ERIC Number: ED195902
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1980-Sep
Pages: 19
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
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Available Date: N/A
Adults' Understanding of Children's Understanding of Emotions.
Zelko, Frank A.; And Others
Since adults are socializing agents integral to home and school settings, they should have accurate views of children's feelings. Adults' (N=96) predictions were compared to the predictions kindergarten children (N=32) made about the children's affective responses to eight different categories of experiences. The children's predictions, reported in a previous study, provided the baseline against which adult predictions were compared. Adults and children agreed on reactions to success (happiness), nurturance (happiness), failure (sadness), and justified punishment (sadness). They disagreed on responses to: (1) being the target of peer aggression with children predicting anger more than adults; (2) unjustified punishment with children expressing sadness and adults feeling angry; (3) dishonesty that is not discovered with children expressing happiness and adults expressing fear. Adults' level of depression and frequency of contact with children were unrelated to their agreement with children. Where disagreements existed, adults cited more conceptually complicated affects, such as fear or anger, while children selected the simpler affects of sadness and happiness. (NRB)
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
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Author Affiliations: N/A
Note: Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association (88th, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, September 1-5, 1980).