Emotion Comprehension Research Articles

‘Let's Talk about Emotions!’. The Effect of Conversational Training on Preschoolers' Emotion Comprehension and Prosocial Orientation

AbstractWe investigated whether conversational intervention focused on emotions could promote the development of emotion comprehension (EC), theory of mind (ToM), and prosocial orientation in preschoolers. Seventy‐five 4‐ to 5‐year‐old children (Mage at pre‐test: 5 years and 1 month; standard deviation = 6.83 months), assigned to experimental and control conditions, were pre‐ and post‐tested for verbal ability, EC, false‐belief understanding, and prosocial orientation. Over a 6‐week intervention, all children were presented with brief illustrated scenarios based on emotional scripts. The training group was then involved in conversations about the nature, causes, and regulation of emotion whereas the control group engaged in free play, where conversation was minimized. The training group outperformed the control group in EC and prosocial orientation, even after controlling for gains in verbal ability whereas no differences were found for children's false‐belief understanding. The positive effect remained stable over time. Practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Emotional intelligence and health-related quality of life in institutionalised Spanish older adults.

This study explores the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a sample of Spanish older adults who are institutionalised in long-term care (LTC) facilities. One hundred fifteen institutionalised individuals (47.82% women; 88.3 ± 7.9 years) from southern Spain completed a set of questionnaires that included measures of EI, health and personality. Data were analysed via hierarchical regression. After controlling for personality and sociodemographic variables, the EI dimensions, emotional comprehension and emotional facilitation, accounted for part of the variance in several HRQoL facets. These dimensions could have an important role in the HRQoL of residents in LTC. Moreover, the use of a performance measure addresses the limitations of previous studies that have relied on self-report measures. These aspects underscore the importance of the results of this study.

Emotion regulation strategies in preschool children.

This study investigated the development of emotion regulation strategies as reflected in the narratives of children between the ages of 3 and 6years. An experimental procedure based on story completion tasks was devised to elicit the emotion-related narratives of 69 preschool children. Coding of the narratives led to the observation of different emotion regulation strategies: Behavioural strategies, social support, and cognitive reappraisal. Several significant gender and age differences were identified in the use of these strategies. In addition, verbal skills, non-verbal intelligence, and emotion comprehension were found to be associated with use of the observed emotion regulation strategies, although only at specific ages.

The Impact of Abuse and Learning Difficulties on Emotion Understanding in Late Childhood and Early Adolescence

ABSTRACTChildren's affective experiences and cognitive abilities have an impact on emotion understanding. However, their relative contribution, as well as the possibility of an interaction between them, has rarely been examined. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the influence of severe abuse and learning difficulties on simple and complex components of emotion understanding in late childhood and early adolescence. A total of 28 older children and young adolescents were selected for the study. Half of the participants had suffered from severe abuse, and half of these abused children additionally had learning disabilities. The remaining half of the sample had no history of abuse but were matched with the abused children on learning difficulties, age and gender. The participants’ emotion understanding was assessed with the Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC). Results showed that (a) learning difficulties but not abuse had an impact on emotion understanding, (b) there was no interaction effect of abuse and learning difficulties on emotion understanding, and (b) the observed effects of learning difficulties were most apparent for the understanding of relatively complex components of emotion and not for simple components. The results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications.

