Through the hardships in the prison of Shawshank and hopes to achieve freedom, the characters in Shawshank Redemption present a variety of psychological issues. Throughout Andy and Red’s sentence in prison, issues of identity, motivation, and anxiety are brought about within the storyline. Depicting the affects of prison life during and after a prisoner’s sentence in jail, Shawshank Redemption accurately portrays these psychological issues that revolve around the film’s theme of finding freedom. I think In the movie Shawshank Redemption, psychological issues are evident and are portrayed through different characters that are dealing with their individual desire for hope and freedom each having a different “outlook on life.”

And I found several main psychological principles here in this movie. They are self-concept, , and ,

1. Self-concept and individualism

As the main character, Andy Dufresne has a goal of finding his own identity in the prison, which is “an individual’s self-concept derived from perceived membership in a relevant social group,” within the prison of Shawshank by taking on different responsibilities and roles. Becoming a prison librarian, a financial advisor, and an educator, Andy begins to cope with the hardships of prison life and finds a place to fit in.Later on, Andy begins to help the head of the prison to make his money to be illegal enough to deposit into bank.I can see that Andy begins to get used to the life in the prison and use his wisdom to live well here and get the chance to get out of the prison. Also Andy made the account under the name of the fake person. And his talent of financial management begins to get the attention from the head of the prison. “The element of your self-concept, the specific beliefs by which you define yourself, are your self-schemas.” (Myer 23) And “Our sense of self is central to our lives-so much so that we tend to see ourselves as center stage and to overestimate the extent to which other notice us” (Myer 24). I think Andy shows his individualism in that the is different than the other inmates. He knows this and it shows. Not for a second does he conform. For instance, he really knows that he is innocent. He also never loses hope. He does not become “institutionalized” like the others. This point becomes very clear as we find out that he has been planning his escape for many years! A scene that nicely show his individualism is when he plays music for the whole jail in a sublime part of the movie. He refuses to be what he is not. “For some people, especially those in industrialized western cultures, individualism prevail”(Myer 25) Andy is from the western culture and has a strong background in western culture. And also educated in the western countries.

2. Social influence-conformity

I remember a scene from the movie that an old man release from the prison and he tries to get used to the life. However, he realize that that is a world that he cannot fit in since he have already get used to the life in the prison. Even though a simple job in the market he cannot handle it very well. After that he even wants to kill the manager in the supermarket and get back to the prison. I can see that this old man was totally get used to the life in prison where he was oppressed everyday to work and to eat. To live the life that I cannot imagine. In my mind, I don’t believe that he love the life in the prison that much when the first several days in the prison. However, later on I think I can see the conformity on him, which means “a change in behavior or belief to accord with others”(Myer 170) Here is a very famous experiment about the conformity. It is a controversial study made by Solomon Asch, which shows that most of people “’tell the truth even when others do not’”(Myer 159) Also there is another study made by Milgram, It shows that “It seems that we are quite prepared to accept stress, tension, and consequences for self-esteem. But in regard to the process of generating new knowledge, how little tolerance we show” (Myer 163) “Immediate situational forces are just as powerful-reveal the strength of the social context.”(Myer 168) one reason for people to be obedience. In the movie we see that the prisoner are all have a very regulated and unitary movements like when to sleep, when to eat and when to do some outdoor exercise. I think that the pernicious effect on it is very important because the long time training will give the prisoner an unconscious influence by this. For example, the influence by the common norms, we are regulated by this norms for a very long time like what they taught to the prisoners. There no norms exists before, however we are taught to obey those norms like those prisoner were taught to obey the rules in the prison. So when we response to this norms, our mind will tell us that we cannot do the things that against norm. Like the experiment did in the Pennsylvania state University, the results shows that “the power of normative pressures and how hard it is to predict behavior, even our own behavior”(Myer 170). So this poor old man get used to the regulation in the prison. So suddenly, when he go outside the world. He cannot fit in that environment.

4. Attitudes and behavior.

I believe that All of his actions in the movie are a progression of resistance. Resistance to conformity, resistance to oppression, to injustice, to incarceration, to death itself.  His stone carvings, his rock hobby, his banking abilities, and in the end, his long term tunneling all indicate and reinforce the resistance I just mentioned. As he turns into a library builder who annoys the state into funding it, he also helps other inmates work on their individualism. I’d say it’s a consistent theme throughout the story. Especially when Andy locked the door and broadcast some music to all of the prisoner in the Shawshank. That is the most scarcasm scenes in the whole movies I think because it satirize the highest power in the prison and play the highest power in hand. Since “attitudes are beliefs and feelings that can influence our reactions”(Myer 95). And from the whole movie I can see that Andy never give up no matter what he faced. Like the first several days when he enters the prison, a gay man forced him to do that thing for him. When he refused, he got a very severe beat and he was keep bleeding for a long time. So I think that positive attitude-never lose hope-support him to overcome the most darkness time in the prison. Also the behavior influence attitudes also. And a very famous role-playing prison experiment hold in the Stanford University. The result turns to be that every well-educated students were willing to do the aggressive prisoner-like or guard-like things and the experiments are forced to call off after only 6 days. In these cases, we can see how powerful the behavior will influence the attitudes. However, Andy doesn’t influenced by the environment here. Even though he was treated by the cruel guards or disparaged by the guards and do the same thing as the other prisoner did. He did not change to another personality. He didn’t forget his dream to pursuit the freedom. However, I think it is the rejection behavior keep him away from being assimilated from one of those prisoner. He keep awake every each time.

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