All I had heard raves. everyone considered it great work. They said, despite it being marketed for kids, you will not be able to hold back the tears. My expectations for Inside Out were very high. The movie is relatable, funny, and endearing. It held such a unique perspective on how the works works according to our emotions. Sometimes we don’t give a second thought as to why we think, say and do what we do. Set in a pre-teenaged girl’s mind, we see many of the struggles that she endures due to moving across the country. As someone who has taken a couple of courses on psychology, it was very interesting and easy to follow along the way that the film explained how memories are processed, and their trip from short-term memory into long-term memory.

When Riley loses all emotion, and feels nothing at all, I got the feeling that she was feeling depression. And this made me stop and reflect on what depression really is. Often times we think that it is a prolonged state of profound sadness, but it is actually just the opposite. It is when it hurts so much to feel, that the mind just chooses not to feel at all. Everything loses its luster, and there is no longer any incentive. When moviegoers watch this film, it can truly open their eyes to what it feels like to have depression, albeit a large majority of the population already knows. However, this film is so commendable for demonstrating that even children can experience depression. The idea that we are not alone and that we are all susceptible to the claws of depression make Inside Out a must see.

Last Saturday, I attended The Science Behind Inside Out event. I had seen the movie once before, but I was excited to see it again. Prior to ever watching the movie, I had heard all the buzz on how psychology was implemented. This was very clear to me once I saw the different personalities of the characters, each representing some of the core human emotions. Upon watching the movie the second time and in the context of the science focus, I was able to pick up on a lot more details that I had missed the first time. In a way, I was primed having read the suggested NY Times opinion article (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/05/opinion/sunday/the-science-of-inside-out.html), but I was also able to utilize my Human Development background.

Majoring in Human Development, and having taken Infancy and Childhood with House Fellow and Associate Professor Tamar Kushnir in my freshman year, I was really interested to hear her perspective on the movie. Her area of expertise is on early childhood cognition. Through the discussion after the movie, I was reminded of how little is known about emotion and that researchers are looking into brain scans as a way to uncover more. I think that it is fascinating that from the moment we are born, we are able to express our innate emotions. Over time, we develop our awareness and acknowledgement of our emotions, and through culture, this may be cultivated in different ways. Since we are largely made up of our parents’ personalities and reactivity mechanisms, our genetics and upbringing can influence how and which emotions we express. Along the way, we gather our own experiences, as well, which contributes to how we formulate our own mechanisms.

Professor Kushnir made a very interesting statement about how our emotions often dictate our decision-making and logic. As an extremely emotional person, I would agree. For me, it is very difficult to separate head from heart. This past weekend, my grandmother passed away. It still has not sunken in yet. She lived an extremely long and happy life. No matter the trial or tribulation, she always bounced back, always put her family first – she was the strongest woman that I know. Towards the end of her life, she was very ill, though my family did not know. She was not in pain and her passing was very peaceful. Therefore, in my head, I know that she is now more comfortable and in a good place, but in my heart, it has been difficult to accept. For the past two decades of my life, my grandmother has been a constant presence in my life. She will continue to be. Just like in the movie, it has been a bittersweet moment. One of a mix of feelings. Everyone needs a constant combination of emotions in order to truly appreciate life and to be whole. To my Grandma, thank you for teaching me how to be sensitive and tough, tame and fiery, simple and complex. Thank you for always being there for me, for inspiring me to really feel and to be brave, for allowing me to love you and for loving me back.

Inside out is a movie of plenty of feels.

Besides the plot and interesting philosophies of psychology that the film dove into, the talk at the end with professor Tamara was very interesting. There is science present throughout Inside Out, an interesting matrix of different psychological ideas that were actually founded when Disney consulted with real psychologists. The film touched on much more than a simple coming-of-age story usually reveals; and the viewer leaves the movie thinking about the fact that he/she is also heavily influenced by emotions, and memories are colored and occasionally tainted by emotions.

Additionally, in the movie, the emotion boards of the parents were also introduced, with different emotions leading the HQ. For the mother, it was sadness; for the father, anger; and for the daughter (until the ambiguous end) joy.

My question to the reader would be: what is the head of your emotions? And in order, how much sway does each emotion have over you?

The first time I watched Inside Out, I perceived it very much as a children’s movie. Fun colors, exciting characters, a very heartbreaking climax, and a sweet ending–classic Disney. However after Dr. Kushnir, a Cornell faculty specializing in child cognition, led our discussion about the movie, I was in a bit of shock as to how realistic the plot actually might be. Disney portrays the story of an 11-year-old girl finding her way through a relatively traumatizing event. From start to end, it appears as though her emotions drive her behaviors. This is scientifically accurate (I asked): one cannot separate his/her actions from emotions, and this is something that children tend to do even more poorly than adults.

