" Dorothy deserves a lot of credit for the level of motivation she exhibits in the Wizard of Oz. When she gets to Oz, her primary goal is to reach the Wizard so that she can return home to Kansas. The motivation Dorothy exhibited to save Toto from the old woman was a more instinctual type of motivation; whereas in Oz she was also stimulated externally by several factors including the strangeness of her environment, the fact that she had been distanced from her initial or primary goal of saving Toto, and also the fact that she met three other characters who likewise had motivation to go to Oz. Motivation is therefore a prevailing theme in the Wizard of Oz.
The interactions between Dorothy and her newfound friends in Oz can be understood in terms of psychological principles, namely those of social psychology and developmental psychology. Described in Chapter 12, social psychology includes how the individual perceives others, and how the individual develops and responds to interpersonal relationships. Dorothy's willingness to disobey the old woman at the beginning of the movie shows how she is developing a sense of individuality in accordance with Erikson's stages of development. In fact, the Wizard of Oz can be "read" as a rite of passage in which Dorothy goes from being an adolescent concerned with identity vs. role confusion (Erikson's Adolescent stage of development) to being a young adult concerned with maintaining strong intimate relationships with other people. After all, she is willing to run away from home to save her dog at the beginning of the movie. When the charlatan man tells her that she has a family who loves and misses her, Dorothy realizes that she had been acting selfishly. This is the moment she becomes a young adult. When Dorothy is in Oz, her primary motivation is related to her need to maintain healthy relationships with her family. This is why she is compelled to find a way home. At the same time, Dorothy is open to forming new friendships with the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion. As she has entered the stage of young adulthood, Dorothy's primary concern is...
The old woman and her dreamlike counterpart, the Wicked Witch of the East, represent anti-social personality disorder. The old woman does not care about other people's feelings. Neither does the Wicked Witch. They both do bad things with no conscience and no sense of guilt. The old woman and the Wicked Witch have a great degree of power, though. The old woman has power in the community, due to her social status and wealth. The Wicked Witch has a great supernatural power in Oz. In both cases, she uses her power to hurt others, and therefore she can be considered to have anti-social personality disorder. This is why the old woman was willing to kill a dog just for going on her lawn.
The Tin Man claims that he does not have a heart, but this does not make him a psychopath/sociopath. Instead, the Tin Man can be interpreted as someone who may be experiencing loneliness and depression. He has been in a frozen state for a long time, isolated from the rest of the community. His desire for a heart represents his need to feel human again. The same goes for the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion, who feel deficient on some level but who do not have serious psychological disorders. They are just ordinary people like Dorothy, who are motivated to change. Based on this assessment of the Wizard of Oz, it is clear that the film can be used as a springboard for discussing elements of psychology.
References
Ciccarelli, S.K. (2011). Psychology. Pearson.
Gautam, S. (2012). Emotions and motivations. Psychology Today. Retrieved online: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-fundamental-four/201205/emotions-and-motivations
Loewen, S.C. (n.d.). Theories on dreams. Health Guidance. Retrieved online: http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/15950/1/Theories-on-Dreams.html
National Institutes of Health (2013). Antisocial personality disorder. Retrieved online: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000921.htm
