Nicholas Wilde Personality Conception Assignment

The character that will be analysed is Nicholas Wilde, voiced by Jason Bateman, from the 2016 Disney animated movie Zootopia. The film is centred on the metropolis of Zootopia, a city in which predator and prey mammal species live together. Nick is a fox and a member of the predator minority, whom are outnumbered by the prey ten to one.

The first is Carl Rogers’ humanistic theory. His theory centres around what conditions a person must be in in order to develop a stable personality and what makes a well-adjusted individual in terms of balance between their self-concept and their experiences. Rogers believed that everyone is innately born good, and that it is only our interactions with the environment that negative traits are created out of dissatisfaction. This is true with Nick, as he demonstrates positive personality traits during childhood showing initiative and confidence in applying for the Junior Ranger Scouts with noble goals. It is only his negative interaction with the environment, a place where he thought he has a sense of belonging that he develops negative personality traits.

Rogers also states that it is only through negative interactions with the environment people fail to grow and their personality development stunts. Nick lives in a society where there is a divide between the prey majority and the predator minority. Throughout the film we are steadily exposed to the underlining prejudices and stereotypes each group has about the other and it is his negative interactions with these stereotypes; being viewed as nothing more than a sly and deceptive fox, that causes Nick’s growth and development to halt; he has not yet developed an overall self-conception, and so this event has a negative impact on this, and thus his development.

According to Rogers, in order to grow a person must be in an environment of unconditional positive regard. From what we are shown in the film, an environment of strong positive regard for Nick is at home and it is implied that the majority of this comes from his mother. In this environment Nick is shown to grow and have at least a normally developed personality. The ranger scouts, to his young mind could be used to symbolise the wider world of the city, he initially views it as a place where he can find an extension of the positive regard found at home. However, when it is revealed that it, and to Nick by extension the rest of the city, is not an environment of unconditional positive regard, his emotional and psychological development halts. He uses society’s stereotypes as a way to build a false personality to protect himself from his negative interactions with the world and as a way to protect the positive regard he had in his youth.

When Judy Hopps, a rabbit police officer and the film’s protagonist, enters his life, she becomes a source of positive regard. Not only does she drive Nick but the positive regard she has received throughout her life is reflected in her and Nick identifies his younger self’s innocence. When given the opportunity to enter an environment where he will begin to receive positive regard he jumps on it, as he is able to reignite his own sense of purpose lost after the Ranger Scouts incident, but he also projects his younger self onto Judy, and so feels as if he needs to protect her like his false personality has been protecting his inner self.
Carl Rogers also states that for a person to have development, they need the ability to feel genuine compassion for others, empathy, sadness and for their emotions to vary between experiences. As part of his structured defence mechanism, Nick hides his feelings behind the reactions of his false personality. This means he will act snarky, condescending, sly and smug; the characteristics of his stereotype. He doesn’t allow himself to become emotionally attached or invested in the mammals around him as doing so would go against his constructed personality and would harm his chances at survival.

As previously stated it is the introduction of Judy and her positive regard that allows Nick to experience personal growth, this is demonstrated in three cases. The first is at the gondola station in the rainforest district. When Chief Bogo demands Judy’s badge, Nick feels empathy towards Judy, as how she is being syphoned of her self-worth subtly mirrors his experience with the ranger scouts Nick acts out of internal emotions, although he projects how he feels onto Chief Bogo using his learnt tactics to defend Judy.

The second instance of Nick showing empathy is when Judy comes back to the city upon learning of the Night Howlers and initially behaves emotionally dethatched. When Judy begins to show distress, Nick is unable to act dethatched, and as she breaks down shows empathy in providing her with comfort. It should be noted that when Judy walks in for the hug, Nick’s tail wrapped behind his legs. During the next scene, where Judy is hugging Nick the scene ends with him stating that Judy is standing on his tail. However, his tail at the beginning of the scene was behind him, and if Judy stepped on it when she moved for the pen, it means that Nick begun to subconsciously wrap his tail around Judy, reinforcing that he feels as if he needs to protect her innocence.

The last scene is when Nick is angry with Judy for what she said at the press conference. He also feels betrayal as he views Judy as someone who has the same prejudices as those who hurt him. He completely abandons his false personality and projects his distress, which for the majority of his life has gone unacknowledged by Nick, onto Judy. He also displaces his hatred for the prejudices that have come to define him onto Judy’s actions as disappointment.

We will now look at Nick’s self-conception. At the start of the film, it can be found that Nick suffers from incongruence, in that there is little overlap between his experiences and his self-concept. This is proven as Nick changes his entire concept of himself and the world around him from the single event at the ranger scouts. Therefore the overlap between his self-concept and experiences is minimal; resulting in incongruence. However, as he develops through the movie, Nick’s view of himself and the world around him develops and begins to increasingly overlap with his experiences. By the end of the movie, the overlap has increased substantially; implying that Nick has improved and has developed congruence.

