An Application of the Psychological Approaches

The Outrageous Celebrity An Application of the Psychological Approaches

Your Task:

1) Choose an outrageous celebrity (living or dead; real or fictional)

2) As an introduction, provide some background information and describe some of the outrageous behaviors this character has exhibited.

3) Following the format in the example below, explain these behaviors from the point of view of each major perspective in psychology. Your reasoning can be fictitious and ridiculous, as long as it falls in line with the perspective.

Some Ideas for Outrageous Celebrities: Psychological Perspectives:

Britney Spears Richard Sherman Evolutionary

Lindsay Lohan Tom Cruise Biological

Ozzy Osbourne Paris Hilton Psychodynamic

Nicki Minaj Kanye West Behavioral

Flavor Flav Snookie Cognitive

Justin Bieber Lawrence Taylor Sociocultural

Mel Gibson Mike Tyson Humanistic

Alec Baldwin Dennis Rodman

TV personalities, cartoon characters, movie stars, politicians, athletes, etc.

EXAMPLE

Introduction: Spongebob Squarepants can be described as being a rather air-headed, eccentric fellow who lives in the likewise eccentric community of Bikini Bottom. He lives quite happily in his pineapple- shaped house with his pet snail(/cat) Gary. He and his best pal Patrick, the pink board-shorts-wearing starfish, are often found embarking on peculiar adventures such as annoying Spongebob’s neighbor, Squidward. Spongebob’s peculiarities are manifested through his silly behaviors and oddball idiosyncrasies such as the way he dresses, thinks, talks, and behaves. What can I say? He’s a sea sponge!

Evolutionary: His ancestor sponges were primitive and didn’t wear clothes. However, somewhere in Spongebob’s lineage, sponges found it was adaptive if they wore clothes so they could be accepted in the community of Bikini Bottom. This environment offered them protection from predators as well as a regular food supply, thus ensuring their survival.

Biological: The brain requires just the right combination of nutrients and energy from the food we eat to create myelin and ensure the healthy functioning of many neurotransmitters. Spongebob’s diet is one consisting of strictly crabby patties and so he is a malnourished sea sponge. His brain is deprived of all the nutrients that a well-rounded diet would allow; therefore it has not developed under healthy circumstances, resulting in erratic behavior.

Psychodynamic: When Spongebob was young he accidentally wandered onto a racetrack where he was nearly trampled to death by a squad of racing seahorses. Although he survived, he blamed his mother for not keeping a more watchful eye on him and he ultimately developed a phobia of seahorses and began to have troubling nightmares. The psychologist who treated him using dream analysis and hypnosis found that Spongebob had repressed his memory of the traumatic event. As a form of therapy, Spongebob got a pet snail, Gary, who exhibited characteristics exactly opposite of those of a seahorse.

Behavioral: As a child, Spongebob was punished by his parents every time he went outside without his clothes. Even though it is a sea sponge’s natural inclination to remain unclothed, his parents wanted Spongebob to learn that he must wear clothing in order to be accepted in the Bikini Bottom community.

Cognitive: Because he loves the heavenly taste of pineapple, Spongebob logically induces that if he lives within a pineapple-shaped house, he will then seem like a very sweet and welcoming fellow. After all, who in his right mind could possibly dislike pineapple?

Sociocultural: The society of Bikini Bottom likes and welcomes those sea creatures of higher intelligence and good taste. Therefore Spongebob must dress sharply in his tie and shiny polished shoes in order to be accepted by his peers.

Humanistic: Out of his benevolence and innate goodness, Spongebob chooses to befriend the eccentric and idiotic Patrick because he feels he must reach out to those with less-evolved brains. Therefore, he achieves the third level of Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, giving love and receiving affection.

Adapted from http://www.pleasanton.k12.ca.us/avhsweb/emersond/appsych/Outrageous %20celebrity.pdf