How Is One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Related To Psychology

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Many different principles and aspects of psychology can be seen throughout the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. In the movie, a con artist named Randle Patrick McMurphy, played back Jack Nicholson, gets transferred from a prison farm to a mental institution for evaluation. McMurphy believes the ward will be a less restricted atmosphere and that he will have more freedom. In contrast, he is immediately exposed to the harshness of the head nurse, Nurse Ratched, and how the irrational treatment of the mental patients affects them. As he settles into the ward, he meets several of the other patients who are affected by not only their treatments, but also by McMurphy’s actions that rebel against the authority of the institution. The movie …show more content…

(Myers, 651) It is the result of the human need and desire to fit in and not stray from societal standards. After Solomon Asch’s experiments, it became evident that there was a certain discomfort affiliated with being outside of the group’s popular idea that causes the uncomfortable person to conform to the ideas of the group. This is more likely if the group has more than three people, they are unanimous, and they are admired by the conforming person. Social influence is also a contributing factor as to why people conform. Roles and norms are set out for society and make it hard for people to veer from them. The normative social influence causes people to follow these norms to avoid their drastic fear of being left out. (Myers, 653) Another type of social influence would be the informational social influence, which results in people adopting others’ opinions and beliefs of the world around them. These two influences show the ominous presence of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. In order to satisfy a person’s higher level needs, such as self-actualization and esteem, the lower level needs must first be met, such as hunger and safety. (Myers, 330) A low level need is belongingness. People want to feel like they belong and feel loved in order to avoid isolation. This desire is one factor that directly causes conformity. In order to avoid being left out and lonely, a person willingly accepts another person’s opinions and thoughts even if they are the opposite of their own or if they know they are wrong. Conformity is due to the person being in an unfamiliar situation, being ignorant on the topic, wanting to impress and be liked by the members of the group, and being willing to conform their opinion on themselves. (Zimbardo, 2006) To avoid conformity, the person must identify what their actual

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