“12 Angry Men”
Essay
Svetoslav Zhechev
Introduction to Psychology-Psy 201
Elka Todorova
Argumentative essay
20.10.2008
The movie “12 angry men” shows how a jury takes the important decision of either sending the defendant to prison or not. As the title emphasize the jury consists of 12 men who are complete strangers but should work as a unit and come to an agreement. The trial is about an eighteen year old boy charged with his father murder. The movie lacks movement and action because it shows exactly how the jury takes their vital decision in the “box” (a room where the jury decision making take place). It emphasizes how through discussions, personal control and groupthink 12 men make a decision vital for one`s life.
The jury is a legitimate group of randomly picked members of society. Each of them represents a particular layer of the society not only as a mass of people but also the way this layer of society thinks. Thus, everyone member is sensitive to different social norms and conforms to different group standards. The characters are ordinary people who have ordinary problems and come from ordinary families. Their backgrounds influenced to large extend the way they behave in specific situation ns and events.
The attitudes are the main motor for actions and behavior. They are beliefs and perceptions that conduct how an individual behave in different events and situations. For example, in the beginning of the movie everyone except one was convinced and voted that the boy killed his father. All eleven men assumed that the facts and the evidences are true so the boy deserves lifetime sentence. The actor who opposed the first vote demonstrated foot-in ' the door phenomenon which means that he started to oppose other`s opinions step by step by presenting the evidence and the facts again with looking into the details more closely. He was not sure about the truth of the evidences at first place and this...