An Evaluation of the Social-Psychological Principles in the Film Ray

In the 2004 film Ray, director Taylor Hackford provides an intimate psychological profile of the famous blues musician Ray Charles. In the film, the viewer is provided with an opportunity to review how issues concerning Charles’s race and disability impacted his development as an individual as well as a musician. Through scenes that address how Charles was impacted by his visual impairment and societal racism, the film directly explores the social-psychological principles of romantic love, cognitive dissonance, and conformity.

The Principle of Romantic Love

The first scene to explore the principle of romantic love in Ray portrays a date between Ray and his future wife, Margie Hendricks. In the scene, Charles is taking Margie to a date at a café. They are enjoying a lighthearted discussion when the conversation suddenly turns to address Charles’s blindness. In the scene, Charles discusses the manner in which his other senses are heightened because he cannot see. He discusses how he is able to even hear a hummingbird, and the camera cuts to a slow motion view of a bird that is flying outside of the café window. Hendricks’s gaze focuses on the bird, showing that she is involved in Charles’s experience of being able to pick out small details that are otherwise overlooked by individuals who take their senses for granted.

Meyers (2013) identifies several social-psychological principles that are connected to the concept of romantic love. As he notes, there are several manners through which a romantic relationship can evolve. The first type of love that Meyers discusses is passionate love, which involves physical arousal and cognitive appraisal (2013, p. 591). This stage is typically present at the beginning of a love relationship (2013, p. 591). Next, is the concept of companionate love, which Meyers defines as, “the deep affectionate attachment we feel for those whom our lives are intertwined (2013, p. 592). Companionate love involves two components, equity and self-disclosure. Through equity, those involved in a relationship benefit proportionally from their contribution to the relationship, and through self-disclosure, those in the relationship reveal intimate aspects of oneself to others in the relationship (2013, p. 592). The scene in the café is significant to the film as a demonstration of companionate love.

Throughout Ray, the viewer observes the extramarital affairs that Charles engaged in throughout his career, accompanied by his drug habit. Yet, his relationship with his wife, appears to be the most significant bond presented in the film. As the café film demonstrates, a main reason that the bond that Charles developed with Hendricks is important to his life is because it is the first relationship where he developed companionate love, rather than pure passionate love. Though Charles was told not to think of his blindness as a disability and has become quite protective over discussing his disability, he engaged in self-disclosure when he discussed how he perceived the world to Hendricks. Further, there is a moment of equity as Hendricks is allowed to perceive the world through Charles’s perspective during the scene. In contrast to future scenes of the film where Charles’s status as a famous musician provides an imbalance between him and his lovers, Charles is involved in a mutual exchange with Hendricks in the café scene. As a result, the scene demonstrates how Charles’s openness about his disability enabled him to work through the intricacies of love and develop a significant romantic bond with his future wife.

The Principle of Cognitive Dissonance

The scene where Ray Charles performs at a segregated concert hall demonstrates the principle of cognitive dissonance. In this scene, Ray is walking into a concert hall in the South where he is about to perform for a show. A crowd of protesters greet him as he is about to walk into the building. Initially, Charles is not interested in the complaints of the protesters until one protester informs him that African Americans are subjected to second-class treatment in the hall that he is playing in. After the protestor convinces Charles that the segregation that African Americans endure in the concert hall is unacceptable, Charles cancels his performance and makes a commitment not to play in the state of Georgia or any venues that practice segregation.

Through his interaction with the protestors, Charles demonstrates the extent to which he has developed cognitive dissonance. According to Meyers (2013), cognitive dissonance theory is defined as, “the theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent” (p. 558). As the theory asserts, when an individual feels tension because their thoughts conflict, they change their attitudes in order to justify their actions and make their actions consistent with their beliefs (2013, p. 558). As an evaluation of the film determines, both Charles’s disability and career success enabled him to develop cognitive dissonance on racial issues during his time.

