White Oleander was in my opinion a great movie. I enjoyed watching Astrid grow as a person and finally leave behind what was holding her down and stopping her from experiencing life, which was her mother. However, despite being a terrific movie, White Oleander also serves a purpose from a psychologists point of view.
Throughout the film, a variety different psychological principles can be seen. There are a ton of them if you pay attention to all the little details, however if you just watch the movie paying attention in the slightest and have any background in psychology you
could discover a psychological principle.
One of the more apparent principles throughout the movie is Astrid's temperament. Temperament is described as a persons natural interaction with people, places, and things. A persons temperament style is dependent on a variety of things such as activity, rhythmicity,adaptability, mood, persistence, intensity, etc (Oliver). The three types of temperament are easy, difficult, and slow-to-warm-up.
Example of a Difficult Child
An easy child is generally in a positive mood and they establish regular routines as well as adapt to new experiences. On the other hand is the difficult temperament, which means the child reacts negatively, engages in irregular routines and is slow to accept new experiences. Slow-to-warm-up children are a mix of the two in a way. They have low activity levels and are somewhat negative, as well as have low mood intensity and adapts slowly. If you are wondering how to diagnose a child's temperament, click here for some tips and more information on it. For some studies that have been performed in recent years, visit this website.
A slow-to-warm-up temperament means that someone will be somewhat apprehensive at first, but slowly warm up and adapt after some time. Astrid displays a slow-to-warm-up temperament during the scene when she gets adopted by Reina. At first, when Reina offers Astrid a cigarette and tries to sell Astrid's clothes, she is rather against both. Then later throughout the scene, you see Astrid's change from good girl to punk princess. She begins to smoke cigarettes, sell her clothes, party, and even dyes he hair black. When she was first taken by Reina she was somewhat reserved about the lifestyle and was against it, but eventually accepted it.
Another principle seen throughout the movie is personality types. A prime example of a character with a specific personality is Starr, Astrid's foster mother at one point and the girlfriend of Ray. Starr has an addictive personality. Someone with an addictive personality is one who has an obsession, compulsion, or a psychological dependence o
n something. People with addictive personalities can have "hard" or "soft" addictions. Hard addictions are addictions to drugs or alcohol because the effects can be felt immediately by the user while "soft" addictions are addictions to gambling, spending money or work because the effects aren't felt immediately (Nelson).
Starr is someone who has both a hard and a soft addiction. Her soft addiction is her addiction to Ray and can be seen when she sat Astrid down for a talk. She wants to get rid of Astrid because she thinks that Astrid is moving in on Ray. She wants him all to her self and no one else can have her. Later in that scene, when Starr is arguing with Ray, she wants to know what he has been doing so she can keep tabs on him make sure he isn't with other girls because she wants him all to herself.
Her hard addiction can be seen when her daughter walks out on her. She is drunk and her daughter acknowledges the fact that she stayed up late to drink. She gets into a drunken rage and tries to hit her daughter. She also ends up shooting Astrid in a drunken rage in a later scene in the movie.
White Oleander was a great movie that was full of psychological principles. Temperament and Addictive Personality were both very apparent and to some degree really affected how Astrid lived her life and where she ended up.
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