The Blind Side: Analysis of Michael Oher's Development Through Psychological Theories

The character of Michael Oher

In the movie “The Blind Side”, Michael Oher was a very big and tall black boy. Michael was at a new school with all white people and did not know how to do his work. He struggled with a lot of his schoolwork because he never had any help, his mom was addicted to crack cocaine. When he was younger, he got taken away from her when he was around 7 years old, he was already in the system, along with his other siblings, his mother had 11 other children and lived with none of them. Michael did not know where his other siblings are or went, they were all split up. As far as I know he only knew about one brother. Michael never had anyone to look up to and really no one to look after him, really, he used to run away and look for his mom after he would get a new foster family. He never had his dad in his life, his mom says that he left a little after Michael was born so he never met him or anything.

Michael was so tall, he was about 6’4” so when people saw him, they called him “Big Mike”, he did not like being called that, even though it was just a nickname because he was so big and tall. In the movie Michel is about 17-18 years old and ends up getting adopted by the Tuohy family, they decided to take him in he was walking down the street on a cold night with just a t-shirt and jeans on. Leigh Ann Tuohy was a rich white woman that offered Michael to stay with her family. Sean Tuohy was her husband and they had a daughter name Collins Tuohy and Sean Tuohy Jr. (S.J.). Michael was already going to school with Collins and S.J. and got adopted into their family over time ever since they decided to take him in.

Since he was so big and tall, Sean Tuohy recommended that Michael start playing football. He had never played football before but once he learned he was really good at it. To get in college his GPA needed to be a 2.5 so he ended up getting the help he needed in school and his grades went up, so he got accepted into college on a D1 scholarship.

Psychological analysis of the character

Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

In Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development there are four stages, which are sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational and formal operational. The first stage is from the age of birth to 2 years old and is called sensorimotor. Sensorimotor is experiencing the world through senses and actions. The second stage is from ages 2 to about 6 or 7 years old is called preoperational. Preoperational is representing things with words and images using logical reasoning. The third stage of Piaget’s cognitive development is from ages 7 to about 11 years old is called concrete operational. Concrete operational is thinking logically about concrete events. The fourth stage is from age 12 years old all the way through adulthood is called formal operational. The formal operational stage is when adolescents start to think more abstract.

During this stage adolescents think about more things and understand more things about the world around them. Michael was in the fourth stage and you could tell because when he first started playing football, he did not know what to do. He was just going with the flow almost he really needed to learn so after Leigh Ann told him that the team was his family that is when he decided to protect them and really focus on being a good player. When he first started playing football I could tell while I was watching the movie his head was not in the game, he was just going through the motions, but he was understanding the abstract ideas. When Michaels teacher described him, she said that he writes but he does not talk but what he explained in his writing that he knew what was going on just not what the teacher was talking about. Michael showed that is capable of noticing his surroundings, he just needed a little bit of help. He already knew how to do his schoolwork, when it was on paper it was just a little confusing for him.

Erik Erickson’s identity theory

Erik Erickson’s identity theory on psychosocial development has 8 stages. The first stage of psychosocial development occurs between birth and one year of age and is called trust and mistrust. In this stage infants are very dependent on whoever their caregiver is, they are supposed to give them food, love, warmth and safety. The infant is learning its environment so when caregivers are not consistent, they do not know how to trust anyone or who to trust or they will result in fear. Erickson believed if it was balanced between trust and doubt than children learn and develop hope.

The second stage is during early childhood and mainly children developing some sort of personal control. This stage is called autonomy vs shame and doubt, children are starting to do basic things on their own and deciding what they prefer. Erickson’s felt like potty training was an important part in this process because after a person can control their body functions than they have gained some independence. Children that don’t finish this stage successfully are left with self-doubt.

The third stage of psychosocial development is initiative vs guilt. This development happens during the preschool years and this stage is what play is supposed to do for the child. Play is supposed to help a child gain initiative, so they feel like they have power over something. It basically gives the child some confidence and shows them to be more assertive and not have self-doubt.

The fourth stage is called Industry vs. Inferiority and it takes place from ages 5 to 11 (early school years). Children that are supported by their parents and teachers believe in themselves more and the ones that don’t doubt themselves more.

