Inside Out - Critical Thought Questions

1. When we meet Riley, most of the time Joy is in charge of her thoughts and personality. Which emotion(s) do you feel most often?

2. Riley and her family go through a lot of changes when they move from Minnesota to San Francisco. Have you ever gone through a big transition?

3. How are the glowing balls, or “core memories” made? What are yours?

4. What do the core memories have to do with Riley’s personality?

5. When Sadness touches one of the happy core memories, she colors it blue. What do you think is going on then? Is it possible that our current moods can color our past memories? Or how we define our personality?

6. Do you think that the core memories were changed forever or was there a temporary filter on them?

7. When Riley’s mother tells her that she is helping her parents by being their “happy girl,” Riley feels pressure to only show them her joy. What do you think of this?

8. Do you think that our society values certain emotions over others? Which ones?

9. At the end of the movie, Joy learns that other emotions, especially Sadness, are also important. Why?

10. Do you think it is easier for males or females, or for younger or older people, to express different emotions? Which ones? Why?
11. Why is it hard for Riley to tell her parents how she’s feeling? Is it OK for them to ask her to be their “happy girl”? How does that make her feel when she’s not in a particularly joyful state of mind? Have you ever felt like you had to feel a certain way to please someone else? Is that fair?
12. What does it mean to have “mixed emotions” about something? How do all of our different feelings relate to each other? Can you have joy without sadness? Why is it important to feel a range of emotions?

    13.Some of the movie’s scenes are sad and scary. Is it OK for a kids’ movie to not be cheerful and silly all the time? How much scary stuff can young kids handle?
    14. What problem does Riley think running away will fix? Why is she wrong? What could have happened to her if she’d gone through with her plan? What other options could you think of for Riley?
    15. What do you think your own emotions might look and talk like? What about those of your friends and family members? If you had to "create" a character to display your emotions, what would that character look like?  Joy? Sadness?  Are you "Bing Bong"?  What would your character look like?

Decision Making Scenarios

DECISION MAKING SCENARIOS

DIRECTIONS: Read each scenario and then follow the steps to the DECIDE process to see what
you would do if you were placed in each situation.
SCENARIO 1: You are a freshman and an only child whose parents have demanding careers and little time to spend at home. You are left home alone a lot and have friends over for parties all the time. The parties can sometimes get out of hand, but so far you have not been caught. Recently, your friends have challenged you to take them for a ride in your parent’s car but you don’t have your license yet. However, you’d like to do it.
DEFINE THE PROBLEM: ______________________________________________________________________ 

EXPLORE THE ALTERNATIVES:
_______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________
CONSIDER THE CONSEQUENCES:
_______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________
IDENTIFY YOUR VALUES:
_______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ DECIDE & ACT: What would your decision be? _______________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ 

EVALUATE THE RESULTS: You can only complete this step after you have made a decision. In order to evaluate, you could ask yourself the following questions: How did the decision work out? How did it affect your life? How has it affected others? What did you learn? Would you have done anything differently?
SCENARIO 2: Your friends are bullying someone at school. You used to be friends with the person that is being bullied. You want to stand up to your friends because you feel bad, but you realize that they will probably not take that very well. 

DEFINE THE PROBLEM: ______________________________________________________________________ 
EXPLORE THE ALTERNATIVES:
_______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________
CONSIDER THE CONSEQUENCES:
_______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________
IDENTIFY YOUR VALUES:
________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ DECIDE & ACT: What would your decision be? _______________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 
EVALUATE THE RESULTS: You can only complete this step after you have made a decision. In order to evaluate, you could ask yourself the following questions: How did the decision work out? How did it affect your life? How has it affected others? What did you learn? Would you have done anything differently?

SCENARIO 3: You have a job that you have been working very hard at because you are saving up to buy a car. Your best friend approaches you and asks if you would like to go away with his/her family over February vacation. You want to go, however your parents tell you that you would have to pay for your own airfare and spending money. This would put a significant dent in your car savings.
DEFINE THE PROBLEM: ______________________________________________________________________ 

EXPLORE THE ALTERNATIVES:
_______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________
CONSIDER THE CONSEQUENCES:
_______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________
IDENTIFY YOUR VALUES:
________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ DECIDE & ACT: What would your decision be? _______________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 

EVALUATE THE RESULTS: You can only complete this step after you have made a decision. In order to evaluate, you could ask yourself the following questions: How did the decision work out? How did it affect your life? How has it affected others? What did you learn? Would you have done anything differently?
SCENARIO 4: You have a very important Science project that is due tomorrow and you haven’t even started it yet. You plan on spending several hours doing it tonight when you get home after practice when your friend suddenly ask you to go to a concert tonight. They won tickets to your favorite group and want you to go with them. You need to get the project done because you have a D average in Science right now but you really want to go to the concert with your friend. DEFINE THE PROBLEM: ______________________________________________________________________ EXPLORE THE ALTERNATIVES:
_______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________
CONSIDER THE CONSEQUENCES:
_______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________
IDENTIFY YOUR VALUES:
________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ DECIDE & ACT: What would your decision be? _______________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 

EVALUATE THE RESULTS: You can only complete this step after you have made a decision. In order to evaluate, you could ask yourself the following questions: How did the decision work out? How did it affect your life? How has it affected others? What did you learn? Would you have done anything differently?