Psychology 101 Assignment: Analyzing 'A Beautiful Mind'

This psychology assignment analyzes the character of John Nash from the film 'A Beautiful Mind' through the lens of several psychological theories. The analysis begins with Maslow's hierarchy of needs, examining Nash's motivations and desires for social acceptance, esteem, and self-actualization as depicted in the film. Next, the assignment applies the Big Five personality traits to assess Nash's personality, highlighting his levels of agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, extraversion, and openness. The Freudian personality theory is then used to dissect Nash's personality structure, exploring his conscious, subconscious, and unconscious levels, including his desires and fears. Following this, Erikson's stages of psychological development are applied to understand Nash's struggles with identity, isolation, and social engagement throughout the film. Finally, the assignment evaluates Nash's behavior against the criteria for defining abnormal behavior, considering social norms, statistical rarity, personal distress, and maladaptive behaviors. The assignment incorporates references to support the analysis.

Running head: PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology101 Assignment
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1PSYCHOLOGY
Q1.
The Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a motivational theory that presents a five tier
model of human psychology or human needs. This theory presents the needs of human
psychology from lower level needs to higher level needs in a periodical format considering
physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem and self-actualization (Wagner, 2014).
The subconscious desire for social acceptance is for friendship. The yearning of John
Nash refers to the confidence, achievement and respect of others. William Parcher reflects the
Nash’s struggle to obtain seld-actualisation and problem solving. The hallucination and
behaviour also reveal the three needs namely social expectation, self esteem and self
actualisation. Therefore, the motivation of John Nash in the films “The Beautiful Mind”
clearly follows the Maslow’s pyramid.
Q2.
According to the big five personality trait theory the types of personality are
Agreeablesnessv (defines the inclination towards either friendliness or challenging),
Conscientiousness (defines the inclination towards either organised or careless), Neuroticism
(defines the inclination towards either sensitive or confident), Extraversion (defines the
inclination towards either energetic or reserved) and Openness (defines the inclination
towards curious or cautious) (Judge & Zapata, 2015).
According to the personality of John Nash, he always found himself in a challenging
situation either from external situation or by his own imagination. Hence, he had low
agreeableness. In the movie ‘The Beautiful Mind’, John Nash is very organised and efficient
person in his regular life activities, which shows he had high conscientiousness. From his
sensitiveness about his surroundings which made him nervous in many occasion it can be

2PSYCHOLOGY
said he is more neurotic as well as introvert (Donaldson, 2015). Throughout the film, John
Nash likes to wear similar cloths, he likes to follow his regular routine correctly, which
clearly portrays his less openness towards new things.
Q3.
The iceberg structure of Freudian personality theory describes the personality of John
Nash correctly. According to these theory the personality of any person is divided in three
layers namely conscious, subconscious and unconscious level (Allen, 2015). The conscious
layer is the tip of the iceberg in other words the personality of a person that can be visible
from outside which contains the rational thinking and the other parts of Ego. According to the
movie ‘The Beautiful Mind’ the conscious layer of John Hash portrayed a reserved and
fearful behaviour. However, at the very bottom layer where all the hidden psychological
factors works known as Id, John Hash had his normal sexual desire as well as a fear of
unknown situation. These factors stimulate his dilution of various challenges. Most of the
super ego and ego take place in subconscious layer. According to the film, John Nash always
had the subconscious desire to be accepted by social environment through ether friendship or
through love of life-partner (Alicia Nash). In the film he shows his interest to drink bear and
as a part of friendly group. The commitment level and the dedication to keep strong bond
with his wife clearly displayed the moral and ethical perspective of John Hash, which helps to
project the layer of super ego.
Q4.
The psychological theory of Erikson is also known as Erikson Stages of Psychological
Development. According to this theory the psychological growth of any individual has 8
stages within the infant to the adult stage. The infant stage the psychological growth is
limited within trust verses mistrust, at the early childhood it is autonomy versus shame and

3PSYCHOLOGY
doubt, in preschool state it is initiative versus guilt. In school age it is industry versus
inferiority, in adolescence it is identity versus role confusion, in young adulthood it is
intimacy versus isolation, in middle adulthood it is generativity versus stagnation. In the
maturity, it is ego integrity versus despair (Dunkel & Harbke, 2017).
In the early phase of the film it can be seen, as a co-recipient of the Carnegie
Scholarship for mathematics, Nash has to face challenges to express his idea. He tries to
express and publish his innovative ideas. His struggle to be engaged in a social environment
clearly projects the states of isolation in young adulthood (Donaldson, 2015). John not always
was able to resolve this challenge successfully. However, he tries to get involved in social
gathering and group involvement to resolve the challenge.
Q5.
The criteria of defining abnormal behaviour are Violation of social norms, Statistical
raretiry, Personal distress and Maladaptive behaviour. According to the films John Nash was
not a very social person and even very confused about social norms. At the same time, the
personality traits and combination as well as IQ level are very statistically rare (Caine,
Wijesinghe & Winter, 2014). John Nash has to struggle against his psychological issue of
schizophrenia, which shows his personal distress. However, he did not have any maladaptive
or harmful behaviour. Therefore, he did not meet all criteria of abnormal behaviour.

4PSYCHOLOGY
Reference:
Allen, B. P. (2015). Personality theories: Development, growth, and diversity. Psychology
Press.
Caine, T. M., Wijesinghe, O. B. A., & Winter, D. A. (2014). Personal Styles in Neurosis
(RLE: Group Therapy): Implications for Small Group Psychotherapy and Behaviour
Therapy. Routledge.
Donaldson, E. J. (2015). Beyond a beautiful mind: Schizophrenia and bioethics in the
classroom. Disability Studies Quarterly, 35(2).
Dunkel, C. S., & Harbke, C. (2017). A review of measures of Erikson’s stages of
psychosocial development: Evidence for a general factor. Journal of Adult
Development, 24(1), 58-76.
Judge, T. A., & Zapata, C. P. (2015). The person–situation debate revisited: Effect of
situation strength and trait activation on the validity of the Big Five personality traits
in predicting job performance. Academy of Management Journal, 58(4), 1149-1179.
Wagner, H. (2014). The psychobiology of human motivation. Routledge.