Social psychological analysis of the film High Fidelity

Social Psychology Analysis of Film High Fidelity

This work will consist of a social psychological analysis of the film High Fidelity (2000). In brief, the film depicts Rob a dejected and melancholy individual returning to his past relationships at first to absolve himself from wrongdoing as a response to the grief of the loss of his present relationship. As Rob travels through his past he realizes his own responsibility in each of the particular relationships and through this exploration begins to better understand his own patterns which lead him to mend his present relationship with Laura and change his own behavior. The film is actually a brilliant self-study, as it develops Rob's psychological and social progression as an adult through brilliant monologues and dialogues and fragmented and masculine imagery and concepts.

The work will first discuss the interpersonal attraction between Rob and Laura in accordance with social exchange theory. It will then move on to discuss an incidence of aggression, between Rob and Ian and explain how it is an example of the frustration aggression theory. Then it will finally discuss three examples of pro-social behavior, when Rob asks Laura to marry him, when he agrees to help Vince and Justin produce a record and when he makes a mixed tape for Laura at the end of the film and to describe how they are examples of pro-social behavior of the negative-state relief model. Lastly the work will describe how applying social psychology theory to the viewing of the film advanced knowledge of the film and how analyzing the film advanced understanding of the social psychology concepts.

Interpersonal Attraction

The interpersonal attraction between Rob and Laura is displayed in the film in accordance with social exchange theory. Social exchange theory is the theory that all interpersonal relationships are conducted on an exchange basis where exchanges are made between partners, valued by the other and then returned. Most importantly the theory states that we as individual maintain relationships where the rewards exceed the expenditures and therefore leave those relationships where the expenditures or costs exceed the rewards. (Heath, and Bryant 229)

The interpersonal relationship between Rob and Laura has come to a stage where Laura feels as if the costs outweigh the rewards of the relationship, while she is progressing Rob is stagnating or reverting and therefore she feels as if the exchange is unbalanced. Rob asks Laura what he can do to make her happy and she says, "Nothing, make yourself happy." "You're the same person you used to be and I'm not and all I did is change jobs." "You have to allow things to happen to people, most of all yourself, and you don't!" Where Laura is working toward the future in her personal development Rob doesn't even talk about the future anymore, according to Laura. While Rob on the other hand feels that the reward of being with Laura was the many things they had in common, i.e. An overall rejection of authority, music, and lifestyle including but not limited to the fact that she and he were both poor by choice when they met.

Laura an attorney, worked for legal aide when they met and therefore did not exceed Rob's social class, while she currently works in a job that pays really well. Rejecting the old "poor" lifestyle and accepting the rules of society has led Rob to believe that Laura is no longer in his class while Laura, like she says has not really changed inside, has only changed jobs and can no loner go to work with pink hair. At the opening of the film the relationship is at an impasse as both individuals feel as if the rewards they previously experienced are gone and that it is costing them too much to be together. Laura is not happy and Rob is not happy.

As the film progresses and Rob explores himself more, and he watches as other people around him begin to grow up, i.e. Barry starts a band and Dick gets a girlfriend, he begins to see that wallowing in the self-pity of his past perceived relationship rejections, supported by his like of miserable pop rock, is keeping him down. This is a concept foreshadowed in the opening monologue of the film, where Rob says, "What came first the misery or the music? People worry… that the culture of violence will take them over... But never worry about them listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection and pain." Near the close of the film Rob actually "gets" what Laura has been talking about all along and asks her to marry him, because he finally feels as if he would like to stop thinking about the misery of his past and move forward to something new, like developing a record label. Laura, though not ready to marry tells him no, but makes it clear to him that progress was made when he asks. She says, "The important thing is that you asked." The social exchanges are then more balanced and each is experiencing more reward than cost from the relationship. (Heath, and Bryant 229)

Aggression

The incident of aggression, between Rob and Ian, plays out in true film magic, with Ian entering Rob's record store and talking to Rob about his frustrated efforts to get Laura back, coming off as stalking her. Ian is Laura's new temporary love, while Rob and her are split up, and he is a putzs. Ian, then known as "Ray," lived above Rob and Laura until a few weeks before the beginning of the film. The frustration in the sequence is clear, Ian's existence as Laura's new lover, the fact that Ian has her and Rob does not, the fact that Rob wants her back, and Ian's putzyness, including but not limited to his condescending language when he speaks to Rob.

…frustration produces a condition of readiness or instigation to aggress, and that aggression is always preceded by some form of frustration. Frustration in both the original and revised versions of the hypothesis is defined as 'interference with the occurrence of an instigated goal-response at its proper time in the behavior sequence' (Dollard et al. 1939: 7). (Geen 22)

The causal relationship is multi-faceted, and Rob reacts with aggression. Yet, his aggression is only played out in his head, leading to yet more frustration.

When Rob realizes who Laura is seeing, as a result of their mutual friend Liz's slip up on the phone, Rob becomes increasingly frustrated. First he lays in bed thinking about Laura and Ian having sex, since he and Laura had sat in bed below him and listened to Ian with women when he lived above them. The imagery is frustrating but he is soothed by Laura telling him that they have not yet had sex, but the frustration doesn't go away as he seeks to understand the word, "yet" in her statement and he goes out and sleeps with a super sexy pop artist Marie de Salle the same night. He is frustrated with the relationship with Laura and his own behavior. Then the frustration peaks again when she tells him they have had sex. All the while Rob wants her back and he cannot have her, but Ian can on the other hand can, even though he is a putz.

