An Analysis of the Psychological Ideas and Concepts in the Movie

This film did not only entertain audiences, rather, whether they knew it or not, educated them on many Psychological ideas and concepts. I personally started to notice some of the mentioned ideas, especially since emotions describe each character within. These basic principles may appear miniscule to adults; however, these are children aged movies.

Therefore, for younger audiences, these emotions can help them express themselves. Parents can use such devices to help children describe moods such as sad or happy, it is understood that certainly more emotions arise in life. By teaching children about Psychology, they can better understand themselves and their thinking patterns alike. This short film also encouraged me to also learn more about the applied Psychological concepts. Through such analyzations, I have concluded that emotions are somewhat dependent on others around us. One aspect this movie that related to Erik Erikson’s stages of Social-Emotional development.

This is shown through emotional development within the film. This acted as the key plotline of the movie. In the beginning, it is taught that only one emotion can be felt at any given time. However, malfunction towards the end enable many different emotions to strike the character at any given time. To me this showcased the reality of life. When one is young, like the intended audience, their emotions are yet to be complicated. However, once adulthood (the future) unfolds, many stressful and confusing feelings can overwhelm one simultaneously. Just as Erikson showed through his stages, emotions are a staged process in life. Children must understand themselves emotionally whenever possible (Moore,2015).

The next Psychological concept of the formation and process of memories. Although, certainly simplified significantly, this movie discovered a great mechanism to teaching children about such ideas. It described ideas of long and short-term memory. Which is generally not common in Disney movies. We literally learn that shortly after awakening from sleep, are long term memories are already disconsolate. Also, this movie showed ideas that memories can negatively affect one’s life. Even after sadness touched a memory with joy, it remained sad. A lot of useful information was touched upon by these themes throughout the Disney film (Moore,2015).

The last idea I would like to explain was how the information somewhat contradictive to emerging ideas in Psychology. According to Baines: “Inside Out suggests that a child’s experiences are defined by whichever emotion is strongest and that a child’s overall personality has an emotional driver. For the first half of the film, Riley is a happy child because Joy is the captain. Puschak warns that this model stands in direct opposition to many key insights of psychoanalysis which suggest that emotions can be transferred, transformed, or distorted expressions of unconscious ideas or repressed experiences (Baines, 2015).

Although children cannot comprehend such details yet, adults can reflect on their own experiences and ideas of such topics. This movie was exciting to watch and helped enforced many Psychological principles and discussions to arise. These three examples are not the only ones provided within the movie, however, the ones that surfaced to me first. Initially, I was not aware that I was even thinking about such ideas, although it is highly inevitable. Personally, I feel better equipped to understanding how emotions and cognition work after watching this. We should take care of our minds just as much, if not more than our physical bodies.