Jm. Jenkins et S. Ball, Distinguishing between negative emotions: Children's understanding of the social-regulatory aspects of emotion, COGNIT EMOT, 14(2), 2000, pp. 261-282
This paper deals with children's understanding of the social-regulatory asp
ects of emotion. A total of 108 children between 6 and 12 years old respond
ed to three vignettes describing social dilemmas. In each story one child (
the expresser) displayed anger, sadness, or fear to their partner (the reci
pient), and children were asked about the expresser's goals as well as the
effects of the emotion on recipients' actions and emotions. Anger expressio
n was associated with children thinking that expressers feel dominant in in
teraction. When anger was expressed during interaction children thought tha
t it elicited more anger and aggression from recipients. Sadness and fear e
licited prosocial responses from recipients, including comfort, proximity,
and goal reinstatement. The differentiation between anger, sadness, and fea
r was greater in older than in younger children. Results are discussed in t
erms of the differentiation between emotions, the development of individual
differences in emotion expression, and emotion regulation.