Emotional Psychology In The Pixar Film 'Inside Out'

The Pixar film, Inside Out begins with a girl named Riley. She grows up in a small town in Minnesota and then has to move to the city of San Francisco. The viewers follow Riley’s journey in her head. Throughout the movie, we see the changes in Riley’s mind through the actions of the emotions and events that occur. Inside Out is a film that accurately depicts many aspects of psychology. One of which is developmental psychology. Secondly, the film also illustrates the conversion from short term to long term memory. The film also demonstrates a hypothesis on the conversion from short term memory to long term memory, as well as giving the audience an understanding of what depression is. Finally, it presents the stress and depression that can occur in children from major life events, such as moving long distances, and maybe even a bit of an example as to what a parent can do to relieve stress from major life events for their child.
However, emotions are narrowed down to seven primary emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, fear, contempt, and surprise. All of these emotions are universal and are expressed similarly around the world. Five out of the seven emotions are expressed during the film. We come to know joy (happiness), sadness, anger, disgust, and fear. Each emotion is assigned a color. Joy is yellow, Sadness is blue, Anger is red, Fear is purple, and Disgust is green. Using bright colors like these are more likely to catch the attention of viewers because of the relationship between the colors and the emotions. To put it simply, Inside Out is so much more than just a cleverly put together “children’s”