Assignment 1: Movie review “Inside- Out”

Course: Organizational Behavior

Course Instructor: Kanza Sohail
Submitted By: Hira Madni
ERP ID: 17830
Inside Out is set in the mind of a young girl named Riley Andersen, where five personified emotions -
Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust - try to lead her through life as she and her parents adjust
to their new surroundings after moving to a new house.

The movie highly resonates with the teachings of our OB class and one can draw parallels between
the movie and the class learnings. My review’s focus will be limited to three themes: Attitudes;
Emotions and Moods; Personality and Values. These themes echo throughout the movie.

In the movie if one observes closely, one could make-out that a person’s personality (The islands) are
not fixed; they are susceptible to change and may even expand and modify overtime. This idea was
validated by my class learnings on Personality and Values.

The concept of “Practicing good decision-making” was reinforce when Riley (the fact that she’s still a
kid) was unable to control her emotions which led to hinderance in decision making. (stolen credit
card/running away from home).

The movie demonstrates that no one emotions should be valued above, or at the exclusion of, all the
other ones (including sadness). It reiterates the concept that feelings get more complex as you get
older; you can feel multiple emotions at the same time.

Inside Out suggests that finding a balance between your emotions is the first step on the long and
winding road to adulthood. When Riley stops running away and starts opening up to her parents, it's
clear that she's no longer a little girl and in this way, she channels her feeling and emotions that had
previously clouded her decision making/thinking process. She confronts her mix emotions and as soon
as she starts to do that, she feels joy. In other words, sadness enhances your appreciation of
happiness. In fact, understanding our own sadness is a gateway to other, more sophisticated emotions

Inside-Out subtly implied that sometimes the happiest memories are caused by sadness. It could be
seen when Joy takes another look at the bag of Riley's Core Memories that she's been carrying. She
discovers that one of Riley's happiest memories was actually caused by a sad memory. Riley's parents
and teammates showed Riley empathy and cheered her up after she blew a game-winning goal. Joy
realizes that sadness is useful. Necessary, even.