Shawn+Spencer

= Shawn Spencer =

Michael Wan
=Biography=

[[image:http://www.bscreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/psych.jpg align="right" caption="Shawn Spencer (left) and his best friend/partner Burton "Gus" Guster (right)"]]
The catch is he is not actually "psychic" but he poses as one by taking advantage of his photographic memory and extraordinary powers of observation and deduction. With the help of his best friend/partner Burton "Gus" Guster and his father; he is able to deceive everyone he works with into believing he truly is psychic with his eccentric behavior and outrageous claims.
 * Shawn Spencer** is a private psychic detective who frequently collaborates with the Santa Barbara Police Department.

Born in 1977, Shawn comes from a family of police officers. His parents separated in 1992, and later divorced; not due to their relationship but his mother, Madeline left to pursue a job opportunity in psychology. = =

His father, Henry Spencer, educated Shawn in detective work starting as early as age 7, training him in skills of deduction and observation. Shawn's relationship with his father is often complicated and highly strained. Often it seems that Henry is intentionally aggravating or imposing his will on his grown son, but it is usually revealed that his motives are genuine. As an example, Henry tipped off the meter maid to ticket Shawn's motorcycle which is parked too close to a fire hydrant outside his apartment. The motorcycle was impounded as a result which was Henry's ultimate goal because Shawn was knocked off the road by a car and injured previously. Still, Shawn and his father care deeply for each other even if they don't outright say it. When Shawn turned 15, he took the detectives exam when he achieved a perfect score of 100. = =

Despite his obvious talent, Shawn has no interest in entering the police force, and after graduating from Leland Bosseigh High School in Santa Barbara, California in 1995, he decides not to go to college and work at multiple random jobs; not for money but for his own enjoyment. In his spare time, he entertains himself by calling in tips to the police hot line based on observations he has made on crime scenes shown in television news footage. On his way to collect his reward, the Santa Barbara police become suspicious of Shawn; the information he provided is so good that they believe it could only have come from an inside source. Desperate to avoid jail time, Shawn lies and claims that he is a psychic and that the information came to him in a psychic vision. The police were initially skeptical but were impressed when he uses his "psychic" abilities to deduce that police officer Buzz McNab was getting married, the secretary was haunted by her dead grandmother, Head Detective Carlton "Lassie" Lassiter was in a sexual relationship with his current partner, and solved a vandalism case in a matter of minutes.

As a result, the Chief of Police Karen Vick hires Shawn to help in a difficult case which would either result in receiving praise for solving the case or jail time for tricking the police. Shawn recruits his best friend Gus for help where at first he was hesitant to help out at first but goes along with Shawn's antics. They solve the case and form a partnership, opening up a private psychic detective agency appropriately named "Psych".

Ever since forming "Psych", Chief Vick hires Shawn and Gus to frequently work with the department as consultants. The two usually collaborate with Head Detective Lassiter, who still remains skeptical of his psychic abilities and finds him as a nuisance, and Lassiter's new partner, Detective Juliet O'hara, who at first was skeptical of Shawn's abilities but eventually warmed up to him. Shawn's relationship with Juliet has grown even more complex over time as it began as co-workers and now borderlines between close friends trying to understand their mutual attraction to each other. =Behaviorist Perspective= = = = = Shawn wasn't born observant or deductive but he was trained by his father since he was a little kid. Henry set up exercises and intensive training for his son so that his skills became second nature. One of the exercises his father would train him in is to remember every person in a diner with a hat on and what kind of hat they where wearing, without looking around. Shawn wanted to eat cake at the diner but until he was able to tell his father the types and colors of the hats correctly, he wouldn't get his cake. As Shawn grew older, he became able to notice and remember things without any trouble. Henry used classical conditioning to train Shawn until he eventually was able to notice things without thinking about it.

Another example is when Shawn was a child, he wanted a puppy. But before his father bought him a dog, he had to built a doghouse first. Shawn did build a doghouse but it was poorly made and had no effort put into it. While Shawn believed he did a nice job, his father knew better. Since it was poorly made, Henry told Shawn to rebuild it but he never did. As a result, his father never bought a dog but instead lectured Shawn that he gives up too easily whenever work is involved. This is an example of operant conditioning: had Shawn completed finishing the dog house, he would have a dog and probably become more focused towards work.

