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Groundhog Day

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Many theorists including Erik Erikson postulated in their perspectives of personality development that a person’s persons personality is formed by a certain influence throughout life, and changing a person’s personality would be exceedingly difficult. The belief in most theories is that changes in personality can be facilitated through therapy. This change can however be made without therapy but would be difficult and tome consuming; the movie Groundhog Day is perfect example of the process it takes to changes one’s personality without therapy as well as a prime example to utilize Erikson’s eight stages of life.
The movie Groundhog Day is a comedy directed by Harold Ramis, starring Bill Murray as the main character Phil Connors. Phil Connors …show more content…
The two theories are similar in that they postulate a series of developmental stages with a task or crisis that must be resolved for positive development to take place (Ryckman, 2008). Erikson’s theory differs however in that it focuses primarily on an interaction between the ego of the person developing in relation to their social environment (Ryckman, 2008). The theory also differs in it perspective of the ego’s function (Ryckman, 2008). Erikson believed the ego was more than just a valve that regulated the competing pressure of the id and superego (Ryckman, 2008). The ego, in Erikson’s view, is seen as a positive structure of the mind that serves the function of adapting to obstacles in a person’s life (Ryckman, 2008). The earlier stages in the theory correspond to behaviors and interaction that are to some degree based on physical development such as nursing, toilet training, and learning to walk (Ryckman, 2008). The middle stages lean towards social interactions in elementary school and high school but still include the physical influences that occur during puberty (Ryckman, 2008). The stages occurring later in life focus on the person’s growing sense of purpose and value in relation to others (Ryckman, 2008). In each of Erikson’s stages a persons experiences a crisis in development, in which the …show more content…
When we first meet Phil it is evident that he is stuck in the stage of Generativity versus Stagnantion. Generativity is defined as the sustained effort to develop into creative and productive human beings who use their skills and knowledge to help develop and maintain societal institutions without which successive generations would be unable to survive (Ryckman, 2008, pg ). In simpler terms it involves the direct attempts of this older generation to guide and nurture the younger generation, as well as the process of establishing or enhancing a creative and productive career, neither of which qualities Phil possesses (Ryckman, 2008). The negative counterpart of this stage known as Stagnation is exactly where we find Phil to be stuck. Stagnation is defined as the feeling of being unproductive and useless that stems from an inability to care for something or someone (Ryckman, 2008, pg ). These qualities can be seen in on of the first scene of the movie when Phil tells his colleagues that other networks are interested in him and that if people see him interviewing a groundhog one day they are going to look at him and think he has no future, and again in the van when he refers to people as morons (Ramis, 1993). Another example that Phil is stagnant is seen when they arrive in Punxsutawney and Phil tells Rita he cannot

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