Inside Out: Movie Analysis

Inside Out is a children’s movie with five different emotions as main characters. Throughout the movie, these emotions run a little girl’s life and how she reacts to events that happen throughout her life. The five emotions names are Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust. Riley, the girl these emotions control, reacts differently to each one in charge of the head panel. Developmental psychology at the middle-aged kids stage studies how middle-aged kids function and grow. There are many different psychological topics that are shown throughout different parts of the movie. The viewer will make many psychological connections like pruning, imaginary friends, stress, and neurons by watching the movie Inside Out (Doctor, 2015). Pruning happens …show more content…
An imaginary friend is a make believe friend in a child’s imagination. Children who are between the ages three and seven are typically the ones to create an imaginary friend. A child creates their imaginary friend out of loneliness and to help the child understand and accept their emotions. An imaginary friend might also be used to provide comfort and companionship (Berger, 2004, p. 277). In the movie when Riley was younger she had her own imaginary friend. She named her imaginary friend Bing Bong. When she was younger, she played games with her imaginary friend and created many memories (Doctor, 2015). Having an imaginary friend is an intrinsic motivation that Riley possessed. Intrinsic motivation is a drive to do something that comes from within. One has to want to peruse something because they enjoy doing it or find what they are motivated to do interesting. There is no praise or reward from having an imaginary friend, which would be extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is a drive that comes from outside the person, when someone does something to gain praise or receive a reward (Berger, 2004, p. 277). Adults do not praise children for having an imaginary friend, this is why having an imaginary friend is an intrinsic