Project - Group Movie Analysis
Movie - Coach Carter
To wrap up the entire course and provide a context in which you can intentionally practice your interpersonal communication skills with each other, our second project is collaborative. And fun. Here's the plan.
Watch the movie ________. Then work with your group to share your ideas about how interpersonal relationships are depicted in the film and write your responses to selected questions from the assignment. Each group will hand in only one assignment, which will be a Google Doc and will receive a single grade based on the accuracy and thoroughness of your analysis and the clarity of your writing.
Each individual will also write a personal reflection on the group process and her/his/their role in that process, as well as an evaluation on the contributions of each member of the group to the final outcome. This reflection will be used to determine your individual grades on the project. Note that this individual reflection is a separate upload.
The two parts together are worth 20% of your final grade in the course. The Canvas due date/deadline is ______________.
Movie Analysis: The Group Paper
Communication Basics
Question 1: Choose one character in the movie who could be considered a competent communicator. Give examples of that person's behaviours that illustrate any fourof the following:
a. A wide range of behaviours
b. Ability to choose the most appropriate behaviour
c. Skill at performing behaviours
d. Cognitive complexity
e. Empathy
f. Self-monitoring
g. Commitment (caring about both the other person and the message)
Question 2: Identify and explain one example for each of the following communication principles:
a Communication can be intentional or unintentional
b Communication is irreversible
c It's impossible not to communicate
d Communication is unrepeatable
e Communication has a content and a relational dimension
Question 3: Identify and explain one example for each of the following often communication misconceptions:
a More communication is always better
b Meanings are in words
c Successful communication always involves shared understanding
d A single person or event causes another's reaction
e Communication can solve all problems
Self-Concept, Perception, And Expression
Question 4: What issues with identity does one of the main characters reveal in the movie? Discuss the factors that are influencing his/her/their sense of self at this time in his/her/their life.
Question 5: Use the Social Penetration Model(Chapter 8) to analyze the self-disclosure between two main characters. What benefits of self-disclosure are evident? What are the risks each one is taking in their disclosure? Give specific examples.
Question 6: What emotions does a different character reveal throughout the movie? How does he/she/they reveal them and to whom? What emotions do you think this person feels, but does not reveal? What factors contribute to this person's ways of expressing and managing emotion(s)?
Question 7: Nonverbal communication through clothing, physical appearance, and physical environment, etc, are all focused on by various characters in the story. Explain how each one is a factor in a character's relationships with others.
Question 8: Give details of when two of the following fallacies were accepted by a character (or by two different people) in the movie, and discuss how this thinking affected (impacted) the person's emotions:
a Fallacy of Perfection
b Fallacy of Approval
c Fallacy of Should's
d Fallacy of Overgeneralization e Fallacy of Causation
f Fallacy of Helplessness
g Fallacy of Catastrophic Expectations
Listening And Relating
Question 9: Effective and ineffective listening behaviours.
a Who in the movie demonstrates effective listening? Illustrate by identifying the specific listening behaviours/strategies used by that person in one or more situations.
b Identify two examples of ineffective listening and identify the specific problem you see. What is the outcome of the behaviour?
Question 10: Give an example of a lie or deceitful action in the movie. Do any of the following reasons explain the reasons for the deception? Explain. If not, what reasons for it can you offer? Provide supportive evidence.
a to save face
b to guide social interaction
c to expand or reduce relationships
d to gain power
e to avoid tension or conflict
Question 11: The movie includes numerous scenes in which one person directly criticizes, or offers feedback to, another person; not everyone who is criticized responds in the same way. Find one example of a defensive response and one example of a non-defensive response. For each situation, describe by whom and how the criticism is expressed (verbally and nonverbally), in addition to how the receiver responds (verbally and nonverbally). Analyze the type of defensive/non-defensive strategy being used and the outcome (Hint: review the terms in Chapter 9 to help you with this.)
Relationship Analysis
Question 12: Analyze the relationship between two of the main characters. Here are some questions to get you started. It is expected that you will use theories and concepts from the course to shape your analysis and to develop the topics in whatever order makes sense to you.
a Analyze the development of the relationship. What brings them together? What strengthens their relationship and causes it to grow? What threatens it? Do any of the stages of relational development apply?
b How do perceptions affect the relationship? For example, do these two main characters have accurate perceptions of one another? Do they have shared perceptions of others? How might their perceptions or attributions be distorted?
c How do the messages they give one another affect (impact) their relationship's development?
d Analyze the distribution of power/control evident in the relationship. Is it a complementary, symmetrical, or parallel relationship? Explain why you see it this way.
e What threatens their relationship? Analyze one of the character's'relational transgression and repair'.
f What are the factors that maintain the relationship(s)? For example, what needs are being satisfied by their relationship that make it worthwhile? Why do you think their relationship grows and continues?
Conflict Analysis
*This section will be discussed in class, and will be part of this Project*