Inside Out: Psych Film Analysis
Spencer Morphis // A-4
Concepts Presented
- Long Term Memory: Refers to the infinite capacity of information that your memory can store up to an entire lifetime.
- Flashbulb Memory: Very explicit, long lasting memories about a personal experience that can be trigged by a surprising or detrimental experience.
- Forgetting: Refers to the loss of information from an individuals memory.
- Belonging: The feeling of being accepted within a group of people or any situation.
- Universal Emotions: The 6 main emotions that we feel.
- Humanistic Theory of Motivation: How are we motivated? You'll find out below!
Universal Emotions: Joy, Anger, Sadness, Fear, Disgust ........................................AND SUPRISE...................................
Joy represents the leader of the emotions because their main goal is to keep Riley happy. Anger, Fear, and Disgust have smaller roles for Riley but they are still needed. Sadness seems to wander around all by herself and doesn't really fit in. Throughout the movie the emotions have to work together to get Riley to stay in San Fransisco and not run away. Sadness ends up being the one who saves the day, so in conclusion all of our emotions, whether they seem good or bad, play a role in making us who we are. That brings me to the last emotion of surprise that wasn't displayed by a character in Inside Out. Nobody thought that Sadness would be the emotion that make everything work out but it was. So looking at it through this, it created a sense of surprise within me and probably others who watched the film too.
What I've learned here relates to what I have learned in Psychology class through the Sociocultural Levels of Analysis. Principle 1 states "Humans are social animals and thus have the need to Belong." This is evident within Riley because she didn't fit in at her new school and wanted to 'belong' back in Minnesota where her heart was. Also, the emotion Sadness felt the need to belong throughout the film and eventually reached that feeling.
Long Term Memory
In the film, Long Term Memory plays a big role because Joy and Sadness have to travel through it to find their way back to headquarters. The long term memories are kept in little round glass balls and stored like a maze throughout Riley's memory. They begin as short term memories that are kept in headquarters, but when Riley closes here eyes and goes to sleep, those memories are sent to long term memory. “That's Long Term Memory. You could get lost in there!” This is a quote from Sadness when she and Joy were traveling back to headquarters.
Long Term Memory is a very important quality. It allows you to store and recall information from years past and access them. Although our long term memory is amazingly vast, it can actually decay over a long period of time. In the film, The long term memory is filled with so many little balls of memories. This is a very good representation of our own memories. We have so many memories beginning as little kids all the way up to today. Our long term memory builds up everyday just like Riley's did when she went to sleep at night.
Flashbulb Memory
In Inside Out, Riley had a set of around 10 specific core memories that made up who she was. Her core memories glowed much brighter than regular memories. They stayed up in headquarters in a round container because they were very important. Those memories were her most special memories, that she could recall at any given moment. One was when Riley scored her first goal in Hockey with her mom and dad, and another being the time Riley and her best friend Meg are playing together in their young years. These memories that Riley has made were very vivid in her mind and when she needed some Joy in her life, she would recall one of these core memories to make her happy.
Forgetting
According to The Human Memory, forgetting happens when formerly strengthened synaptic connections between neurons in the network become very weak. This also can occur when a new network is activated and takes over a for an old one. So, in conclusion Inside Out showed a quality representation of how forgetting actually occurs in the brain.
Belonging
Humanistic Theory of Motivation
Refrences
- Cherry, K. (2015, December 17). 6 Key Theories of Motivation. Retrieved January 8, 2016, from http://psychology.about.com/od/psychologytopics/tp/theories-of-motivation.htm
- Core Memory Orbs. (n.d.). Retrieved January 8, 2016, from http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Core_Memory_Orbs
- Hall, K. (2014, March 24). Create A Sense of Belonging. Retrieved January 8, 2016, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/pieces-mind/201403/create-sense-belonging
- IB Guides: IB Psychology Notes. (n.d.). Retrieved January 8, 2016, from http://ibguides.com/psychology/notes/outline-principles-that-define-the-sociocultural-level-of-analysis
- Long-Term Memory - Types of Memory - The Human Memory. (n.d.). Retrieved January 8, 2016, from http://www.human-memory.net/types_long.html
- Long Term Memory. (n.d.). Retrieved January 8, 2016, from http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Long_Term_Memory
- Moore, K. (2015, June 26). 5 Difficult Concepts Made Easier by Disney's "Inside Out" Retrieved January 8, 2016, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/your-musical-self/201506/5-difficult-concepts-made-easier-disneys-inside-out
- Porter, B. (2015, June 27). Inside Out’s Take on the Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Perspective. Retrieved January 8, 2016, from http://www.blakeporterneuro.com/inside-outs-take-on-the-brain-a-neuroscientists-perspective/