Psychosocial stage five is called identity vs confusion which is during teenage years but the wild part/ uncontrolled part of those years. The identity part is what the adolescent believes in like and what they like. The adolescents that do not know what they believe in and stand for feel insecure and confused about themselves later on. Erikson felt like the “Ego identity” is the sense of self we develop through social interaction. Our ego identity changes all the time because of the new information and experiences that we have on a daily basis. The challenges we take on can help or hinder our identity development and our personal development helps guide our actions and beliefs as we get older.

Stage six is called intimacy vs. isolation which is when people are starting to be in personal relationships during early adulthood. Erikson thought that it was important for people to have committed relationships but to be in one a person needs to have to know themselves very well and have good personal identity. Without a strong personal identity, a person will lose themselves in a relationship possibly by doing things that they do not want to do and going through things that they did not have to go through.

When a person does not show their strong personal identity, they will not be happy and become more isolated, maybe even depressed. Psychosocial stage seven is called Generativity vs. Stagnation which is during adulthood. This stage is basically working up to who a person wants to be as it already shows, a person is trying to work on being successful and happy in their community. The final psychosocial stage is stage eight, integrity vs. despair. This stage is during old age and at this point people are just looking back at how they lived their lives and think about the good times and the bad times, the things they did not do and the things they regret doing. A person that is proud of their accomplishments is going to be happy about the life they live, if they aren’t, they are going to be bitter and probably a little sad because they feel like they wasted their life and did not do what all they wanted to do. Michael Oher was in stage 5; Identity vs. Confusion and he was confused. Michael did not know who he was because he did not really have a background, so he was confused about himself in the way he did not know what he wanted to do.

He was just trying to figure out who he was, without any help, he was trying to do what everyone else was doing but he did not know how. Michael had a good behavior and it was obvious that he was a good person, when he stayed his first night with the Tuohy’s, he left early and folded up his blankets that he slept on. His mom said he is the type to run away and he basically stuck to that because after the first night he really tried to leave. Michael also believed in protection so when he learned how to play football, he was protecting his team from the other team. His main belief throughout the movie was protection and the facts he scored in the 98th percentile in protective instinct. Throughout the whole movie that is what he never changed and that is what made him a good football player and a good edition to the Tuohy family. He wanted to protect, and help that is the kind of person Michael is because when he went to his moms house to get his clothes, he told Leigh Ann not to get out of the car and when she tried to, he closed the door and told her again not to get out. He was protecting her because she did not know what she was about to walk into being a rich white woman in Michaels neighborhood, but Michael already knew what could have happen which is why he told her to stay in the car.

When Michael and Leigh Ann went to go to the clothing store, it was also on the side of town she knew nothing about, he told her “I got your back”, and he made sure nothing happened to her. S.J. and Michael ended up getting in a car accident and S.J. was so small probably like 60-70 pounds small, very skinny and short so when S.J. got in that car accident and the airbag deployed Michael stopped it so S.J. would not get hurt as bad. If Michael did not stop it then S.J. would have been very injured, most likely hospitalized and a few broken limbs with him being that small. With him knowing that and helping him out was showing that he has a good personal identity because he always kept protecting and trying to make sure everyone around him was good.

Lawrence Kohlberg's levels of moral reasoning

Lawrence Kohlberg recognized three levels of moral reasoning which are pre- conventional, conventional and post conventional. Level 1 is preconventional which is when a child does not really know about what is right or wrong in society’s customs but worry about what consequences they will face from what they do. Stage 1 is obedience and punishment orientation which is what the child does to obey rules and not get in trouble. An example of that could be someone that gets in trouble for lying to their parents or someone who will get in trouble for shooting their parents. Both of them are wrong, but the consequences are different so basically certain people are more likely to do certain things depending on the punishment. If a person knows lying to their parents only gets them yelled at, they are more likely to do it than a person shooting someone. They know they will get years of time in jail if they do that so that is why they do not do it. Stage 2 is Instrumental Orientation which is basically doing something and expecting something back. As people we are not always supposed to expect someone to do something nice for us just because we did something nice for them. In stage 2 this is what people do, they expect a person t6o do something just because they did, like if I bought my friend a milkshake, I would have to know what I get in return.

