Creative Biography Lady Gaga
CM152 – Psychology, Media and Creativity
Chloe Rooney 18355073
1.WHAT did the individual do/produce that marked them out as creative?
Lady Gaga is considered a very unique celebrity with a great voice and one who has had an interesting taste in clothing. She was born in New York as Stefani Germanotta on March 28th, 1986. She showed huge amounts of musical talent from a young age and attended the Tisch School of Arts from the age of 17, and inevitably dropping out to pursue her music career.
She got her breakthrough in 2007 with the hit single “Just Dance”. Since then she has been a regular on the top charts and in the news. Gagas music and wardrobe have allowed her to fully express herself and has proven that it is not wrong to be different. Each of her performances have story to tell through every word and action she does in every show allowing for her fans to continue to fall in love with her.
Gaga has been redefining the modern artist as we know it.
2.WHAT individual psychological traits were important?
Psychodynamic traits can be used to best describe Lady Gaga as she has dreams of what she will wear to every performance. this unique method of choosing her dress code stems from her past; she was not used to standing out and never got any typical attention in her childhood. Gaga’s oppressed desire to speak out herself takes a part in her unconscious mind and her fear of being considered normal represses ordinary dreams while sleeping
Usually, dreams come before as disguised hallucinatory fulfilment of our repressed wishes. moreover, Freud asserted that dreams could date from early childhood. to sum up, her wishes became actual dreams, and its “manifest content” is transformed into each dress code.
Her outfit has never been the same because she can dream what she wants to be. Lady Gaga’s identity is the outcome of her passion and self-confidence.
Freud’s theories of the unconscious mind and personality can be used to explain the eccentric way in which Lady Gaga prepares herself for the world.
Behavioural traits can also be used to describe the actions of Lady Gaga. She has been known to love the attention in which she receives. The most outrageous outfit she wore was the meat dress at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards.
Skinner believed that all human behaviour could be explained in terms of the responses to environmental stimuli and people learn from the consequences of behaviour.
Ever since discovering the reactions she receives from her outrageous outlooks and behaviours, she has grown hooked on it and she is continuously changing her image to chock the crowd. This situation can be defined as positive reinforcement: the public keep reacting to her behaviours which is a positive stimulus to her, and the number of her behaviours increases. Because of this she keeps trying ridiculous clothing styles in order to maintain the reputation of her crazy style.
The practices of Burrhus Frederic Skinner on action-oriented approach to behaviour can be used as a prime source of understanding the behaviour of Lady Gaga. Although his testing was mostly on pigeons, rats and babies, he strongly believed that most actions are learned that can be unlearned and changed.
Humanistic psychology looks at behaviour not only through the eyes of the observer, but through the eyes of the person. Abraham Harold Maslow believed that we are all biologically driven to achieve self-actualisation.
He defined a Hierarchy of Human Needs that stated the lower needs must be met before an individual can strive to meet the higher needs. Lady Gaga’s life as a celebrity starts from the stage of Love and Affection. Her craving attentions lead her to be a singer who is frequently exposed to the public and therefore easy to gain spotlights. Becoming this famous celebrity brought her into the stages of Esteem and Self-actualisation. Gaga always wanted to grow as an artist and has attempted to include a wide range of music styles from hard pop such as ‘Just Dance’ to love songs like Alejandro. It is her own free will that she demonstrates how she describes her feeling in every song. Through the various attempts regarding her music style and success of being unique, she naturally feels important and worthwhile including respect, approval, and appreciation.
Erik Erikson is considered one of the most influential psychologists, second only to Freud. He believed that personality develops in a series of developmental phases like Freud, except for describing the impact of social experience and approval across the entire lifespan.
In one of her interviews, Lady Gaga confessed that she would hide in her closet in childhood when she was afraid of something. So, it seems that she still feels comfortable in small and enclosed spaces according to her performance that she was in a shell.
This behaviour of self-isolation can be interpreted as the unsuccessful completion of the psychosocial development. When we look at the stage of Trust vs Mistrust, infants are utterly dependent so that the development of trust is based on the quality of the caregivers. It is possible that there might have been problems in Gaga’s early infancy, especially with her parents. It resulted in insecurities and it still affects her personality of mistrust in the world around her.
It is possible to use a neurological approach in order to understand Lady Gaga’s actions. When we understand what is happening in the brain, it can become the first step to having the power to make choices. Knowing how the brain works means that we can also understand how to respond to emotions.
Since being sexually assaulted at the age of 19, Gaga has been suffering from PTSD and chronic pain. This mental disorder is a physiological response from the brain when it assumes there is danger. After encountering a serious incident which can affect one’s entire life. Usually, it is extremely instinctive, automatic, and powerful so that anxiety sometimes becomes a safer way to protect oneself. However, this is not the case for Lady Gaga. If the build-up of anxiety exceeds a certain amount, it changes into physical pains such as breathlessness, heartache, dizziness and bipolar disorder.
Gaga bravely announced her pain to the world in an attempt to inform the world of the danger of psychological disorders. For instance, she performed “Til It Happens to You” which was written for a documentary about sexual assault entitles ‘The Hunting Ground’. Her pain can be clearly seen within the documentary ‘Gaga: Five Foot Two’.
3.HOW did they arrive (achieve recognition for creativity)?
[Include background, influences, obstacles overcome, jobs, life experiences ]
Gaga can be seen partaking in various controversial activities. One of these activities is the making and wearing of her iconic meat dress. This dress that Lady Gaga wore to the 2010 MTV’s video awards caused an uproar of reaction around the world. This was seen as Gaga seeking attention from the world, where it be positive or negative. After the event, Gaga explains that the meat dress was tied to her protest against the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and was a statement against the governmental restrictions placed on the rights of gay soldiers. The meat dress is just one play on her once iconic fashion sense and she always rose to stand out from the crowd and not blend in.
Lady Gagas Senate gay rights video was also considered controversial
4.WHO influenced, tutored/trained and perhaps most important recognised their creative talent?
5.WHY is this individual still recognised as creative?
6.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ghash, T. (2011). Viva La Ghash! [online] Laghash.blogspot.com. Available at: [Accessed 21 Aug. 2019].
Cherry, K. (2019). B. F. Skinner: The Life of Psychology’s Radical Behaviorist. [online] Verywell Mind. Available at: [Accessed 20 Mar. 2019].
Burgemeester, A. (n.d.). The Contribution of Abraham Maslow to Psychology. [online] Psychologized. Available at: [Accessed 20 Mar. 2019].
Mcleod, S. (2018). Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. [online] Simply Psychology. Available at: [Accessed 21 Apr. 2019].
Brainfacts.org. (2019). [online] Available at: [Accessed 17 Mar. 2019].
Wlassoff, V. (2015). How Does Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Change the Brain?. [online] Brainblogger.com. Available at: [Accessed 26 Mar. 2019].
Ackerman, S. (2013). Air Force Brochure Tells Sexual Assault Victims to ‘Submit’. [online] WIRED. Available at: [Accessed 26 Mar. 2019].