Concordia University

PSY 101
Introduction to Psychology

Final Exam

You should read this paper very carefully.

The purpose of this paper is to set out the terms of the final exam for this
course. The nature of this exam is unusual for a Psychology course; therefore,
you should regard the ideas below as the requirements for successfully
completing the exam.

The title of the final exam for this course is:

A Psychological Analysis of the Film Zootopia

Here's how it works...

The film Zootopia is one of the most interesting and well-crafted films ever
made (it won an Academy Award in 2017). It deals with the lives and
relationships of animals in a city called Zootopia in ways that are a metaphor
of how humans experience them in an urban environment. In addition to being
very entertaining, the film's plot also has elements of the thoughts and
behavior of these animals that resemble the same kind of thoughts and
behavior humans display.

You are expected to write a paper – the length of which I am not going to set; it
must be as long as it takes to fully explain your analysis, evaluation and
creation of new knowledge for yourself – about the film Zootopia. Only
electronic copies of your paper will be accepted. You are to compose your paper
as a Microsoft WORD file (NOT a PDF, text, or Google Docs file), and drop it
into the Blackboard site entitled, “Final Exam Submission Portal.”

It must be time stamped and received by me through the Blackboard portal at

or before 5pm on May 1st. The window for the final exam will close on May 16th
at 5:00pm, and there is no grace period for your submission. I will mark your
grade down by 10% each 24-hour period that the paper is late after May 1st.
The file name must have your last name first and then the words "Final Exam",
e.g. < Watts Final Exam.doc or docx >.

Consult the scoring rubric for this course for a detailed explanation of the
standards for your paper. Consult a dictionary for an explanation of terms.
However, I would strongly suggest you adhere to the meanings of the terms
"analyze, evaluate and create" as I have provided in two separate lectures:

To “analyze” this film is to provide a detailed examination of the

elements or structure of something, typically as
a basis for discussion or interpretation: describe
the process of separating something into its constituent elements; and,
in the final step, when everything has been considered, suggest that
analysis statements express the basic truth about the complexity of ideas
in the film.

To “evaluate” this film is to form an idea of the amount, number, or

value of pieces of the film you did in your analysis. To evaluate these
parts of the film and its characters, you need to make decisions about
what is important and valid about the psychological elements of the film
and what is not. The expectation is that you will clearly draw conclusions
about the facts in your analysis.

To “create” or “synthesize” information in this film is to combine

ideas you have found in the analysis and the evaluation to form a theory
or a system of understanding about the material. The emphasis here is
on developing, and stating clearly, the new information you have found
about human psychology as a result of watching, analyzing and
evaluating the psychological content of the film.

With regard to these steps, I expect that your paper will fully and directly
explain how you have analyzed, evaluated, and created new knowledge for
yourself in terms of the larger implications of your work for understanding
human psychology better.

From that point of view, it is possible for you to provide a psychological

analysis of the film and its characters that will reveal your understanding of
the material we have covered in this course. I expect you will provide an
analysis of the characters and the situations in the film that utilizes your
knowledge, understanding, evaluation and creativity (synthesis) of major
principles of psychology we have studied in the entire course. Using
psychological terms, theories, principles, research findings, and narrative
language you have learned throughout the course will usually result in a
higher grade.
I expect that you will cover each of the areas we have worked on in the course
to analyze the film. In that respect then, I expect you to cover in detail the
at least a few of the following major themes in the film that parallel the
work we have done regarding human thought and behavior in the class:

Nature and Nurture Love and Hate

Mind and Body Isolation and Connection
Consciousness and Altered States Mental Illness
Relationships Personality Disorders
Life and Death Treatment and Recovery
Change and Constancy

How you organize your paper will be up to you. It would be acceptable to

organize it according to the above topics, but you could also have a flowing
narrative that brings in all the elements in a wide discussion of each theme. If
you watch it on a computer, it would even be possible for you to provide screen
shots of a scene that you feel represents a particularly important point you
want to make in your analysis.

I do not want you to just write a plot summary: I will mark down papers
significantly that ONLY provide a description of the action or talk in
general terms as if you were providing a review of the movie for someone
to watch. I have watched the film... I do not need a synopsis of it. A true
psychological analysis of the film will briefly mention elements of the plot and
how the characters interact but will only have those things as background to
illuminate and support the psychological processes that are happening
throughout the film.

There are hundreds of reviews and commentaries on the internet about this
film. I STRONGLY urge you to avoid using any content from the internet
or other review sources of this film for your paper. In fact, it would be best
if you DID NOT go to a review page of the film before you write your own paper
so as to not influence your personal thoughts and feelings about the film. You
should know that it is remarkably easy to determine whether your written work
is your own or that of another person: Anti-plagiarizing checking tools are
available to me and may be used to verify the originality of your work. Any
resemblance in your paper of the literal or paraphrased content from any other
writer or provider - internet, term paper mills, published commentaries, the
work of other students, or other forms not mentioned in this paragraph –
without having a true source for the item will be considered as having been
plagiarized. If it is determined that any part of your work is plagiarized, you will
receive a zero (0) as a grade for the exam.

In that same regard, you must watch this film alone, not discuss your ideas
with any other student, and write your paper without any help from anyone
either in or outside of this course. Any suggestion, either obtained by me
directly through a comparison of your work to that of others or learning
through any other source that you have not complied with this paragraph, will
result in an automatic and irreversible grade of zero (0) for the exam.

Your paper ought to be a scholarly work that uses the themes of this
course and psychological language you have learned from the text and
readings. It is not a paper aimed at a general audience: Rather, it is aimed at
providing evidence that you watched the film and that you understand the
psychological implications of how the characters manifest thoughts and
behaviors like those humans might have in similar situations.

Therefore, I am not interested in your UNINFORMED opinion. I am interested

in your INFORMED opinion, i.e., I want to learn not only what you analyze
about the themes you see in the movie, but also support your evaluation of
that analysis with references to either the text, readings, videos, or lectures
that you have experienced in your work throughout the course. You must use
the American Psychological Association (APA) Style Manual as a guide for
presenting citations within the body of the work as well as for the reference
page of sources at the end of the paper. You can find online information about
the APA style at the Purdue University site that provides guidance:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_
and_style_guide/in_text_citations_the_basics.html - click on the “APA Style”,
then the “APA Formatting and Style Guide” tabs.

How to obtain the film...

I have provided a link to the film Zootopia on the Blackboard site for this class.
Scroll through Blackboard until you see the tab for “Final Exam Film Access
Portal - Zootopia” marked in red. Click on this and you will be brought to the
Google Docs site that holds the film. Be certain that if you are asked to sign in
to Google Docs that you use your Concordia email address: If you don’t you will
not get into the site to see the film (I suggest you try this early to not get caught
late with access problems). If you have problems I suggest you contact the
university IT desk for help: (651) 641-8866. You can access the film as many
times as you would like.

I hope you enjoy this novel final exam process. Please contact me personally for
any information that you feel has not been addressed in this paper.

Dr. Watts