Academic Conversation and Inquiry Process

The Context

My research will contribute to the academic conversation by expanding on the five themes identified by the Time to Change campaign and researchers Beth Disley and Mark Fisher: comedy, pity, faking and indulgence, violence, and sexualization. My research has taken these themes and studied them in regard to changes over time, as well as with a female-specific inquiry and focus on Borderline Personality Disorder.

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The Gap

While research has been conducted on the themes I am looking at (sexualization, comedy, violence, faking and indulgence, and pity), my implementation of a timeline analysis, female-specific inquiry, and a focus on Borderline Personality Disorder creates a very specific gap in what has already been studied.

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Methodology

Sift through IMDb Top 250 Movies. Then, select movies with a female lead with mental illness.
Tally which mental illnesses are present in this list, and choose which one is most prevalent (Borderline Personality Disorder).
Use IMDb's link to movies about BPD and choose the ones with a female lead.
Randomly select one movie from each decade out of the compiled list.

There were seven movies total: Possessed (1947), Sunset Blvd (1950), Play Misty For Me (1971), Betty Blue (1986), Girl, Interrupted (1999), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), and Gone Girl (2014).

Use the checklist chart with variables to quantify data collected during the movies. Then, label each movie with its most prevalent theme.
Run a Mann-Kendall statistical test to identify whether there is a significant positive or negative change in each theme over time.

Changes

One thing I changed throughout my methodology is my choice to run a statistical test. With this test, I will be able to measure whether my data for each theme is monotonic, meaning the selected theme increases or decreases over time.

Originally, I was going to evaluate the change in each theme over time stricly by examination, not by quantifiable statistical values. However, I believe it would make my evidence stronger and help me to make a claim on the changes.

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Progress

At this point, I have finished watching all movies and collecting data points. My next step is to run the Mann-Kendall statistical test to identify a quantifiable change in theme over time.

Above is an example of my complete data collection chart for Possessed. Each variable checkpoint has an associated timestamp, in order to track patterns throughout each movie to note later in my discussion.

Roadblock #1

In each movie, there were variables that occured with characters other than the female lead with BPD, so I had to make sure I was only counting variables in reference to the character of focus.

Roadblock #2

Time management was definitely a huge roadblock for this project! With some movies being longer than others, I consistently adjusted my schedule to make sure I still finished one per week.

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Results

Possessed: Violence and Pity

Sunset Blvd: Comedy, Violence, and Pity

Play Misty For Me: Violence

Betty Blue: Sexualization

Girl, Interrupted: Pity

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Comedy and Sexualization

Gone Girl: Violence

Above is an example of theme distribution in the movie, Gone Girl. As can be seen in the chart, the most prevalent theme of this movie is violence, with sexualization coming in at a close second.

Discussion

Because I have not yet run the Mann-Kendall test, there is no quantifiable change present in the themes over time at this time. However, I did notice a trend within each individual movie. It is evident that violence variables (and therefore the violence theme) occur more often toward the ends of each movie. As seen in the chart below, the red dots (which represent violence variables) are more conspicuous the longer the timeline goes on. Furthermore, on the topic of violence, this theme is one that is extremely common among the movies selected, as four out of the seven movies were labeled with it.

One other thing worth noting is that the theme of faking and indulgence only occurs in one movie (Girl, Interrupted) and is only marked by one instance of that variable. Therefore, it is clear that faking and indulgence is not nearly as prevalent as other themes in this category of film.

Limitations

One limitation is the missing movie for the 1960s decade. This may cause a gap in the data, especially during statistical analysis of change over time.

Conclusion

My study will help future researchers understand the movement of mental health from a taboo subject to one that is emphasized. Additionally, my work quantifies how cinema portrays mental health, specifically Borderline Personality Disorder, and can provide filmmakers with a blueprint for what should be either copied or changed.

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Mini Presentation

To view a brief pitch of my progress so far, click here.

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