This week we had to watch two films that both dealt with emotions in some way. People don’t tend to realize that emotions just don’t happen, they exist because we create them. As social creatures, human go through experiences that allow these said emotions to be felt and publicly observed. Human can tell for the most part what emotion someone is feeling because emotions are socially constructed. We collectively have agreed that if someone is happy, they might be smiling and someone that is sad might be crying. With that being said, emotions aren’t just shown in one way, people express themselves differently.
In the film Inside Out Riley is a joyful person. We know this because it’s the emotion that leads all the other ones. In the film, the emotions are little characters that live in the heads of people. Riley was a joyful little baby, but when she didn’t get what she wanted or needed, she began to cry as do most babies. This “unlocked” a new emotion, sadness. This directly connects to the Theory of Constructed Emotion because Riley constructed new emotions as she experienced feelings.
Right at the beginning of the film as we see Riley growing up, we also see the events that caused her to create more emotions. Riley not getting dessert triggers Anger and running and tripping over a cord causes Fear to be visible.
Something that I was wondering about the film was that we see Riley’s lead emotion as Joy, the Mom’s as Sadness, and the Dad’s as Anger. I wonder what it took for emotions to switch leads or if it was always Sadness/Anger. Since the Mom, Dad, and Riley all have the same basic emotions, I feel like emotions in the movie were basic and universal. The emotions all acted in similar ways, but were specific to one’s life experience.
Star Trek’s “Man of the People” also showed me the Theory of Constructed Emotion. It is not explicitly said in the film, but Deanna’s body language showed that she was trying to get with Alkar. I’m assuming this because of the way humans have socially constructed emotions and could assume without being told. Deanna quickly changed emotions when Alkar refused her. We can’t say that she constructed the feeling of disgust and anger right then and there because she probably has experienced them in the past. Emotions, the mind, and body all work together. Once the mind was able to comprehend what was happening, the emotions started being projected and shown through the bodies actions.
Emotions are a very powerful thing that human experience. Not everyone expresses emotion in the same way, but for the most part, others can tell what one is feeling. Emotions are essential because a human mind without emotion really won’t be a human mind.
We can assume that Deanna had her seven primary emotions, but Riley only has five. I wonder which of her five emotions picked up the other two primary emotions…
5 thoughts on “Emotions are literally everywhere…”
Hi Alex,
In the opening of your blog, you make a great point! We don’t often think of our emotions as constructed by us because that doesn’t really reflect how we experience them—which is often as out of our control and happening to us. It is also important to note, as you do, that there isn’t a single fingerprint for these emotions. They are experienced differently by different people—and we experience them differently as well. That raises some interesting questions about how the emotions are designed in this film (they all look generally the same).
I like your observation that we see Riley learning new emotions, which enables her to understand herself as experiencing them. But when we talk about emotions as constructed, we try to use words like “triggered” (which is hard because that is how we are used to talking about emotions), because they are not triggered by external events, they are constructed by us. Great discussion about the “lead” emotions of each character. We might think about how that relates to a person’s disposition and general mood.
And yes, Deanna was definitely trying to get with Alkar, though part of the shift in her emotions seemed to be an increase in the intensity of her sexual desire. This episode, though, doesn’t seem to view emotions as something that we construct, but as something that happens to us. Deanna is represented as dominated by her emotions, completely overcome and out of control. Or rather, she is dominated by the negative emotions that Alkar is transferring to her.
Jessica Hautsch
Hey Alex!
I really enjoyed how you explained that humans create emotions. I agree with you completely. The experiences we go through, trigger emotions we’ve experienced and have not yet experienced. I also really like how you talked a little bit about how the mom and dad of Riley had emotions in control different from each other. I think this could be true in real life. Perhaps in real life we all experience emotions very differently. Some peoples gut reactions to bad things are to be angry or sad. On the contrary the Star Trek episode to me seemed as if it was portraying the idea that emotions happen to us rather than we construct them. Your post made me think though, because of Troi’s sexual desire and then her anger in embarrassment.
Great Post!
chowland
Hi Ceili,
Yes! The research suggests that we do experience emotions differently from each other. Even our own experience of emotions changes based on our context. This is because there is no singular physiological or neural fingerprint of emotion.
Jessica Hautsch
Hey Alex!
I loved your post! I agree that we don’t tend to realize that we, or the experiences we go through, create the emotions we gave today and that they don’t just pop up out of no where. I liked how you mentioned the controlling emotions of the mom and dad in “Inside Out”. I think this tells us a lot about who they are as people and how they were raised to live in this world. I think Riley having joy as her main emotion but also having access to the other core emotions makes her character stand out more than her father’s and mother’s. I think the Star Trek episode portrays how vulnerable and emotional we are. Obviously, Deanna Troi is more vulnerable than the average person because she’s an empath but the episode shines a light on how an emotion that we aren’t used to or one that we’ve tucked away can change and affect us when it is unexpectedly put in control.
tpenske
Hi Paul,
I really like your observation that the emotions that Riley’s mom and dad have as their “lead emotion” might be something that they’ve been taught. We might think about how men, for example, are socialized to rehearse and learn anger, whereas women are encouraged to rehearse sadness.
Jessica Hautsch