Relationship Between the Self-Concept of Children and Their Ability to Recognize Emotions in Others.

Teresa Cordeiro,Júlia Botelho,Catarina Mendonça

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.672919

Teresa Cordeiro, Júlia Botelho + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.672919

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between the self-concept of children and their ability to recognize emotions in others from facial expressions. It is hypothesized that children use their self-representations to interpret depictions of emotion in others and that higher self-concepts might be associated with earlier development of emotion recognition skills. A total of 54 children aged between 5 and 11 years participated in this study. Self-concept was assessed in all children using the Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale for Children (Piers-Harris 2). To assess emotion recognition, a computerized instrument, the Penn Emotion Recognition Task (PERT), was applied. Despite the small sample of children, results show clear statistical effects. It is shown that emotion recognition ability is directly correlated with self-concept for intellectual/school status. The ability to correctly identify emotions from facial expressions is affected by general self-concept, intellectual/school status, and stimulus features of gender, intensity, and emotion. Further analysis shows that the general self-concept of children particularly affects the ability to identify happy faces. Children with a higher intellectual status score recognize happiness and neutral faces more easily. We concluded that the self-concept in children relates to the ability to recognize emotions in others, particularly positive emotions. These findings provide some support to the simulation theory of social cognition, where children use their own self-representations to interpret mental states in others. The effect of the self-concept for intellectual status on emotion recognition might also indicate that intellectual abilities act as a mediator between self-concept and emotion recognition, but further studies are needed.

Highlights

Social cognition is a neurobiological, psychological, and social set of processes
Understanding emotions from facial expressions is a specific form of social cognition
Cassidy et al (1992) in their study concluded that the emotional understanding of children and their popularity with peers during the first year of obligatory schooling were positively correlated. All these results indicate that good emotion recognition is a good indicator of the quality of their social relationships

Summary

Introduction

Social cognition is a neurobiological, psychological, and social set of processes. It is thought that this set of skills affects how social events are perceived, recognized, and evaluated in order to build representations that can guide social behavior (Adolphs, 2010). Understanding emotions from facial expressions is a specific form of social cognition. According to Lewis et al (2008), adults tend to organize emotions in a hierarchy where the biggest categories (which are on a superordinated level) are subdivided into more specific, basic-level groups. Those basic groups are once again divided into even more specific groups (presented on a subordinated level). They mentioned that it is likely that children start by recognizing emotions on a basic level such as “Happiness,” “Surprise,” “Fear,” “Anger,” “Disgust,” and “Sadness.” Later, they started to comprehend that those emotions can be subdivided into a subordinate level (e.g., “Surprise” is subdivided into “Startle” or “Shock”)

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