Normally, if Shawn was yelled at by his father (Unconditioned Stimulus), he would give up and not try again (Unconditioned Response). In this case, building the doghouse was introduced as the Neutral Stimulus; when Shawn did a horrible job building it, his father punished him (Unconditioned Stimulus). And so the doghouse was never finished and Shawn gave up (Unconditioned Response). So, as the unfinished doghouse was left on the lawn (Conditioned Stimulus), Shawn wouldn't even bother working on it (Conditioned Response). Shawn did a poor job building the doghouse the first time and because of negative reinforcement through punishment, he gave up on building the doghouse and never gave it a second chance. =Biological Perspective= Shawn's ability to deduct and observe is a skill that was trained into him by his father. Though, his photographic memory is something he inherited, from his mother. The proper term, eidetic memory, is the ability to recall images, sounds, or objects in memory with extreme accuracy and in large volume. Shawn's mother has a eidetic tonal memory which means she is able to remember anything through sound. Shawn on the other hand is able to recall sounds, pictures and statements without much effort. This is an example of natural selection.

When Shawn was a small child, he would often be irresponsible, live by impulse, and jump first into trouble. He had to write a book report on "Charlotte's Web" where he had to give a reaction to the novel. Shawn did not read the book but instead only read the back cover where there was a summary of the novel. He guessed that the ending would involve Wilbur winning at the county fair and that he and Charlotte would live a happy ever after. His father, instead of correct him or scolding him for not reading the book, let Shawn write his report with the wrong ending. Needless to say, Shawn didn't get a good grade. Years later into his adult years, Shawn has not changed too much in behavior. As longitudinal studies suggest, a person's temperament remains stable as children grow up; later in the same episode, Shawn missed a specific piece of information on a case because instead of fully reading the case file he only read the short abstract and skimmed the report.

As Shawn's temperament remained constant over the years it is easy to judge him based on the four aspects of temperament. His level of physical activity ranges from mild to none; he would much rather watch TV or order for pizza than cook or do exercise. Shawn is very social and friendly, especially when it comes to women; the trick is getting him to shut up. Unless presented in a serious, "life is at stake" situation, Shawn is very aloof and doesn't really care too much about people's insults but he is quick to have a comeback to entertain himself. Lastly, Shawn is very impulsive; he is usually prone to take a case without consulting with his partner, Gus, or he gets involved with a police case even when he is not hired as a consultant.

According to Zuckermann's Theory, those high on sensation seeking have a low level of internal arousal so they are drawn to novel and exiting experiences. Shawn has taken on and solved a number of police cases; many of those cases usually resulted with his life on the line. Yet, he never does stop and he always involves Gus and himself in dangerous cases just for seeking the thrill and excitement. Shawn is never bother by insults and he finds ordinary life to be mundane (low level of arousal) so he constantly finds himself in dangerous situations; usually for the fun of it. What's more dangerous than finding killers and solving cases on a weekly basis? = = =Discussion= Shawn Spencer is a fairly simple character; he has the mentality and behavior of a child to make himself look better than others but when it comes down to it, he is a good guy who in the end is cleaning up the street of Santa Barbara one criminal at a time. While he does live for the moment, he always has his best friend, Gus, to back him up. His relationship with his father is questionable; they look out for each other but they constantly butt heads. His father is a constant source of tension in his life but he keeps Shawn grounded in reality; his father is also responsible for shaping up the majority of Shawn's behavior.

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Throughout Shawn's childhood and development he was constantly tested and trained by his father who had expected Shawn to follow in his footsteps and become a cop. He trained Shawn to be able to recognize and remember any detail usually offering the reward of not being punished; a bit of a twist on classical conditioning. As mentioned above, he was also taught skills and practices like not giving up building the doghouse. These examples of the Behaviorist Perspective both began with Shawn's early development and eventually became natural to him.

Based on the Biological Perspective, Shawn inherited his talent for memorizing from his mother. While they never mentioned how either his mother or father behaved when they were younger, it is impossible to determine if his behavior is more biological or behavior he picked up from his childhood. Regardless, Shawn is the type of person to live for the moment instead of thinking about the long-run; he is impulsive, fun-loving, lazy and sociable. He has been like that ever since he was a little kid and his temperament has not changed too much in his adult years. Lastly, based on Zuckermann's Theory, Shawn is easily bored and a thrill seeker because he is drawn to murder cases seeking the excitement in catching the criminal while acting like a "psychic" at the same time; if there is one word to define Shawn it would be "fun".

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