DAN WANG 1*
1. School of Digtal Media, Ji’an College, Ji’an City, Jiangxi Province 343000, P.R. China;
aEmail: wdjh@japt.edu.cn
Abstract: Animation education is a crucial implicit carrier of adolescent mental health cultivation. Disney animated works, with complete character growth logic and diverse emotional narration, are central in global youth aesthetic education and psychological enlightenment. Character arc, the core of role development in animations, has rich mental health narrative resources and implicit psychological education value. The Myers – Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), based on Jung’s theory, can decode Disney characters’ personality attributes, behavioral logic and emotional rules, and interpret their development from deficiency to maturity. This study uses MBTI as an analytical tool to explore the correlation between Disney character development arcs and mental health narration, and excavates its practical enlightenment for psychological resilience cultivation in animation education. By sorting character traits, constructing an analysis system and designing a resilience cultivation model, it clarifies the implicit psychological education mechanism of excellent animations. The results show that MBTI – based analysis can reveal the logic of mental health shaping in animations, and targeted animation education can promote adolescents’ emotional regulation, pressure resistance and psychological resilience. This study integrates MBTI theory, animated narrative research and youth mental health education, expands the theoretical boundary of implicit psychological education, and provides support and reference for adolescent mental health education optimization and animation educational practice innovation.
Keywords：MBTI Personality Typology；Disney Character Arc；Mental Health Narration；Psychological Resilience Cultivation
1.1 Research Background: Integration of Animated Narration and Mental Health Education
In the era of digital cultural communication and comprehensive mental health education, implicit psychological education represented by cultural and aesthetic education has become an indispensable part of adolescent mental health cultivation. Different from explicit psychological counseling and classroom mental health teaching, excellent cultural works realize subtle psychological guidance and personality shaping through vivid narrative plots and vivid character growth stories[1-3]. As the most influential animated IP series in the world, Disney animations have spanned nearly a century of development, covering diverse themes such as self-growth, adversity breakthrough, interpersonal integration and dream persistence, and have long been the mainstream audio-visual works for adolescent daily viewing and aesthetic learning.
Disney animated works are famous for their complete and realistic character arc design. Most of the classic roles have experienced the psychological evolution from personality imperfection, emotional confusion and behavioral dilemma to self-cognition, emotional reconciliation and psychological maturity. This progressive growth trajectory is highly consistent with the developmental rules of adolescent mental health. In the current context of frequent adolescent emotional problems, insufficient psychological resilience and weak adversity adaptation, exploring the mental health narrative logic contained in Disney character growth can provide vivid and accessible educational materials for youth psychological education[4].
However, most existing studies on Disney animations focus on aesthetic analysis, cultural interpretation and literary appreciation, lacking professional psychological decoding of character personality development rules. The traditional character analysis is mostly limited to subjective impression evaluation, without systematic theoretical framework support, and cannot accurately extract the mental health education value and resilience cultivation logic behind character growth trajectories. The introduction of MBTI personality typology can make up for the deficiency of subjective analysis, realize quantitative and standardized interpretation of character personality attributes and developmental changes, and provide a new research perspective for the integration of animation narration and mental health education.
In terms of theoretical significance, this study innovatively applies MBTI professional personality theory to the quantitative analysis of animated character arcs, constructs a new research paradigm of “personality typology-character developmental trajectory-mental health narration”, and breaks the disciplinary barrier between animation literature research and psychological education research. By sorting out the matching rules between MBTI personality types and Disney character growth modes, it enriches the theoretical system of animated narrative psychology and implicit mental health education, and provides a standardized theoretical basis for subsequent related research on animated psychological education[5-7].
In terms of practical value, this study systematically excavates the implicit psychological resilience cultivation resources in classic Disney animations, summarizes the effective narrative strategies of shaping adolescents’ emotional regulation ability, adversity resistance and self-improvement awareness, and provides targeted practical guidance for front-line animation education and adolescent mental health teaching. Through the hierarchical analysis of different personality type character arcs, it can also provide personalized psychological enlightenment ideas for adolescents with different personality traits, help them recognize their own personality advantages and deficiencies, and realize self-psychological adjustment and growth. In addition, the research conclusions can guide the creation of educational animated works, promote the positive output of mental health values in cultural works, and realize the organic integration of cultural communication and psychological education[8].
1.3 Research Framework and Core Objectives
This study focuses on the core theme of MBTI-based Disney character personality developmental trajectories empowering mental health narration and animation resilience education. The core research objectives include three dimensions: first, to clarify the personality attribute characteristics and typical growth arc types of classic Disney characters based on MBTI typology; second, to analyze the internal logical relationship between character personality evolution and mental health narrative connotation; third, to construct a practical path system of psychological resilience cultivation oriented to animation education scenarios.
The overall research framework adopts a progressive layered structure. Firstly, it sorts out the theoretical basis and current research status of MBTI personality theory, animated character arc and psychological resilience education. Secondly, it classifies and analyzes the MBTI personality types of classic Disney characters and summarizes their differentiated developmental trajectories. Thirdly, it interprets the mental health narrative connotation behind different character arcs and explores its enlightenment to resilience cultivation. Fourthly, it constructs a complete animation education implementation system for psychological resilience training. Finally, it summarizes the research conclusions, analyzes research limitations and prospects future research directions.
2. Theoretical Foundation and Literature Review
2.1 Theoretical Connotation of MBTI Personality Typology
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a mature personality assessment and classification theory derived from Carl Jung’s analytical psychology, which systematically divides individual personality into four core dimensional attributes, including energy orientation (Extraversion/E, Introversion/I), cognitive mode (Sensing/S, Intuition/N), judgment standard (Thinking/T, Feeling/F) and lifestyle (Judging/J, Perceiving/P) . The four dimensions are independent and interrelated, forming 16 unique personality types, each with fixed personality characteristics, cognitive preferences, emotional expression modes and behavioral logic .