This analysis will involve a vivid description of the social psychology concepts in relation to film the Hidden Figures (2016). The various instances correlating to each social psychology concept will be outlined, discussed and further detailed to describe it within the context. The assignment will involve defining these concepts and matriculating them to the various instances and occurrences within the film. An analysis and a conclusion will be articulated.
The Hidden Figures is a 2016 production involving the US and Russia competition to landing the first man on space. For the task, the producer involves some genius mathematicians; female African-Americans to help with the launching of the astronaut, John Glenn. The women are perceived as human computers due to their articulate nature and efficiency. Katherine Gobels Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson are in the team of experts tasked with this accomplishment. However, their journey to making history is not all smooth; they face racism, gender bias, and adversities before proving the heroic accomplishment for America (Heathman, 2017). Through this production, a lot of social psychology metrics are observed and thus making it the best option for review in relation to this course.
Byrne, Baron, " Suls (1989) maintain that social psychology is a scientific field that pursues to comprehend the nature of individuals and causes in their behavior in social circumstances. The aim is to instigate human behavior depending on the context of social occurrence. This includes an examination of the influence of other human behavior shaping particular responses. Social psychologists will, therefore, try explaining the behavior of humans based on social relations and the environment factoring out the views, feelings, and actions of those present. Ultimately, the social psychology discipline aims at refining the thoughts, feelings, intentions, beliefs and the goals shaped by psychological dynamics, causing an influence in the way people relate with other people.
Social psychology relates to the self-concept, attribution theory, social influence, social cognition, group processes, interpersonal processes, stereotypes, attitudes, aggression, prejudice, and discrimination, among others. (Iresearch.net, 2013)
In the film, various instances relating to social interactions based on human theory. Instances of racism, prejudice, and discrimination are evident, further, character behavior on motivation is also clear, among other behavioral themes. To start with, there are drastic observable behavioral interactions relating to human behavioral theory in the film. Dorothy with her other black female colleagues is stopped by a racist officer who immediately asks for her identification. She responds by saying she works at NASA which surprises the officer. It is characterized by his change in attitude and tone. He expresses the agape that he had no idea NASA employed black women. He further explains how much defeating Russia to the moon meant for Americans. Upon asking if they had met the astronauts, there is the observation of how apart they work from them. The police provided them with an escort to NASA’s offices (NASA Langley Research Center), sirens were blazing and lights flashing to create the importance of these women and the situation. The other characters at the center find this weird as they did not expect black women to be escorted by the police. (IMDb, 2018)
While working, Katherine takes a break to use the bathroom, and since it is a new building, she has to ask Ruth, a white woman, and the only female in the department. She tells her that she does not know where the black’s bathroom is; Katherine notes that the only female bathroom in the floor was for white women, and so she has to run back to where she used to work earlier, the West Center to pee (IMDb, 2018). This is a further illustration of the human behavior theory within the film.
To illustrate on social identity theory, which relates to separated groups and individuals; where these women work, the West Area Computing division of NASA, it is evident that with all other black women in the station, they worked their math’s computation by hand and not computers. Further, Katherine, because of her ability to keep accurate with numbers, is sent to the men area, a different research center filled with white men. Vivian gives her strict instructions not to speak to the Head of Department, Mr. Harrison and not unless spoken to. Vivian does not expect her to last working there for long because they never had a ‘colored’ person working among the men. Katherine is given a reject computer to work with (IMDb, 2018). The men treat her rudely as they think she is the janitor. This shows that black women were segregated and perceived as ‘the other group.’ This promotes prejudice and relates to the desire for the white group than the black women group.
In proving the character motivation for behavior, when Katherine is approached by Jim Johnson and starts to flirt, he tries to disapprove her for the ‘taxing’ work at NASA, citing her gender. Katherine responds by marching away. This is a way to show that she was capable of doing so much more than the world thought just because she was a woman. Later, Jim comes to apologize for the disrespect, and their friendship grows with time. Al Harrison asks if anyone could solve a mathematical equation that had issues solving; Katherine is the only one who solves it in the presence of all the men. She proves she can do more, be more than the men.
