Veronica+Mars

= Veronica Mars =

Biography
//“You know what they say… Veronica Mars, she’s a marshmallow.”//

Veronica Mars is a fictional character played by Kristen Bell on the late hit TV series, //Veronica Mars//. At the start of the show she is a 17-year-old high school student attending Neptune High in her hometown of Neptune, California. In the pilot episode, Veronica is revealed to be a jaded, sarcastic young woman with no friends and little respect from and for those around her. Details of her life are slowly revealed over the course of the season, as to illustrate how she has gotten to where she is.

The year preceding the start of the show, Veronica had been a very popular girl living out the dream of every teenager. She had friends, a loving boyfriend, and her father, Keith Mars, was the Sheriff of the local police. Veronica was well-liked and respected by many of her peers – she was, essentially, the girl everyone wanted to be friends with. However, this all came crashing down when her best friend (and the sister of her boyfriend), Lily Kane, was murdered. Keith, suspicious of the circumstances surrounding the murder, accused Lily’s father of the crime. Unfortunately, the Kane family is not only one of the richest and most powerful families of Neptune, but also mostly responsible for the rest of the town’s wealth as well. Neptune turned on Veronica and her family, and her father was voted out of office. Overnight, the Mars family went from being respected and well-liked to the town exiles. Keith decided to stay in the town as a Private Investigator, steadfastly holding to his belief that there was more to Lily Kane’s murder than meets the eye. Lianne Mars, Veronica’s mother, could not stand the sudden ostracism so she abandoned her family and fled town. Eventually, another man was charged with Lily’s murder and Veronica and her father returned to their lives as social pariahs.

At school, Veronica is, at best, ignored, and at worst ridiculed. Her former friends, including her boyfriend, have all turned on her. She eventually makes one friend, Wallace, who becomes the rock in her social circle. Convinced that something went wrong with Lily’s murder case, Veronica dedicates herself to the discovery of the truth.

In terms of personality, Veronica is a very independent, closed off individual. She has one friend, Wallace, who she occasionally has conflict with because she regularly forgets to consider his feelings or opinions. She keeps people generally at a distance – she asks for favors, but rarely (if ever shares) personal information or carries out casual conversation. From the Behavioral Psychological Perspective, one would argue that Veronica has been classically conditioned to be aversive to people – “Sooner or later, the people you love let you down,” (Thomas, 2004).

At one point in time, Veronica was a very popular, well-liked individual in high school. She was part of the clique at the top of the social ladder, even though she came from a different economic standing. Social interactions were neutral stimuli that came to be associated as enjoyable occurrences, i.e. met with positive, conditioned responses. She came to school every day and saw her boyfriend, hung out with friends; enjoyed lunch. These were all unconditioned stimuli that were met, in turn, with the unconditioned response of feeling good and being well-received. Over time, Veronica came to see social interaction and high school as a positive thing in and of itself, due to its frequent pairing with the response of happiness.

Life, however, is a dynamic process. In a constantly changing and evolving environment, conditioning can be overwritten or countered by more powerful stimuli and responses. Veronica’s best friend was murdered and she and her father suddenly become despised by the majority of Neptune. In turn, Veronica’s experiences with social interaction changes. After Lily’s dead, she attempts to strike up a conversation with Duncan, her boyfriend, but he ignores her. This stimulus – interacting with other people – is usually something seen as positive for Veronica. Suddenly it is paired with a negative response and painful rejection. The neutral stimulus of social interaction begins to be paired with negative responses, thus laying the foundation for a conditioning of aversion to people.

Immediately after her abrupt exile from the social stratosphere, Veronica decides to go a party – “ I went to Shelly Palmroy’s party to show everyone that their whispers and backstabbing didn’t affect me. It was a mistake,” (Thomas, 2004). Although her initial alienation was a negative experience, her positive social conditioning has not yet become extinct. In her mind, she still pairs the stimulus of social interaction with a positive response, despite it previously being paired with alienation and degradation. Veronica attends the party, whereupon the formerly conditioned stimulus of social interaction becomes paired with another, even more powerful negative response, i.e. anger and hatred from her peers. Her former friends react to her with disinterest and disgust. The pairing of negativity with social interaction truly becomes solidified not only because of the reception she receives, but also because she is raped. At the party, her drink is spiked with Rohipnol and she wakes up the next morning in a stranger’s bed. This is the second time in a few days that social interaction has been paired with negative feelings or something traumatic. For Veronica, she has been counter-conditioned to believe the opposite of what she formerly held in esteem: that people //cannot// be trusted, that social interaction leads to //terrible// results, and that she cannot rely on //anyone// but herself. This conditioning is further reaffirmed when she attempts to report her rape. The newly-elected Sheriff tells her to “go see the Wizard; ask for a little backbone,” (Thomas, 2004).

