Parenthood 1989 is a film characterized by a realistic family setup. The movie incorporates normal life events that get applied in everyday life. The family characters play specific roles that are bound to be expected actions in relation to the ages and status that each person has within the family setup. A psychologist can tap on to assets that allow them to understand and determine how each family and a specific person is involved. Each person has a role in determining the family behavior. The parents have a considerable influence on the children’s behavior and hence should be guided in the best way to have them teach the children quite well. The essay uses the film to explain how different family members behave due to the effects of others impacting their life. The Eric Erikson Psychological theory gets used as a base for the analysis.
Keywords: Psychology, Erik Erikson theory, behavior.
Analyze Gil
The character Gil is the protagonist in the movie. The story revolves around him with the decisions that he makes being critical to the movies continuity, flow, and realism. Based on the Erik Erikson Theory of Psychological Crisis stages, Gil is a perfect example of a person who is at the Generativity versus stagnation stage of life. He portrays generativity when he thinks of Kevin, his son, having a perspective of him as the best thing in his life. He hopes to have met the father-child standards in that his child is proud of him (Howard, 1989). He sure does believe that he will have his remembrance as a good father throughout. He too is affected dramatically by stagnation, as he is not very sure of the morals that he has impacted on his children considering the daughter’s behavior. Even at the point he claims to be weighed down by parenting while talking to his father, Frank.
Gill Buckman is a man focused on dealing with middle adulthood crisis by handling his career, family, and marriage precisely well. He takes a keen interest in his job since his wife, Karen, is a stay at home wife. He is entitled to provide for the family and ensure their comfortable stay. However, considering the childhood, he had where his dad was never around, he does not want to have a repeat of that on his children and creates time for the family (Cherry, 2017). He spends time with his son and even has his son placed on second base in baseball. He tries to spend time with Kevin as much as he can to the point that he attends games played by Kevin on baseball. He is also determined to have a good marriage at all cost. He considers the life that the middle age sister, Helen, has of having to raise her kids alone as being a single mother. She is struggling, and Gil would not want to have such a situation happen to his children. Nonetheless even with Gil trying to become the perfect father, he opens up to his father Frank, claiming that he is uncertain he is doing alright as a parent. It is very evident when trying to involve his wife in raising his children, and they both decide on what is best for their children. He also spends time with her as much as he can (Howard, 1989).
Analyze Frank
Frank Beckman, he is the father of Gil, Larry, Helen and Susan. His life gets tested across the three stages of adulthood based on the Erik Erikson psychological theory of life stages. He starts off at the sixth stage, Intimacy versus isolation. Intimacy gets illustrated as at this time as it is when he meets Marilyn (Howard, 1989). He settles down with her and starts a family that leads to his four children. He enjoys the intimacy at the time as love takes a big part of his time. Isolation, on the other hand, comes out as his marriage is not wholly intact pushing him to become a drunkard in search of being too much in work that he is not involved in marriage as such.
In his middle adulthood generativity versus stagnation takes center stage. Frank does not achieve generativity, Gil his eldest son hates him for not being there for him as he grew up. He gets entirely consumed by his work and does not find any time to interact with his children. It is as if he is not there at all as they believe he has neglected them. He seems to feel that he is in stagnation as no matter how much he works he does not achieve much but loses his family failing to attain the essential virtue of the stage that is care (Cherry, 2017).
In his late adulthood as based on the Erik Erikson theory ego integrity versus despair, he manages to balance the two aspects. It is at this last day of him turning to start the stage that he has a conversation with his son Gil (Howard, 1989). Gill becomes emotional as he realizes he was judging Frank unknowingly and might not be any better than him as he is slowly losing his grip on the family. He knows that he is trying to be there for the kids, but they end up being different from what he expects them to be. The conversation leads to Frank exploiting the ego integrity aspect and tells Gill that caring for the sun will never end. He reconciles with his son in regards to the bitterness that he had. The element of despair is not left out, as his son Larry is in a problem that he needs bailing out. He does not lose hope but instead tries to help him develop into a better person by trying to teach him what he did not do. He seems to be amending the past mistakes that he had noted he had done and finally gives up hope and allows Larry to lead the life that he wants to have. In balancing the two aspects of the stage eight theory, he achieves a fundamental virtue that is wisdom.
Helen analysis
In the movie Parenting hood (1989), Helen is the daughter of Frank and Marilyn. She is fortunate enough to acquire a good job as a bank manager securing her career. Her family gets torn as she has difficulty raising her children by herself. Marriage wise she is divorced, and the father of her children who happens to be her ex-husband has remarried. Raising her two children, Julie and Gary is the most difficult task she has. Her job takes much of her time, but entirely the major problem is that she is not sure of how to handle the children by herself. She tries to be too protective of her daughter forcing her to seek rebellion and that way she gets a boyfriend. Unfortunately, Julie becomes pregnant even before she finishes high school. It tears further on to her family as it weighs her down to question her parenting skills.
Helen is in the early adulthood based on the Erik Erikson theory associating her with intimacy versus isolation. Intimacy becomes the driving force of Helen over this time as it is within the time that she finds love. She goes further to get married and gets blessed with two lovely children. She seems to have mastered the art of intimacy. However, isolation opens a new chapter for her still within the period. She has marriage problems and it all results in divorce. Loneliness catches up with her and wipes the smile off her face as her ex-husband moves on to remarry while she gets left as a single lady. Due to her inability to hold on to the marriage that resulted from the intimacy she losses her primary virtue of the stage, love.
Conclusion
The psychological analysis offers one the chance to understand and determine specific outcomes. One can predict the behaviors of people. The film is very realistic as the Erik Erikson stages theory offers the opportunity to exploit the characters understanding their actions and possible outcome effects on the family.
References
Cherry, K. (2017). Erik Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development. Psychology. Psychosocial Theories, 14.
Howard, R. (Director). (1989). Parenthood (1989) [Motion Picture].
