Emotions In Inside Out

Have you ever wondered why we as humans behave and interact with the world the way that we do? Well, to make it simple, emotions. Emotions are what drive the world of decision making in the human mind. The foundations of the actions we choose to carry out are in direct correlation with the way we feel about the current situations we have going on within our daily lives. The movie Inside Out is an animated film which explores the four concepts of psychology through the prepubescent life of a child named Riley, and the emotions that control her every thought and action. Inside Out is based around a young girl named Riley who is given the task to understand her emotions that arise while leaving her childhood home, and moving to a new city. Her …show more content…
Sensorimotor presents itself in Riley’s life by the age of two as she learns from her actions. An example of her learning from her actions is when Joy has her running around the house in playful glee, but Fear takes over when she gets to a lamp cord laying in her path. Riley’s fear of getting hurt makes her cautious as she steps over the cord before Joy has her taking off in her excitement once again. Riley puts her sensorimotor skills to work as she sees the possible danger of tripping over the cord. Fear helps her learn from previous experiences to be cautious while playing. As Riley ages and learns more, she quickly steps into the pre-operational stage of life and begins building her outlook on life with a growing …show more content…
After turning eleven, Riley and her family packed up their bags and moved from her childhood hometown in Minnesota to the big city of San Francisco. During the move Riley tries to imagine what her new home will be like, but comes up empty and disappointed when she sees it’s nothing like she imagined. As Riley begins a new stage in her life, she is able to see things in a more abstract manner. Her adolescent mind, being in mid transformation, is extremely manipulative. Due to this major change, Riley becomes rather confused and does not know what to feel about her new life. Without any real rational direction, her emotions begin to run haywire, eventually convincing her into to running away from home. Riley has now entered the Formal Operational stage in her life and she is lost beyond despair. She runs away to a bus station and before it is too late, Joy realizes what Riley needs. Joy embraces sadness because she realizes that Riley will never be able to appreciate the joy in her life without having experienced sadness to compare it to. The abstract thought process that Riley undergoes is, without Riley having sadness, she is unable to identify joy, and vice versa. Without having that opposite emotion to compare how she feels, that emotion of sadness is merely just a feeling she is unable to explain and identify with. Thus, leaving her feeling