Psychology refers to the scientific study of the mind. In the cartoon Rick and Morty, the character of Rick Sanchez is a diverse yet fascinating one; his psychology is mind-blowing. Rick Sanchez is an old, genius scientist who travels to space and is always inventing something new. He solely lives for science, and he fits every aspect of his life on science. Learning (chapter 6.1) is relatively how experience leads to permanent change in knowledge or behavior. Rick was not born a scientist, but over time his interest in the subject grew. In learning about science, he becomes associated with elements that make his knowledge of the subject to increasingly grow, and this is called “Associative Learning (pg. 186).” In the cartoon Rick and Morty, Ricky is seen taking on a new science experiment countless times. Ricky has learned about science for an extended period in his life, which constitutes that he has a learned reaction in situations that are related to his knowledge of the subject, or instead he has an idea on how to foresee events before they happen because of the constant learning he has undergone on it. This draws back to classical conditioning (Chapter 6, pg. 188), and it is “the process by which we learn to associate stimuli and consequently to anticipate events.”
In Operant Conditioning (chapter 6.3), the consequences of a person’s actions are always associated with their behavior. This shows that one learns how to go about a certain aspect with what benefits it portrays, this also decides how long the particular behavior is bound to happen. Rick is always working on something new. He tends to try different experiments, and if it plays out just right, he goes on further to perfect it by either adding desirable factors to increase behavior of the experiment, which is called positive reinforcement (chapter 6, pg. 198). He may also remove specific undesirable elements to enhance the behavior in his study, and this is called negative reinforcement (chapter 6, pg. 198). According to the law of effect, “behaviors that are followed by consequences that are satisfying to the organism are more likely to be repeated, and practices that are accompanied by unpleasant outcomes are less likely to be repeated” (Thorndike, 1911, Chapter 6 pg. 197). This explains why Ricky proceeds with most of the studies that have a positive impact, no matter how they turn out. Also in Operant conditioning, we have punishment, which is different from reinforcement, while negative or positive reinforcement always improves a behavior, punishment continuously decreases a behavior (chapter 6 pg. 198). Rick fails at some projects, but he still works a way out to develop, by applying positive punishment, which is to add an undesirable stimulus to decrease a behavior. He finds a way to add something different on his experiment to make the reaction he wants in the study to happen. Also, he might use negative punishment, where he removes an aversive stimulus to decrease behavior (chapter 6 pg. 198), and if the experiment is still failing, he’ll eliminate factors that may be hindering the needed behavior. These two factors both happen to get a successful end product.
Rick has a fantastic memory. He gives all kinds of information that fit different situations. His memory serves him well, because it gives him the ability to remember all types of information in in-depth details. Encoding is the way we get information into our brains, and in this way, the mind labels the information we get from the environment (chapter 8 pg. 254). Rick Sanchez receives his information of science from his constant visits to space and all the experiments he has undertaken; his mind encodes all this information. He also seems to possess “automatic processing,” which is usually done without any conscious awareness, most often he is seen speaking without any effort or strain, making his memory the opposite of effortful processing, which requires a lot of work and attention to remember information (chapter 8 pg. 254).
In short memory, incoming sensory memory is proceeded in the temporary storage system (chapter 8 pg. 257). Rick is a 60-year old man, who naturally has a short-term memory in the case of fresh information. Despite the ability to automatically respond to information, he has issues with trying to retain recent information. There is a way to maintain information through rehearsal (chapter 8 pg. 257), which is the repetition of information to be remembered. Rick is persistent on new information, trying his hardest to retain it so it may be stored in the long-term memory storage place. Rick can manage information in his mind, information about dates and number and stuff like that, being that as a scientist he is required to have all this information in mind. This is called chunking. He keeps a record of configurations and calculations to help with his work, as a scientist and space explorer.
Intelligence is the ability to take in and apply knowledge and skills, and is categorized into two kinds, crystallized intelligence, which is the knowledge acquired and the ability to be retrieved. This is evident in all humans and Rick also could acquire and retrieve the information in all situations. He also possesses fluid intelligence (chapter 7 pg. 233), the ability to “see complex relationships and solve problems,” more than once Rick is seen involved in situations that require a problem-solving mindset, and evidently, he comes through a countless number of times. Problem-solving is the plan of action used to find a solution (chapter 7 pg. 227). Rick practiced various forms of problem-solving in his experimental tasks, like, trial and error (chapter 7 pg. 227), which says that if you do not succeed the first time just keep trying again and again. He for sure sometimes failed in his experiments, but he is always seen doing it only once more, till he eventually got it right by either applying, reinforcement or punishment (chapter 6). Ricky possessed two forms of intelligence described by Robert Sternberg; “the triarchic theory describes three distinct types of intelligence that a person can possess. Sternberg calls these two types creative intelligence and analytical intelligence.” In the life of Ricky, analytical and creative intelligence described by Sternberg, work together regarding all his scientific projects. Creative intelligence involves working over board to come up with ideas that are interesting, and being a scientist Rick is encouraged by himself to be inventive and think out of the box, which is a trait that does well to describe his intelligence as a psychological character. Rick has a grandson named Morty, whom the Flynn effect best describes when Rick tells him of his crazy ideas, because the “Flynn effect is the observation that each generation has a significantly higher IQ, than the previous one” (chapter 7 pg. 247).
Stress, is when an individual perceives and responds to events that he sees as overwhelming or threatening to his/her wellbeing. Rick Sanchez is in this state more often than he should, both in stress and threatened. For one he doesn’t tolerate to the lack of knowledge the people around him possess which gives him stress and then he is overwhelmed by the genius mind that he possesses which overwhelms him with praise. He faces a lot of conflict as he journeys through space and in his experimental ventures, conflict elicits stress, it is a defense mechanism. In this case, he is faced with the option of either fight or flight. The reaction to stressful situations as stated by Harvard psychologist Walter Canon (chapter 14 pg. 494). He describes this as a tendency in any human to either run for safety or stay and fight, in which Rick is not one to run nor stay. His intelligence knows when and how to react to different situations; he will at times remain and tackle the issue head-on, or he will feel powerless and opt for fleeing.
Finally, Rick has a way of exuding confidence by the way in which he controls his body. Being an old man it is kind of hard to act strong when pretty frail, but he does it in a way that induces fear and respect on anybody watching. Though Rick is an outstanding personality, he is old which means that his stress levels affect his immune system. Rick is a thin old man and all the madness he is involved in physically affect his immune system. Rick Sanchez, is a bold character, exuding all manner of strange and unique traits. A fitting case study for my psychological character analysis.