Film Analysis: The Blind Side

Carissa West
Department of Psychology, Mansfield University of Pennsylvania
PSY-3310: Social Psychology
Dr. Gretchen Sechrist
July 29, 2021

February 8, 2022
This paper reflects how the principles of social psychology are applied to real world events even

in movies. Movies are for entertainment but still show detailed images of human social behavior

that occurs all around us. I chose to watch The Blind Side and analyze, from a social-

psychological perspective, the behaviors and events that occurred throughout. I have applied at

least four different social psychological principles that I learned this semester that predict and

explain human social behavior. While watching the Blind Side I learned that social psychology

could change your everyday life.

The Blind Side is about a boy named Michael who comes from an unstable home with

drug addiction and an absent father, in the inner-city housing projects. This story begins with

Michael being homeless and the coach of a private Christian school needing a player the size of

him. He starts attending and has nowhere to live. A wealthy family with the last name of Tuohy's

offer Michael to stay with them in their beautiful home so they can take care of him. They help

this boy turn into a young man and send him off to college, a place he never imagined was in his

future. While this may seem like a wholesome, plotless explanation, the story of how he got to

this happy ending is what makes the movie so incredible.

This movie depicted a very clear image of social discrimination experienced by Michael

in his social life. This was shown in several scenes. Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of

an individual based solely on their membership in a certain group or category. Discrimination is

the actual behavior towards members of another group. As Michael walks into his first class at

his new school everyone stares at him like he's an alien. He writes a letter that his teacher finds

crumpled up in the garbage stating, “All I see are white walls, white floors, and white people. No
one notices I don’t understand what they're teaching me. This isn’t who I am.” He is the only

black human being to attend this school. He experiences social isolation for quite some time.

There is also a scene where the mother of the Tuohy’s is out to lunch with her other wealthy

friends who do not see the worth in her. One of her friends makes the comment of, “Don’t you

worry about your daughter being in the house with him? He is a big black man.” This group of

women who do not have much experience with someone of a different color, other than the

stereotypes given through the media, make them appear accusatory. According to the realistic

conflict theory their view stems from direct compensation between various social groups due to

scarce resources of including colored people. This comment shows how prejudice one can be

about a black man in a community like such. This leads to discrimination and the isolation of

individuals who are different from other social groups. People are easy to divide the social world

into us vs. them groups. People who are a part of the ‘us’ category are thought of more favorably

than those in the ‘them’ category. When one does not perceive the self as a member of a social

group this may threaten their self-esteem. The way Michaels life started off; he already had a

very low self-esteem. When moving to a new community he also did not feel accepted entirely

because of how people discriminated against his original appearance. As the movie progressed

and he found his group he was accepted into, you could tell in his behavior and mannerism that

his self-esteem had progressed positively.

People hold stereotypes based on appearances. Leigh Anne, AKA momma, took Michael

to a shop called ‘Big and Tall’ for clothes that fit someone of his size. She knew with his one

shirt that had never been properly washed, considering he was living on the streets, made him

stick out like a “fly in milk” in the wealthy community he was now living in. Physical

appearance determines many social outcomes. There is such thing as the appearance rejection
sensitivity that makes an individual worry about one's appearance and fear that others may snub

you because you don’t quite measure up. Michael is already a very shy person who doesn’t open

up easily. This principle applies to him when his understanding of the materials of school do not

apply to him. He feels unworthy and stupid. His teachers reject him and do not believe for him to

be acceptable for the private institute. Most students who attended this private facility had

money, good grades, and Christianity in common. There is consistent finding that people also

respond positively to indications that another person is similar to themselves and negatively to

indications that another person is dissimilar from themselves according to the similarity-

dissimilarity effect. Originally Michael did not have any of these traits that were similar to the

people who surrounded him. Once he started to understand the plays of football and increase his

GPA he started to fit into the community as a group. His coach and teachers started to shift their

standards and believe in how Michaels soul was developing. He finally was a part of a group and

even had a specific role involved in the flow of the football team. There was a scene where the

referees gave Michael a penalty he did not deserve. The coach scolded back, “This young man is

my team. I will defend him like my own son.” Michael responded with a huge smile and, “Don’t

worry coach I got your back.” He was finally a part of an entitativity. He was perceived as a

coherent whole of his team, a family who had each other's back. By joining this group, he gained

self-knowledge, boosted his status, accomplished social change, and attained goals. Michael also

represented individualism that helped him stand out from his group and from others. Besides his

big and bold appearance, his athletic ability, scholarly achievement, and most importantly patient

soul he stood out from the rest of the team. This can also be represented in the family that

welcomes them to their kind home.

 Michael has a pretty intense background. From his neighborhood to his home life, he has

experienced a lot of heart ache. People who experience such things can react in two ways, with

anger or with patience. He chooses patience. His soul is quiet, but kind that takes a lot to anger

him. A scene towards the end of the movie plays out when an investigator meets with Michael

alone and points out that his family only wants him to go to Ol’ Miss because they went. They

made him feel like his options were limited and never truly asked what he wanted to do. This

upset him deeply and he returned to his home in the projects in search of his biological mother.

One of his old friends makes very derogatory comments towards Michaels new family,

especially the women. He reacts with aggression and physically fights everyone in the house and

leaves. According to specific drive theories, aggression stems from external conditions that

arouse the motive to harm or injure others. These comments frustrated Michael and as to the

frustration-aggression hypothesis, frustration is a very powerful determinant of aggression.

Aggression can be triggered by a wide range of input variables which influence arousal, affective

stages, and cognitions. Michael was provoked and needed to protect himself. There was an

excitation transfer as he had already showed up frustrated with the conversation with the

investigator. This intensified his emotional reaction occurring in this earlier situation.

Gender roles also played a role in this movie as they do in our everyday world. I was

aware of what a gender role was prior to this chapter, but I did learn more in depth what this

might entail. With this knowledge I was able to truly pick up and watch how these principles

play out in our lives. Leigh Anne makes dinner every night and a big feast for thanksgiving

dinner. Her main position in her job is the primary caregiver of her children. Her husband owns

restaurant chains in the area that help support the family financially. Michael demonstrates his
gender role by playing football. These are all a range of behaviors and attitudes that are generally

considered acceptable based on the specific gender each person holds.

After learning about all these social psychological principles, I would have never

understood how they apply to our everyday lives without them. You can see how the way we

interact with one another, understanding what really happens, and what has happened around us

really matters from a social-psychological perspective. This movie helped me have a deeper

understanding of discrimination, gender roles, aggression, belonging, and many more. I was able

to connect the principles of this course that I learned to predict and explain the human social

behavior to the assignment. The Blind Side is one of my favorite tear-jerking movies because it

represents wholesomeness and human capability of how we all interact while also explaining

plenty of examples of how we should interact with one another. Michael through hard work and

determination changed many perspectives.

 References

Handcock, John Lee, director. The Blind Side. Warner Bros., 2009.