George Clooney Personality Development - Essay Example

? Assessment Tool We have all seen those videos, whether it is on YouTube or America’s Funniest Home Videos (or similar reality shows) where usually teenage boys are seen doing stunts that inevitably end up with one of them being hurt, usually in a sensitive area. My idea for an assessment tool would be to measure the compassion level of the subjects while they were watching some of these video clips. Responses could range from the test subject being very compassionate toward the injured party, to laughing it off as ‘it’s happening to someone else, not me, why should I care?’ My rating scale would be as follows: 1. Very compassionate to the individual in the video… the subject shows horror, covers their eyes, opens their mouth in amazement, wonder aloud how badly the person in the video was hurt, etc. 2. Somewhat compassionate subjects would look surprised, maybe nervously giggle 3. Not at all compassionate subjects would simply laugh it off, not care if the person in the video fared well or not, looked upon the whole thing as just a joke and they were happy it was someone else who got hurt. I think that my assessment tool adequately measured the compassion of the subjects, however the scale may be judged differently depending on who was watching the test subjects. As personal reactions to things can vary between individuals, this is also not a very good indicator, alone of how compassionate the subject is. Many other factors could go into how compassionate a person is from day to day when it comes to the actions of others. George Clooney George Clooney may be as diverse as they come, he is an A list celebrity, a director, star of screens big and small, a staunch Liberal who doesn’t mind getting his opinion out there, an ambassador, and a civil liberties activist. It all started 50 years ago, May 6, 1961 when George Timothy Clooney made his debut. A son for TV newscaster and personality, Nick and his wife, Nina, has a sister named Ada and is the nephew of the late Rosemary Clooney and her husband, Oscar Winner Jose Ferrer. After leaving his close knit family to try to find fame and fortune in Hollywood, Clooney was at first disappointed, not being able to get any work, until came the opportunity to do a pilot for NBC called ER. That show catapulted him to international stardom and from there he’s never looked back. Clooney is probably as well known for his exposure on film as he is with his many causes. He has boycotted popular entertainment magazine programs such as Entertainment Tonight and Hard Copy because they failed to act as responsible journalists and filmed him without his permission. (IMDb.com) He has stood up to the paparazzi on many occasions, the first time after the tragic death of Princess Diana. He says he is “a first amendment guy” (opensource.org) and despises anyone that takes liberties with the noble profession of journalism, a profession that his dad was proud to be part of. In 1997 and again in 2006, Clooney was named People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive, but his other accomplishments somewhat outweigh that distinction. He has organized or helped to organize many different telethons that have raised millions of dollars, first for the families of the victims of 9/11 in the ‘A Tribute To Heroes’, then for the Tsunami victims, ‘Tsunami Aid: A Concert of Hope’ in 2005, and later for the victims of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, with ‘Hope For Haiti’. Along with these telethons, he personally pledged $1M for the hurricane Katrina relief fund and is on the United Way’s Board of Trustees. Of late, Clooney has been concerned with the victims of genocide in Darfur. He and some of his high profile friends founded Not on Our Watch, a sort of watchdog group that is determined to draw “upon the voices of cultural leaders to protect and assist the venerable, marginalized and displaced” (notonourwatch.org) in the region and others around the world. George Clooney is not just a pretty face or an Oscar winning actor (supporting actor in Syriana, 2005), he has a social conscience, shows integrity as every turn and is tireless in his efforts to bring a voice to those who are victims in this world. He has worked with the United Nations, and in January of 2008 was appointed an UN Messenger of Peace, which allows him to advocate on behalf of the United Nations. All that being said, different theories would cast different ideas upon how Clooney’s personality developed. The psychoanalytic theorists would argue that because Clooney is a man, he is powerful. He uses his unconscious impulses to get his points across and become known as a man who will stand up for a cause. His desires are at the heart of his personality, how he wants the world to see him stem from these unconscious decisions to do the things he does. Neo analytic and psychosocial theorists on the other hand would say that it was his ego driving his behaviors. Erik