ESTUDIO INTERCULTURAL DE LA INTELIGENCIA EMOCIONAL Y VARIABLES PSICOEDUCATIVAS A TRAVÉS DEL SURVEYMONKEY

Abstract.INTERCULTURAL STUDY OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND PSYCHOEDUCATIONAL VARIABLES THROUGH SURVEYMONKEYThis intercultural study searches to analyse the relationship between emotional intelligence and psychoeducational varibales in young and teenager Spanish and Peruvovian people. We use the new techonologies for assess a simple of 1074 high school students from Spain and Peru by an online system application SurveyMonkey for recovering the information of every self report. This application le tus code and digitalize the data, and after to analyse data through 21.0 version SPSS. We included the General Data Questionnaire (CDG) bult by the team; the TMMS-24 for assess emotional intelligence; and the personality NEO-FFI questionnaire. Results show statistical significative differences in the majority of variables in favour of Peru, exaplaining those results to motivational level of the students. Related with the genre, we can say tha women have higher emotional perception and men higuher emotional comprehension, in line with other studies. When we consider the educational level, the Elder students reach higher marks in self-eficacy and in solve strategies, as the haigher expertice with the school tasks. Finally, the knowledge about the intelligence, the emotions and the emotional intelligence are not related with high levels in openess, emotional perception and clarity, as we expected. We discuss the results to the light of educational implications.Keywords: Intercultural, emotional intelligence, new technologies, Survey monkeyResumen.Este estudio intercultural busca analizar la relación de la inteligencia emocional, variables psicoeducativas en jóvenes y adolescentes Españoles y Peruanos, utilizando las nuevas tecnologías. En una muestra de 1074 alumnos de colegios e institutos de España y Perú utilizando el sistema on-line Survey Monkey para la cumplimentación de todos los cuestionarios, facilitando la codificación e informatización de los datos para la realización de análisis estadísticos, presentadas como evidencias empíricas en este estudio. Se utilizó el cuestionario de datos generales (CDG) elaborado ad hoc por el equipo de investigación, el TMMS-24 que mide la inteligencia emocional percibida, el cuestionario de estrategias de aprendizaje y motivación (CEAM) y finalmente el de personalidad (NEO-FFI). Los resultados indican diferencias significativas en la mayoría de las variables a favor de Perú, atribuyendo estos resultados al grado de motivación que presentaban los estudiantes peruanos. Respecto al género podemos destacar que las mujeres puntúan más alto en percepción emocional y los varones en compresión emocional como lo prueban en diversos estudios. Al tomar en cuenta el curso, los alumnos superiores puntúan más alto en autoeficacia y estrategias de solución. Finalmente el tener conocimiento de lo que es la inteligencia, las emociones y la inteligencia emocional no está relacionado con altos puntajes en apertura, percepción y claridad emocional como se esperaba. Se discuten los resultados a la luz de las implicaciones educativas.Palabras Clave: Intercultural, Inteligencia emocional, nuevas tecnologías: Survey monkey

Abstract MP38: The Program SI! Intervention for Enhancing a Healthy Lifestyle among Children aged 3 to 5: A Cluster Randomized Trial

The development of CVD risk factors carries a behavioral component that may be corrected at an early age, when behaviors are first formed, by effective health promotion initiatives. School-based interventions are an effective way to promote healthy behaviors, specially when they also reach out to the children’s most proximal environment: their families, teachers and the school itself. Within this framework, the first phase of the long-term Program SI! intervention targets children from 3 to 5 years of age aiming to establish appropriate lifestyle behaviors early in life. The intervention entails a comprehensive approach including four lifestyle-related components: correct dietary habits, promotion of physical activity, understanding how the human body and heart work, and emotion’s management. To evaluate the efficacy of the Program SI! to instill healthy behaviors in children aged 3-5, a cluster-randomized controlled trial in public schools in the city of Madrid (Spain) was initiated in 2011. A total 24 schools were selected on the basis of socio-demographic characteristics. These included 2062 children (3-5 years), 1949 families, and 125 teachers at baseline. Schools were randomized (1:1) to follow their usual school curriculum or to engage in the intervention. The primary outcome of this report is the 2-years differential change from baseline in scores for knowledge, attitudes and habits (KAH) in the four components of the intervention between intervention and control. Children were interviewed by trained psychologists and scored on overall and component-specific KAH questionnaires. The Test for Emotional Comprehension (TEC) was used to assess children’s ability to recognize emotions. Mixed linear models accounting for the cluster-randomized design were used to test for intervention effects. Fixed effects in each model were the corresponding baseline score, the class year, and the treatment group. Schools were handled as random effects. After 2 years, the Program SI! intervention increased children’s overall KAH score (5.6, 95%CI, 4.1-7.1, p<0.001) corresponding to an additional 7% improvement in the intervened children. KAH assessing improved Physical activity contributed the most (3.39, 95%CI, 2.35-4.43, p<0.001) to the difference between groups, followed by KAH relating Dietary habits (1.78, 95%CI, 0.94-2.62, p<0.001). A weak, non-significant improvement in KAH score for Human body (0.37, 95%CI, -0.14-0.89) was also found. Regarding emotion’s management, this component also increased after the intervention (0.50, 95%CI, 0.02-0.97, p<0.040), with greater improvements in older children (5 years old). The Program SI! is demonstrated as an effective and feasible strategy for improving lifestyle behaviors among very young children that may eventually impact in lower rates of development of CVD risk factors.

