Children & Emotions — Inside Out!
Wrote this one in fulfillment of course requirements for an undergrad course Principles of Psychology.
Ever think about when you lived through those years of your life, which were a turning point in terms of how you viewed the world. Something happened that changed how you look at things completely. Maybe a move to a completely new place? Or was it the loss of a dear one? Maybe it was some realization at a school event?
Inside out — the 2015 Academy-Award Winner, has taken an exciting look inside children's minds (and adults’ too, for that matter!). How little things may mean mountains to them; how it is not always about the joy of life and what happens when realizations set in. Today, we’ll talk about children & emotions and discuss the elements used in the sneak peek given by ‘Inside Out’. Read on!
Memory Blobs
Preadolescence or pre-teen or tween is the age group of around 10–14 years. This is a crucial point in a person’s life because a major transition happens. From the hunky-dory style of living, children start to see the world around them for what it really is — a mixed bag. They are faced with numerous challenges, some of which turn out to be in their favor, others not so much.
This is a time when children undergo immense emotional growth. Up until this point, they are mainly accustomed to being all cheerful and happy. The individuals around them also try to create such an environment that shields the children from any misery to a great extent. Owing to such ‘protection’ and the consequent incomplete understanding, children tend to have a binary view of things. Something makes them happy while some other things might make them feel sad. This has been portrayed quite creatively in the movie with singly-colored blobs. They indicate the singular emotion that a child associates with any particular event. Let’s look at some other crucial elements and then return to this at the end.
Islands of personality
According to the Social Cognitive school of thought in personality development, a person’s cognitions of the outside world play an important part in his/her personality. In this group, I found the Personal Construct Theory by George Kelly to be the best fit for how personality has been shown to develop in this movie. The interpretation is indeed quite fascinating.
So, the idea behind these islands is that there are certain core memories that we form as a child that power these ‘personality islands’. What this means is that certain occurrences in our childhood can have a lasting impact on our general outlook and hence mold our personality. This simply focuses on the idea of experiences and how people’s reactions to our actions influence us. If a certain act gets us social acceptance, we tend to follow in its footsteps in the future.
In general, there are certain memories about various aspects of our lives that tend to form the pillars on which our personality stands. To some extent, this is a very powerful expression of the environmental and social effects on the development of one’s personality.
Emotions guide us…
Our conscious thoughts do not always lead us. It is emotions and the general level of enthusiasm that often tends to lead our day. This makes emotions take a very high pedestal. As shown at a high-point of the movie, when there is some idea that is left unregulated by emotions, we tend to take actions that are not in keeping with our general wellness!
This is the situation when all the emotions lose influence over the actions of the lead character in the movie. It seems to be a truly drastic sight. The person takes decisions that go against his/her personality.
This again tells us that it is important to stop and take stock of what we are doing and how we’re feeling every once in a while.
*ALL* emotions are important
Yes, you read that right. It is really important for us to be able to feel everything and make a note of that! And by that, yes, I mean sadness too! Throughout the movie, it has been shown that Joy tries to take control of the action as much as possible and tries to drive away any possibility of sadness. But at different points, different emotions need to take control, for an individual to function in a balanced manner.
In our childhood, we may mask certain events as being of the ‘happy kind’ to spare any kind of pain. But, as it turns out, sometimes it is those past memories due to which when, we think back to, have the most important realizations that change our thinking forever. As shown in the movie, we tend to have many bittersweet experiences as we go through life. Forcefully trying to make those happy is energy spent in vain. And this is not specific to only happy or sad memories. Fear, for instance, protects us and prevents us from taking any harsh measures. Again, it is anger that needs to be controlled for fear to act when needed.
All this tells us about the balance and work needed to be put in by all the emotions. An imbalance may lead to outbursts, which are, more often than not, regretted by most.
Ultimately, as a growing individual, now of the most crucial things to be kept at the back of our heads is how we feel in any given situation. Our actions are much in keeping with our general personality when emotions have a say in them!
All images shown above have been taken from the movie ‘Inside Out’ (©Disney Pixar).
