Second Psychology Essay About Magneto
This is the second of two essays I wrote about Magneto for my Personality class. The assignment was to analyze his personality from two different psychology theories.
To a behaviorist like John Watson, Erik’s personality was simply a product of his environment. Watson believed that as infants, people have the ability to become anything, from a surgeon to a criminal, based entirely on how they are raised. People are changed and shaped into who they are by the world around them. Nobody is born with any sort of insight or inherited personality traits. Behaviorism focuses strictly on outward behavior, and believes that the consciousness cannot be examined in any way, and may not even exist. Behavior is simply a response to stimulus. While Erik’s environment had no impact over his physical aspects, including his mutated ability to control metal, it is solely responsible for conditioning him into the monster that is Magneto.
There is not a lot of information on Erik Lehnsherr the child. All of the information I have on him starts when he is fourteen years old. It’s quite possible that it didn’t matter what happened before this point in his life anyways, because this had such a big impact on his life, but it’s hard to say for sure without knowing exactly how he was raised. It can be assumed that he was raised in a happy, loving home. He loved his mother, and it is implied that his mother also loved him, so learning his hate and anger from his childhood home is unlikely. When he was fourteen and separated from his family by Nazis, he learned hate. He saw Nazis destroying people, and getting what they wanted. Seeing the Nazis being reinforced for this violence through praise and medals from their leaders may be what led Erik to a life of violence. Erik was very unhappy about his mother being killed, and wanted to feel better, so he turned to violence in hopes of receiving a similar reinforcement of happiness and approval. Conditioning also played a role in helping him learn to better control his metal-controlling abilities. The first time he moved metal was at the gates of the concentration camp where his mother was separated from him. He received a small bit of reinforcement when it slowed the process down, and got him some special attention from the Nazis. Sebastian Shaw wanted Erik to move metal again later, and when he was unable to, he was punished by his mother being killed. When he was finally able to move the metal, Shaw clapped and cheered and told him what a good job he was doing. Even though he was angry and hated Shaw, this was the first time he was ever praised for his ability to move metal. After that, he worked hard and became really good at moving metal, regularly doing it in front of other people so he could see their admiration. Interestingly, Shaw actually said to Erik that first time “So we unlock your gift with anger. Anger and pain.” Erik had not known how to control his abilities to control metal before that, so when it happened in a burst of anger, and Shaw pointed it out, he could have very quickly begun to believe that this was the only way he could control it. He may have sought out anger his entire life simply to feel that he could control his abilities. Later in his life, when he became friends with Charles Xavier, Charles pointed out that he believed that “true focus lies somewhere between rage and serenity.” While he wasn’t trying to encourage pure rage, Erik had lived so long in anger and believed for so long that it was necessary, that he probably heard “rage” and felt that it further confirmed what Shaw had said.
Erik Lehnsherr was a firm believer in teamwork and brotherhood. He recruited mutants to join him in his cause, which was ultimately to eliminate the unmutated humans from the earth. Although he claimed to be doing this in opposition of what the Nazis did, he was doing the exact same thing as them. Erik said that the Nazis would have seen that all mutants were moved to concentration camps and killed, so he decided to try and do the same thing to all unmutated humans. The Nazis were a part of an army, where they had bonded and become very much like a family, and regarded each other as brothers. When Erik began recruiting mutants, he referred to his organization as “The Brotherhood.” His feelings of family toward other mutants may be partially due to seeing the Nazis live like this, and partially due to the fact that he no longer has a family of his own.
Behavior modification techniques created by B.F. Skinner may be used to treat Erik. This would entail reinforcing the desired behaviors, and punishing or even just ignoring, the behaviors that we wish to extinguish. There are a few different ways to reinforce behavior, and some work better than others. Continuous reinforcement would be to reward Erik every time he does something good. It is not a very effective form of reinforcement, and the desired behavior stops very quickly. Fixed Interval reinforcement is rewarding him after a specific time, if he has exhibited the desired behavior at least once. An example would be rewarding him every thirty minutes if he has done at least one “good” thing. The desired behavior lasts longer this way than with continuous reinforcement, but still does not last long term. Fixed Ratio is reinforcing after Erik shows the desired behavior a predetermined number of times, and lasts about as long as Fixed Interval. Variable Ratio reinforcement is rewarding him after an undetermined number of times. This is quite effective and lasts the longest. This would be a good way, according to behaviorists like Skinner, to treat Erik.
