Groundhog Day (Elizabeth Roy)

Groundhog Day extra thoughts
Choice blog
Elizabeth Roy

During class, several people agreed that an important turning point for Phil was when he began to take an interest in learning the piano and reading poetry. Based on research on the benefits of altruism, cognitive psychology, and my own personal experience, I entirely disagree. Recent research in the field of positive psychology has compared the effects of altruism versus other pleasures. Pleasures such as success and the so-called 'pleasures of the flesh' give temporary fulfillment and limited physical benefits. In short, they are transitory. Alternatively, purely altruistic acts such as Phil rescuing the boy who falls out of a tree give pleasure that lasts much, much longer and provides significant physical benefits.

Based on cognitive psychology research, we know that intelligence is not gained and then kept forever. Rather, intelligence that is not used is lost and is often replaced by new information (which is the basis of the regrettably popular show, Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? most people do not use information such as the layers of the earth on a regular basis, and lose their memory of the information). In short, knowledge such as Phil's new poetry will probably be lost eventually unless he recites the poetry and practices his French rather often. It is transitory.

Lastly, for myself at least, the pleasures of knowledge are often more immediately enjoyable than pleasures such as eating or drinking, although they are usually temporary (I couldn't tell you the plots of all the books I skipped lunch in high school to read).

For these reasons, I would place Phil's new interest in learning as more a part of his pleasures of the flesh than his sacred pleasures, and therefore not the most significant turning point.

Last semester, I took a class entitled "Social Change." One of our more important topics was the importance of adversity, including failure. This, I believe, is the source of Phil's transformation. It is only when he fails that he begins to change: when he fails to seduce Rita and when he fails to save the life of the old man. There are many possible reasons these could be so important to him, such as making him realize that he is not perfect nor omnipotent, but regardless, I think that his failures are the basis for his transformation.

[The article on adversity is from "The Happiness Hypothesis" by Jonathan Haidt. I highly recommend it]