Psychology And Emotional Psychology In Pixar's Inside Out

At first glance, Pixar’s Inside Out seems to be your standard coming of age film. The film follows an 11-year-old girl, Riley who is forced to make a move from Minnesota to San Francisco with her parents. However, a deeper look at the film reveals how accurate it is to developmental psychology. The center of the story isn’t Riley and her family, but Riley’s primary emotions –Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust. The five emotions are personified as characters that control her mind as she transitions from childhood to adolescence and deals with the challenge of adjusting to a new place. Inside Out uses Riley and her emotions function as a demonstration of the relationship between emotion and cognition. In doing so, the film reveals several important questions about developmental psychology. Such as, how do emotions color our memories of the past and what is

As time goes on, more emotions are added and the control panel becomes increasingly complex. This demonstrates emotional development over time moving from childhood into adolescence. A great example of the exchange between cognition and emotion are Riley’s memory balls. Each memory ball has a central emotion that is felt in the memory. Riley has a set of core memory balls which shape the way Riley thinks and feels about the world. Joy prides herself in the belief that all of Riley’s core memories are shaped by joy. Joy is the leader of Riley’s team of emotions and allows most of the team to serve their function. Joy is in control of keeping Riley happy, fear and disgust keep her from making unsafe decisions such as ingesting poison while anger protects her from others and gives her an incentive to be a better hockey player. Inside Out disproves the common assumption that emotions disrupt our thought rather than organizing them. Emotions shape our perceptions of our environment, memories, and