Kids in Horror: Source of Evil vs Source of Resolution

Michelle Satchwell is Head of the Social Sciences Department at a large school in Derbyshire, UK. She analyses kids’ use in horror films and examines the genre through the prism of Evolutionary, Cognitive, Psychodynamic, and Social Psychology. She will make you question why you feel the way you do when watching a horror.

References:

Trypophobia – fear of irregular patterns or clusters of small holes or bumps, e.g. buttons, crumpets, sponges etc.

Evolutionary/Biological psychology

There’s no psychologist named, but we tend to take Dawkins and apply it to psychology.

Emamzadeh (2018) Origin of common fears: A review (Psychology Today)

Parapsychology

[ESP cards]

Utts (1991) Replication and meta-analysis in parapsychology.

Cognitive psychology

[Elizabeth Loftus pioneer in the field and expert witness in courts].

Loftus and Palmer (1974) Reconstruction of automobile destruction (I mentioned experiment 1).

Loftus and Pickerell (1995) Lost in the Mall study.

Jean Piaget (1952) Assimilation and Accommodation in Schema theory.

Psychodynamic psychology

Sigmund Freud (1917) Introduction to psychoanalysis.

[Id, Ego, and Superego are all part of the Tripartite model of the personality in our unconscious like an iceberg].

Social psychology

Haney et al. (1973) Stanford Prison experiment.

Zimbardo (2007) Lucifer effect.

Piliavin et al (1969) Good Samaritanism.

[The bystander effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSsPfbup0ac]

Behaviourism

Pavlov (1897) Classical conditioning in dogs

Social Learning Theory:

Bandura et al (1961) Bobo doll experiment.

Michelle’s book: Psychology Review: A-level Exam Skills and Practice Paperback – 30 Oct. 2020 ISBN-10: 1398308013