Ultimately by the end of the movie, the main character is able to find a balance in which she can hold some control over her emotions. She begins to the see the world in a more complex light; she finds a way to remember sad memories in a more positive light (and vice versa). In Positive Psychology, we also discussed the fact that positive emotions are significantly less clear-cut than negative emotions in that one can have the same facial reaction to feelings of joy, content, and happiness. However, the reactions associated with fear, anger, and disgust are all incredibly distinct from each other. For every one positive emotion, we have roughly 3-4 negative ones (another accurate fact–go Disney!), and negative emotions tend to narrow one’s mindset, while positive emotions broaden perspective. In states of depression, which may or may not have been intentionally depicted in the movie, the main character had a lot of difficulty broadening her mindset, perhaps due to the lack of joy in her emotional regulation center.

Of course I might be looking too far into the science of the movie, but it’s very interesting to think about! What still remains unclear though is what causes psychological illnesses, like depression: our brains are ultimately just soups of chemicals. What accounts for the incredible diversity in human behavior if we function on the same neurotransmitters?

Last Saturday I went to the Science Behind Inside Out event. I love pixar movies, so I went to see Inside Out when it came out over the summer and I was really impressed with the movie. So I jumped at the chance to see it again.

One of the things I liked so much about Inside Out was how much I could relate to Riley and the emotions she was experiencing. During our discussion of the science of the film, the topic of depression came up. Someone at the event said that they didn’t realize that Riley experiences depression in the film, but to me it was all too clear. I have moved several times in my life, once at the same age as Riley in the movie, and I had many of the same experiences and emotions as she does.

I was really interested to learn more about psychological development, and how at different ages children can begin to feel multiple emotions at once. I also was very intrigued by the discussion of cultural upbringing and its effect on emotions. I also didn’t know that people are genetically predisposed to depression and that its onset can be triggered by traumatic events.

All in all, it was fun to rewatch the movie, and I learned a lot about psychology as well.

I always think it’s pretty cool to go back and look at movies you loved with a more critical eye or even uncovering some hidden truth to your favorite childhood movies. I remember the time I realized that the Lion King was basically Hamlet my mind was completely blown.  Now Inside Out wasn’t a childhood movie but it is a movie I thoroughly enjoyed and even went to see in theaters.  I was astounded looking at the amazing visuals and the thought and care that went into every part of this incredible pixar film.  But there definitely were some key observations I missed the first time that came from our discussion about the science behind inside out.

Some interesting things to note are the way the characters inside each persons brain are portrayed.  Riley’s emotion and distinct and individual and display both genders but her parents emotions look just like her parents do physically.  There may be no significance to this or maybe Riley is still developing her gender identity or personality in general.  There’s no proof of significance but the science would make sense.

What I found most interesting was the fact that memories are associated with a certain emotion which can change over time.  There is definitely truth to the little memory orbs that are tinted the color of the emotion she’s feeling at the time it took place.

Regardless of what was meant by the creators, Inside Out is an incredibly detailed and reasonably accurate portrayal of the emotions and thoughts a young girl going through a tough time would experience.

The film Inside Out was such a touching one. I mean, granted, I’m always a fan of children’s movies, especially one by Pixar, but this one in particular topped the charts (for me, at least). To quickly summarize, the movie is about an eleven-year old girl from Minnesota who is forced to move across the country to San Francisco, start classes at a new school, play ice hockey for a new team, and try to adjust to her new life. All the while, inside her head, her five main emotions–Anger, Fear, Joy, Sadness, and Disgust–are trying desperately to keep things running smoothly. Besides the adorable, but tear-jerking, plot line and the annoying, but lovable, characters, the movie also contained clearcut lessons from the fields of psychology and human development.

As a psychology major, I tried watching the movie through the eyes of a “scientist”, which I think allowed me to more easily relate it to life itself. More than that, it prompted me to ask several questions about emotions (and understanding them), personality, culture, and depression in real life; it was this reliability aspect of the film that appealed to me the most. One question that I was particularly interested in getting an answer to was whether the difference child-rearing styles in distinct cultures have an effect on how those children eventually grow up to raise their own children. Professor Tamar Kushnir, a professor in the Human Development department who was watching the film with us, called this the “Immigrant Effect.” Not solely about emotional expression, this effect is an attempt to explain why certain people act the way that they do while living and interacting with others in one culture but while being raised by parents of another culture. This effect was especially relevant to me, and Professor Kushnir, both children of immigrants, and I felt that this movie did a great job of prompting those questions within us.

Besides my curiosity on that subject, I also considered the topic of depression, and mental illness as a whole, while watching this movie. Professor Kushnir actually posed a great question about this topic at the end of the movie: are people more genetically predisposed to fall victim to depression and certain life events (such as moving from Minnesota to California) are just triggers of this or are those life events the cause of depression or depression-like symptoms?

Even though I’ll admit I cried three times (at least) through the course of Inside Out, I thought it was an incredibly beautiful movie that touched on a lot of important areas of study, and I would recommend it to anyone, whether 6 years old or 20 or 45.