We all picked our majors for different reasons. Whether it be because our families have a long career history in the field, or you love the major because it interests you. Getting hands-on experience in your major is another big aspect of enjoying your major. If you get in your field and don’t like it, it might be time to choose a different field or a different area. Internships, co-ops and job shadowing are very good tools to utilize when looking for experience. Another unconventional way to get a taste of what your major will be like is by watching it. Movies, often times dramatize different things, but some movies do and excellent job at realistically portraying different aspects of different majors. Here are some different majors that are represented in movies.

Psychology – 12 Angry Men

12 Angry Men (1957) is a movie based off of a play about 12 male jurors who are deliberating a murder case of a young man who is on trial for the murder of his father. The movie highlights topics like conformity, persuasion, groupthink and stereotypes. All of these topics are discussed in Social Psychology. 

Communication Studies/Psychology – Focus

Focus (2015) is a movie about a veteran con artist (Will Smith) and his former love interest (Margot Robbie) getting mixed up with each other on his last con. Focus has a specific seen in the film that revolves the concept of priming an individual. Priming in the Oxford English Dictionary is defined as the induction of an unconscious form of memory through an encounter with a particular stimulus, which acts to influence the performance of an apparently unrelated task. Priming is a concept that is studied in communication studies and psychology classes.

Biology/Genetics – GATTACA

GATTACA (1997) is a sicence fiction film where genetic engineering is used to select the best possible hereditary traits in children. This results in a very hierarchical society, where genetically “inferior” people are looked as lower in the society. The movie stars Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman. Genetic engineering is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including the transfer of genes within and across species boundaries to produce improved or novel organisms.