Resources

Teaching Psychology Through Film

Explore research, tools, and materials that support the integration of film into psychology pedagogy. This page is always a work-in-progress, as we add to each section as new information and resources are created or found!

My Presentations & Research

Presentations on the use of film in psychology education:

Swan, A. B. (2022, October). Film pedagogy practices within The Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP): An exploratory investigation. The Society for the Teaching of Psychology’s Annual Conference on Teaching (ACT), Pittsburgh, PA.
Swan, A. B. (2022, May). This course is so Hollywood: Fictional films as critical thinking tools for your psychology courses. Talk presented at the Association for Psychological Science Annual Conference’s Teaching Institute. Chicago, IL.
Swan, A. B. (2022, February). Fictional films in your psych classes? Your students will learn something! E-Xcellence in Teaching. The Society for the Teaching of Psychology.
Swan, A. B. (2021, February). From the box office to the classroom: Using films to explore psychological concepts. Talk presented at the Southeastern Teaching of Psychology Annual Conference (SETOP). Virtual conference.

Abridged Reference List

A curated list of sources cited in an upcoming paper on film pedagogy in psychology.

Anderson, D. D. (1992). Using feature films as tools for analysis in a psychology and law course. Teaching of Psychology, 19(3), 155–158. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328023top1903_6
Anderson, R. (2016). The Rashomon effect and communication. Canadian Journal of Communication, 41, 249–269. https://doi.org/10.22230/cjc.2016v41n2a3068
Bluestone, C. (2000). Feature films as a teaching tool. College Teaching, 48(4), 141–146. https://doi.org/10.1080/87567550009595832
Bower, G. H. (1992). How might emotions affect learning? In S.-Å. Christianson (Ed.), The handbook of emotion and memory: Research and theory (pp. 3–31). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Boyatzis, C. J. (1994). Using feature films to teach social development. Teaching of Psychology, 21(2), 99–101. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328023top2102_9
Brode, N. (2024, April 9). Young Americans love using subtitles for movies, TV. CivicScience. https://civicscience.com/young-americans-love-using-subtitles-for-movies-tv/
Conner, D. B. (1996). From Monty Python to Total Recall: A feature film activity for the cognitive psychology course. Teaching of Psychology, 23(1), 33–35. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328023top2301_6
Fleming, M. Z., Piedmont, R. L., & Hiam, C. M. (1990). Images of madness: Feature films in teaching psychology. Teaching of Psychology, 17(3), 185–187. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328023top1703_12
Green, R. J. (2011). Teaching psychology through film, video. Psychological Science Monitor. https://www.psychologicalscience.org/uncategorized/teaching-psychology-through-film-video.html
Harp, S. F., & Mayer, R. E. (1998). How seductive details do their damage: A theory of cognitive interest in science learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90, 414–434.
Hobbs, R. (1998). Teaching with and about film and television. Journal of Management Development, 17(4), 259–272. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621719810210136
Keltner, D., & Ekman, P. (2015, July 3). The Science of ‘Inside Out.’ The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/05/opinion/sunday/the-science-of-inside-out.html
Kirsh, S. J. (1996). Using animated films to teach to social and personality development. Teaching of Psychology, 49–51. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328023top2501_17
Landrum, R. E., Brakke, K., & McCarthy, M. A. (2019). The pedagogical power of storytelling. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, 5(3), 247–253. https://doi.org/10.1037/stl0000152
Mishra, S. (2018). The world in the classroom: Using film as a pedagogical tool. Contemporary Education Dialogue, 15(1), 111–116. https://doi.org/10.1177/0973184917742250
Nowell-Smith, G. (2017). The History of Cinema: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.
Pozas, M., Letzel, V. and Schneider, C. (2020). Teachers and differentiated instruction: exploring differentiation practices to address student diversity. Journal of Research in Special Education Needs, 20, 217-230. https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-3802.12481
Smith, S. L., Choueiti, M., & Pieper, K. (2016). Comprehensive Annenberg Report on Diversity in Entertainment (CARD): Media, diversity, & social change initiative. USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. https://annenberg.usc.edu/mdsci
Wedding, D., & Niemiec, R. M. (2015). Movies & Mental Illness. Hogrefe Publishing.

Accessibility & Availability

Resources and tools for making film-based instruction inclusive and compliant:

Fair Use in Education — U.S. Copyright Office; Copyright Act at §110(1) (Exemption for showing films as part of teaching face-to-face, physical media or owned digital copies); NOTE: using a streaming service in class may violate the TOS for that service!

Audio Description Resource Guide — National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Public Domain Films

Kanopy for Educators

Other Teaching Resources

Sample Syllabi

Summer 2019: Psychology of Film Syllabus, A. Swan, Eureka College
- Readings PDFs

Assignments and Assessments

Film Analysis Rubric (Cognitive Psychology)
Film Analysis Questions (targeted by discipline and film)
Detailed Film Analysis Questions by Film (Society for the Teaching of Psychology OTRP, Nelson, 2006): https://teachpsych.org/resources/Documents/otrp/resources/nelson06.pdf