Constructivism

Constructivism is broken down into four parts. Cognitive Complexity, Sophisticated Communication, Person-Centered Messages, and Beneficial Outcomes.

Cognitive Complexity is when a group of people can only be classified into two groups. This category includes classifications such as good people or bad people, old people or young, and rich people or poor. In the Musical, West Side Story, there are two types of groups. These groups consist of The Jets who I think of as classic jocks. The Sharks are the second group and they are are from Puerto Rico looking for new life in America. There are a few neutrals in the movie, but for the most part, everyone makes up the Sharks or the Jets.

Sophisticated Communication takes goals and plans them out before putting them into action. In the movie Mean Girls, Cady and her two friends, Janis and Damian, decide they want to have revenge against Regina. They come up with a plan to destroy her body, separate her from the rest of "The Plastics," and make her boyfriend break up with her. They come up with several ideas before putting them into action, but the first ideas failed and just made Regina more popular. After they had come up with the key plan, they put the plan into action for revenge against Regina.

People who are able to expect another's view on a message and are able to adapt to the messages understand Person-Centered Messages. Most therapists and psychologists need to be able to know Person-Centered Messages. However, in most movies, they show psychologists who are unable to understand person-centered messages. In the movie, The Sixth Sense, Dr. Malcolm Crowe is a psychologist who tries to understand Cole's claim to "see dead people." He could not make the correct Person-Centered Messages to help him adapt to his "sixth sense."

Beneficial Outcomes include using useful types of messages (comforting and persuasive), organized effectively, and being able to fix relationships. In the movie, The Wedding Planner, Mary helps brides shake their cold feet before the ceremony. She will tell the brides about how much their husband-to-be is happy to have his new bride and how members of the family are jealous of certain characteristics, making the bride more comfortable to continue. Together with her partner, Peggy, she is able to organize phenomenal weddings and receptions for any kinds of brides and grooms. When couples have a falling out before the marriage, she is able to bring them together and point out their strong points (even if she really wishes that the couple would not stay together).

This theory was very fascinating to me. I am curious the amount of people who fall under different categories and think there should be an experiment to reveal how certain people go through their life and if they experience any of the Constructivism categories.