Bryan Janier A56

Gerald Blasa Penaranda Oct 14, 2013

Captain Whip Whitaker possesses the following characteristics; can see humor in situations, even under stress, can think clearly and logically under pressure, appreciate challenges and can handle uncertainty, optimistic, and believe that things happen for a reason. During the severe air turbulence, Captain Whip still managed to crack a few jokes to his co-pilot, Ken Evans. In addition, Captain Whip can also think clearly and logically under pressure, this is evident in his excellent maneuver of the broken plane, managing to crash land it at a place away from densely populated area as well as inverting the plane which allowed the plane to level off and hence, prevent a vertical nosedive of the plane. Besides that, he also appreciates challenges and can handle uncertainty, as evident again during his control of the aircraft during the incident as well as managing somewhat keep calm and give proper orders to his co-pilot and the stewardess to prevent the death of everyone onboard. He is also optimistic because he did not break down or panic during the severe turbulence that they went through. Last but not the least, he somewhat believed that things happen for a reason, as evident when he first met Nicole in the hospital. Some of Captain Whitakers coping skills were adaptive and some were maladaptive. His adaptive coping skills would be discussed first. One of his few adaptive coping skills is that he is able to be calm and solve a problem under extreme stress and pressure while others may have just panicked and broke down. In addition, he was a very decisive in giving orders, not thinking twice, this is one of his attributes that allowed him to land the plane properly. However, his maladaptive coping skills is the consumption of alcohol, drugs and smoking. This lead him to emotionally hurt the few people who are close to him, such as Nicole and his friend Charlie Anderson. Alcoholism may have clouded Captain Whips judgment in certain situation s. Another maladaptive practice of Captain Whip was denial, he denies that he has a problem with

alcoholism and drugs while it was shown in the movie that he would go as far as drink liquor before speaking with his lawyer, Hugh. In my opinion, Captain Whitakers maladaptive coping skills stems from external factors such as the stressful experience he went through when he had a bitter divorce with his wife. A good evidence of this is when he was staying in his dads farm, Captain Whitaker was watching videos of him and his son spending time together and bonding. While watching this, he seemed very depressed and he was also drinking a substantial amount of alcohol at the same time. Alcoholism for him may be a way of numbing the pain that he went through during his separation from his wife and son. Despite being a sci-fi movie type of person, I found the movie to be an eyeopener since Ive had friends who were alcoholics but thankfully managed to get through that challenge and now live healthy lives. I was ha ppy with Captain Whitakers decision to tell the truth since it shows that finally, he is starting to accept that he indeed has a problem with alcohol. It also shows that being honest and moral to him was more important than being a free man. The factors that may have lead to his decision is that he was starting to see that his alcoholism is the cause of his divorce from his wife, it was also the cause of Nicole leaving him as well as putting his friendship with Charlie in jeopardy. My pattern of coping under stress is to just keep focusing on the task at hand and be optimistic. My adaptive coping styles are being hard-working, that is, I try my best not to procrastinate on my academics, especially for major subjects. When things are not going well, I also try to keep myself optimistic so that I would work harder to achieve my goals. My maladaptive coping skills are eating in order to procrastinate as well as spending too much time with my friends. In the future, I will improve my resiliency by practicing a healthy lifestyle such as eating healthy food and avoiding alcohol or smoking. In addition, I would also surround myself with good people so that I can learn good things from them and be a better person myself. I would also make a schedule in which my academics and social life would be balanced so that I will be a happier person and experience the best of both worlds.