Social​ ​Psychology​ ​2017-2018 Name:​ ​Akarawat​ ​Sila

Quarter​ ​Project ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ID:​ ​5961074

“The​ ​Curious​ ​Case​ ​of​ ​Benjamin​ ​Button​ ​(2004)”​ ​Movie​ ​Analysis

Section​ ​1:​ ​Nature​ ​&​ ​Nurture

Benjamin Button has born as an abnormal child, the child who has a “nature” of
age in reverse. This make him different from others in the same age, it’s also give him a
doubt and felt himself inferior to others. He was just like a kid who live in 70 year-old man
body, his brain development was as same as usual kid, but his physical was way too
different. Both of his legs is very small, he can’t even stand on his legs, all he do in a day is
just sitting in a wheelchair and look outside the window at the group of children playing
together with the eyes of a kid who would like to join playing. The major reason why
“nurture” that surround him still make him grown up similar to others is because of his
step-mother. She is the one who look at him as a normal kid and raise him up like usual kid
as much as she could, so Benjamin doesn’t felt that he’s a monster as his own father
thought. Also she’s the one who adopted Benjamin, and make him not growing up as a
feral​ ​child.
Next, in Benjamin Button’s life there are two parents we can identify about their
parenting style and discuss the influence to Benjamin’s cognitive development between
them. When his mother gave him birth, unfortunately she passed away. He has been left
with his dad, who is an uninvolved parent, his dad decided to left him on the stairs in front
of one house. We can see from his action by abandoned Benjamin, he doesn’t take a
responsible to his son and doesn’t involved in Benjamin’s life. But when Queenie met him
and decided to raise him up, things went ways opposite. Queenie is the step-mother, who
has got an authoritative parenting style. Quennie always take care of Benjamin, did her
best job to make Benjamin felt he’s a normal kid as much as she can. She’s expects one day
Benjamin might become like an usual kid. Queenie has high responsible to Benjamin, give
him ​the resources and support he need to succeed, she also listens when Benjamin comes
up with any question and gave him the best advices. On Benjamin cognitive development,
his dad doesn’t involve in any of his development, but to make him become a feral child.
Luckily he met Queenie, who was the most influence on his development, she makes him
has a happy dispositions, a good emotion control, a good social skill, and self confident
about​ ​his​ ​abilities.

Benjamin’s development can describe into psychology development theories, Jean

Piaget’s gradual development theories. We’ll begin with the stage of infancy, with Baby’s
capacity theory. Baby capacity is a mental and physical ability or aptitude and skill in
newborn baby to adapt or respond to an environment in order to survive. In the film, in the
Social​ ​Psychology​ ​2017-2018 Name:​ ​Akarawat​ ​Sila
Quarter​ ​Project ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ID:​ ​5961074

very first scene, Benjamin is hardly grabbed up from the cradle by his father. Suddenly,
Benjamin started to cry as his response to his father’s act. Another example is when
Benjamin is stepped by Queenie, he cry out loud. These two examples demonstrate, that
Benjamin has reacted to the different situation by crying, as he’s unable to speak so this is
the act of showing that he’s alive. The time Benjamin wanted to be able to walk like a
normal person, he has gaining experiences by himself, he tried to slowly stand on his foot
and then step by step, all by his own. The social transmission is when you have learn by
other teaching you. In the movie you can see that, when Benjamin is having fun with
banging the fork as he thought it is a toy, then Queenie tells him to stop and teach him that
his act was inappropriate. As Benjamin pass through each stage of a development, it is
important to balance them equally as the way to learns thing, which called the process of
equilibrium. In the movie when he was tried to play piano by himself, and then the old
women​ ​teach​ ​him​ ​an​ ​addition​ ​technics,​ ​makes​ ​Benjamin​ ​plays​ ​piano​ ​better​ ​and​ ​better.

