ABSTRACT

A grasp of the fact that emotional displays may not match a person’s underlying feelings has been thought to develop in the elementary school years. Two prominent scales address the issue of how one might feel a negative feeling but need to display an different expression. Data from these scales suggest that children’s comprehension of the need to regulate emotional expression may emerge as the child starts school. This study aimed to create a more comprehensive analysis of the understanding of regulation of emotions and test a younger cohort. Sixty-two 3-5-year-old children, in Turkish preschools, were presented with nine vignettes depicting scenes in which protagonists are required not to reveal their actual feelings. Participants were required to assess how the protagonist should manage their emotional displays. Performance in the stories was consistent. The 4- and 5-year-olds, but not 3-year-olds, performed better and were above chance in several individual trials in which they needed to attribute a protagonist with a need to regulate their emotional expression while thinking of an unrealized goal. Our findings suggest that children grasp the distinction between socially appropriate emotion displays and what is felt at the age of 4, a time when several other similar developments take place.

摘要

人们认为，在小学阶段就已经掌握了情绪表达可能与人的内在情感不匹配的事实。两种突出的量表解决了一个问题，即一个人可能会感到负面的感觉，但需要表现出不同的表情。来自这些量表的数据表明，孩子开始上学时可能会逐渐理解孩子对调节情绪表达的需求。这项研究旨在对情绪调节的理解进行更全面的分析，并测试一个年轻的队列。在土耳其的学龄前儿童中，向62名3-5岁的孩子展示了9个小插曲，这些小插曲描绘了要求主角不得透露其真实感受的场景。要求参与者评估主角应如何管理自己的情绪表现。故事中的表现是一致的。4岁和5岁儿童（而非3岁儿童）表现更好，并且在几项个体试验中均高于机会，在这些试验中，他们需要将主角归因于需要在考虑未实现目标的同时调节自己的情绪表达。我们的发现表明，儿童掌握了适合社交的情绪显示与4岁时所感觉到的区别，这是其他几处类似情况发生的时间。