Emotion understanding: A cross-cultural comparison between Italian and German preschoolers

Italy and Germany belong to the Latin and the Germanic cultural cluster, respectively, and show, e.g., diverse languages, religious practices, rearing styles, and socialization goals. Given potential cultural differences in the developmental goals of independence and interdependence, the present work sought to explore developmental differences between Italian and German 3–6-year-old children's understanding of emotion assessed by the Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC). On average, Italian (n = 114) compared to German (n = 108) preschoolers mastered more TEC components at the ages 3 and 5. On component level, however, the samples only differed on the component Hiding: more Italian compared to German preschoolers understood that expressed and felt emotion may differ. Cultural differences within the Western industrial world thus likely relate to specific components rather than overall competence. Results will be discussed in relation to cultural belonging, controlling for maternal educational level, presence of siblings, and multilingualism.

The Roles of Emotional Comprehension and Representational Drawing Skill in Children's Expressive Drawing

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the roles of emotional comprehension and representational drawing skill in children’s expressive drawing. Fifty 7- to 10-year-olds were asked to produce two (happy and sad) expressive drawings, two representational drawings (drawing of a man running and drawing of a house) and to answer the Test of Emotion Comprehension (Pons & Harris, 2000). The expressive drawings were assessed on the number of expressive subject matter themes (‘content expression’) and the overall quality of expression on a 5-point scale. Each of the representational drawings was measured on a scale assessing detail and visual realism criteria, and contributed to a single representational drawing skill score. In line with our predictions, we found that both emotional comprehension and representational drawing skill accounted for a significant variance in children’s expressive drawings. We explain that children’s developing emotional comprehension may allow them to consider more detailed and poignant expressive ideas for their drawings, and that their developing representational drawing skill facilitates the graphic execution of these emotional ideas.

Emotion Comprehension and Divergent Thinking: What's their Relationship in Developmental Age?

The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between emotion comprehension and divergent thinking in a group of Italian primary school children. We used the Test of emotion comprehension (Albanese & Molina, 2008) and Test of creative thinking (Williams, 1994). Results indicated that factors of divergent thinking had a negative impact on the components of emotion comprehension and, specifically, on those included in external and reflexive levels. Future research could deepen the role of creativity on other processes related to the emotions, such as empathy and prosocial behavior in developmental age.

The Relationship between Emotion Comprehension and Mental Synthesis in Developmental Age

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between emotion understanding and mental synthesis in a group of Italian children (6-11 years), using the Test of Emotion Comprehension (Albanese & Molina, 2008) and Creative Mental Synthesis Task (Antonietti, 1999). Results showed that emotion understanding and mental synthesis ability increased with age and that there was a reciprocal relationship between the two processes. Future investigations could be carried out in order to analyze the presence of this relationship in preschoolers.

Emotion understanding, pictorial representations of friendship and reciprocity in school-aged children

This study examined the relationship between emotional understanding, friendship representation and reciprocity in school-aged children. Two hundred and fifty-one Caucasian 6-year-old children (111 males and 140 females) took part in the study. The Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC) and the Pictorial Assessment of Interpersonal Relationships (PAIR) were used. Children having a reciprocal friendship and children having a unilateral friendship with a child named as their “best friend” were compared on the emotional understanding task and on their pictorial representations of friendship. Multilevel analyses indicated that friendship status effects were not influenced by classroom-level differences. Results showed that children with reciprocal friendships drew themselves as more similar to and more cohesive with their best friends, and they showed better understanding of emotions, than children having a unilateral friendship. Finally, the implications of these findings for theoretical and empirical research development on friendship are discussed.

