Social Identity Theory In The Movie, Philadelphia

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In the movie, Philadelphia, psychologists are able to apply: attribution theory, self-verification theory, social identity theory, cognitive dissonance, and drive theory to explain the behavior of some people. The attribution theory explains the cause of someone’s behavior by associating it to their personality or situation. In the movie, it is applied when Andrew is fired. The law firm claimed that they fired Andrew because of his incompetence, which is a fundamental attribution error because they were blaming him for the reason they fired him. They believe that he was unable to do a good job after he supposedly lost a file, and they made sure to put an emphasis on how his work quality was “merely satisfactory” during the trials. However, Andrew claimed that he was fired for having AIDS and being a homosexual. He stated that he his partners were familiar with AID leisures and had spotted some on his face. Andrew’s claim is only strengthened by the …show more content…

In the movie, it is applied when Andrew was placed as a homosexual with AIDS. One of the first scenes in which Andrew is treated differently is when he seeks Joe’s help. Before Andrew sought his help, Joe Miller was helping a client who did not really have a case, however Joe reassured him that he did have a case. However, when Andrew seeks his help, Joe says that he does not “buy” his story and does not believe he has a case. Joe perceived Andrew as different, he changed his attitude towards him, and so he did not want to help him. Social Identity theory can also be applied in the library scene. People around Andrew did not pay attention to him until the librarian brought him the AID book, which signal to those around him that he had AIDS. People immediately perceived him differently and changed their attitude toward him, which ended with most of them