Another option for treatment could be aversion therapy. Aversion therapy would be exposing Erik to an unpleasant stimulus while simultaneously exposing him to the undesirable behaviors. When Erik begins misbehaving, a bad smell could be introduced, or a shock could be administered, to discourage him from misbehaving again. Over time, he would begin to associate his behavior with the bad smell or the shock, and no longer wish to behave in that way anymore.
The cognitive approach differs from behaviorism in that where behaviorism focuses only on outward behavior, cognitive psychology believes there is something to be said about the mind, and suggests that thoughts, feelings, and behavior are all connected to one another. Cognitive psychologists focus on how the brain processes information, and like to compare the brain to a computer. They believe that all human behavior can be reduced to cognitive processes, like perception and memory. In the computer analogy, stimuli are considered to be input, thoughts are operating systems, memories are storage, and so on. Much like behaviorism, the cognitive approach is a scientific one. The biggest difference between cognitivism and behaviorism is the “black box”. This refers to the process that happens between stimulus and response. Behaviorists believe that this cannot be studied, and that there is only stimulus and then response to stimulus. Cognitive psychologists say that there is more involved, a “black box” between stimulus and response that involves a mental processing of the stimulus. Cognitive psychology also introduced schemas, which are organized groupings of thoughts that are related to each other.
According to cognitive psychologists, Erik’s response to his traumatic childhood is emotional. The stimulus, or input, is his mother being killed by Shaw. This upset Erik so much that he spent many years of his life focused on it, and everything he did branched from that event. His mother’s death caused him to be angry, but it also brought on some long lasting depression and convinced him that the human race was untrustworthy. The man who ordered his mother dead was a mutant, but he didn’t find that out until it was too late and he had already decided to hate humanity. This distrust of humans was later validated by the army ordering an air strike on Erik and his mutant friends.
Cognitive psychologists like Beck would suggest looking at the Depressive Cognitive Triad, which involves negative thought about one’s self, the world, and the future. The negative thoughts Erik has about himself are over the fact that he was unable to move the coin when Shaw ordered him to, and so his mother was killed. Although he was angry at Shaw for having her killed, he was also very upset with himself, and blamed himself to some degree for her death. His negative thoughts about the world are because he’s seen people killing mutants and other people time and time again, and he therefore no longer has any faith in the world. He doesn’t believe it possible for the world to be a friendly and decent place while there are unmutated humans living in it. His problem with the future stems from this in that his lack of faith in the world tells him that it will only get worse. He believes that, if left up to chance, unmutated humans will kill off all of the mutants, and possibly even kill off each other.
It might be suggested that Erik fill out a Cognitive Style Questionnaire, which would assess how vulnerable he is to anxiety and depression, determining whether or not he has a Negative Cognitive Style. If he has a negative cognitive style, he is likely to attribute the negative events in his life such as his mother’s death, his time in a concentration camp, and the attack on the beach, to stable causes that aren’t going to change, global causes that affect a lot of different areas of his life, and internal causes specific to himself. He will also blame all negativity of his present and future on these awful events from his past. In treatment, getting him to recognize this negativity he has is important. In order to turn his life around and achieve true happiness, he will have to start trying to take a more positive look at life, and stop blaming past experiences.
Cognitive psychology may also examine personal construct theory in Erik. Personal Construct is basically a person’s internal reality; how they view the world around them and explain or predict events. Like anyone, Erik’s personal construct is unstable and often changing as he experiences new things and meets new people who either contradict or validate what he currently believes. At first, Erik saw the world as a place full of heartless people, mutant and non-mutant alike, and just wanted revenge on Shaw for his mother’s death. Over time, he made new friends and journeyed with them to defeat Shaw, even though they were after him for different reasons. For the first time, he had allies, and suddenly found a spark of hope in the world. When they were all attacked at the beach by non-mutant soldiers, his view of the world shifted yet again, bringing him to the belief that unmutated humans were all evil and wanted to kill mutants. He used this belief to explain why they were attacked, and to predict that it would continue happening. Much later in life, on an alternate timeline, he was part of a war against another mutant who wished to wipe out the entire planet, at which point he realized that evil could come in mutant and non-mutant form, and he could in fact find allies in those he thought were enemies before. His personal construct, which had once strictly told him that mutants did not kill other mutants, and unmutated humans killed mutants for no reason, had at that point grown to accept the fact that there were many peaceful non-mutants, and some mutants wanted to kill just for the sake of killing, regardless of who died.
Another treatment option that could be considered would be Rational Emotive Therapy. Once again, it would be important to Erik to understand how it is that he perceives everything that has happened to him. He must admit the guilt he feels towards his mother’s death, and that it is simply his belief that humans are evil, and not an actual fact. He would have to look at these situations rationally and realize that it was not his fault, nor was it all unmutated humans that attacked him, but simply a few people who made these poor decisions.
