DOI: 10.17072/2078-7898/2017-3-416-427

INFLUENCE OF ACTION MOVIE ON MORAL ASPECTS
OF SELF-CONCEPT OF VIEWER (SETTING of the problem)

Yanovsky Mikhail Ivanovich
Ph.D. in Psychology,
Associate Professor of the Department of Psychology

Donetsk National University,
24, Universitetskaya str., Donetsk, 283001, Ukraine;
e-mail: m.i.yanovsky@mail.ru
ORCID: 0000-0002-9265-6917

Priymak Anastasia Yur’evna
Psychologist

Donetsk National University,
24, Universitetskaya str., Donetsk, 283001, Ukraine;
e-mail: sasha.vampi@mail.ru
ORCID: 0000-0001-5962-2697

The subject of the study was the moral self-awareness of the individual. The scope of the research is connected with those psychological transformations that produce in the moral self-consciousness of the viewer a typical Hollywood action-film. The article generalizes the features of the construction of a typical Hollywood film-action movie, its moral foundation, characteristics of typical characters. The use of Hollywood films as a typological collision the subject where a «little man» defeats the enemy (usually a «bad system») and achieves success. The article considers specific choice of criteria of good and evil, characteristic of Hollywood films, which can cause a morally deforming effect on the viewer. The authors analyze connection of these criteria with the standardization characteristic of market relations in society and their reliance on such emotional reactions to the characters as pity and fear: the experience of the spectator of pity is a sign of a «good» character, the experience of fear is a sign of an «evil» character. It is suggested that a simplified division of characters in the film into «good» and «bad» can lead to an inversion of the moral consciousness of the viewer. The results of an empirical study of the impact of watching the action-movie with unambiguous division of the characters into negative and positive on the viewer are given. The action-film had an impact on the structural characteristics of the spectator’s self-concept, in particular, caused the appearance of the correlation of the self-real, the self-ideal and the self-anti-ideal. The authors discuss the possibility of interpreting this results as the formation of the «Superman complex». Moreover, the connection between the «Superman complex» and the image of the «little man» is analyzed. The results of the research help to understand more adequately how certain genres of films can affect the moral self-awareness of the viewer.

Keywords: psychology of cinema; impact of cinema; thriller; Hollywood; «superman»; self-concept; moral standards.

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The date of the manuscript receipt 20.07.2017

Please cite this article in English as:

Yanovsky M.I., Priymak A.Yu. Influence of action movie on moral aspects of self-concept of viewer (setting of the problem) // Perm University Herald. Series «Philosophy. Psychology. Sociology». 2017. Iss. 3. P.416–427.DOI: 10.17072/2078-7898/2017-3-416-427