Julia Clayton
Professor Sakuma
Theories of Personality
Buddy the Elf
On Christmas night, during Santa’s stop at the orphanage, a baby named Buddy crawled into Santa’s toy sack. Santa unknowingly brought Buddy back to the North Pole with him and once discovered, was adopted by Papa elf. Buddy grows up thinking that he is truly an elf and is oblivious to the fact that he is three times the size of a normal elf. Buddy would always try his best to fit into the elf community but one day he realized that he just wasn’t cut out to be an elf because he inferior at toy making. While working Buddy overhears his coworker say that he is a human and Buddy’s whole world comes crashing down. Papa elf decided that it was time for Buddy to learn his true…show more content… The first stage is called the Id and is described as the pleasure principle. In Buddy’s case spreading happiness gives him great pleasure. He will go to great lengths just to put a smile on the face of others he feels rewarded by doing so. For example, when Buddy prepares for Santa’s visit to Gimbels he intricately decorates the store with a variety of snowflakes, fake snow, Lego buildings, Christmas lights and many more decorations. He does this to make not only Santa happy but also his boss and coworkers. He is very irrational and fantasy oriented but always tries to prove himself worthy in order to be accepted by everyone, especially Santa. Since he was deprived of real human world conditions at the North Pole and wasn’t able to move into the next level called the ego. We begin to see Buddy’s transforming ego after his move to New York City. Buddy has difficulty understanding mature concepts and how to appropriately behave. As time passed Buddy started to grasp how the human world operated and is capable of making important decisions. He grew capable of interacting with others appropriately as well as demonstrating proper behavioral etiquette. He learns the concept of right and wrong and uses his new knowledge to begin developing problem-solving skills. The final level of Freud’s theory is the concept of the super ego. The super ego consists of morals and values…show more content… His behaviorism theory is similar to Burrhus Frederic Skinner but more specifically focuses on observing and modeling certain behaviors, attitudes, and emotional responses of other individuals. In the beginning of the movie Buddy is taught how to operate as an elf. Buddy imitates the elf behavior by dressing in the same attire, working in Santa’s workshop, and constantly spreading holiday cheer. He is a very optimistic individual and exhibits a tremendous amount of confidence in his ability to spread cheerfulness. Bandura would describe Buddy’s actions as intrinsic reinforcements due to the fact that he experiences a sense of accomplishment when he makes others happy. The North Pole environment enormously influenced Buddy’s jolly personality. When Buddy leaves the North Pole and ends up in New York City we see him observing and imitating new behaviors. Buddy’s motivation to impress his father influenced him to dress in business attire and even made an effort to drink a bitter cup of coffee. Buddy’s transformation from imitating the elf lifestyle to the typical New Yorker lifestyle perfectly exhibits Bandura’s social learning