Erik Lehnsherr, Again
Erik Lehnsherr, also known as Magneto, was a complicated man. I am going to analyze him from a behaviorist standpoint and a cognitive approach.To a behaviorist like John Watson, Erik’s personality was simply a product of his environment. Watson believed that as infants, people have the ability to become anything, from a surgeon to a criminal, based entirely on how they are raised. People are changed and shaped into who they are by the world around them. Nobody is born with any sort of insight or inherited personality traits. Behaviorism focuses strictly on outward behavior, and believes that the consciousness cannot be examined in any way, and may not even exist. Behavior is simply a response to stimulus. While Erik’s environment had no impact over his physical aspects, including his mutated ability to control metal, it is solely responsible for conditioning him into the monster that is Magneto.
There is not a lot of information on Erik Lehnsherr the child. All of the information I have on him starts when he is fourteen years old. It’s quite possible that it didn’t matter what happened before this point in his life anyways, because this had such a big impact on his life, but it’s hard to say for sure without knowing exactly how he was raised. It can be assumed that he was raised in a happy, loving home. He loved his mother, and it is implied that his mother also loved him, so learning his hate and anger from his childhood home is unlikely. When he was fourteen and separated from his family by Nazis, he learned hate. He saw Nazis destroying people, and getting what they wanted. Seeing the Nazis being reinforced for this violence through praise and medals from their leaders may be what led Erik to a life of violence. Erik was very unhappy about his mother being killed, and wanted to feel better, so he turned to violence in hopes of receiving a similar reinforcement of happiness and approval. Conditioning also played a role in helping him learn to better control his metal-controlling abilities. The first time he moved metal was at the gates of the concentration camp where his mother was separated from him. He received a small bit of reinforcement when it slowed the process down, and got him some special attention from the Nazis. Sebastian Shaw wanted Erik to move metal again later, and when he was unable to, he was punished by his mother being killed. When he was finally able to move the metal, Shaw clapped and cheered and told him what a good job he was doing. Even though he was angry and hated Shaw, this was the first time he was ever praised for his ability to move metal. After that, he worked hard and became really good at moving metal, regularly doing it in front of other people so he could see their admiration. Interestingly, Shaw actually said to Erik that first time “So we unlock your gift with anger. Anger and pain.” Erik had not known how to control his abilities to control metal before that, so when it happened in a burst of anger, and Shaw pointed it out, he could have very quickly begun to believe that this was the only way he could control it. He may have sought out anger his entire life simply to feel that he could control his abilities. Later in his life, when he became friends with Charles Xavier, Charles pointed out that he believed that “true focus lies somewhere between rage and serenity.” While he wasn’t trying to encourage pure rage, Erik had lived so long in anger and believed for so long that it was necessary, that he probably heard “rage” and felt that it further confirmed what Shaw had said.
Erik Lehnsherr was a firm believer in teamwork and brotherhood. He recruited mutants to join him in his cause, which was ultimately to eliminate the unmutated humans from the earth. Although he claimed to be doing this in opposition of what the Nazis did, he was doing the exact same thing as them. Erik said that the Nazis would have seen that all mutants were moved to concentration camps and killed, so he decided to try and do the same thing to all unmutated humans. The Nazis were a part of an army, where they had bonded and become very much like a family, and regarded each other as brothers. When Erik began recruiting mutants, he referred to his organization as “The Brotherhood.” His feelings of family toward other mutants may be partially due to seeing the Nazis live like this, and partially due to the fact that he no longer has a family of his own.
Behavior modification techniques created by B.F. Skinner may be used to treat Erik. This would entail reinforcing the desired behaviors, and punishing or even just ignoring, the behaviors that we wish to extinguish. There are a few different ways to reinforce behavior, and some work better than others. Continuous reinforcement would be to reward Erik every time he does something good. It is not a very effective form of reinforcement, and the desired behavior stops very quickly. Fixed Interval reinforcement is rewarding him after a specific time, if he has exhibited the desired behavior at least once. An example would be rewarding him every thirty minutes if he has done at least one “good” thing. The desired behavior lasts longer this way than with continuous reinforcement, but still does not last long term. Fixed Ratio is reinforcing after Erik shows the desired behavior a predetermined number of times, and lasts about as long as Fixed Interval. Variable Ratio reinforcement is rewarding him after an undetermined number of times. This is quite effective and lasts the longest. This would be a good way, according to behaviorists like Skinner, to treat Erik.
