Brock Nelson

Captain America vs Iron Man: Freedom, Security, Psychology

Anxiety:

Marvel Book: The Marvel Book mentions that anxiety is the conflict

between a person’s sense of character and the actions that contradict

sense creates an anxiety that might be relieved if the person changes his

or her sense of character or behavior.

Textbook: Anxiety is an unpleasant psychological state characterized

by a vague, generalized apprehension or feeling that one is in danger.

Comparing and Contrasting: Both of the books give a similar

definition of anxiety. Anxiety is a feeling or sense that you may be in danger

or may change your behavior.

Motivation:

Marvel Book: Motivation is the drive to take action. But it needs the

ability to do the action. Two styes of motivation, transactional and

transformational. Transactional motivation uses bargaining, rewards, and

punishments to get some control over members. The followers are, in a

way, forced to act a certain way by external forces. Leaders who use this

style are more focused on the final result than helping out the followers.

Transformational motivation changes the followers from within, motivating

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them to work toward common goals and seek rewards within themselves.

This is usually a more effective way for motivating followers, who want to

be identified with an organization beyond their own self-interest. Leaders

who use this style are usually more supportive and act as guides for

followers to increase personal growth.

Textbook: Motivation is an internal state that activates behavior and

directs it toward a goal. The various psychological and physiological factors

that cause us to act a certain way at a certain time. Conceptions of

motivation in psychology are in many ways similar to those expressed in

everyday language. Motivation is a goal-directed behavior. Instincts label

behavior. All motivations start with a need that leads to a drive. A need is a

biological or psychological requirement for an organism.

Comparing and Contrasting: Both of the books had quite a lot of

information about motivation. Motivation is an activation to do a certain goal

or drive you to do better. The Marvel Book went a bit more in detail about

motivation for people.

Lawrence Kohlberg:
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Marvel Book: Lawrence’s theory of moral development was helped

influenced by Piaget’s studies on cognitive and moral development in

children.

Textbook: Kohlberg studied the development of moral reading by

putting kids of different ages with a bunch of different moral dilemmas.

Kohlberg was interested in how the kids came with a conclusion. He was

interested in their reasoning. He came up with six stage of moral

development. Stage one, kids are egocentric, they only think about

avoiding punishment. Stage two, kids have a better idea about receiving

rewards and avoiding punishments. They are still egocentric. Stage three,

kids kind of think about other’s wants and thoughts. Stage four, kids aren’t

really concerned with the approval of others. Stage five, people are

concerned about whether a law is fair or not. Laws should change by how

the world changes. Stage six is about the acceptance of ethical principles

that apply to all people.

Comparing and Contrasting: The text book had, by far, more

information about Kohlberg and his interests. The text book has many

details about each stage in the moral development.

References:
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Captain America’s decisions made highlight Kohlberg’s stage of

moral development. Captain America’s adamant focus, kept him from

remembering his values. At the end of the day, Captain America wants to

protect everyone and his approach shows how hard it can be to make

moral decisions.

Tony Stark has many abundant gifts and resources, but does lack the

motivation to perform heroic acts.

Batman and Psychology- A Dark and Stormy Knight:

Classical Conditioning:

Batman Book: The many behaviors intentionally or inadvertently

learned from classical conditioning could die out if the conditioned stimulus

no longer precedes the unconditioned stimulus. If Pavlov takes away the

sound of the bell when the food comes, the cessation of the food will lead

to the end of the learned behavior of drooling to the sound of the bell.

Classical conditioning might cause many phobias, but another kind of

conditioning perpetuates them. Classical conditioning failed to explain the

effects of reward and punishment. Thorndike calls instrumental learning,

learning from consequences. The behavior is instrumental in determining

which consequence will follow. Operant conditioning is whether the action

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gets a reward or punishment. Reinforcement is referred to as the reward

because this makes the behavior more strong even if there is no reward.

Textbook: Classical conditioning is a learning procedure in which

associations are made between a natural stimulus and a neutral stimulus.

Ivan Pavlov called what was taking place in similar situations, conditioning.

Pavlov wanted to know how a dog’s stomach prepares to digest food when

something is placed in its mouth. The slightest scent or sight of food was

enough to start a hungry dog salivating. Pavlov was interested and decided

to investigate deeper. Pavlov rang a tuning fork and placed meat powder

on the dog’s tongue. The tuning fork was a neutral stimulus. (A stimulus

that does not initially elect any part of the unconditioned response.) After a

couple of times, the dog started salivating when it heard the sound. Pavlov

showed that a neutral stimulus can cause a formerly unrelated response. It

occurs when it is presented regularly before the stimulus.

Comparing and Contrasting: Both of the books talked about Pavlov’s

experiment with the hungry dog. The Batman book talked about about

other conditions along with classical conditioning.

Phobias:
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Batman Book: A phobia is a persistently intense and unrealistic fear

that causes such distress or so significantly impairs function that it counts

as a mental illness. All phobias in the DSM get put together under the term

specific phobias. Medication can work to help relax the individual and

alleviate symptoms of fearfulness, but medication cannot teach the person

a new way to think. There are certain methods for certain phobias.

Therapists can apply most phobia treatments to any specific phobia. All the

different ways to treat someone with a phobia comes back to one thing,

facing the fear. People can face their fears in a blunt confrontation or in a

roundabout manner. Systematic desensitization is where the person

approaches the fear by degrees, first learning how to relax around

something resembling the feared stimulus. Then moving to a more realistic

stimulus and so on until reaching the point where they can be around that

feared stimulus. Flooding cuts out the little steps and gets on to the main

point. The individual is immersed into anxiety, keeping the individual

surrounded by the feared stimulus until the body naturally tires of feeling

such strong fear symptoms. This strategy can backfire though. The

individual could drop out or give up before the anxiety has time to lessen

the fear symptoms. Graduated exposure provokes anxiety, but by degrees.