Rob's frustration first plays out in aggression when he sleeps with Maria de Salle and then stalks Laura. Ian: "Ten phone calls a night, hanging around outside my house morning and night." When Ian enters his domain, the record store, Rob plays out scenarios for response, first being Rob simply yelling violently at Ian "You rebound fuck, now get your patchouli stinking ass out of my store!" The second scenario where Rob's friends Barry and Dick jump over the counter and hold Rob back from attacking Ian, while he yells at him, the third scenario being Dick (an unassuming, passive feminine, soft soul) attacks Ian and his friend Barry and Rob jump to his aide and beat Ian to a pulp and finally, what really happens, where Ian leaves the store after frustrating Rob with his condescension and Rob says nothing. Though his aggression never actually comes to pass and he really just takes it out on himself, the frustration that leads to his Passive-aggressive behavior is clearly evident. Rob is aggressive toward himself and others, but really he is passive aggressive because he rarely actually does what he would like to do. In many ways this is a reflection of even greater frustration as Rob lives out the reality of living in a world where real violence is not acceptable and individuals must live out their aggression vicariously by watching violent films and listening to violent music, a concept that fits nicely back into his opening monologue about the music or the misery.

Pro-Social Behavior

Three incidents of pro-social behavior, when Rob helps Vince and Justin by agreeing to produce their record and when Rob asks Laura to marry him, are both clear examples of the negative-state relief model. A model that stresses the fact that people in a generally bad mood or situation will seek out pro-social behaviors, i.e. To help others to make him or herself feel better. (Berkowitz 185) Though this theory has often been contested, not simply because it tends to negate altruism but because people in bad moods tend not to seek out the doing of good deeds, (Berkowitz 186) these two examples of pro-social behavior in this film are both realistic and examples of the negative state relief model of action.

The first example is when Rob agrees to help two skater slackers and frequent shoplifters at his store to produce a record. Rob does not have a record label but it is a logical extension of his love of music and of human progress. He walks into the store, where Barry and Dick are listening to a demo tape of Vince and Justin, which is actually really good. All of them are collectively amazed. Rob almost immediately walks back out the door to return to a scene where just before he entered the record store one of the skaters had run over his foot. He asks the group where Justin and Vince are, they point he walks over to them and tells them that he will produce their music. They ask what they will get out of it and he tells them a percentage after he recovers costs. Then they ask him what his label is called and he on the spur of the moment names it "Top 5 records" a play on the fact that he is constantly making lists of the top five of everything from breakups to songs to dream jobs, all of which are significant in the film.

Rob's idea to help two punks that he previously disdained, both or whom he only recently chased from his store for shoplifting simply because their music doesn't suck is an example of his attempt to better himself and break his own misery by helping an unlikely pair. He gains from the situation because he is bettering himself, moving toward the future, the complaint that Laura has of him from the beginning, i.e. not thinking of the future. When he and Laura rekindle their relationship as a result of her grief over the death of her father she actually gets on board and throws Rob a surprise record release party, which shows her acknowledging the change in him. The death of Laura's father and her grief over it lead her to relinquish her split up with Rob, because she is "to tired not to be with him." This may seem like backpedaling for Laura, but as it turns out the act is productive, as Rob has begun to change and to allow others to change.

The other act of pro-social behavior that emphasizes the negative-state relief model is Rob's marriage proposal to Laura. When he speaks to his/her words are not romantic, he says he is sick of thinking about the misery of his past relationships, can't imagine ever getting sick of her and he wants to think about something else, i.e. growing up and moving on with his life, which will likely include self-development and real creativity. He knows that what Laura wants is a relationship that progresses and the ultimate progression is marriage and commitment, something that has clearly eluded him before. The lack of commitment has been mutual, he cheats on her she aborts his baby without telling him she is pregnant, but Laura is convinced that her reluctance to commit is a response to Rob's inability to progress and be happy, in anything. The marriage proposal is a direct example of the negative-state relief model because ultimately Rob is trying to do the one sure thing that will allow him to stop wallowing in the self-pity of implied rejection. Though Laura does not agree to marry him, the proposal and his thought processes cause him to rethink the way in which he approaches life, seeking out the "fantasy" looking for the thrill of new love, including his current attempt to woo a cute music critic by making her a mixed tape, and actually making one for Laura.

The mixed tape making session is the closing monologue of the film. He is sitting in his house making a tape, the viewer does not know if the tape is for the music critic or not, until Rob says he is making the tape for Laura and the tape will include songs that she likes, rather than songs that he likes or songs he thinks will persuade her to do things for him or to love him more. He has finally figured out how to think about her happiness and says, "For the first time I can finally see how that's done. The act of making the mixed tape for Laura is probably the pro-social behavior that is the least like the negative-state relief model, supporting its critics, who claim that people in a bad mood are not likely to do nice things. Rob is actually in the best mental state he has been in since the beginning of the film, and yet he is doing something nice for Laura. I suppose though one could argue he does it to tell his/her choice was not to make the mixed tape for the cute "other woman" but to make it for her and about her and her likes and dislikes, thus a further closer analysis is that he does it to relieve his negative mood regarding his propensity to seek out a fantasy and stray from what is real. (Berkowitz 186)