Calvin and
Hobbes
Ryley
Blouin
UNIT 9 Developmental
Psychology
Preoperational stage- Calvin
and Hobbes are both in
Piaget’s preoperational stage
of development where they
don’t yet understand
concrete concepts like at the
end where Hobbes says the
score is “Q to 12” which are
obviously in no relation and
therefore doesn’t make
sense. This shows they don’t
yet comprehend how sports
are played.
Unit 9
Egocentrism- In Piaget’s theory it’s a child’s difficulty of
taking another’s point of view which Calvin, as we can see
here, is having trouble imagining what it must be like to be
a girl and how it must be terrible because she’s like a bug.
Unit 9
Formal operational stage – This stage in Piaget’s theory is the
stage of cognitive development where people begin to think
logically about abstract concepts. As we can see here, Calvin
is using his juggling of eggs as a metaphor of life. This is an
abstract concept that he is thinking logically about and he
realizes that in life there needs to be balance.
Unit 9
Attachment – This is the emotional tie with another person
done by seeking closeness to the caregiver. As we can see,
Calvin has an emotional tie with Hobbes so large that he
takes him to school everyday. He sees as Hobbes as his
protector because he ate Tony Chesnutt for making fun of
Calvin.
Unit 9
Gender role –This is a set
of expected behaviors for
males or for females. As
we can see perfectly,
Susie draws the typical
domestic scene with
flowers, a house, and
sunshine because that’s
what girls do. Calvin ends
up drawing a squadron of
B-1’s nuking New York
because that is what
typical boys do, they
think big and violent as
that is their gender role.
Unit 10 Personality
Id and Superego – The id in
someone is the evil side to
them just looking for whats
best for themselves. The
superego is the one that
follows the rules and always
does right. Throughout the
whole comic series we see
Calvin as the id because he is
very violent and really only out
to satisfy himself while Hobbes
is his alter ego who follows the
rules and is nice and sweet. We
see that especially here where
Calvin wants Hobbes to maul
Susie because Hobbes is a
monster but Hobbes wants to
be nice and likes to cuddle her.
Unit 10
Trait – A trait is a
characteristic
pattern of behavior.
Calvin as you can
see has a pattern of
making morbid
snowmen. It is
Calvin’s trait to be
morbid and
disturbing when it
comes to snowmen.
Personal control – This is the extent to which people feel control
over their environment. In this comic Calvin is talking about how
he wants to be a part of nature but when he notices how scary
nature is he goes inside and controls his environment by turning
on the lights and turning up the heat so he doesn’t have to go
outside.
Unit 10
Unit 10
External locus of control
– This is the perception
that chance or outside
forces beyond your
personal control
determine your fate.
Calvin decides to believe
exactly that and “by
fate” he gets pushed into
the mud.
Individualism – This is the giving of priority to one’s own goals and defining one’s
identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications. In this comic
Calvin is comparing his “modern artwork” compared to everyone else’s. Calvin says he
and Hobbes are the ones who are keeping “high culture” alive. He is separating
himself and Hobbes from the group of kids who make the stereotypical and boring
snowmen. In other words he doesn’t identify himself with that group and therefore is
showing individualism.
Unit 10
Unit 14 Social Psychology
Central route persuasion – This is the attitude change path
where interested people focus on arguments and respond
with favorable thoughts. Calvin doesn’t want to eat his
disgusting dinner and his attitude is changed when his dad
responds with the favorable thought of Calvin turning into a
mutant if he eats it.
Unit 14
Scapegoat theory – This is the theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger
by providing someone to blame. Calvin, in this strip, is angry and sad that he
waited so long for a beanie hat (the hat with the propeller on top) and then
he broke it. He is so frustrated that he tries to use Hobbes as a scapegoat and
blame him for breaking it even though it was all Calvin’s fault. In other words,
Calvin was upset about the tragedy that happened and he needed someone
to blame and that was Hobbes.
Unit 14
Frustration-aggression principle – This is the principle that states the
blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal creates anger and can
generate aggression. In this comic we see Calvin’s attempt at figuring
out if he will be president. He gets frustrated that the board starts to
spell out “GOD FORBID” so Calvin gets frustrated, then acts
aggressively towards the board by kicking it across the room.
Unit 14
Proximity – Geographic nearness that provides opportunities for aggression but
much more often it breeds liking. In this comic we see both the aggression and
the liking that Susie and Calvin have for each other. Calvin gets a cruddy valentine
for Susie with dead flowers to show aggression towards her. She shows
aggression back by hitting him with a snowball. But each in the end interpret it as
the other person liking them. I think they started to like each other because they
see each other all the time because they are neighbors and the close proximity
bred the liking they have for one another.
Unit 14
Social reciprocity norm – This states that people have an expectation
to help those dependent on them. In the case below, Calvin realizes
that he is dependent upon his father and has the expectation that his
father will help him in the future if he becomes “messed up”.
Although this is a perfect example of social reciprocity norm, it is a bit
extensive in what is required from the father.
Unit 6 Learning
Respondent behavior – This is any behavior that occurs as an
automatic response to some stimulus. Hobbes always responds
to Calvin’s calling of “I’M HOME!” with pouncing on him. So
because he is the respondent of Calvin’s calling and his behavior
is pouncing on him, it fits the definition perfectly.
Discrimination – This is the ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that
do not signal an unconditioned stimulus. Hobbes has learned to pounce on Calvin when he gets
home (conditioned stimulus). Then Calvin tries to trick Hobbes into pouncing on Susie by having
her say “I’M HOME!” but Hobbes learned the ability to distinguish between the two because of
Calvin’s bad smell.
Unit 6
Unit 6
Associative learning - This is the learning that
certain events occur together. Calvin has finally
learned that whenever he says “I’M HOME!” he
gets pounced on by Hobbes. So he learns to
keep the door shut so he doesn’t get attacked.
Shaping – This is the procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and
closer approximations of the desired behavior. Hobbes wants to teach Calvin how to
survive in the wild and we can see that Calvin is trying to look out for him in the first
half of this drawing. Then Hobbes uses punishment on Calvin for moving upwind to in
the end teach him how to survive in the wild. Then we see that Calvin basically gives up
on learning because he doesn’t even want to watch his nature program he was trying to
learn from.
Unit 6
Unit 6
Learned helplessness – This is the
hopelessness and passive
resignation of an animal or
human (in this case Calvin) who
learns when it is unable to avoid
repeated aversive events. Finally,
after all the pouncing and
attempting to get away from it,
Calvin experiences learned
helplessness when he just goes
on with his day knowing that it is
coming. Even when he sees
Hobbes’s shadow he doesn’t
move out of the way.