This thesis examines the cultural and political messages found in "social guidance" films, a genre of films produced for pedagogical purposes in the United States following the Second World War. Educational film producers relied on social science consultants for legitimacy and employed plots that addressed ordinary challenges of daily living encountered by teenagers. Shown in high school classrooms nationwide in the postwar years, these films advertised to young people the usefulness of a psychological understanding of personality adjustment. These films reflected the influence of ideas from both the progressive education movement inspired by John Dewey and the theories of mental hygiene from prewar psychologists. By viewing these films, students encountered advice about improving their individual productivity and they received guidance for developing skills needed in social settings. By parsing the cultural and intellectual messages embedded in these films and relating them to interwar and postwar developments, this thesis shows one way that social experts mobilized to shape the socialization of adolescents. Social guidance films intended to employ the specialized knowledge of the social sciences to promote the production of healthy and successful personalities.
More importantly, this thesis shows how social guidance films, in addressing ordinary teenage concerns, also addressed the political needs of American society at the dawn of the Cold War. The practical advice presented in these films showed adolescents how to tread the line between the preservation of individuality and commitment to the group—the essential problem faced by post war political theorists. Educators looked to the confluence of school, psychology, and film to guide the socialization of youths for their future roles as citizens of a democratic society. This thesis argues that the messages of psychological adjustment in social guidance films provided one means of promoting democratic values to counter the postwar threat of totalitarianism. / Master of Arts / This thesis describes how films produced for schools in the United States following the Second World War used the psychological understanding of personality adjustment in an attempt to shape adolescent minds and behaviors. It examines a genre of educational films known as social guidance films. These films purported to provide expert guidance for the challenges of daily living encountered by teenagers. The content of social guidance films were shaped by the long history of progressive education, advocacy from the psychological sciences, and the political needs of American society at the dawn of the Cold War.
By tracing ideas across the first half of the twentieth century, this thesis reveals the broad ways in which social experts envisioned their commitment to American society and democracy. In the earliest years of the twentieth century, both educators and psychologists expressed concern over the process of adolescent socialization. Their concerns grew in response to national and international political, social, and economic developments, such as the World Wars, the Great Depression, the growth of mass media, and the emergence of postwar youth cultures. They looked to the confluence of the school, psychology, and film as a means to reproduce a new generation of democratically oriented citizens.
In parsing the cultural and intellectual messages embedded in these films and relating them to interwar and postwar developments, this thesis shows one way that social experts mobilized to attempt intervention in the routine development of adolescents. Social guidance films, imbued with specialized knowledge, promised to aid in the production of healthy personalities and the preservation of democratic society.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/77952 |
| Date | 08 June 2017 |
| Creators | MacDonald, Jonathan Richard |
| Contributors | History, Jones, Kathleen W., Gitre, Edward J. K., Gumbert, Heather L. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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