Another option for treatment could be aversion therapy. Aversion therapy would be exposing Erik to an unpleasant stimulus while simultaneously exposing him to the undesirable behaviors. When Erik begins misbehaving, a bad smell could be introduced, or a shock could be administered, to discourage him from misbehaving again. Over time, he would begin to associate his behavior with the bad smell or the shock, and no longer wish to behave in that way anymore.
The cognitive approach differs from behaviorism in that where behaviorism focuses only on outward behavior, cognitive psychology believes there is something to be said about the mind, and suggests that thoughts, feelings, and behavior are all connected to one another. Cognitive psychologists focus on how the brain processes information, and like to compare the brain to a computer. They believe that all human behavior can be reduced to cognitive processes, like perception and memory. In the computer analogy, stimuli are considered to be input, thoughts are operating systems, memories are storage, and so on. Much like behaviorism, the cognitive approach is a scientific one. The biggest difference between cognitivism and behaviorism is the “black box”. This refers to the process that happens between stimulus and response. Behaviorists believe that this cannot be studied, and that there is only stimulus and then response to stimulus. Cognitive psychologists say that there is more involved, a “black box” between stimulus and response that involves a mental processing of the stimulus. Cognitive psychology also introduced schemas, which are organized groupings of thoughts that are related to each other.
According to cognitive psychologists, Erik’s response to his traumatic childhood is emotional. The stimulus, or input, is his mother being killed by Shaw. This upset Erik so much that he spent many years of his life focused on it, and everything he did branched from that event. His mother’s death caused him to be angry, but it also brought on some long lasting depression and convinced him that the human race was untrustworthy. The man who ordered his mother dead was a mutant, but he didn’t find that out until it was too late and he had already decided to hate humanity. This distrust of humans was later validated by the army ordering an air strike on Erik and his mutant friends.
Cognitive psychologists like Beck would suggest looking at the Depressive Cognitive Triad, which involves negative thought about one’s self, the world, and the future. The negative thoughts Erik has about himself are over the fact that he was unable to move the coin when Shaw ordered him to, and so his mother was killed. Although he was angry at Shaw for having her killed, he was also very upset with himself, and blamed himself to some degree for her death. His negative thoughts about the world are because he’s seen people killing mutants and other people time and time again, and he therefore no longer has any faith in the world. He doesn’t believe it possible for the world to be a friendly and decent place while there are unmutated humans living in it. His problem with the future stems from this in that his lack of faith in the world tells him that it will only get worse. He believes that, if left up to chance, unmutated humans will kill off all of the mutants, and possibly even kill off each other.
It might be suggested that Erik fill out a Cognitive Style Questionnaire, which would assess how vulnerable he is to anxiety and depression, determining whether or not he has a Negative Cognitive Style. If he has a negative cognitive style, he is likely to attribute the negative events in his life such as his mother’s death, his time in a concentration camp, and the attack on the beach, to stable causes that aren’t going to change, global causes that affect a lot of different areas of his life, and internal causes specific to himself. He will also blame all negativity of his present and future on these awful events from his past. In treatment, getting him to recognize this negativity he has is important. In order to turn his life around and achieve true happiness, he will have to start trying to take a more positive look at life, and stop blaming past experiences.
Cognitive psychology may also examine personal construct theory in Erik. Personal Construct is basically a person’s internal reality; how they view the world around them and explain or predict events. Like anyone, Erik’s personal construct is unstable and often changing as he experiences new things and meets new people who either contradict or validate what he currently believes. At first, Erik saw the world as a place full of heartless people, mutant and non-mutant alike, and just wanted revenge on Shaw for his mother’s death. Over time, he made new friends and journeyed with them to defeat Shaw, even though they were after him for different reasons. For the first time, he had allies, and suddenly found a spark of hope in the world. When they were all attacked at the beach by non-mutant soldiers, his view of the world shifted yet again, bringing him to the belief that unmutated humans were all evil and wanted to kill mutants. He used this belief to explain why they were attacked, and to predict that it would continue happening. Much later in life, on an alternate timeline, he was part of a war against another mutant who wished to wipe out the entire planet, at which point he realized that evil could come in mutant and non-mutant form, and he could in fact find allies in those he thought were enemies before. His personal construct, which had once strictly told him that mutants did not kill other mutants, and unmutated humans killed mutants for no reason, had at that point grown to accept the fact that there were many peaceful non-mutants, and some mutants wanted to kill just for the sake of killing, regardless of who died.
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