The Preschooler's Understanding of the Causes and Consequences of Emotion

Abstract

RUSSELL, JAMES A. The Preschooler's Understanding o!f the Causes and Coirseyueirces of Emotion. CHILI) 1990, 61, 1872-1881. This article reports evidence on 2 issues: (a) the preDEVELOPI~ENT. schooler's understanding of the causes and consequences of basic emotions, and (h) the relative power of a word, such as happy, versus a facial expression, such as a smile, to evoke that knowledge. Preschoolers (N = 120, mean age = 4-11)completed stories about fear, anger, sadness, happiness, and surprise by telling either why the protagonist felt that way or what the protagonist did when feeling that way. Responses were scored both sul>jectively (rated as appropriate or not) and more objectively (frequency of a judge guessing the question asked). By both criteria, the children did well, distinguishing causes from consequences and between most of the emotions. Conh-ary to what is co~n~nonl~ assumed, children were no more accurate-and sometimes less accurate-when the emotion was specified by a prototypical facial expression than when specified by a word. The study reported in this article was than 7 have been portrayed as understanding aimed at gathering information on two ques- only those emotions associated with a charactions about children's knowledge of emotion: teristic facial or other nonverbal display (Har(a) how much preschoolers know about the ris, 1989, p. 82). And the power of faces precauses and consequences of basic emotions, sumably remains through adulthood, when and (b)the relative power of a word versus a communication of emotion is said to be more facial expression to evoke that knowledge. I powerful through nonverbal than through vershall begin with the second issue. bal channels (Mehrabian, 1972).