Facial expression recognition and emotion understanding in children after neonatal open‐heart surgery for transposition of the great arteries

Theory of mind impairments are part of the cognitive morbidities associated with transposition of the great arteries (TGA). We sought to assess core components of social cognition in school-aged children with TGA. Thirty-eight children with neonatal corrected TGA (27 males, 11 females; mean age 7y 3mo, SD 1y 2mo) and a comparison group (n=31; 24 males, 7 females; mean age 7y 4mo, SD 1y 1mo) participated in this study. All children completed measures of facial expression recognition, emotion comprehension, and second-order cognitive and affective false-belief tasks. The association of medical pre-, intra-, and postoperative variables with cognitive outcomes was explored. After controlling for potential covariates, children with TGA performed significantly less accurately in the mental category of the emotion comprehension battery (p=0.002) and on second-order affective false-belief tasks (p<0.05). Preoperative variables including an associated ventricular septal defect (p=0.02), a younger age at open-heart surgery (p=0.03), and a prenatal diagnosis of TGA (p=0.02) were significantly associated with better outcomes. School-aged children with TGA display significant impairment on complex affective mental state understanding even though facial expression recognition was generally preserved. Preoperative factors may be important determinants for long-term outcomes after cyanotic congenital heart disease.

Effects of verbal ability and fluid intelligence on children's emotion understanding

This study investigated the role of verbal ability and fluid intelligence on children's emotion understanding, testing the hypothesis that fluid intelligence predicts the development of emotion comprehension over and above age and verbal ability. One hundred and two children (48 girls) aged 3.6-6 years completed the Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC) that comprised external and mental components, the Coloured Progressive Matrices and the Test for Reception of Grammar. Regression analysis showed that fluid intelligence was not equally related to the external and mental components of the TEC (Pons & Harris, 2000). Specifically, the results indicated that the external component was related to age and verbal ability only, whereas recognition of mental emotional patterns required abstract reasoning skills more than age and verbal ability. It is concluded that the development of fluid intelligence has a significant role in the development of mental component of emotion comprehension.

Multilevel analysis of facial expressions of emotion and script: self-report (arousal and valence) and psychophysiological correlates.

BackgroundThe paper explored emotion comprehension in children with regard to facial expression of emotion. The effect of valence and arousal evaluation, of context and of psychophysiological measures was monitored. Indeed subjective evaluation of valence (positive vs. negative) and arousal (high vs. low), and contextual (facial expression vs. facial expression and script) variables were supposed to modulate the psychophysiological responses.MethodsSelf-report measures (in terms of correct recognition, arousal and valence attribution) and psychophysiological correlates (facial electromyography, EMG, skin conductance response, SCR, and heart rate, HR) were observed when children (N = 26; mean age = 8.75 y; range 6-11 y) looked at six facial expressions of emotions (happiness, anger, fear, sadness, surprise, and disgust) and six emotional scripts (contextualized facial expressions). The competencies about the recognition, the evaluation on valence and arousal was tested in concomitance with psychophysiological variations. Specifically, we tested for the congruence of these multiple measures.ResultsLog-linear analysis and repeated measure ANOVAs showed different representations across the subjects, as a function of emotion. Specifically, children’ recognition and attribution were well developed for some emotions (such as anger, fear, surprise and happiness), whereas some other emotions (mainly disgust and sadness) were less clearly represented. SCR, HR and EMG measures were modulated by the evaluation based on valence and arousal, with increased psychophysiological values mainly in response to anger, fear and happiness.ConclusionsAs shown by multiple regression analysis, a significant consonance was found between self-report measures and psychophysiological behavior, mainly for emotions rated as more arousing and negative in valence. The multilevel measures were discussed at light of dimensional attribution model.

A Pilot Study on the Role of Emotions through the Body in the Educational Context

The main objective of this study is to make a descriptive analysis in order to investigate the possible relationships between the consciousness of body's development and the comprehension of emotions’ development in primary school. Besides, a study has been made on a sample of 43 pupils aged between six and seven years, divided into two groups: an experimental group and a control one, in a Primary School of Mugnano del Cardinale. The first group has made some psychomotor activities in a four months’ period; the second hasn’t taken part at the school education path projected for this study.The two groups have been put together casually and are quite alike from a socio-cultural point of view.At the end of the psychomotor activities the sample group has made the TEC, a Test of Emotion Comprehension.From the research we have seen that there is a correlation between corporeity and emotions. The experimental group has reached a much bigger consciousness of the body language right from the investigated emotions. The control sample, instead, even if it has a basic knowledge of the fundamental human emotions, has had difficulties to associate the mimic face to the corresponding emotion, this way it mixes up the different emotions. This demonstrates that corporeity and emotions go at the same pace.