Over the course of the series, Veronica – to some extent – goes through the process of Systematic Desensitization. Although it is unlikely that you could classify her aversion to society as an actual, fully developed phobia; a psychologist could suggest that her extreme disinterest in social interaction is significant enough that it radically affects the way she lives her life. Veronica generally talks to people on when she has to – either because a teacher has called on her, or become a student wants her to investigate something for them. Impromptu socializing, at first, is regarded with suspicion and distrust. However, Veronica makes one friend, Wallace, and through this relationship, she slowly becomes somewhat desensitized to her discomfort. Wallace forces Veronica to interact socially on a daily basis over time, providing a means for her to slowly dissociate from her aversive response.

Over the course of the first and second season, Veronica becomes more open and social. She goes on dates, makes another friend, Mac, and stops facing social interaction with //only// cynicism and distaste. It cannot be said that she is completely cured – a Behavioral Psychologist would make the argument that she had been conditioned to this phobia—to this aversion orientation, and so it would take significant counter-conditioning to reverse the entire process. Little by little, however, she makes progress.

The cognitive approach of psychology measures specific cognitive styles individuals employ to interact with and perceive their environment. Cognitive styles are defined as a person’s distinctive and enduring way of dealing with day to day tasks and problem-solving. There are two possible cognitive styles – field dependent and field independent. With a field dependent cognitive style, the individual is influenced heavily by their surrounding field – i.e. the salient contextual factors pertinent to the particular problem. Alternatively, a field independent person is //not// influenced by these contextual factors. They are much likelier to draw upon internal, self-oriented processes to solve a problem.

In this particular case, Veronica Mars is a very unique case. Before the show starts, she was a very different person. The argument could then be made that she had been a field //dependent// person, who after significant trauma, became much more field independent. In the discussion of cognitive styles, it is not mentioned whether not a particular style is permanent, but it seems like that change is possible – especially after significant trauma. Veronica, pre-show, originally seemed to be much more socially oriented, more affected by criticism, and perceived on a much more global basis. Although a great deal of Veronica’s original personality is not seen, she seemed to be much more holistic and intuitive. She seemed to need externally defined goals – that is, she didn’t draw on some internal motivation driving her towards an end goal. However, after being ostracized and raped, Veronica undergoes a radical change and in doing so seems to change how she reacts to environment.

At the start of the show, Veronica is an intelligent, crime-solving sleuth who must rely heavily on external observations. In solving problems, she must interpret cues from her environment without being readily influenced by them. After her drastic transformation, Veronica seems become a much more field independent person. She is analytical and impersonal. Motivated by solving her best friend’s murder case, she is driven to a very specific end goal – she does not need or even want others to define what she should be doing. She requires no reinforcement, and at times, seems to thrive perfectly well without it. She is indifferent to the criticism of others, perhaps partially because she experiences it so often. Furthermore, in every episode, Veronica sets out to solve a new case or unravel a key aspect of Lily’s murder. In each one, she uses a clear hypothesis-testing approach to come to conclusions. She formulates an idea about what has happened or what //could// be possible, researches this thought, and then at the end, comes to a decision as to whether her original theory was correct or incorrect. All of these traits and methods that Veronica develops are clear examples of a field independent cognitive process.

Someone might call Veronica distant and difficult, at times socially indifferent and at others insensitive. However, that would only be assessing the observable traits on the surface of her personality, and not taking into account the bigger picture. Due to her alienation at school and the abandonment/betrayal by the people she cares about, Veronica has learned to be suspicious of social interactions and the so-called “people you care about.” She has learned to depend solely on herself, because she believes that is the one thing she can continually count on. Tying into this, she has developed problem-solving mechanisms that are independent of social and interpersonal contexts, much unlike a field-dependent person. As a whole, it can be said that Veronica undergoes a significant change in a social construct: from receptive, easily influenced, and positive; to slightly jaded, at times negative, and independent.