Good Will Hunting: Attachment Theory

The film I watched was called Good Will Hunting (Bender et al., 1997), which is one of my favorite movies of all time because this movie has a psychologist who is also a social worker named Sean McGuire, played by one of my favorite actors Robin Williams, we also have Will Hunting played by Matt Damon that works at the school MIT as a janitor. The first look of Will looks like an average person, he has a decent job, lives in a small house and has a small circle of friends, but in reality he has a bad case of mood disorder, attachment disorder and avoidant personality. In the movie there is scene towards the beginning, where he gets into a major fight with a kid that picked on him in his younger years. When Will states that Carmine Scarpaglia

He cannot manage his basic emotions for example anger; this proves why Will Hunting has an Attachment Disorder his trust was impacted when he was living at an orphan home. With Jean Piaget's "schema" theory perceive that a child has four stages based on maturation and experience, Will has developed many different cognitive to deal with certain situation that pop up in his life. Will growing up with his stepfather developed a schema that told him to be guarded at all times and doubting people, as a result from his abuse. Will developed a different structure that helped him with his intellect by the right way of use as well as his physical authority to intimidate people who where aggressive towards him or his friends. This led to the fight with Carmine Scarpaglia and his smart and knowledgeable battering of Clark at the bar. In treating attachment disorder Sean the therapist uses the "transference" to fill in the gaps in Wills treatment. Transference occurs when patients like Will Hunting subconsciously transfer to their therapist and the feelings and attitudes that they originally connect with meaningful people in their early life. Sean then becomes the person who Will never had in his life, a person who cares and devotes their time to him. Also, Skylar who comes from an affluent family and is highly

Collectivist “prefers to engage in behavior that emphasize their similarities to other”(Triandis,1989) and Will shows a part of him when he’s with Chuckie at a demolition site feeling comfortable to stay where he at knowing that’s what he want in life. Chuckie knows that Will has the opportunity to be someone important and make more money instead of working in an intense labor job earning just enough to live his life. In a scene where Chuckie tries to motivated Will his best friend Chuckie says “ in 20 years if your still living here coming over my house I will kill you its not a threat it’s a fact” Will gets angry and seems confused a bit, he’s never had someone who cares about his own good but Chuckie being his best friend brings this subject up and Will has no defense mechanism against Chuckie he actually listened. Neuroticism demission of a behavior and an example of that is “Those who score high in neuroticism are more likely to interpret ordinary situations as threatening and minor frustrations as hopelessly difficult. They may have trouble thinking clearly, making decisions, and coping effectively with stress”(Costa & McCrae, 1992; Goldberg, 1982)). Will is not secure of his own emotion as he could be a sympathetic, funny, guarded, rage, untrusting, anxious and careful in different scenes. He changes into either one and it varies on his