Enhancing social cognition by training children in emotion understanding: A primary school study

We investigated whether training school-age children in emotion understanding had a significant effect on their social cognition. Participants were 110 children (mean age=7years 3months) assigned to training and control conditions. Over a 2-month intervention program, after the reading of illustrated scenarios based on emotional scripts, the training group was engaged in conversations on emotion understanding, whereas the control group was simply asked to produce a drawing about the story. The training group outperformed the control group on emotion comprehension, theory of mind, and empathy, and the positive training outcomes for emotion understanding remained stable over 6months. Implications of the findings are discussed.

The relationship between emotional competence and hostile/prosocial behavior in Albanian preschoolers: An exploratory study

We explored the relationship between the ascribed tendency of Albanian preschoolers’ to take on prosocial and/or hostile roles and their empathy and emotion comprehension. Participants were 63 preschoolers (3- to 6-years-old) and six teachers. Pupils’ empathy and hostile/prosocial roles were assessed via teacher reports and their emotional comprehension through a non-verbal test. The results confirmed the pattern of relationships previously found in Italian preschoolers ( Belacchi &amp; Farina, 2010 , 2012 ) among children’s roles in bullying, developmental stage of emotion comprehension, and empathic disposition. Differences emerged regarding Albanian teachers’ attributions of roles and empathic disposition as a function of gender; they also perceived children displaying hostile behavior as having strong perspective-taking abilities. This evaluation style may be culture-specific and related to the values of a society-in-transition such as Albania.

The Romantic Model of 2001: A Space Odyssey

Cet essai examine le film de Stanley Kubrick 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) à la lumière de méthodes qui sont en phase avec le romantisme européen. Dans une telle perspective, l’utilisation d’une imagerie abstraite et d’une chronologie non linéaire reconfigure le mode de réception du film pour en souligner certains phénomènes typiquement romantiques tels que le renouvellement de la perception, la transcendance temporelle et le sublime. Puisque ces qualités sont généralement associées au cinéma expérimental américain — un genre lié de façon explicite aux films de Kubrick — leur présence dans un film-spectacle de science-fiction à gros budget remet en question notre capacité à définir 2001 comme un film narratif et mimétique au sens usuel du terme. Au bout du compte, ces éléments convergent vers une façon de regarder le film comme une allégorie évolutionniste complexe qui implique le spectateur dans son canevas symbolique, lecture du film soutenue par les théorisations du cinéma faites par Gilles Deleuze, Fredric Jameson et plusieurs autres.

Improving Emotion Comprehension and Social Skills in Early Childhood through Philosophy for Children

The relationship between emotion comprehension and social competence from very young ages has been addressed in numerous studies in the field of developmental psychology. Emotion knowledge in childhood seems to have its roots in the conversations and explanations children hear about what emotions are and how to manage them. Given that behavioral interventions often do not achieve medium-term improvements or generalization to other contexts, this study evaluates the results of an intervention using the Thinking Emotions program. This program uses Philosophy for Children (P4C) as the work format and is based on the idea that reflection and dialogue among peers is one of the most effective ways to interiorize significant knowledge. The program was applied during one school year in two preschool classrooms (one class of 4-year-olds and one class of 5-year-olds). Comparisons of the pre- and post-treatment measures of the control (N=28) and experimental (N=32) groups show significant improvements in emotion comprehension and social competence in the 5-year-old children and improvements related to social competence in the 4-year-olds.

Students’ Reading Comprehension Performance with Emotional Literacy-Based Strategy Intervention

An effective reading comprehension process demands a strategy to enhance the cognitive ability to digest text information in the effort to elicit meaning contextually. In addition, the role of emotions also influences the efficacy of this process, especially in narrative text comprehension. This quasi-experimental study aims to observe students’ performance in the Reading Comprehension Test resulting from Emotional Literacy-Based Reading Comprehension Strategy (ELBRCS), which is a combination of cognitive and affective strategies. This study involved 90 students, whereby 45 students were clustered in the Experimental Group and received the ELBRCS intervension. The remaining 45 students were placed in the Control Group and underwent the conventional strategy (prevalent classroom method).The students’ reading comprehension performance was measured using the Reading Comprehension Test (RCT). The findings show that the experimental group received a higher score than the control group for RCT. The intervention has successfully increased student’s Reading Comprehension from literal comprehension to higher levels of comprehension i.e. inferential, evaluative and appreciative levels, as indicated by Barret’s Taxonomy.