Psychological Aspects of Remember the Titans

Quinn Psych 100 November 13, 2012 Psychology in Movies Psychology is the study of or science of how individuals and groups behave and their mental processes. Characteristics of these behaviors and mental processes are portrayed in many different ways within the movies that we create. Within the movie, Remember the Titans, many social psychology concepts are present. Remember the Titans is a movie set in Virginia 1971, its about a high school football team and how they come together in order to try and win the state championship.

Unfortunately it is not that simple, this is a high school that has just been forced to integrate in a time of racial segregation, in a town where football is everything and is most of the boys’ ticket out of town and onto college. The three concepts that are evident in the movie are foot-in-the-door phenomenon, groupthink, and ingroup bias and outgroup. The first concept is foot-in-the-door phenomenon. There is a scene where the teams newly appointed African American head coach, Coach Boone, forces all the boys off the two busses taking them to their two week camp.

Then he separates the team into two groups, offense and defense, and then pairs each player with a teammate of a different race. Coach Boone goes on to explain to them that this is also the person with whom they will be sharing a room with; this is his initial small request. As camp continues on the team gets to know each other and slowly the race lines between them fade and they become close to each other. So Coach Boone’s initial request helped the team to later comply with his request of them to play together as a strong bonded team.

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This later request would not have been possible if asked originally, he had to start with a smaller request and work his way up to the larger request. Groupthink is the second psychology concept within Remember the Titans. After the team returns from the football camp, where they united together, they win a couple of games but the hatred and racism is still strong within the town and they slowly disband because of this. Gerry, Julius, Rev, and Louie tell the team about a mandatory team meeting, but as the other teammates show up they start to realize that the coaches aren’t there and are about to leave.

The four that organized this meeting ask them to stay and hear them out. They talk about winning games but point out that that isn’t a win, sticking together through all the chaos as a team is a true win. This meeting or decision making group decide to work for harmony within the group and let it override the realistic alternative of reverting back to the hate of each other that is the norm in the town. This entire movie is encased with ingroup bias and outgroups. A great example of this is a scene when the team is at their football camp.

Louie goes to sit down at a table of all African Americans and Julius says, “What you doing man? ” Louie answers “I’m eating lunch. ” and Julius replies “I see you eating lunch. Why you eating over here? Why don’t you go on over there and eat with your people. ” This shows Julius’ tendency to favor his own group over Louie who is perceived to be part of a group that is different than his group. Remember the Titans being set in a segregated time is all about the in-group and out-group.

In conclusion, the three concepts that are evident in Remember the Titans are foot-in-the-door phenomenon, groupthink, and ingroup bias and outgroup. Adding these concepts into the plot made this a stronger storyline, by creating a dynamic story. The concept of groupthink is a concept that I think isn’t experienced enough with most people having a “me” attitude rather than the desire for harmony or that anyone should feel outside or not part of the ingroup. This has opened my eyes to all the social psychology aspects within movies.

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