In a way, he got what he wanted, he lived outside of society and truly lived.

Terms:
Self-Efficacy
Self-Concept
Identity
Possible-Self
Self-Schema

Christopher McCandless is an excellent example of different roles a person can take on within society and how motivating possible selves can be. Before graduating college, Christopher took on many roles. The three roles that stood out to me were student, son, and brother. Christopher’s identity within these three roles directed his behaviors prior to graduating college. As a student and a son, he was motivated to graduate college. However, I think it’s important to note that this wasn’t a huge priority to him. In class, we discussed how we can rank different roles on how important they are to our own definition of ourselves. I don’t think Christopher’s roles as a student or a son were highly important to him. His role as a brother seemed slightly more important but perhaps not as important as other aspects of who he was. As a brother, he took action to protect and keep in touch with his sister, at least until after he graduated. Then, everything changed.
After graduation, Christopher decided to reject his roles as a student, son, and brother. He erased his identity and went into the wild. This is where the motivation from possible selves becomes relevant. Possible selves represent what one hopes to become and fears becoming; it’s a projection of one’s future self. This projection of the future makes it motivating in the same way that goal-setting is motivating.
In Christopher’s case, his possible self was someone who lived alone, who didn’t need materialistic things, and who lived off the land. Although these are things he hoped to become, I also believe he was using these things to avoid becoming something else. Because of Christopher’s rocky relationship with his parents, I think he was afraid of getting close to people. If he lived alone without anything but the necessities, he could avoid creating close relationships with people. This idea of his possible self was so motivating that he succeeded. He burned his identification, abandoned his car, left his family without even saying goodbye, and eventually ended up living out of a bus in the woods in Alaska. At this point, when he had everything he wanted, he started developing a new possible self.
The new possible self was someone who lived with others, who shared experiences with people he cared about, and who had a wife and kids. I think this change occurred partly because he essentially had no identity; part of his self was missing. Identity is relating the self to society. Christopher completely removed himself from society; he had no identity.
Unfortunately, by the time he realized this, the river was too strong to cross. After failing to find animals to eat, he ate some plants instead. In his hunger and lack of experience and knowledge, Christopher mistakenly ate something poisonous. In his final days, his desire to share life with others was confirmed, emphasizing the importance of identity, how we relate to others, and what others expect from us.

Terms: roles, possible selves, motivation, identity

Chapter 10 centered around talking about the self which is exactly what Into the Wild was about. Chris wanted to go live in the wild and he wanted to get away from his parents. As he grew up he had an idea of who he wanted to be and what he wanted to do. He knew that he could not go until he graduated from college. Once he did that he was a free man. I think that his relationship with his parents and their relationship with each other helped shuffle Chris’ ideal future self along its own path. Chris is an extremist and he likes to go out and explore what the world has to offer. His agency naturally motivated him to hitchhike to live in Alaska. That is how he is wired. He sees himself as an extremist so he partakes in activities that help back that up. I would consider hitchhiking and living off of the land in Alaska to be pretty extreme. Even when he was walking across the stage in the beginning/middle of the film, he ran and jumped up on stage instead of walking up like everyone else. This action helped keep up his image of the happy outgoing goofball extremist. How growing up molded Chris’ future self, Chris being out and living in the wild with no communication to him whatsoever helped mold his parents’ future selves. They went from fighting and his father being abusive to them being soft faced people who have been forced to reflect on the past and realize just how bad they used to be. With Chris being gone and especially since he has chosen not to be found, it has opened their eyes to how short life is and how family is more important that a job or status or money. Family will make you way happier than a good job, successful career, or even all the money in the world. Along Chris’ adventures he ran into a “hippie” couple. The male, Rainey, and Chris were having a conversation about the female, Jan. Rainey wondered what Chris’ insight on it was and Chris said that some people do not think that they are deserving of love so they wander off into the emptiness hoping to escape. That right there I think is a perfect example of how we do certain things in order to keep up the appearance of how we feel about ourselves. Jan did not feel that she was deserving of love so she walked off along the beach by herself. Chris being the sweet guy that he is chased after her to talk to her and try and cheer her up which is another example of him doing something nice to help keep up his appearance and self-feeling of being a goodhearted guy. I love that Chris wanted to go out and explore the world instead of going to Harvard for law school. Life is short, go out and do what you want to do. There will always be time to go to college or go work a 9-5 job. He wanted to live in the present and the now in the quiet peace of nature because he had none of that growing up.