In the scene where Charles is entering a performance, he demonstrated his cognitive dissonance when he initially rebuked the segregation protestors in front of the hall. Though Charles has a vested interest, as an African-American, to speak out against segregation, his inability to visually conceptualize race prevent him from fully empathizing with the conditions of his African-American fans. Further, the rewards that he enjoyed because of his success also prevented him from fully understanding the experiences of his fans. However, during the film, Charles was often approached with racism from individuals or authority figures, demonstrating that he held cognitive awareness of the negative ramifications of racism. However, he resolved his discomforts by failing to connect the individual racism that he experienced with the collective racism that his fans experienced when they were exposed to segregation. Charles eventually remedied this disconnect in the film when he finally realized that the segregation faced by his fans was personally connected to him. Further, he reflected a change in attitude when he decided to boycott all segregated concert halls in order to demonstrate his opposition to segregation.

The Principle of Conformity

The principle of conformity is conveyed through the scene where Ray decided to launch a country album. This scene is tied to the beginning scene of the film where Ray Charles discussed his love for country music. After becoming a successful blues musician, Charles decided that he would like to record a country album. His producers expressed their reservations, but Charles explained why he enjoys the messages and themes in country music. Without considering the reservations of his producers, Ray decided to record an album that deviates from his typical musical genre.

This scene demonstrates how Charles was able to deviate from the principle of conformity by setting his own direction musically. According to Manstead (1999), conformity is defined as, “[…] movement on the part of a deviant person or subgroup towards the group NORM (the majority position) as a result of group pressures to restore uniformity. Its opposite may be either independence or anticonformity” (1999, p. 119). Further, Meyers provides a broader definition of conformity, asserting that it is the adjustment of one’s behavior or thinking in order to accommodate a group’s standards (2013, p. 561). Both Manstead’s and Meyer’s definitions are important to consider when evaluating the concept of conformity. While the desires of a dominant group can be a strong influence on the activities of other members of society, the influences set by subgroups can also play an important role in influencing behavioral standards. Ray Charles’s career decisions demonstrate how conformity from both the dominant group and subcultural groups influenced his life.

The scene where Charles decided to launch a country album is significant because it represented his final break from conformity in the film. As an African American musician, Charles conformed to expectations that were enforced by both dominant culture and his subcultural group. The white producers represented dominant culture because they were primarily interested in promoting Charles in a manner that would appeal to the expectations of white audiences. However, by simply performing blues music, Charles was also conforming to the musical standards exhibited by African Americans. Charles determined that he would no longer conform to either group and that he would exhibit his personal musical tastes when he decided to make the controversial move of recording a country album.

Discussion and Conclusion

The movie Ray provides a broad psychological profile of Charles by demonstrating how his disability and his race influenced his psychological development. As the scenes involving his wife revealed in the movie, Charles’s blindness played an important role in his ability to express romantic intimacy with others. Through self-disclosure, Charles opens up about his disability with his wife and is able to form a closer bond that enables their relationship to endure his eventual extramarital affairs and drug problems. Next, Charles’s disability is also linked to his ability to become cognitively dissonant in regards to racial issues. In the scene where Charles was entering a segregated Georgia music hall, it was determined that he gave little thought to how his own race tied into the wider racial policies that impacted his fans. The extent of Charles’s cognitive dissonance was revealed when he initially rebuffed the protesters who complained of their poor treatment in the segregated music halls. However, Charles eventually reconciled his personal identity with the treatment of African American fans who attend his shows and decided not to perform at segregated venues. Finally, the film explored the issue of conformity in the career choices made by Ray Charles. Though he had established a niche as a blues singer, Charles demonstrated his willingness to deviate from the expectations of his producers when he decided to record a country album. This was a significant culminating point because it demonstrated Charles’s willingness to exert full influence over his life and career decisions without feeling limited by his disability or his race.

As Hackford demonstrated through the film Ray, there were many complex psychological factors that influenced both the personal and professional decisions made by blues singer Ray Charles. Though he was widely known for his success, Charles was a remarkable figure because he was able to face and overcome many issues that were presented to him during his life because of his race and his disability. The film demonstrates how the social-psychological principles of romantic love, cognitive dissonance, and conformity all contributed to the internal and external challenges that Charles faced during his life. 

References

Hackford, T. (Director). (2004). Ray [Motion picture]. United States: Universal.

Manstead, A.R., & Hewstone, M. (1999). The Blackwell encyclopedia of psychology. Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell.

Myers, D.G.(2013). Psychology (10th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers.