Application of Psychological and Sociological Theories to Films
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Introduction
In psychology, theories are utilized for modeling people's ideas, feelings and comportments. A lot of theories were offered throughout the history of psychology to explain and forewarn different elements of human behavior. There are two fundamental components to a psychological theory, i.e. it needs to describe a behavior and predict future conduct. Each hypothesis has contributed to our understanding of the human mind and behavior. There are still acceptable certain hypotheses, such as the classical conditioning. Others haven't kept up so well and were mainly replaced by new theories, which better describe human development, like Freud's theories. Cognitive psychological theory concentrates on inner states such as motivation and resolution of problems, decision-making, thinking and attention. These theories are intended to explain several mental processes, including how mental information processes. Sociologists are studying social events, relationships and patterns and they are developing a theory to try and explain how things function. Social phenomena are explained in a sociological theory (Franko & Nicifero, 2018). A testable proposition, called a hypothesis, regarding society can be employed in theory. A few theories in sociology provide a broad outlook, and they are called paradigms, assist explain many diverse elements of social life. Paradigms are theoretical and philosophical frameworks used for the formulation of hypotheses, generalizations and experiments. Conflict theory, initially proposed by Karl Marx, is the thesis that society is in constant conflict due to struggle for limited resources. The idea of conflict says that social order is maintained not by consensus but by dominion and force. According to the theory of conflict, the rich and powerful try to cling on, mainly by the suppression of poor and powerless persons, by any conceivable methods (Pugh, 2020). A fundamental tenet of conflict theory is that people and groups in society will aim towards maximizing their own wealth and strength. Paris Is Burning shows the world of the "kids," as Black homosexual men and women call each other with affection. This lively documentary analyzes the flashy ball and "voguing" customs of the tribe. The film is way beyond spectacular anthropology. Finally it is an early, compassionate story of boldness conquering hardship (Schunk & DiBenedetto, 2020).
Conflict Theory Analysis and Application
A range of social problems, such as wars, revolutions, poverty, prejudice and violence at home, were utilized to illustrate conflict theory. It attributes to capitalism efforts to control the masses most of the key events of human history, such as democracy and civil rights (as opposed to a desire for social order). The concepts of social inequality, the distribution of resources and disputes between socioeconomic classes are the main principles of conflict theory (Kasianov & Goncharenko, 2019).The conflict theory version of Marx centered on the struggle between two main classes. Each class includes a collection of persons linked to each other's interests and to the extent of ownership of property. Marx thought about the bourgeoisie, a group of people that represented the preponderance of riches and means in society. The other group is the proletariat: it covers those who are seen as workers or poor (Franko & Nicifero, 2018). Marx theorized with the emergence of capitalism that the bourgeoisie, a minority in the population, would utilize its influence to subjugate the proletariat, a majoritarian class. This way of thinking is related to a common image associated with social conflict theory models; followers of this philosophy tend to believe in a pyramid arrangement for the distribution of commodities and services into society; at the top of the pyramid is a small group of Elites that impose terms and conditions on the larger part of society, given their outsize (Pugh, 2020).
Theorists feel that rivalry in almost every human relation and contact is ongoing and, at times, overwhelming. The lack of resources, especially material resources–source, property, commodities and more, leads to competition. In addition to material resources, people and groups in society also struggle for intangible resources (Schunk & DiBenedetto, 2020).These may include time off, domination, social status, sex partners, etc. Conflict theorists believe the default is competition (rather than cooperation). In view of the assumption by conflict theorists of struggle between social classes, a revolutionary event is a result of the conflict. The idea is that a slow adaptation does not result in a change in the dynamic power among groups. Rather, the antagonism between these groups is the symptom. This means changes to a dynamic of power are typically quick and widespread instead than progressive and evolutionary. The fact that human relations and societal systems all experience power inequality constitutes a key presupposition of conflict theory. Some persons and groups so develop more power and reward innately than others. Following this, individuals and groups that benefit from a certain society structure try to sustain and strengthen those structures (Franko & Nicifero, 2018).
Conflict theorists tend to consider conflict as either a unifier of cultures or as a "cleanser." War has become the result of a rising and cumulative conflict between individuals and organizations and between societies in conflict theory. A society may unify in some respects in the setting of war, yet conflict endures among many communities. War can also lead to the wholesale end of a civilization on the other side. As part of the historical advance of economic systems, Marx saw capitalism. He thought that capitalism was centered in commodities or items bought and sold. For instance, he thought that work was a kind of commodity (Pugh, 2020). Since the workers in the economic system have little influence or authority (since they do not own factories or equipment), their value can be reduced over time. This can create an imbalance between business owners and their employees, eventually leading to social disputes. He felt that the social and economic revolution will finally resolve these difficulties (Schunk & DiBenedetto, 2020).