The next theory that will be used to assess Nick’s personality is Freud’s Theory of Psychodynamic development. According to Freud, our personality is made up of three sections; the ID, which is the pleasure seeker and is only concerned with getting what. The next is the Ego, which envelopes our conscious mind and is concerned with how we get the things we want, if we can achieve goals and is responsible for our planning and keeping the ID in check. The last and most dominant part of our personality according to Freud is the Superego. The superego is the moralistic part of our personality and is concerned whether or not it is right to do something, governs and adjusts our moral code and strives for perfection.

The Psychodynamic Stages of Development are all centred around fixation and pleasure. Fixation comes from receiving too much or too little pleasure during the period of the stage and when fixation is developed at one stage, it is difficult to grow out of.

From what is observed in the film, it can be stated that the ID is initially a dominant part of Nick’s personality. While we are not made fully of Nick’s motives for being the Popsicle scam, it can be presumed that it is for some sort of personal gain. In his past he also participated in organised crime. Furthermore, when he felt he could no longer gain anything from his criminal associations, he attempts to manipulate the crime boss Mr Big by selling them a Skunk Butt wool rug.

Nick claims that he generates $200 dollars a day. Yet despite this income he does not pay any taxes; this is an indication that he only cares about himself and that he believes he doesn’t owe society anything. When he is forced to help Judy with her investigation, he initially demonstrates a negative and uncooperative attitude. This is supported by his eagerness to separate himself from the investigation after the Nudist Camp scene and that he directs Judy to a DMV facility that is entirely operated by sloths and subsequently they waste a whole day.

Parallel to Nick’s ID, Nick’s Ego seems to have enlarge and encompass a more prominent part of his personality as the Superego shrunk. The Ego has developed in accordance with his negative interaction with the environment and has determined that being anything more than society’s stereotype is illogical and unobtainable. Instead, the Ego has adapted to only focus on doing what Nick needs to do in order to survive and adopting behaviour the bends to society’s norms and the stereotypical view of him. Overtime it has become increasingly effective at doing so, only focused on doing what must be done in order to continue his behaviour and become better at it. This includes quickly developing interactions with others that would allow him to manipulate Judy for the Jumbo-Pop, purchasing a receipt of declared commerce and the permit (which could have been brought illegally) and his desire to remove himself from the investigation, with the sure goal of changing his hustling tactics to adapt to the changing situation.

The last and most neglected part of his personality is the Superego. The only time Nick acts with his Superego still a normal part of his personality was when he goes to join the Ranger Scouts. Nick is acting out of goodness because he demonstrates the moral values by becoming a Ranger Scout “…brave, loyal, helpful and trustworthy.” However, after the Ranger Scout members torment him, his Ego reasons that because Nick wanted to be what the opposite of his stereotype this torment was subjected upon him. His personality changes so that no longer the Superego has such a prominent position. However, as his time with Judy increases, her behaviour forms an impression onto Nick. By the end of the movie, Nick has decides to join the force, not only because it is an area of unconditional positive regard but also because his Superego has gathered strength and is demanding that he do something to right his past wrongs. The ego has determined that the easiest way to do this is to join the force with Judy.

The first developmental stage is the Oral Stage and occurs for the first year. Its pleasure is centred on stimulating the mouth, such as teething. The possible fixation that can occur during this stage is Oral Fixation in which it can result in the rejection of others and the desire to constantly stimulate their mouths. It is possible that Nick developed a fixation because in several scenes he is shown idly chewing a Popsicle stick and has a withdrawn and disconnected nature suggesting fixation at the Oral Stage.

The next is the Anal Stage that is from years 1 to 3. During the anal stage, pleasure and stimulation comes from removing waste and having power over actions. From his actions in the film, Nick developed Anally Retentive fixation at this stage. This information is gathered from the fact that Nick always takes actions where he knows the information and controls people. This is shown when he didn’t tell Judy that they were heading to a nudist colony to follow up leads and attempted to use her distress and surprise to manipulate her.

Oedipal is the next stage and occurs between the ages of 4 and 6. During this stage the child will discover their sexuality by finding attraction to the parent of the opposite sex. Fixation is either Electra or Oedipus. Whether or not Nick has fixation according to the film cannot be determined.

The next stage is the Latency stage from six to twelve. It’s when Nick starts attempting to expand his social circle and try and make new friends. This is shown by Nick attempting to create new social connections with other mammals. However, when those who he perceived to be his friends ridicule him his development halts. This causes a domino affect with the latter Genital stage, in which the subject would normally seek out companionship until death.

However, there are some problems with applying such concepts of personality to a character such as Nick. The first is that he is not the main character. Therefore, we are not given as in depth of an insight to what makes up his past and thus it is more difficult to analyse his personality. Additionally, although he acts and behaves like a person, Nick is, ultimately a fox. This means that it may be pointless to analyse him using concepts of personality based off of the behaviour of humans as it is possible that his personality is completely normal for his species or someone in his society.