In a way stage 2 is a little selfish but really more of the person feels like, “if I do something for you then you need to do something for me.” Stage 2 is more about a person just looking out for themselves, not really anyone else if it does not benefit them. Stage 2 is conventional which is about societal and personal relationships. In stage 3 is called Good boy, Nice girl orientation children want to be accepted by each other so they do not try to do things that people would not like. The child is most likely being nice to everyone, so the other children will like them. Stage 4 is called Law-and-Order orientation which is following the rules to keep up with society. Stage 5 is Social Contract Orientation. In this stage the world is viewed as holding different opinions and values. Laws are more known as social commitments instead of strong rules to be followed. Stage 6 is called Universal-Ethical-Principal orientation which is focusing on things like respect, nobility and fairness. Basically, in this individual do right because they want to do right, and it is expected for a person to do so. Michael is kind of in stage 6 to me because he does right, throughout the movie just because he wanted to, he was nice to the white people because he wanted to be. Michael was a nice person he just was not mad at anyone he did not have any bad blood towards any of the people he could have. He was expected to do right instead of other people how would do right so they would not get in trouble.

I also thought in Level 2 Michael was shown in stage 3 and 4 just because of how he learned. I really cannot go back on how he was raised because in the movie it does not show that but it does show that Michael obeys rules, on thanksgiving everyone sat in the living room and watched tv but Michael went to the dining room to eat and the Tuohy family joined him. When a person does nice things, other people are more likely to follow and join them, Michael was enjoying his food so when they saw that he was all alone they joined him and spent some time with him instead of just watching tv.

Baumrind’s theory

The four parenting styles from Baumrind’s theory are Authoritative, Authoritarian, Permissive and Neglectful. The authority’s parents seem to be happy, supportive and warm with high expectations. The associated outcome is higher academic performance and more self-esteem and lower delinquency. The Authoritarian parenting has very strict rules with high expectation and unresponsive. The outcome of the associated outcome lower academic performance, poor social skills, and low self-esteem. The permissive parenting style is warm and responsive with less rules and very lenient. The outcome of that is impulsive behavior, poor social skills and problematic relationship. The neglectful parenting style no rules, uninvolved, cold and unresponsive. The outcome of the neglectful parenting style is delinquency, drug or alcohol abuse and suicides. Michael Oher went through a more of a neglecting parenting side because he did not have any parent involved. His father was never in the picture it seems then his mother was on drugs and then he did not even live with her half of his life. He did not really get to grow up with his parents.

The thing about Baumrind’s theory is that his outcomes are not what happened to Michael, or what happened to him before he was adopted by the Tuohy’s which is a good think. Michael did not seem to have impulsive behavior, delinquency, drug or alcohol abuser or suicidal so him having a good heart or whatever he learned in life. It seems like he was a good person his whole life and when Michael was living with the Tuohy’s he got onto a better parenting style. It was the Authoritative parenting style which was clear rules and very supportive. The Tuohy’s believed in Michael before he even thought he could believe in himself. He was not going to play football if they did not push him to do so or his teachers that helped him to do his work and get his GPA up to a 2.5 so he could get into college. Michael being in a whole different environment was better for him all together, the main thing that was so good about him is that he did not make his past him. Some people tend to make what they go through everything they are, but Michael did not, he got every day and tried and that will always be an inspiration.

Conclusion

In conclusion, "The Blind Side" portrays the story of Michael Oher, a young black boy who struggles with his identity and development due to his difficult childhood. Analyzing his character from the perspective of Jean Piaget's cognitive development and Erik Erikson's psychosocial development theories provides a deeper understanding of Michael's experiences. As he is in stage 5, identity vs. confusion, Michael faces difficulties in finding a sense of self and figuring out his beliefs and values. He has been through several traumatic experiences in his childhood, such as being taken away from his mother and separated from his siblings, which resulted in a lack of trust and confidence in himself. Through the support and love of his adoptive family, Michael is able to overcome his challenges and find his place in the world. The movie highlights the importance of nurturing and supportive relationships in a child's life, which can make all the difference in their development and future success.

References

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