Key Terms:
The self, agency, motivation

Jon Lutz - section 01

In the film Chris is motivated by his perception that his parents have lived lives with diminished wellbeing. Normally upbringing can solidify a person’s self-concept at a young age. Chris and his sister seem to have not come to identify themselves with the dysfunctions of their parents. They display identity confirming behaviors: Chris jumps recklessly onto stage and openly defies his parents gift at dinner, and lets his sister drive his car. All these things are done directly to oppose the image their parents expect of him. During a flashback to Chris’s graduation from college he presents and alternative reality where his parents did not get married, have children, and consequently went on to do amazing things. He describes their experience reality with much darker brush strokes. This cognitive process leads to his envisioning of a possible self. The tension created by the difference between his current and possible self generates the motivation to set out on his Alaskan Adventure.

Chris’s ideal possible self is chiefly formed by the books he reads. With heavy emphasis on survival novels and philosophy it is no wonder he identifies so strongly with being an independant and moral person. At ever turn his assures himself and others he is capable. When he fails to use the moose carcass in Alaska he describes it as “the worst tragedy of his life.” This declaration is a blatant identity-restoring behavior and a signal to himself or others though he slipped up, he remains a moral person. He even leaves remains in a place for wild scavengers to make his mistake useful.

Much like he formed his ideal possible self he uses expert models to inform his skill set. His ability to self regulate is indicative of his success for the majority of the movie. For most areas he lacks skills, Chris is able to observe an expert, and incorporate his own regulatory behavior. He learns how to navigate drifter lifestyle from Jan and Rainy. He learns how to hunt and skin from Kevin, and how to work leather from Ron Franz. Even in his biggest blunder he sought feedback from experts in the form of a edible plants guide. Sadly the wild has a ridiculously low failure tolerance. Also Chris demonstrates the independence from his experts by leaving them over and over again. It takes him a long time to see he is only compromising his psychological needs in the process.

The chapter lay out of the movie maps well onto the concept of agency. The first chapter of the movie is labeled “My Own Birth.” This is eerily similar to the the blank slate state that infants experience which is thought to be one of the purest forms of agency. Like an new born, Chris renames himself, asserting a bold new direction for his self-striving. The final chapter is “Finding Wisdom.” All throughout his trip his mentors try to explain to him the importance of relationships, forgiveness, and love (hippy dippy translation for the need for relatedness and intimacy). It is not until his death bed that he accepts aversion to isolation and forgives his parents. The reason he is able to die with a smile on his face is because of the quality of agency and self. The peace he felt came from a positive self revelation, this is to say that it was instantaneous and internal, as opposed to and external behavioral phenomenon.

Self-concept
Possible self
Identity-confirming behaviors
Identity-restoring behaviors
Expert model
Agency
Psychological needs

The film “Into the Wild” describes Christopher’s journey into trying to find himself and realize true happiness. Throughout the film, we are able see the beginning of his journey from camping outside to working at Burger King all the way to the end of his journey as he finally reaches Alaska. There are various instances in the film in which we can see concepts from chapter ten of the text.
One of the major concepts that is seen in the film is the concept of society and the manner in which individuals are expected to live their lives. One scene in the film shows Christopher explaining that there is a social pressure to have money, fame, and materialistic things. However, he mentions that he does not care about these things because he would rather have honesty and happiness. Another example of Christopher’s rebellion against society is shown when his parents offer to buy him a new car. Although most individuals would be ecstatic at the opportunity to receive a new car, Christopher denies the offer. He goes on to mention that society is based on having materialistic things and that he does not want to live in this manner. He would much rather find happiness than have the most expensive things.
The second concept that can be seen in the film is the concept of identity. Initially, Christopher takes the identity of a student and scholar and successfully completes his four years of college education. He was given the role of a student and he chose to accept the identity and lived his life as a student. He soon changes his identity from a college student to a “free” or “liberated” man. Christopher chooses to live a life where he does not need to worry about responsibilities and can bee one with nature. He embodies a persona that allows him to travel and to gain experiences, not because he has to, but rather because he freely chooses to have them. Christopher chose to no longer accept the role given to him by the institution of being a student and changed to the role of a free man and thus developed a new identity. An example in the film is when Christopher chooses to burn all the remnants of his former identity and claims a new name known as Alexander.
One of the biggest components of the film is Christopher’s attempt to find his purpose in life. Throughout the film we can see him work several jobs and interact with a variety of individuals in order to find his purpose. It is apparent that Christopher did not believe that being a student and working was his purpose because he mentions that graduating from college and getting a job is what society tells us to do and he would rather freely choose his own path. His entire journey is meant for him to reflect on his life and find a place to go where he can be one with nature and find true happiness and his purpose in life. Once Christopher arrives in Alaska, he is able to write down his experiences and find his true purpose. He finally realizes that his true purpose in life and the source of happiness is when he shares good times and great experiences with those he loves. This becomes apparent when he imagines seeing his family and the great friends he’s met along the way and remembers all the good times. He finally realizes what his purpose in life is and that those around him provided him with the happiness he has been looking for throughout his journey. The final component that Christopher seems to lack is personal growth. Throughout his entire journey he encounters many individuals who try and get him to see the positive side of life, however he is determined to keep traveling in search for something that he already possesses. He does not realize the source of his happiness until he succumbs to his sickness which demonstrates that he attained minimal personal growth in the film. His personal growth may have been able to develop further if he had the opportunity to meet with his family and encounter some of the individuals he met during his journey.

