Disney Plus Dream Job: "The Santa Clause"

Introduction

Faculty, residents, and students at my university are participating in the Disney Plus Dream Job to watch 30 Disney films in 30 days. Course directors successfully incorporated the 30 films (and shows) into our preexisting curriculum that teaches psychiatry to future physicians through film and other aspects of popular culture. Views Through the Psychiatrist’s Lens will publish daily posts throughout the challenge. Our eighth blog is on the 1994 film, The Santa Clause.

Synopsis

After Scott Calvin reads The Night Before Christmas to his son, Charlie, and tucks him in for a long winter’s nap, he hears a clatter on the roof. When Charlie wakes Scott up to investigate, their jolly intruder falls from the roof resulting in Scott assuming the role of Santa Claus. At the time of this posting, the film holds a rating of 6.4 out of 10 on IMDb and a tomatometer rating of 74% on Rotten Tomatoes.

How it relates to the field of psychiatry

The Santa Clause (1994) and related films serve as culturally-sanctioned ways to review basic learning principles. The descriptors "positive" and "negative" describe whether something is added or subtracted to strengthen (reinforce) or weaken (punish) an identified behavior.

Positive Reinforcement and Positive Punishment

The Santa Clause primarily focuses on Scott trying to instill the spirit of Christmas in his son. The age-old tradition is that Santa Claus brings (“positive”) gifts/rewards to children who are good resulting in strengthening (“reinforcement”) of the good behavior. The tradition of Santa Claus is built on the operant principle of positive reinforcement.

In the film, Krampus (2015), a matriarch, Omi, warns her grandson of the adverse consequences of losing his faith in Santa. By ripping up his letter to Santa, Max demonstrates that he’s no longer amenable to learning through positive reinforcement. As Omi realizes that Max is no longer responding to positive reinforcement, she attempts to teach him through positive punishment by telling him about the legend of Krampus who chases and hits children with a stick (“positive”) when they misbehave (e.g. tearing up letters to Santa) therefore weakening (“punishment”) undesirable behaviors such as doubting and pouting.

Negative Reinforcement and Negative Punishment

In the song "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," children are warned:

You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town

Since the goal is to weaken the identified behavior (crying, pouting), the type of operant conditioning is punishment. Rather than adding an aversive stimulus to achieve this goal, the song intimates subtracting (“negative”) the noxious stimulus of Santa not giving you any presents. Therefore, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" is about negative punishment. If the goal of therapy were instead reframed to increase (“reinforcement”) laughing and ho-hoing by subtracting the noxious stimulus, the type of operant conditioning employed would be interpreted as negative reinforcement.

And to all a good night…