Illustrates need for well-balanced emotions in a well-rounded personality. Great sequence of psychologist who puts together building blocks of emotions & covers it all with metal circle of “personality”.

Coronet Films 1950 Sound 12 Minutes

Produced by Coronet Films. Educational collaborator: A. R. Lauer,
Ph. D., Professor of Psychology, Iowa State College.

Synopsis: Before men learned how to control fire and put it to work, it was
man’s greatest enemy. In much the same way, your emotions can be your
own greatest enemy, or under control, your emotions can make you healthier
and happier, and improve the lives of people around you.

Jeff is an ordinary, healthy, and well-balanced young fellow. He usually
gets along well with people. However, we find that Jeff, through several
incidents, does not always have control over his emotions. In a drugstore
scene he becomes angry with some of his friends and on his way home, he
stumbles and falls. When he arrives home in a bad mood, he is reprimanded
by his mother.

This educational film about the psychology of adolescence is a
fascinating document of 1950s intellectual culture. In the manner
of many social-guidance films, it offers a fictional portrait of a
troubled teenager – in this case a boy named Jeffrey Moore who
tends to fly off the handle when he finds himself in stressful
situations. Entertaining as these scenes are (don’t miss Jeff
chasing his kid brother around the kitchen table with a coat
hanger), they’re outdone by the rat-faced psychologist who appears
several times in the film to offer his insights. With his white
lab coat and strange props (wooden blocks with words on them),
Professor AR Lauer reduces Jeff’s emotional conflicts to a
Pavlovian formula of stimulus, response, and behavior modification.
Thus the film combines the decade’s obsession with pop psychology
with its drive towards social control.

00:59:30:00 B/W 1950
vs Psychologist lectures to CAM about human emotions. To
illustrate his points he uses blocks with words printed on them -
RAGE; FEAR; LOVE; and on the reverse sides, THWARTING; LOUD NOISES
OR LOSS OF SUPPORT; SHOW OF AFFECTION. Finally, he holds up a big
disk with the word PERSONALITY – “a well rounded personality.”
Campy scene, almost a parody of psychobabble.

01:01:45:00 B/W 1950
ms Scene in a teen hangout, malt shop (unconvincing movie
set). One teenage boy tries to impress his friends by mixing soda
in a glass; he spills it, and his friends make fun of him; EXT
shot, boy exits storefront marked DRUG STORE.

01:03:22:00 B/W 1950
ws Teenage boy tries to jump over hedge, he slips and falls on
his rear end; he gets angry, swings a lawn sprinkler around; funny.
Similar shot at 1:09:10.

01:03:50:00 B/W 1950
vs Sequence, boy tries to start car. He opens garage; enters
car; ECU thumb on starter button; teenage boy shows anger,
frustration; bangs his head on car hood; throws a wrench on the
ground. Similar sequence at 1:09:32.

01:05:04:00 B/W 1950
vs Sequence, family in kitchen. Teenage girl shows off new
dress for mother; grumpy teenage boy shows disgust – excellent
facial expression, funny; teenage boy chases little boy around
kitchen table, threatening to hit him with a coat hanger; mother
breaks it up.

01:11:26:00 B/W 1950
ws Young people roasting marshmallows over campfire (not a
good shot