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Graduate exposure puts the client in situations that give minor anxiety

before moving to bigger stressors. Phobias tend not to undergo normal

extinction because phobias reinforce themselves via the relief that rewards

avoidance or escape.

Textbook: Phobias are an intense and irrational fear of a particular

object or situation. Phobias can be classified as specific phobias, social

phobias, and agoraphobia. A specific phobia can focus on almost anything.

Social phobias is a fear that people think that they will embarrass

themselves in a public place or social setting. People with phobias come up

with elaborate plans to avoid that fear. Phobias can be very severe or mild.

Phobias can be learned and maintained by reinforcing effects of avoidance,

which only reduces the anxiety, not the actual phobia. A form of treatment

for phobias is to put the phobic person in opportunities to experience that

feared object under conditions in which that person feels safe.

Comparing and Contrasting: Both give great information about

phobias. The Batman book talks about how someone can break out of a

certain phobia. The textbook mentions certain types of phobias. It also

mentions how someone can break out of a phobia too.

Stress:
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Batman book: Losing a parent or both, is the single most stressful

common life event for children to experience. Life event stress checklists

for children placed losing a parent at the top. Losing a parent deprives the

child of the nurturance, love, and support that might help that child get

through other kinds of hard times. At the top of the list for adults is losing a

spouse. This upends your life more broadly. Stressful events for someone

might not be for another person. Distress is bad stress and eustress is

good stress. Starting a new life is stressful no matter how much you need

it. Change is stressful.

Textbook: Stress is a person’s reaction to his or her inability to cope

with a certain tense event or situation. Stress is used to refer to a person’s

reactions to a stressor. A stressor is a stress-producing event or situation.

An event that is a stressor for one person may not be fore someone else. A

stress reaction is the body’s response to a stressor. There are two types of

stress, distress and eustress. Distress is stress that stems from acute

anxiety or pressure. Eustress is positive stress, which results from

motivating strivings and challenges. Stress is a normal part of life. It goes

hand and hand with working towards a goal or challenge.

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Comparing and Contrasting: The Batman book stated that change in

someone’s life is a key part for stress. Then it went on to list different

scenarios. The textbook mentioned how a person reacts to a situation or

how the body handles stress. Both mentioned distress and eustress and

stress is normal throughout life.

Ivan Pavlov:

Ivan Pavlov discovered classical conditioning. Pavlov was interested

in how a dog’s stomach would digest when food was placed in its mouth.

With Pavlov’s experiment, Pavlov learned a lot from this one experiment.

Erik Erikson

Erik made a few adjustments in Sigmund Freud’s original five stages

of development. Erik believed there were eight stages of development. The

environment plays a big role in self-awareness, adjustment, human

development, and identity. Children don’t automatically complete each

stage on a predetermined schedule. It depends on whether they have

faced challenges throughout life, in which they answer those challenges

and develop further in a certain stage of development.

References:
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Bruce Wayne: Bruce does not have to learn to find a fall into a cave

frightening. His initial fear is natural, unlearned reaction known as an

unconditioned response to an unlearned, unconditioned stimulus.

If you have Coulrophobia, you may be afraid of The Joker. If you have

Ornithophobia, you probably are afraid of Penguin.

Star Wars Psychology: Dark Side of the Mind

Archetypes:

An archetype is an inherited idea, based on the experiences of one’s

ancestors, which shapes one’s perception of the world. Luke Skywalker is

an archetype of a hero and of goodness. Luke is a hero and much more,

but Luke is a hero above all else. (First Reference)

Extraversion:

Textbook: Extraversion is associated with warmth, talkativeness, and

being energetic. People under this are usually sociable, outgoing, active,

and lively. They usually seek excitement.

Star Wars Book: Extraversion is adventurous, but some get

excitement. Most people are usually outgoing. Star Wars characters show a

lot of extraverted traits while they interact with others.

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Comparing and Contrasting: Both mention what characteristics an

extravert has. Both books didn’t really have a whole lot of information about

extraverts.

Introversion:

Introversion means being quiet or reserved. More thoughtful,

reserved, passive, unsociable, and quiet. They are usually not outgoing.

The Jedi value Introverted qualities.

Carl Jung:

Carl Jung was the person who came up with archetypes. The

archetypes help influence our thoughts and feelings and help build us the

foundation of our personalities. Jung and Freud use to be close associates,

but then they argued about psychoanalytic theory. Jung disagreed with

Freud on two points. He took a more positive view on human nature. He

believed that people try to develop their potential and handle their

instinctual urges. Next he distinguished between personal unconscious and

the collective unconscious, which is a store house for archetypes.

Sigmund Freud:

Freud’s theories still influence today’s modern psychology. Freud has

many theories, such as, the development of the unconscious and

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conscious minds, the structural model of personality, stages of

psychosexual development, the concept of defense mechanisms, and

dream interpretation. Freud’s impact on psychology and life, in general, has

been huge and important.

References:

Han Solo would classify as an extrovert. Han is a lady’s man,

reckless, gregarious, and adventurous. Han does what he thinks will work,

but does it for what is right.

I would say Yoda is an introvert. Yoda is very logical, reserved, and

curious. He focuses on ideas, theories, and explanations. He is calm and

passionate. He helps to make everyone better.

Sources:

Psychology Textbook,

Captain America vs Iron Man: Freedom, Security, Psychology,

Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight,

Star Wars Psychology: Dark Side of the Mind,

https://www.goodtherapy.org/famous-psychologists/erik-erikson.html

https://www.goodtherapy.org/famous-psychologists/sigmund-freud.html

https://www.personalityclub.com/blog/star-wars-personality-chart/