Terms:
-Society
-Identity
-Role
-Purpose in Life
-Personal Growth

The movie Into the Wild perfectly shows some of the topics discussed in chapter 10.
Christopher McCandless (interpreted by Emile Hirsch) is fully motivated by the different concepts of the self in order to achieve psychological-well being. He seems to have mastered all the six dimensions of his well being, these dimensions are: 1) Self acceptance: he has a positive attitude towards his self, acknowledging and accepting multiple aspects of it. 2) Positive Relations with Others: He is very friendly and has very successful, warm, and satisfying relationships with everyone he finds on his way. 3) Autonomy: He is able to deal with the social pressure of his parents being self-determining. 4) Environmental Mastery: Christopher is very competent getting resources from the nature and in all the contexts he is in all throughout the movie. 5) Purpose in life: his goal of living in Alaska has its sense of directedness and he is committed to it.. 6) Personal Growth: he likes reading, getting informed, and expanding his knowledge by reading and seeking for new adventures.
Christopher has a well developed self-concept with strong self-schemas. His self schemas (learned from past experiences) are strong in some specific domains which allow him to resist information from other sources or influences. This is shown when Christopher and Ron are talking about their purposes in live, trying to convince each other about their point of view. These well defined self-schemas prevent episodes that generate feedback that might disconfirm his self-view. This is also related to the effect of selective interaction, where he intentionally chooses to interact with other who treat him in ways that are somewhat consistent with his self-view, like Jan and Rainey.
Another important aspect of the self is identity, he tries to set his name as Alexander Supertramp. By doing this, he wants to capture the essence of who he is within all the cultural contexts he is going through. He changes how he acts, pursuing some identity-confirming behaviors (like sleeping in ………… and sneaking in trains to travel) and avoiding identity disconfirming behaviors ( breaking all his IDs and burning all his money).
Christopher is full of agency, he develops the potential of the self in with a high intrinsic motivation, having the power and intention to act towards his goal. He has almost no environmental or cultural influences that drive his behavior.
Self-regulation is also well shown in the movie. Christopher is constantly managing and regulating his self, his resources, progress, being able to make adjustments when necessary. Self regulation is a cyclical process, involving forethought, action and reflection. In the forethought section, he seems to plan his goals and think about implementation intentions, as an example, he tries to learn everything about hunting and collecting edible plants. When he faces self reflection, he has to self monitor and self evaluate himself making judgments. In my opinion, I think he would have regretted burning some of his money when he had to work to buy some things he needed.

Terms used:
Six dimensions of well being, self-concept, identity, agency, self-regulation, forethought, reflection, implementation intentions, selective interaction, identity-confirming behaviors, identity disconfirming behaviors.

