Topics and OpenStax course map
Every film, series, and documentary on this site is connected to core introductory psychology topics and to matching chapters and sections in OpenStax Psychology 2e. Textbook sections show where a concept sits in an introductory course; they do not analyze the film itself.
Browse by psychology topic
Choose a topic to see the guiding viewing questions and every work that explores that domain.
Memory and amnesia (11 works)
How screen narratives depict encoding, consolidation, retrieval cues, anterograde and retrograde amnesia, reconstructive distortion, and autobiographical continuity.
Questions to watch for: Does the narrative treat memory like a literal video recording or an active reconstruction shaped by emotion and retrieval cues? Are anterograde amnesia, retrograde amnesia, and normal forgetting clearly distinguished or blended for plot convenience?Cognition, decision and language (8 works)
Problem solving, heuristics, confirmation bias, counterfactual thinking, linguistic framing, and metacognitive error under uncertainty.
Questions to watch for: Which cognitive heuristics or confirmation biases steer the characters toward premature conclusions? How do time pressure, framing, and institutional incentives alter deliberation and judgment?Perception, attention and reality testing (9 works)
Top-down expectation, selective attention, hallucination, dream-wake boundaries, pareidolia, and the fragility of perceptual certainty.
Questions to watch for: How does the camera or sound design place the viewer inside selective attention, expectation, or altered reality testing? Where does normal top-down perceptual interpretation end and clinical hallucination or delusion begin?Emotion, grief and stress regulation (15 works)
Mixed affect, cognitive appraisal, grief trajectories, chronic stress physiology, emotional suppression, and co-regulation across relationships.
Questions to watch for: How do characters appraise threat or loss, and what happens when avoidance replaces adaptive emotion regulation? How does the story show that unpleasant emotions like sadness, fear, or anger serve communicative and protective functions?Lifespan development, childhood and aging (14 works)
Attachment security, parenting styles, adolescent peer socialization, emerging adulthood, and cognitive or relational transitions in late life.
Questions to watch for: How do caregiving environments, peer groups, and socioeconomic context interact across developmental transitions? Does the work portray developmental change as cumulative and context-sensitive rather than fixed by a single childhood event?Self, identity and dissociation (11 works)
Self-concept, role performance, double lives, impostor feelings, cultural belonging, and the difference between metaphorical multiplicity and dissociative conditions.
Questions to watch for: How do social roles, audience expectations, and institutional pressures shape the protagonist’s self-concept? When a work uses split selves or doubles, is it operating as psychological metaphor, unreliable narration, or clinical portrayal?Attachment, intimacy and family systems (18 works)
Romantic attachment, coercive control, gaslighting, family triangulation, bereavement, loneliness, and parasocial or mediated bonds.
Questions to watch for: Which attachment expectations and communication patterns sustain or erode trust between partners and family members? How do power asymmetries and isolation enable interpersonal manipulation or gaslighting?Personality, perfectionism and moral character (2 works)
Trait stability versus situational pressure, perfectionism, narcissistic vulnerability, callousness, compulsivity, and character myths in crime cinema.
Questions to watch for: Does the narrative attribute behavior to stable dispositional traits, situational incentives, or an interaction of both? Where does popular cinema conflate extreme criminal calculation with real-world personality diagnoses?Psychopathology, trauma and psychotherapy (12 works)
Depictions of mood, anxiety, trauma, psychosis, addiction, developmental neurodiversity, psychiatric hospitalization, and therapeutic alliance.
Questions to watch for: Which aspects of distress, functional impairment, and recovery align with clinical evidence, and which are compressed for dramatic urgency? How does the portrayal of therapy or hospitalization handle boundaries, consent, and realistic pacing of change?Brain, consciousness and neuropsychology (4 works)
Lesion syndromes, dementia, sleep and dreaming, pharmacological intervention, brain-computer metaphors, and embodied consciousness.
Questions to watch for: What neuropsychological functions remain intact when a focal brain network or neurodegenerative process is depicted? Where do sci-fi interventions simplify distributed neural plasticity into single-switch memory erasure or consciousness transfer?Experimentation, conditioning and institutional ethics (7 works)
Informed consent, aversive conditioning, surveillance experiments, algorithmic manipulation, forensic assessment, and abuses of institutional power.
Questions to watch for: Which ethical safeguards, such as informed consent, right to withdraw, protection from harm, and independent oversight, are violated in the narrative? Why does behavioral compliance under coercion fail to establish genuine moral or psychological change?
OpenStax Psychology 2e chapter map
Each chapter below links directly to the open-access textbook and lists the screen works paired with its concepts.
Ch. 1: Introduction to Psychology (0 works)
Historical schools of psychology, scientific inquiry, levels of analysis, and how popular screen myths differ from empirical psychology.
Ch. 2: Psychological Research (6 works)
Observation, experimental manipulation, confounding variables, informed consent, institutional review, and deception safeguards.
Ch. 3: Biopsychology (3 works)
Neural signaling, cortical specialization, brain damage, neuroplasticity, and endocrine regulation of stress and behavior.
Ch. 4: States of Consciousness (4 works)
Sleep architecture, dreaming, insomnia, hypnotic suggestibility, and psychoactive substance dependence.
Ch. 5: Sensation and Perception (3 works)
Signal detection, selective attention, top-down perceptual expectations, Gestalt organization, and perceptual illusions.
Ch. 6: Learning (1 work)
Classical conditioning, operant reinforcement and punishment, aversive conditioning, and observational learning.
Ch. 7: Thinking and Intelligence (4 works)
Concepts, problem-solving barriers, confirmation and availability biases, linguistic relativity, and intelligence testing.
Ch. 8: Memory (11 works)
Encoding, storage, retrieval, hippocampal consolidation, amnesia syndromes, eyewitness suggestibility, and reconstructive memory.
Ch. 9: Lifespan Development (14 works)
Attachment security, cognitive and moral development, adolescent identity formation, parenting contexts, and aging.
Ch. 10: Motivation and Emotion (15 works)
Drive and arousal theories, cognitive appraisal of emotion, facial expression, and socioemotional goals.
Ch. 11: Personality (0 works)
Psychodynamic defenses, trait dimensions, social-cognitive person-situation interactions, and cultural self-concepts.
Ch. 12: Social Psychology (23 works)
Attribution error, cognitive dissonance, conformity, obedience, group polarization, prejudice, aggression, and close relationships.
Ch. 13: Industrial-Organizational Psychology (2 works)
Workplace culture, alienation, organizational control, burnout, leadership styles, and human-technology systems.
Ch. 14: Stress, Lifestyle, and Health (5 works)
HPA-axis stress responses, trauma and bereavement, coping strategies, social support buffering, and resilience.
Ch. 15: Psychological Disorders (0 works)
Diagnostic classification, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, mood disorders, schizophrenia, dissociative states, neurodevelopmental conditions, and personality disorders.
Ch. 16: Therapy and Treatment (8 works)
History of psychiatric hospitalization, deinstitutionalization, psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral therapies, biomedical treatments, and therapeutic ethics.