Section​ ​2:​ ​Understanding​ ​about​ ​Genders​ ​and​ ​Conformity

​While Benjamin was just a kid, as he spent time with Daisy at night, all he thinks
was only he wants to play and having fun with her. As the time Benjamin was growing up,
and turn into a teenage stage. His surrounding environment and from the nature of every
man make a develop on his perception toward gender. He has a sexual development like
any other teen, his emotional has change and become more complex, and have lots of
questions about sex. The surrounding environment is one of the major factor that impact
teenage behavior. As we can see in the movie that, when Benjamin become a teenage he has
more interest about sex and when Captain Mike talking about sex stuff and invited
Benjamin to come with him to the bar. Benjamin accepted the invitation, and this became
the first time of Benjamin to having sex with a prostitute. When he get older, being an
adult, sex become usual thing that lovers do, which shown in the movie, when he having sex
Daisy and Elizabeth most of the time they met. The perception toward gender will change
along​ ​the​ ​time​ ​Benjamin​ ​grows​ ​up.

As the time Benjamin grows up, he has experiences in group thinking. Group
thinking is occurs within a group of people as a way seeking for conformity. For examples;
there are three clearly characteristics of group thinking we can see in the movie. In the
scene when they were talk about joining the war, firstly there is appear of an illusion of
invulnerability characteristics. The crews including Benjamin have been courage to take an
extreme risks as entering the war by Captain Mike and by their country. Next there was a
direct pressure among each of the crews to join the war together, and putting on a pressure
among them to make a decision. And the last example from this scene is self-censorship,
Social​ ​Psychology​ ​2017-2018 Name:​ ​Akarawat​ ​Sila
Quarter​ ​Project ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ID:​ ​5961074

when their tugboat has been fired by the submarine. Benjamin has made himself a
self-censorship, which means he control his own thought by thinking he’s not going to dies
here.

Section​ ​3:​ ​Adulthood,​ ​Old​ ​Age,​ ​and​ ​Death

In Benjamin’s the stage of adulthood, Benjamin is in develop age which mean he

grow up enough to deal with himself and settle on his own choice. According to
Levinson’s theory of adult development, stated that in the step of early adulthood, the
person leave childhood and begins to make decision about adult life. In the movie,
Benjamin choosing to leaves home to exploring the new experiences by enter the
workforce and works with Captain Mike. Moreover from enter the workforce, Benjamin
start thinking about having a serious relationship when he met Elizabeth. While Benjamin
entering the adult world, he has to make more definite decision, like he made a decision
to go to war and luckily survived back. In the stage of early middle adulthood, there are
often lifestyle changes, as Benjamin and Daisy start to live together and thinking about
having a children as a goal for the future. When Benjamin facing the stage of late
adulthood, the people in this age are dealing with many health problems, such as;
cholesterol problem, high blood pressure, or brain aging. Benjamin was having a brain
aging, which makes him become memory loss, he can’t remember his past at all. We can
saw in the movie, when he isn’t believe that he already has breakfast, and he show an
aggressive​ ​act​ ​to​ ​the​ ​woman.

Finally the five steps of grief, denial, anger, bargaining, depression and
acceptance. It was a theory that helps us identify what we may be feeling. Not everyone
will go through all the stages, but Benjamin did. First at the stage of Denial, he can not
accept that everyday he’s getting older, his body will become younger, and he will dies
as an old man in the body of a baby. In the step of anger, his fear become much stronger
makes him felt angry that why he’s to be in this situation, he wants to be a proper dad for
his child and don’t want to be another kid for his wife to raise. Along the step of
“Bargaining” and “Depression”, he finally reach the stage of “Acceptance”. Benjamin
decided to sell everything he got, his dad house, Buttons’s Buttons factory and give all
the money to his wife and his daughter, as he know that although he is getting older but
he can’t raise both of them so this is the best way. Finally he can accept to dies as a
baby, he leaves the family and start travel the world to see the new things and do the new
stuff. First his wife doesn’t understand him, really. She didn’t accept the way Benjamin
thought, but as the time passed by and Benjamin come back again with much younger
look, she starting to has a better understanding about his thought based on the reality.
Finally she comes to the “Acceptance” stage when she became an old women and saw
Benjamin​ ​in​ ​a​ ​boy​ ​body,​ ​and​ ​she​ ​took​ ​care​ ​of​ ​him​ ​till​ ​he​ ​dies.