The Character-Driven Person: How Frozen’s Anna, not Elsa, Is an Exemplar

Niemiec, Ryan M.; Bretherton, Roger

doi:10.1037/a0039283

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…In a matter of fact, Niemiec (2008) ; 2009 , 2010a , 2010b , 2011 , 2014 , 2015 , 2020 has long suggested and discussed approaching movies as character strength-based interventions for both researchers and practitioners in positive psychology field. Niemiec (2009 , 2010a , b , 2011 ) and Niemiec and Bretherton (2015) reviewed popular movies, such as Twilight ( Hardwicke, 2008 ), Invictus ( Eastwood, 2009 ), Alice in Wonderland ( Burton, 2010 ), Happy ( Belic et al, 2012 ) and Frozen ( Buck et al, 2014 ), through the positive psychology lens and elaborated how to carry out the science-based, positive interventions via the use of popular films in the psychotherapy process. Such interventions are based on the via classification of 24 strengths and six virtues ( Peterson and Seligman, 2004 ) that have been found universal across cultures and nations ( Park et al, 2006 ).…”

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confidence: 99%

Linking Positive Psychology and Intercultural Competence by Movies: Evidence From Brunei and Romania

et al. 2021

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Cultural consumption provides numerous benefits for individuals, especially for younger generations. Imaginary travel narratives can shape people’s perceptions about other cultures thus are useful tools for developing intercultural competences. On the other hand, positive psychology provides an approach to understand different aspects of students/youngsters’ wellbeing. This study investigates the wellbeing associated with learning the meanings of being different and growing in emotional resilience, flexibility, and openness to other cultures through movies. The positive psychology approach was used to examine the benefits of movie consumption in order to investigate the activation of five domains of wellbeing: positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment (PERMA). The research methodology consisted of the experiment and questionnaire survey. The students’ scores on the wellbeing and intercultural competences were measured before and after the intervention. The intervention consisted of sessions of watching two example movies, Eat Pray Love and Hotel Transylvania 2, and subsequent group discussions about the movies’ respective messages. The participants’ group was formed by 236 university students from Brunei and Romania, ages between 18 and 49years old. The results showed an increase in students’ openness to other cultures and across some of the wellbeing PERMA dimensions. The study makes a theoretical contribution by connecting positive psychology and the intercultural competence constructs and the influences of movies.

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