Air University

BS Psychology

Developmental psychology

Submitted by:
Umar Farooq 191511

Submitted To:
Sidra Zaki

“Akeelah and the Bee movie analysis”

Akeelah and the bee:
Eleven year-old Akeelah Anderson's life is not easy: her father is dead, her mom
ignores her, her brother runs with the local gangbangers. She's smart, but her environment
threatens to strangle her aspirations. Responding to a threat by her school's principal, Akeelah
participates in a spelling bee to avoid detention for her many absences. Much to her surprise and
embarrassment, she wins. Her principal asks her to seek coaching from an English professor
named Dr. Larabee for the more prestigious regional bee. As the possibility of making it all the
way to the Scripps National Spelling Bee looms, Akeelah could provide her community with
someone to rally around and be proud of -- but only if she can overcome her insecurities and her
distracting home life. She also must get past Dr. Larabee's demons, and a field of more
experienced and privileged fellow spellers.

Erik Erickson’s psychosocial theory:

Influenced by Freud’s theory of psychosexual development, psychologist Erik
Erikson developed an eight-stage theory describing how an individual’s identity develops
through interactions with his environment over time. Erikson posed that in each sequential stage,
a person faces a crisis in which she must make choices that result in either a positive or negative
outcome.

Theory in practice in Akeelah and the bee movie:

Akeelah is struggling to fit into social, physical and emotional environment that does
not support her. Her school is underfunded, her peers make fun of her on regular basis for being
smart, as well as bully her into doing their English homework and her mother is even
unsupportive of her aspiration of competing in the National spelling bee. According to me,
Akeelah is struggling with the psychosocial stage of industry versus inferiority, formation of her
identity as well as building her intimate relationships. According to Erikson’s theory of
psychosocial development, identity could be defined as “a sense of psychosocial well-being or
inner assuredness”. A person may suffer from role confusion without the development of identity
and adolescent may suffer from feelings of isolation without the development of “close and
committed relationships”. As the movie begins, we can sense that Akeela is facing crises of role
confusion and isolation.
Throughout the movie, Akeelah were facing crises of inferiority due to no support from her
primary caregiver and criticism by other students at school, she was also facing crises of role
confusion as she doesn’t know what she wants in her life and she was facing crises of isolation as
well due to her best friend being jealous of her new friends and due to boring and
underprivileged school .However, till the end of the movie we can sense that Akeelah learns that
the best way for her to fit in is to embrace who she is. By embracing her identity she develops a
sense of psychosocial wellbeing and gain the virtue of fidelity as well as she gains the virtue of
competence. By gaining the virtue of love she learns the importance of intimacy.