MOTIVATIONAL ANALYSIS: CHARACTER AND CONTEXT

"I am not complete" - Edward Scissorhands

Directed by Tim Burton in 1990

My blogs will be centered around the Main Character of the 1990s cult classic Edward Scissorhands. The film was Johnny Depp's first true breakout performance and began his lengthy involvement with director Tim Burton. The movie's other leading role was played by Winona Ryder. The movie is a romantic fantasy and includes many of the elements that are indicative of a Burton film.

The plot of this piece of media is heavily focused on contrast. Our main character is a Frankenstein-type figure made by a mad scientist in a medieval-style castle. However, the film does not take place in 14th century Romania; instead, the castle directly overlooks a cookie-cutter American suburb of the 1980s. Near the start of the film, our protagonist is found alone in the castle by a local makeup salesman who brings him down to the town and creates the start of a series of events that will see him attempt to conform to middle American society, which in the end, rejects him.

Edward has many unique features that physically illustrate how he contrasts the setting around him. The most prominent being his hands which have been replaced by two giant scissors. There is irony in this fact because although they are what set him apart and block him from physically reaching out to people, they are also the instruments he uses to create the art the people of the town covet so highly. Furthermore, Edward is gothic in appearance with pale skin, long untamed black hair that sticks up in every direction, and a tight black body suit he can never take off, but he is also emotionally stunted with clear deficiencies when it comes to interactions with other people.

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EXPECTANCY-VALUE THEORY, PERFORMANCE GOALS, AND INSTRUMENTALITY

“Edward, I think you should just come home with me.” – Peg Blog Post #3 This week the class moved on to expectancy-value theory. At its most simple expectancy-value theory states that an individual's motivation can be summed by whether they feel capable of fulfilling a task and if they give importance to the task. Yet, an explanation of instrumentality is also required to understand Edward Scissorhands and his relation to the theory. This term signifies that people feel motivated to do things that will get them closer to their goals. While there are two types of instrumentality, I will focus on the one in which people feel the action is directly related to the procurement of the goal, given it is the only one we see in the actions of the film's main character. The last definition is performance goals, and these are goals that are related to outcomes outside of oneself as opposed to mastery goals that just focus on internal skill building. Now to connect the theoretical our sci...

Attributional Theory

" I deserve what happens to me now" - Edward Scissorhands Blog Post #6 Attributional Theory The theory we covered this past week in class relates to outcomes. More specifically, why certain outcomes happen to us and to what we attribute them. Attributional theory is built upon three blocks locusts of control, controllability, and stability. I will dive into them in the later sections, but it is important to restate the goal of our main character. Edwards's central goal, which we discuss every week, is to attempt to become integrated into the suburban society he has been thrust into. Watching the movie again, it is a bit difficult to state with total certainty how Edward is contextualizing the events around him concerning attributional theory because he is not a very vocal lead character, yet, using his overall demeanor, I will do my best. Locusts of Control This part of attributional theory can be described through the lens of internal and external. If a locus of control...

Control-Value Theory

Blog post #7 The seventh blog post covers Control-Value Theory. It makes sense that we learned about this theory later on in our semester because, at its core, it combines many of the concepts that we wrote prior blog posts about. Control-Value theory incorporates E xpectancy-Value Theory, Attribution Theory, Self-Efficacy Theory, and Appraisal Theory. Yet, at its core, the theory focuses on emotion, motivation, and how they are interconnected. Furthermore, the theory is very time conscious, with perceptions of control and values divided into three categories past, present, and future. Inside these three categories, the theory further splinters how each could manifest depending on the time frame. Looking at our main character through this lens, it's clear how control-value manifests itself in his actions. At the start of the film, when he comes down to the town, he has a task, becoming integrated into the local village, that he views as highly valuable due to his...

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