Ayushi Y's Senior Project Blog
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Project Title: Beyond the Screen – Investigating the Impact of Cinematic Psychopathy on Public Perception and Stigmatization of Mental Health BASIS Advisor: Suzanne Ungar Internship Location: Mountain View Mental Health, online Onsite Mentor: Katherine Brazaitis |
Project Abstract
As the film industry gains popularity, an intriguing trend emerges- the increased use of psychopathic characters to craft captivating stories. The negative manner in which psychopaths are portrayed in the media leads to the creation of many misconceptions regarding those with mental disabilities in general. In order to find what traits cause psychopaths to be associated with other mental disorders as a whole, I ask the question, what traits lead the audience to view a character as “psycopathic” and how do these traits compare to other personality disorders? Through my research, I hope to provide insight regarding informed media portrayal to help create a more empathetic society towards those with mental health conditions.
That’s a wrap!
Hello Everyone! This is my concluding blog post for my project. Thank you all so much for keeping up with my blog posts and supporting my research! I’m just going to give a brief summary of my findings before signing off. The Dark Knight and American Psycho illustrate how the audience can diagnose these characters... Read More
Take 8
Hello Everyone! This is another update on my project and my progress with my final product. On Monday, I worked with my off-site advisor to revise and polish the script for my video. We concentrated on making sure my video's objective was obvious and that my language was human-centered (e.g., replacing the word difficulties with... Read More
Take 7
Hey Everyone! This week’s blog post is going to be a lot more focused on my progress so far with my project and what I have been working on recently. With the data collection portion of my project coming to a close, I have started focusing on creating the final product for my project. My... Read More
Take 6
Hello Everyone! This week I will discuss how the films, The Dark Knight and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer contribute to mental health stigma. As I looked for articles regarding the Joker’s connection to mental health in The Dark Kight, I found a similar trend to the American Psychopath articles; There were many different... Read More
Take 5
Hey Everyone! This week I looked into reviews and articles on the movies American Psycho and the Roommate. In American Psycho, the main character, Patrick Bateman, is never clearly diagnosed with a mental disorder so I was researching to see how other viewers/ psychiatrists would diagnose him. I found a large variety of diagnoses for... Read More
Take 4
Hey Everyone! This week's blog post will focus on the movie Girl, Interrupted because it brought a lot of new information to think about for my project. This week I looked at reviews and scholarly articles regarding a few movies I have already watched and focused highly on Girl, Interrupted. A few of the reviews... Read More
My Research Experience So Far
Hey Everyone! I wanted to go into detail this week about my research experience up to this point. Over the past few weeks, my project has undoubtedly taken many turns, but it's all "for the plot" anyway so that makes it more interesting. My ongoing claim is that people's negative impressions of mental health are... Read More
Take 3
Hello Everyone! This week I watched two movies from 2010 to 2015: “The Roommate” and “Malevolence: Bereavement” "The Roommate" is a psychological thriller about college student Sara Matthews and her unsettling relationship with her roommate, Rebecca. As Sara discovers Rebecca's obsessive and dangerous tendencies, the film unfolds into a suspenseful narrative exploring themes of obsession... Read More
Background Information
Hello Everybody! This post will provide some background research regarding my topic. Psychopathy is a personality disorder that is mainly characterized by two factors: efficient interpersonal communication and antisocial deviance. Other characteristics include impulsivity, shallowness, superficial charm, callousness, and manipulation. While few studies have examined the relationship between psychopathy and other personality disorders beyond ASPD,... Read More
Take 2
Hello Everyone! I spent this past week watching movies from between 2005 and 2010. I watched Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006), Zodiac (2007), and The Dark Knight (2008). In Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a man born with an extraordinary sense of smell, is obsessed with creating the perfect scent... Read More
Take 1
Hello Everyone! This week I watched two movies which contained “psychopathic” characters and examined how they illustrated the stereotypes regarding mental illness. The most common stereotype regarding those with mental health disabilities is that they are violent. The media vastly exaggerates this and although anti-social personality disorder and some other psychotic disorders do have aggression... Read More
Lights… Camera… Action!
Hello everyone, My name is Ayushi Yadav and my senior research project, "Beyond the Screen" was created to show how the negative manner in which psychopaths are portrayed in the media leads to the creation of many misconceptions regarding those with mental health issues. To find what traits cause psychopaths to be associated with other... Read More