This is a modified version of my answers for my old high school psychology project, were students take an over-the-top fictional character and apply the basic principles of all types of psychology covered in class to them. I chose Papyrus for my character, and I thought I'd post my answers on the internet and decided DeviantArt was the best place to post them first. Oh also spoilers for Undertale. (P.S: I do not own any of the images shown, I just found them on google and put them here to help better explain points, all images are owned by their respective creators. If you wish to not have your art used in this essay, feel free to message me)
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The character being dissected is Papyrus. He is a magical skeleton monster from the indie video game "Undertale". He is a very optimistic, high self-esteemed, caring, friendly, emotional, and energetic guy. He often refers to himself in the third person as "The Great Papyrus". He loves puzzles, cooking spaghetti (which he is terrible at due to being taught by someone with little to no cooking expertise), and dreams of joining the royal guard, the king of monster's army. He is obsessed with joining the guard to the point of making his own "battle body" costume, all in order to gain tons of love and popularity from it. He is also a big human capturing fan due to his obsession of joining the royal guard, attempting to use puzzles to jape the player, aka the human Frisk. However, he is unable to commit to capturing them. Instead, he befriends them after battling them and tries to help Frisk become friends with the other monsters and solve puzzles they are stuck on. He also takes care of his lazy, care-free, pun-loving brother, Sans. He gets quite annoyed at his brother's puns and complaining about his laziness, though still loves him.
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Biological: From a biological perspective, psychologists might attribute Papyrus's energetic/emotional nature, high self-esteem, and high physical/magic strength to him possibly having much more magic in his soul than a normal monster. A monster's soul and body are mostly made of magic. Papyrus has highly advanced bone projectile patterns and being the only monster other than his brother able to use blue magic, a powerful soul technique that causes the player's soul to be affected by gravity, shown in his battle with the player. This all supports this theory. Undyne, the captain of the royal guard, further proves this, admitting that he is almost better than her when it comes to power and fighting technique. She only refuses to let him join the guard due to his friendly nature and unwillingness to kill. Instead, she tries to teach him cooking despite her inexperience and convinces him it's guard training. She does this to keep him from losing hope. This large amount of magical energy would explain why Papyrus seems to have a lot of energy, rarely ever sleeps, and his optimistic view on life, and, based on the evidence supporting this theory, this seems very likely to be the case.
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Evolutionary: Evolutionary psychologists would most likely say that Papyrus's high levels of energy and positive thoughts could be a result of his ancestors having similar traits. Such traits would carry over through the generations due to positive thoughts increasing mental health and high energy resulting in more productivity. The biggest evolutionary trait, however, would be Papyrus's obsession with puzzles. Puzzles are found all around the underground, where the monster species live, and is said to be the main form of entertainment and expression for monsters and their ancestors. Its even suggested it was this way since the monster species was conceived, and, as such, would explain why papyrus is so obsessed with them.
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Psychodynamic: Psychoanalytic people would explain Papyrus's behavior. This would be by pointing out Papyrus never had parents or, based on the widely accepted theory that his only parent was the mysterious doctor W.D Gaster, who fell into his own creation and was shattered across time and space, had parents for only a fraction of his childhood. He only had his brother for emotional support since he could remember and is shown to now be obsessed with joining the royal guard in order to be popular and loved. They would say that this means that Papyrus is unconsciously trying to make up for the lack of attention and love he needed as a child. This would be done by trying to gain popularity, fans, and friends through joining the guard. This would also explain Papyrus's willingness to give up his dreams of joining the guard to make friends with the human Frisk, despite trying to capture them, even trying to date them, as he, at this point, is desperate. Making friends with the human is simply a more immediate way to gain a friend.
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Behaviorism: The behavioral perspective would try to stop Papyrus's bad behavior of trying to capture humans. Since his main and only way of capturing them is with puzzles and traps, psychologists would try to make him despise those things. However, simple solutions such as shocking him every time he tried to make a puzzle/trap would not be effective. This is because he's been shocked before by his own trap with no discomfort and because a character like Papyrus would require a more creative approach. As such, the best solution would be to tamper with every trap and puzzle he makes. Specifically, whenever a puzzle is completed or a trap set off, an audio recording of Sans saying a bunch of puns relating to the puzzle/trap would play. Due to his hatred towards puns, this would eventually lead Papyrus to disliking puzzles. Papyrus would eventually discontinue his practice of trying to capture humans due to associating puzzles, his only method of capture, with the one thing he hates most: puns. This tactic would rid him of his bad behavior.
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Cognitive psychology: The cognitive approach would try to understand Papyrus's desire to join the guard. The psychologist would determine the source of this desire and try to persuade him to think that joining the royal guard is not the best/only option to gain friends. They would introduce Papyrus to other ways to gain his desired attention and care, such as talking to others, joining a club, finding friends through common interests, etc.
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Sociocultural: Papyrus is naturally very different from other monsters, being there are only two of his kind including him and having a very over the top personality. Because of this, social-culturists would rationalize that Papyrus is attempting to outweigh these odds. They would explain that Papyrus is trying really hard to fit in with the culture of monsters in order to gain acceptance and care. This is shown with his obsession with puzzles, desire to capture humans, and being very positive towards others. This is all behavior typical of all other monsters. This way, he can relate more to other monsters and gain more friends. This is already difficult for him due to his exaggerated personality and, as such, needs to make up in those areas. This would be by being more like other monsters in other areas, such as their culture.
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Humanism: Humanists would look at Papyrus and try to convince him that being obsessed with joining the royal guard isn't healthy. They would say this obsession is holding him back from his true potential and would try to show him other ways he can achieve success and friends. Such ways would include using his skills and passions to his advantage. This could include becoming a master chief (through training with ACTUAL chefs), a self defense trainer using his combat expertise, or a puzzle creator using his experience with puzzles. All of this would allow him to focus all his attention on one career or hobby. This would both help him reach his true potential and use those skills to make new friends along the way, which he so desperately desires. They could also try to convince Papyrus that being popular or joining the guard is not the only way to make friends. They could show him the many ways he could normally make friends, explain why its harder for him to make friends, and what he can do to make it easier to make said friends, such as listening more than talking or being less forceful in his approach of friendship.
