Social Psychology Film Analysis Paper: Coraline
Noor Meer
Bard High School Early College Queens
January 9, 2015 The movie Coraline, directed by Henry Selick, is a film adaptation of the book written by Neil Gaiman. Coraline Jones is a lonely, neglected child who discovers a door in her house leading to another world. Everyone in this alternate reality has buttons for eyes. There, Coraline’s other-mother cares for her, makes her happy, and provides everything that her real parents have been depriving her of, mostly affection. However, things take a very twisted turn when Coraline discovers that her new dream world is actually a trap. Many of Coraline 's adventures involve theories and tactics in social psychology. For example, events like …show more content…
There, she meets Wybie, a boy who lives nearby. He asks Coraline for her name, incorrectly hears it as "Caroline," and says, "It 's not scientific, but I heard that an ordinary name like Caroline can leave people to have ordinary expectations about a person." Immediately, Wybie 's first impression of Coraline involves a schema that associates a name with a personality trait. This is known as an implicit personality theory, or a certain type of schema used to group together personality traits. The presence of implicit personality theories amongst school teachers towards gifted students is confirmed in an empirical study conducted by Baudson and Preckel (2013). The disharmony hypothesis, explaining that “giftedness implies maladaptive social behavior and emotional problems” (Baudson & Preckel 2013), is confirmed to exist between participants and gifted students. Each participant (either a teacher or a prospective teacher still in undergraduate school) was given a questionnaire. The study used the German five-factor personality inventory for children; eight items were represented and rated on a 5-point scale. The independent variable is ability level. Covariates include students ' and teachers ' genders and ages, teachers ' experiences with gifted students, and teachers ' giftedness-related knowledge. They are in the questionnaire as a cover story to prevent demand characteristics. The dependent variables are “the big five …show more content…
The Beldam traps Coraline in the mirror as well. She meets the ghosts of the Beldam’s previous victims and they request Coraline to free their eaten souls. Other-Wybie rescues her and helps her escape back into the real world but she realizes that her real parents have been kidnapped by the Beldam. Wybie’s cat then mentions to her that the Beldam has a thing for games. From here, Coraline devises a plan involving compliance techniques to get her parents back. She returns to the other world, enters the kitchen where her other-mother, now behaving normally, is making breakfast, and proceeds to get her to comply with her requests.
Coraline: Why don 't we play a game? I know you like them.
Other Mother: Everybody likes games.
Coraline: Uh-huh.
Other Mother: What kind of game would it be?
Coraline: An exploring game. A finding things game.
Other Mother: And what is it you 'd be finding, Coraline?
Coraline: My real parents.
Other Mother: Too easy-
Coraline: And the eyes of the ghost children.
Other Mother: (Smiles) Huh. What if you don 't find them?
Coraline: If I lose, I 'll stay here with you forever and let you love me. And I 'll let you sew buttons into my
Noor Meer
Bard High School Early College Queens
January 9, 2015 The movie Coraline, directed by Henry Selick, is a film adaptation of the book written by Neil Gaiman. Coraline Jones is a lonely, neglected child who discovers a door in her house leading to another world. Everyone in this alternate reality has buttons for eyes. There, Coraline’s other-mother cares for her, makes her happy, and provides everything that her real parents have been depriving her of, mostly affection. However, things take a very twisted turn when Coraline discovers that her new dream world is actually a trap. Many of Coraline 's adventures involve theories and tactics in social psychology. For example, events like …show more content…
There, she meets Wybie, a boy who lives nearby. He asks Coraline for her name, incorrectly hears it as "Caroline," and says, "It 's not scientific, but I heard that an ordinary name like Caroline can leave people to have ordinary expectations about a person." Immediately, Wybie 's first impression of Coraline involves a schema that associates a name with a personality trait. This is known as an implicit personality theory, or a certain type of schema used to group together personality traits. The presence of implicit personality theories amongst school teachers towards gifted students is confirmed in an empirical study conducted by Baudson and Preckel (2013). The disharmony hypothesis, explaining that “giftedness implies maladaptive social behavior and emotional problems” (Baudson & Preckel 2013), is confirmed to exist between participants and gifted students. Each participant (either a teacher or a prospective teacher still in undergraduate school) was given a questionnaire. The study used the German five-factor personality inventory for children; eight items were represented and rated on a 5-point scale. The independent variable is ability level. Covariates include students ' and teachers ' genders and ages, teachers ' experiences with gifted students, and teachers ' giftedness-related knowledge. They are in the questionnaire as a cover story to prevent demand characteristics. The dependent variables are “the big five …show more content…
The Beldam traps Coraline in the mirror as well. She meets the ghosts of the Beldam’s previous victims and they request Coraline to free their eaten souls. Other-Wybie rescues her and helps her escape back into the real world but she realizes that her real parents have been kidnapped by the Beldam. Wybie’s cat then mentions to her that the Beldam has a thing for games. From here, Coraline devises a plan involving compliance techniques to get her parents back. She returns to the other world, enters the kitchen where her other-mother, now behaving normally, is making breakfast, and proceeds to get her to comply with her requests.
Coraline: Why don 't we play a game? I know you like them.
Other Mother: Everybody likes games.
Coraline: Uh-huh.
Other Mother: What kind of game would it be?
Coraline: An exploring game. A finding things game.
Other Mother: And what is it you 'd be finding, Coraline?
Coraline: My real parents.
Other Mother: Too easy-
Coraline: And the eyes of the ghost children.
Other Mother: (Smiles) Huh. What if you don 't find them?
Coraline: If I lose, I 'll stay here with you forever and let you love me. And I 'll let you sew buttons into my