Throughout an immense amount of movies seen on the big screen, viewers are able to watch dramatic characters who apply psychological principals to their everyday life without realizing it. Typically when watching a hot, new film the audience is there for entertainment purposes rather than to observe the behaviors or diagnose characters with psychological disorders. Generally the audience is more caught up with how the characters make the movie more intriguing and interesting by each of the characters unique behaviors and personalities. Furthermore, White Oleander has numerous amounts of psychological principals that the everyday movie watcher would overlook. Two of the principals that can be found throughout the movie relate to Astrid’s mother, Ingrid, and foster mother, Starr.In the White Oleander Ingrid’s character portrays that of a mother who has a psychological disorder known as narcissism. A narcissistic is described as an individual who has “an unrealistic sense of self-importance, cannot take criticism, manipulates people, and lack empathy (King, p. 556, 2008).” Additionally individuals with the disorder are usually arrogant, self confident, and expect to be noticed as superior (Long, 2008). Ingrid shows many signs and symptoms of being narcissist. It can truly be seen with her relationship with her daughter. With Ingrid being so self-centered and focused on her art work, as well as her boyfriend she sometimes forgets she has a daughter at all. Unfortunately when Ingrid does pay her daughter any attention she is typically cold-hearted when there is any mentioning of views that don’t agree with hers as well as talking about herself and her artwork.
In this scene above, when Ingrid’s daughter is visiting her in jail one can notice how Ingrid is irritated at her daughter because she has accepted views about Christ that don’t agree her mothers. Although Astrid is struggling in her new foster home, Ingrid is more concerned with the fact that Astrid is finding “h
erself” as oppose to being concerned with her well being. With most individuals with narcissism, they are preoccupied with power (Long, 2008). Unfortunately criticism may haunt individuals like Ingrid leaving them humiliated, degraded, hollow, and empty eventually forcing them to react with disdain, rage, or defiant counterattack. Ingrid display’s this when she becomes upset with her boyfriend—Barry—who is depicted as a womanizer. After abundant attempts to reconcile with Barry causes Ingrid to feel humiliated leading her to break into his home and eventually kill him. In turn, Ingrid is arrested and taken to jail. For Ingrid and others with a severe narcissistic personality medical and psychosocial treatment is essential for leading them back to normal development. Medical treatment includes hospitalization whereas psychosocial treatment includes individual psychotherapy and group therapy.
The next psychological principal can be seen with Starr, Astrid’s first foster parent. Going hand in hand with her addiction to alcohol, Starr deals with her problems with emotion-focused coping. This means that she responds to the stress that she’s feeling rather than focusing on the problem itself. Individuals with this form of coping, such as Starr, may avoid the source of stress, rationalize what had happened to them, or deny the problem is occurring at all (King, 2008). In the White Oleander it is very apparent that Starr has an emotional coping style when she shoots Astrid after a heated argument with her boyfriend Ray. Starr and Ray begin to have a heated argument about the relationship between Ray and Astrid (Starr believes Ray and Astrid are having an affair). Although the true problem at hand is between Starr and Ray, Starr responds to the stress she is feeling as oppose to the real problem and in turn shoots Astrid. Additionally, it is not too surprising that
Starr has an emotion-focused coping style. In the study “The relationship between personality, coping strategies and alcohol use” experimenters revealed that emotion-focused coping strategies were positively related to drinking behavior. In the study 161 participants completed self-report measures assessing sensitivity to reward and punishment, coping strategies and drinking behavior. Overall their results help to suggest that is a relationship between reward sensitivity and coping in determining alcohol use (Feil & Hasking, 2008). To help Starr and others deal with their problems without using emotion-focused coping it is essential that they have a strong social support. Social support helps provide individuals with emotional sustenance, tangible resources and aid, and information when in need. It also helps people feel cared about allowing people like Starr to talk to others about her problems instead of abusing alcohol or taking her problems out on someone else potentially harming them (MSN Encarta, 2009).
In this scene above, when Ingrid’s daughter is visiting her in jail one can notice how Ingrid is irritated at her daughter because she has accepted views about Christ that don’t agree her mothers. Although Astrid is struggling in her new foster home, Ingrid is more concerned with the fact that Astrid is finding “h
erself” as oppose to being concerned with her well being. With most individuals with narcissism, they are preoccupied with power (Long, 2008). Unfortunately criticism may haunt individuals like Ingrid leaving them humiliated, degraded, hollow, and empty eventually forcing them to react with disdain, rage, or defiant counterattack. Ingrid display’s this when she becomes upset with her boyfriend—Barry—who is depicted as a womanizer. After abundant attempts to reconcile with Barry causes Ingrid to feel humiliated leading her to break into his home and eventually kill him. In turn, Ingrid is arrested and taken to jail. For Ingrid and others with a severe narcissistic personality medical and psychosocial treatment is essential for leading them back to normal development. Medical treatment includes hospitalization whereas psychosocial treatment includes individual psychotherapy and group therapy.The next psychological principal can be seen with Starr, Astrid’s first foster parent. Going hand in hand with her addiction to alcohol, Starr deals with her problems with emotion-focused coping. This means that she responds to the stress that she’s feeling rather than focusing on the problem itself. Individuals with this form of coping, such as Starr, may avoid the source of stress, rationalize what had happened to them, or deny the problem is occurring at all (King, 2008). In the White Oleander it is very apparent that Starr has an emotional coping style when she shoots Astrid after a heated argument with her boyfriend Ray. Starr and Ray begin to have a heated argument about the relationship between Ray and Astrid (Starr believes Ray and Astrid are having an affair). Although the true problem at hand is between Starr and Ray, Starr responds to the stress she is feeling as oppose to the real problem and in turn shoots Astrid. Additionally, it is not too surprising that
Starr has an emotion-focused coping style. In the study “The relationship between personality, coping strategies and alcohol use” experimenters revealed that emotion-focused coping strategies were positively related to drinking behavior. In the study 161 participants completed self-report measures assessing sensitivity to reward and punishment, coping strategies and drinking behavior. Overall their results help to suggest that is a relationship between reward sensitivity and coping in determining alcohol use (Feil & Hasking, 2008). To help Starr and others deal with their problems without using emotion-focused coping it is essential that they have a strong social support. Social support helps provide individuals with emotional sustenance, tangible resources and aid, and information when in need. It also helps people feel cared about allowing people like Starr to talk to others about her problems instead of abusing alcohol or taking her problems out on someone else potentially harming them (MSN Encarta, 2009).
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