Color criticism is a critical discourse started inside the U.S. academy in response to social migrants processes, the neoliberal state and economic groups and changes in racial knowledge and subjectivities about sexual and sexual minorities in the US. This was an attempt to move sexuality analysis towards criticisms of racism and politics. This training included Marxism, ethnic studies, and queer studies, postcolonial and feminist studies. Color Critique Queer was also a tool for analysis of cultural groups as records of race, political economics, gender and sexuality intersections. Thus, color criticism tried to extricate cultural and esthetic forms from interpretations which failed to put these forms into analyzes of racial capitalism and the ethnic state (Franko & Nicifero, 2018).Queer of the color critique must start by confronting an underlying constraint on Queer studies as an endeavor to address linkages between race, sexuality and political economy, a limit which obfuscate the links of color critique itself. This constraint was linked to an initial ambivalence in queer studies regarding the relationship between sexuality and other ways of difference. Max Weber, a sociologist, philosopher, lawyer and political economist in Germany, incorporated various features of Marx's theory of conflict, and subsequently expanded Marx's thesis further (Moshiri, 2019). Weber argued that property conflict was not limited to a particular context. Instead, he believed that at any given time and in every civilization there were various levels of conflict. While Marx framed his views of conflict as one between owners and employees, Weber also added to his theories about conflict an emotional element. The queer of color criticism, as Marx argues in his connection to "Paris Is Burning," would begin as a critic and use of culture. The way culture is linked to political, economic and social formations has been of particular interest. Queer of color criticism would thus engage cultural activity not as a social reflection but as an active contributor to the constitution of the social environment (Pugh, 2020). Such a development would likewise draw on analysis of the culture that worked towards situating culture in various material contexts, as the color-critique interaction with politic economies. They emphasize the heterotypical nature of their comparative method "as far as it refuses to retain the static, unchanging and empirically noticeable objects of comparison, and refuse to make legible, in the first place, the moving power configurations that define such things." Clarifying how a focus on difference changes comparative involvement, they say, "Instead, the differences between and within racialized, sexualized, sexualized communities were crucial women of color feminism and color criticism” (Franko & Nicifero, 2018).
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Cognitive Theory and Application
Cognitive theories stress creative processes and people: processes that emphasize the function of cognitive mechanisms as the basis for creative thinking; and persons that take into consideration different mechanisms. Certain cognitive theory focuses on universal ability, like attention or memory; others highlight individual distinctions, such as variances in thought; some concentrate on conscious operations; others focus on pre-conscious, implicit, and unintended processes (Schunk & DiBenedetto, 2020). One of Sarnoff A. Mednick's major cognitive theories claims that creative insights can come via associative memory procedures. From this point of view, one idea after another are linked and more distant associates are more original. This view states that more designers tend to have flatter hierarchies than less creative individuals; in other words, more creative people have much stronger colleagues rather than a few for a particular concept. This is intended to allow more space to activate far-flung representations at the same time, which many feel to be a crucial engine of creative thinking. Similarly, another cognitive paradigm focuses on the combination of thoughts to create news (Franko & Nicifero, 2018). Research shows that a conceptual combination – bringing together two different sets of information – is often a creative idea, that original insights are more likely to come about when two different characteristics are combined and connections between them can be seen only at a very high level of abstraction. More generally, research in 'creative knowledge' tradition has also emphasized ideas derived from cognitive psychology (e.g., conceptual combinations, conceptual expansion, creative imaging and metaphor), which have been mainly developed by Ronald A. Finke, Steven M. Smith, and Thomas B. Ward (Pugh, 2020).