For this week’s assignment, we watched a movie “Into the Wild” that follows a guy named Christopher McCandless who leaves everything behind, his home, his family and etc once he graduate from college. Him and his traveler named Alexander Supertramp decided to go on an adventure into the wilderness of Alaska without having any connection or any sort with the outside world. The main reason behind this for Chris was to go somewhere where he could find his true self and leave his old self in the past. The self can be defined as a person’s existence that makes them different or unique from others. The different qualities in each one of us would be something that defines us as who we are as a person. Concerning the concept of self, there are many different elements that can have a small or a greater score that help purify our true self and what we become in our life. These elements include, self acceptance, environmental mystery, autonomy, a person’s goal in life and personal growth with time. All of these elements are conspicuous Into the Wild and two of the main characters, Alexander and Christopher’s experience shows a great examples of these.
One of the first component that we get to see in the movie was the self acceptance. Self acceptance can be defined as when a person posses a positive attitude towards his/her self, accepts the ramification of the self, and makes someone feel in a certain way on his/her past, present and later in future. Movie shows a great example of this when Chris goes on to this adventure with his friend without telling his family that he’s leaving when in reality, he doesn’t want to be found at any cost. I would definitely say that this shows an example of low self acceptance because he wants to change his old self and tries to find a better one. Many studies have shown that people who have low self acceptance have a really hard time having any close relationships with others. It is very hard for them to have feelings about someone. Not only that, they feel secluded in interpersonal relationships with others and won’t come to an agreement with the other person at any cost. We have seen that Chris shows all of these manners in this movie.
The second element that movie shows is the autonomy. Autonomy can be defined as the ability to act on our own without having any kind of pressure from from the outside world to think and then act according to that. Movie shows a great example of this because that’s exactly what Chris is doing. He burns his money and leaves all that materialistic life behind when he leaves from his home and does what he thinks is right according to the thoughts he was having at that moment. Moreover, without having any kind of pressure, like socializing, family gatherings, drinking, or any attending any events and many other things, he was able to find his true self and became what he wanted to become. In this case, I would say he definitely scores greater than the first component because we can tell that he achieved what his goal was when he left everything behind and went on a journey to the wild.
The third elements that is portrayed in the movie was the environmental mystery. This is exactly what it sounds like. Environmental mystery can be defined as having a control over a certain type of environment that that affects the way you function, mentally and physically. I would say that environmental mystery is the main focus and conception in Christopher’s case because his goal is to survive into the wild and achieve what he wants by living there. I would say that he does an amazing job in environmental mystery category because he learns how to start a fire, live out of a van, be able to hunt and overall, be able to survive in such condition. Our textbook mentions that a person who has high ability to perform well in the environmental mystery are tend to have the impression and expertise in directing the environment around them because it be very beneficial in many ways such as, it regulates the complex array of external activities, and selecting and constructing a context that is satisfactory to his/her needs.
Furthermore, the fourth component that is mentioned in the movie was the purpose of life. The purpose in life can be defined as when a person have a purpose, they do it with the determination and when your activities have a purpose, you have an aim and intentions in mind regarding how to approach it well. The movie portrays many great example where Christopher shows many purposes that he wants to achieve in his life. One of the great example I could think of is when Chris tries to protect his sister when their parents get into an ugly fight with each other that involves them being physically abusive towards each other so he wanted to put his sister somewhere safe where she would not have to witness this ugliness. The other purpose is pretty obvious, which is him finding his true self so he goes into the wild to do so.
Lastly, the fifth element that is mentioned is called personal growth. Personal growth would be something that we evolve in everyday’s life so it is never ending. I wouldn’t say that Chris actually had a personal growth experience because even though he went on an adventure that was too risky and it was very brave for him to do that, but I was really hoping that he would go back to his family and friends and tell them about his main purpose and why he did what he did. But unfortunately, he never got a chance to do that.

Terms Used:
Personal Growth
Purpose
Autonomy
Self Acceptance
Environmental mystery
Self
Complex

This movie illustrates what it’s like to be completely free from the world. Chris is a college graduate who doesn’t fit into society. He doesn’t know what he’s doing anymore and he wants to figure it out. So he gives away most of the money he has once he graduates, packs up his stuff in his apartment, and goes. He travels the world with just a few things to help keep him alive, meets new people along the way, and sees beautiful things. This movie clearly represents a man’s process of eliminating himself from society in order to find who he wants to be.

The most prominent concepts within this movie is developing the self and figuring out who he wants to be within society. When developing the self, people form self-schemas. These are cognitive generalizations about the self that are formed around specific domains that we develop based on past experiences. When developing self-schemas, humans pick the past experiences that are most important to them. These developed self-schemas become motivating by driving the person towards environmental situations that involve positive feedback for the self-schema as well as moving the person towards a desired future self. In regards to Chris(Alex), he developed many self-schemas that involved the characteristics of passion and adventure, and drove him towards living in the wild and traveling the world with only on a few things to keep him going. When Chris decides to leave the city without telling his family and adventure all across the world, he was confirming his self-schema by doing the things that were consistent with it, not sticking around to do adult stuff like his parents wanted him to, because this would be inconsistent with his self-schema and thus cause internal tension instead of happiness.

Another topic present within Into the Wild is identity, but it is present in a different way than one might think. Identity is the way that someone relates themselves to society. Identifying with a social group or culture offers the person different identities which leads them to play out the socially defined role within the culture or social group. As people encounter different roles in their lives, they change their behavior. All people have different roles they must take in their lives, many of those being student, parent, child, athlete, friend, etc. As the present situation changes, the role and behavior coinciding with that role changes. For Chris(Alex), he assumed the role of student while in college, and son when among his family, as well as friend and confidant when around his sister, but when he decides to leave the life he has, he begins assuming different roles. Because of the change in setting and people he interacts with, his role become less constricting. He begins to relate with people that understand him more, which acts as an identity-confirming behavior. As Chris(Alex) starts to identify himself as Alexander Supertramp, he establishes a situationally and culturally appropriate identity. Once this identity is confirmed, his behavior is continuous. He continues striving towards reaching Alaska and maintaining this identity he has formed for himself out in the wild.

Terms: Self-Schema, Identity, Identity-Confirming Behavior, Roles