Psychology in a Movie: A Perfect Way to Keep Mind Relexed and Calm

For me, watching a movie is a perfect way to relax, I sit in a comfy place, eat some snacks, and tune out for two hours. As we know that movies provoke all sorts of emotions in a person. A movie can make you laugh, cry, and give a message to confront some issues. And there is a lot more to cinema than just relaxation and enjoyment. Watching a movie can affect our brain in different ways that we can’t easily find. As every movie transmits all the concepts through feelings rather than intellectually – said Birgit Wolz, a psychologist.

Movie Impact on the brain

We watch a movie to find out which styles of filmmaking have maximum control over the audience’s brains. This is popularly known as neurocinema. In a study, 30 participants watched 30 minutes of The Good, The Bad, and The ugly in a FMRI machine. Their brain activity was being recorded. The researchers compared the brain activity in the participants’ brains and found it was remarkably similar. During particular scenes of the movie, activity in certain brain areas increased and decreased at the same time across the participants and their eyes tracked the same areas of the screen. The researchers suggested that it was an indication, those scenes were engaging.

A follow-up study compared the participant’s brain activities, watching The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly to watching other things like an episode of Alfred Hitchcock presents, an episode of curb your enthusiasm, and a real-life 10 minutes unedited shot of a New York City park.

The researchers again used the similarity of the participant’s brain activities as a measure of how engaging the scenes were. They found the Hitchcock episode evoked similar brain activities across all views in over 65% of the cortex, the outer layer of the brain. Similar activity was seen in 45% of the cortex for the Good, the bad, and the ugly, but only 18% for curb your enthusiasm and 51% for the real-life New York City Park. The study shows that Hitchcock could orchestrate the response of different brain areas in a timely fashion across all viewers.

Of course, FMRI can’t evaluate the artistic value of a movie. Some movies and TV shows aim to control the audience’s reactions more than others. It depends on the director’s style and intentions.

The different genre can be helpful in different ways:

Comedies

Wolz says, If you want to distance yourself from your problems and increase your sense of well-being then laughter can be a great source to help you out. Also, many types of research have proved that your immune system can be maintained in good health and stress hormones can be reduced with the help of laughter.

University of Maryland researchers conducted a research and found out that watching a movie can dilate blood vessels by 22% because when an individual laugh, the tissues forming the lining of their blood vessels expand and blood flow increases.

So, whenever you feel low about something, it’s time to see a comedy. Wolz added when you laugh while watching comedies can relieve your anxiety, reduce your aggression and fear.

Horror films

Horror movies are like adventure and the people who love watching horror movies tend to love sky-diving, go for rock climbing and enjoy extreme skiing adventures to feel alive.

These movies help many moviegoers to explore in life. Also, affect their body physiologically – said Dr. George Bakris. He added further, horror movies can increase heart rate, coronary problems can get worse.

Bruce McEwen: Professor in the neuroendocrinology laboratory at The Rockefeller University in New York says, a horror movie can be a reason to trigger an adrenaline rush and cortisol levels. A person can recall memories of traumatic events that they have experienced in life. So, don’t watch, if you have a bad memory.

Romantic films

Wolz says comedies and romantic movies are somewhat the same, as both genre help people to cope up with external issues. But romantic films provide a few hours of relief from your stressful life.

One of Wolz’s clients was impressed with work, so she watched the movie – Just Go With It. After watching the movie, she could accept her true self. Watch romantic films, if you want a small break from your hectic life.

Benefits

There are also people who think watching movies is a total waste of time and money. This is not true. We have various benefits to watching films. It brings happiness and joy, when you go theater with your friends to watch your favorite film. When we get out of the theater, we feel no stress or worries. Let’s talk about some benefits of watching films.

Stress reliever

When you want to get rid of your stress, you don’t have to do anything special. Just go to a theater to watch a film with your friends or family. This is a great idea to feel refreshed.

Spread Awareness

Films make people aware especially those films that are made around social issues. For example, films made on social issues like gender equality, caste system, and dowry can spread awareness among the people. It simply means films can help to convey important messages for the betterment of society such as Padman, Toilet – Ek prem Katha, and many more.

Good laugh

Watching films, especially comedies can give us a reason to laugh your heart out. Comedy can lighten our mood, which is a good thing to forget your worries for a while.

Get Inspiration

Great films are a source of inspiration. When we watch a patriotic movie, we get goosebumps, a feeling of patriotism rise. We get inspired to do something better in life. For example, our Josh was very high after watching URI – the surgical strike.

Timepass

Watching films is great fun. We can’t use our social media apps for the whole day. So, this is the best way to pass out time.

Movie treatment

Psychotherapy experts are in a position to collaborate with coaches, and movie experts to find a treatment based on the shows and movies by using their advantages to psychology and coaching. This is known as movie treatment.

The advantages of movie therapy are not the mere act of watching a movie. Different programs are proposed, including quotations, remarks, posters, and visual evaluation of a film.

Hodgson and Burque have focused on their treatment on the implementation of coaching and positive psychology to help the folks in enhancing their abilities and skills that want to know about the other perspectives of the movies.

Film as a tool to function better

The treatment use movies as an emotional instrument for different functions. Numerous factors have been considering as an exceptionally successful complement to the treatment:

Intensity: effective stories, strong characters, and many situations are squeezed into a brief quantity of time.

Duration: length of the treatment session depends on the duration of the movie.

Identification: Many actors are recognized with film characters. This information has to be added in the treatment of a person.

Care: The movie’s visual effects make them focus on the pictures.

Societal features: Talking about a movie with people around them increase the worth and functions. It is an important tool used in the treatment.

Advantages of movie therapy

People can have different advantages from the methods used in the treatment. Advantages of movie therapy are:

Watching a film usually improves our condition and reduce our stress. It allows us to have a fun time, relax, and to disconnect from our problems.

Movie treatment uses different scenes from the movies or full movies to help people to face their issues. It makes them aware of their fears so they can focus on overcoming those fears by using this treatment.

The treatment allows them to focus on their issues. Scenes from several films can help them to be aware of their problems through identification and compassion.

The treatment helps them with comfort. As watching a film can redirect their concentration towards action, it is a great way to reduce stress.

It motivates them. When they watch a movie, the characters help them to have energy.

Films create pleasure and laughter in them. It has a great influence on both the bodily and psychological wellness of a person.

Sad and painful movies can make them feel their emotions from deep within them.

Conclusion

Everyone loves watching movies, at least once in a while. Films are a good source of enjoyment. Films often have the power to provoke people because films can be considered as an act of influence, especially in youth. After watching a movie, people change their opinions about some specific things. Films are a wonderful form of entertainment and something which I really enjoy. It’s better to think that movies are more than just entertainment when there are different messages are being conveyed.