The overlap between documentary film studies and cognitive film theory was quite small. Documents scholars consider cognitive patterns as overly limiting by addressing only the hard-wired features of reception and hypothesizing a universal audience and rejecting social, cultural and historical spectators' surroundings. The new generation of cognitive cinema theory, however, has shifted from solely cognitive concerns to an emotional study taking social, cultural and individual aspects into consideration. Cognitive models are thus also able to study more personal documentary formats, such as autobiographical and participatory documentary material and essay films not merely narrative-driven and explanatory documentary materials (Schunk & DiBenedetto, 2020). In addition, cognitive theory's flexibility and foundation led to advancement from the initial, neo-formalistic models of computations and narrative-constructivism. Adopt fields such as perceptual psychology, neurology, anthropology, sociology, phenomenology and aesthetics to open-sources methods. Since its inauguration in 1990, Jennie Livingston's film Paris Is Burning has sparked criticism and applause. The Harlem balls depicting them in the 1980's and their approach to its unique gender-building economy and its debates between ethnic and sexuality has inspired interpretations from black activism, post-structuralism and, more recently, trans-studies. Beyond the question of appropriation and authorship, however, there is an argument in the documentary about building kinship, community and agency of those oppressed subjects, and their resistance against gender-based violence (Pugh, 2020). Even though balls produce shows, the film communicates dignity and works on sorrow in viewers, creating a common community of diversity. The main drag houses of the era are on view in the documentary: Xtravaganza, LaBeija,Corey, Pendavis, DuprŽe, Ninja and Saint Laurent. The style of living on the ball circuit, particularly from the background of Black and Latinx, their struggle and achievement, their social structure and their stunning exhibition. Sadly, the majority of the cast members in the movie perished shortly after their debut due to rampant AIDS over those years. Paris is burning is focused on nine drag queen, while having many distinct protagonists of this ball circuit. In my view, this case is nevertheless the proof of the culpability of cultures by Livingston to some measure (Franko & Nicifero, 2018). Black, lesbian scholar bell hooks has devoted a tremendous effort to explaining how Paris is burning, and thus Livingston, without allowing the correct room to her ostrichritual, has appropriated blackballs for the ostension. About example, it means that while the pageantry of the balls receives much attention, the same cannot be said for feelings of the family and the community outside, making the viewer virtually imagine that these people exist exclusively in connection with the balls (Moshiri, 2019). Furthermore, since we never see Livingston in the film, it is false that her viewpoint does not impact the documentary: Paris is Burning is not an ethnographic film. Livingston does not challenge the hegemonic blindness, hiding from the camera, but assumes an imperial supervisor who is not progressive or counter-hegemonic. Therefore, the problem with Livingston's work is that her voyeurism is inherently a symptom of white supremacist and that of an outsider who looks into her distorts her view (Pugh, 2020).
Conclusion
The documentary film-making heritage has been extended by Paris Is Burning. It is not just a politically shrewd record of life, that is historically vital, not normally offered in a specific location and time, but it is an embodiment of the maxim that major documentaries are good dramas as well. Like leading practitioners like Frederick Wiseman, the brothers in Maysles, Camille Billops, Barbara Hammer and Marlon Riggs, Livingston exhibits a profound ability to widen societal contexts of observer and personal film by making use of fascinating performance as recorded evidence. Absorbed in researching and documenting the city, Livingston was drawn to a group of young Black queens in Washington Square Park who wagged and cast "category" shades. This event led her to the Harlem ball culture and to the desire to record the scene, which over time extended her notion from a little picture project to a long documentary. She was supported stalwartly by friends, family, mentors, other indie filmmakers, WNYC-TV, and the film festival circuit, but she then battled to distribute it. Paris Is Burning has been a journey through life for Livingston. The triumph of Paris Is Burning was critical but disputed. A great deal of the uproar focused on an apparent appropriation by a privileged white filmmaker of a Black homosexual subculture. It also included the ongoing question as to who is eligible to tell the tale of someone else, which I believe is the continuing dilemma at the door of any documentary effort. The heady ambition of "giving voice to the unheard," especially plagued nonfiction films released in the '80s. Power battles over image control and access to media production tools have been and are currently vital in colored communities. In the end it was the prescience of the children's ball-scene and Jennie Livingston's foresight to see that what is known in a language of the 21st Century as interaction – the confluence of racial, gender, sexual identity, age, class, body-scene and physical abilities – was the true problem. That is why it still has much to teach us about ourselves and others in the documentary Chronicle of Livingston. More than ever, it is necessary to call for reality, the resonating standard of ball greatness.
References
Franko, M., & Nicifero, A. (2018). The Quarrel of the Queen and the Transvestite: Sexuality, class, and subculture in Paris is Burning. In Choreographing Discourses (pp. 184-196). Routledge.
Kasianov, V. A., & Goncharenko, A. V. (2019). Elements of entropy conflict theory. Applications to the military conflicts.
Moshiri, F. (2019). Revolutionary conflict theory in an evolutionary perspective. In Revolutions of the Late Twentieth Century (pp. 4-36). Routledge.
Pugh, A. (2020). Scrambling Sex and Gender with Rachilde: Towards a reading of Monsieur Vénus as ‘proto-queer’. Connections: A Journal of Language, Media and Culture, 1(1), 21-30.
Schunk, D. H., & DiBenedetto, M. K. (2020). Motivation and social cognitive theory. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 60, 101832.