In another instance, Katherine runs to use the bathroom, and since Harrison is seeking for her, upon her return, she is soaked from the torrent rains; she explains to Harrison everything that she had been going through just because she was colored. Katherine elaborated on the colored pot, washrooms and the colored computers (IMDb, 2018). Harrison responds by kicking away everything ‘colored,’ and a new set of rules is achieved. NASA stops the ‘color’ segregation through Katherine’s behavior.
In proving how prejudice has impacted within the film, Al Harrison cites that women are not allowed into NASA meetings; therefore, Katherine has to receive the proceedings in a document. This goes on, but she does the calculations anyway. However, the results have errors. Katherine’s responds by citing that the numbers kept on changing, proceedings kept altering her calculations, and so she needed to be included within the meetings. There is a heated debate between her and Harrison; she cites that she must be included and that they needed to work together. Surprisingly, during the next meeting, she calculates where Glenn would be landing and produces articulate results. This proves that the prejudice within NASA against women had been inefficient and through by ending it, better results are achieved. (IMDb, 2018)
For the themes of social interactions, this paper will focus on two themes; the first is the self-concept. We can relate to this within the film through how Mary seeks a permit from a judge to allow her to attend to a school that recognizes color so as to gain her degree in engineering. She is the first colored woman to attend, and the white students are surprised, but she does not let this bother her. She focuses on the reward this will bring her in the future. Further, Dorothy is also focused on her self-concept to achieve programming and become better to effectively implement her role. She is even chased out of the library for being in the wrong section, but she carries the book with her anyway. She becomes better than even the men at NASA and helps solve an issue that had been causing data relay problems for NASA (IMDb, 2018). Further, her self-concept to achieve more helps her to move the women to the new department, helping them to reach higher and ultimately keeping them at par with the group of whites perceived as the ‘better’ group.
Attitude and persuasion is the other major theme. First, the whole film is characterized by certain attitudes towards black women. Specific to the whites and the black women associated with working at NASA, their attitude towards the black women is awful. Instances are all through the film evident. Katherine cannot be allowed to use the white women bathrooms, and Dorothy cannot be promoted and is treated with demeanor by her fellow woman, Vivian. Dorothy is further told to leave the white section of the library despite not finding the FORTRAN book within the colored section, and Mary’s advice is not taken into consideration immediately she issues landing metrics for Friendship 7, only for them to be considered a little later after Glenn communicates citing problems with the spaceship getting hot (IMDb, 2018). The way the black women are perceived causes emotions to stir at various scenes for the different characters, and at times anger is evident from the whites responses to the black women.
In conclusion, it is evident that social interactions within the film cause an impact both negatively and positively. This ultimately causes the different characters to respond in various ways at different times and scenes. However, to note, in the long run, there is an overall positive impact achieved when these women respond despite the challenging environment of their work. Their actions prove beyond doubt that positive social interactions free from inequality, segregation, and bias can enhance better delivery of effective results. NASA later even named the West Research Center after Katherine, Mary attains her degree and Dorothy is promoted to the rank of a supervisor. Social Psychology is crucial to guiding and driving change within a society.
References
IMDb. (2018). Retrieved February 10, 2018, from Hidden Figures (2016) : https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4846340/plotsummary
Heathman, A. (2017, February 28). WIRED. Retrieved December 10, 2018, from Hidden Figures: the true story behind the women who changed Nasa's place in the Space Race: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/hidden-figures-nasa-director
Iresearch.net. (2013). Psychology:Social Psychology. Retrieved December 10, 2018, from Iresearch.net: http://psychology.iresearchnet.com/social-psychology/
Robert A. Baron, D. B. (1989). Exploring Social Psychology (International student edition ed., Vol. 3). Allyn and Bacon.