Erikson would argue that Clooney is growing along with his stages of personality development, being 50 years old, Clooney is in one of the later stages, generativity vs. stagnation. From his work with Not on Our Watch, I think it is reasonable to assume that Clooney is definitely not in a stagnant part of his life. He continues to work tirelessly for those who cannot fight alone anymore, and he does not have to be seen doing the job like most celebrities, he actually goes to the front lines to see for himself what is happening and what needs to be done. The trait, genetic, and evolutionary theorists would argue that Clooney’s personality was with him from birth, and that he has just run with it, sharpening the good traits while trying to eradicate the bad. As is said in the biography of Clooney by Jeff Hudson, Clooney’s dad didn’t have the best upbringing, so he put it on himself to make sure the same fate didn’t befall his own children. (11) While reading anything about Clooney, you cannot fail to note how strong a tie he has with his mom and dad, he may be a big star, but he always remains close to his roots. If it is true that personality traits can be inherited, we only have to look at Clooney’s parents for the affirmation that they too share some of his strong traits. Behavioral, cognitive and social learning theorists would applaud Clooney’s personality and argue that it developed because of the people he chose to study, to befriend and to be around. He learned his compassion for people less fortunate than himself, in all respects. It was reported that Clooney got into a fist fight with a director of one of his popular movies because the director wasn’t treating the extras in the cast with any degree of dignity. He saw what was happening and when he asked the director to stop and to take into account the extra’s feelings on being publicly humiliated, the director apparently started hitting Clooney about the head and a fight ensued. Neither will ever work with the other again, but Clooney stood up for the ‘little people’ and continues to do so with his work in the Sudan. (Hudson, pg. 167-9) It can be argued that his father’s determination to be respected at what he did rubbed off on the younger man, respect for anyone and everyone is a wonderful personality trait to have. Anyone who prescribes to the humanistic approach would see that Clooney has continued to grow not only as a performer, but as a human being. Back when he was first in Hollywood, he banked on his looks to get him acting jobs, but it seems that he has turned that around and is using his celebrity to further his causes, not for himself, but for better lives for the people he advocates for. On Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it seems that Clooney is very much on his way to self actualization, if he hasn’t already attained it. He certainly has a wonderfully strong self esteem and confidence in his endeavors. He never backs down from what he thinks is right, no matter who he annoys in the process. Of course, not knowing George Clooney personally it becomes a problem with knowing who he really is and how his personality developed. Each of the theories has something that you can apply directly to something you have read or heard of Clooney doing. I’m sure each theory also carries negative aspects, of which some may also apply. With the trait or genetic theories we would have to interview not only Clooney himself, but also his best friends and of course, his immediate family. With the cognitive theories, we would have to delve into his personality with questionnaires, and cognitive testing, and with the humanistic theories, we’d have to interview him and question him on where he sits on the hierarchy of needs and if he feels he has attained self actualization. Using the person centered approach to therapy, we could, without judgment, help him toward the process of helping himself, if indeed he feels that he has any negative traits he wants to eradicate. All of these would require us to have at least met the man, so the best we can do is to read into his behaviors and what we do know about him and try to ascertain his true personality. It doesn’t take much to realize that George Clooney is a man with a mission; he puts his heart into anything he does and runs with it, seeing it through to its end. He doesn’t back away from a fight and will fight for his beliefs, no matter what it costs him personally, because for him, standing up for others and trying to protect the innocent doesn’t cost him anything. He’s achieved what he set out to achieve in the beginning, to become a household name and to find his fame. This allowed him to follow his heart to other things, namely humanitarian issues, but always with the same cause in mind—to be heard and to create change. References Hudson, Jeff, (2003) George Clooney, a Biography, Virgin Books, Ltd. www. IMDb.com –search George Clooney www.notonourwatch.org www.openspace.com/GeorgeClooney Read More