Abstract
In this study we assessed individual differences among preschoolers' emotion understanding, verbal ability, and gender role behavior. Fifty-three children (M = 3 years, 5 months; 26 girls, 27 boys) participated in task that used puppets to assess their understanding of simple (happy, sad) and complex emotions (proud, embarrassed) and a standard vocabulary task. Parents completed a questionnaire on the frequency of their children's gender-typed behavior. Results indicated positive associations between children's total emotion understanding and both general verbal ability (particularly for boys) and parents' perceptions of stereotypic feminine behaviors. Gender analysis revealed that, independent of vocabulary ability, girls scored higher than boys on emotion labeling and understanding of complex emotions, especially the concept of pride. Results are discussed in relation to individual differences and effects of sociocultural context.
Similar content being viewed by others
references
Astington, J. (1993). The child's discovery of the mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Astington, J., & Jenkins, J. (1999). A longitudinal study of the relation between language and theory of mind development. Developmental Psychology, 35, 1311-1320.
Banerjee, R., & Yuill, N. (1999). Children's understanding of self-presentational display rules: Associations with mental-state understanding. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 17, 111-124.
Barrett, K. (1995). A functionalist approach to shame and guilt. In J. Tangney & K. Fischer (Eds.), Self-conscious emotions: The psychology of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride (pp. 25-63). New York: Guilford Press.
Brody, L. (1999). Gender, emotion, and the family. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Brody, L., & Hall, J. (1993). Gender and emotion. In M. Lewis & J. Haviland (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (pp. 447-460). New York: Guilford Press.
Bruner, J. (1996). The culture of education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bruner, J., & Kalmar, D. (1997). Narrative and metanarrative in the construction of self. In M. Ferrari & R. Sternberg (Eds.), Self-awareness: Its nature and development (pp. 1-52). New York: Guilford Press.
Bybee, J. (Ed.). (1998). Guilt and children. San Diego, MA: Academic Press.
Cain, K., & Staneck, C. (1999, April). Shame, helplessness, and social cognition in preschoolers. Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Albuquerque, NM.
Capps, L., Yirmiya, N., & Sigman, M. (1992). Understanding of simple and complex emotions in non-retarded children with autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 33, 1169-1182.
Carroll, J., & Steward, J. (1984). The role of cognitive development in children's understandings of their own feelings. ChildDevelopment, 55, 1486-1492.
Casey, R., & Fuller, L. (1994). Maternal regulation of children's emotions. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 18, 57-89.
Cassidy, J., Ross, D., Butkovsky, L., & Braungart, J. (1992). Family–peer connections: The roles of emotional expressiveness within the family and children's understanding of emotions. Child Development, 63, 603-618.
Cole, M. (1990). Cultural psychology: A once and future discipline? In J. J. Berman (Ed.), Cross-cultural perspectives: Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Cutting, A., & Dunn, J. (1999). Theory of mind, emotion understanding, language and family background: Individual differences and inter-relations. Child Development, 70, 853-865.
Denham, S. (1998). Emotional development in young children. New York: Guilford Press.
Denham, S., Blair, K., DeMulder, E., Levitas, J., Sawyer, K., Auerback-Major, et al. (2003). Preschool emotional competence: Pathway to social competence? Child Development, 74, 238-256.
Denham, S., Cook, M., & Zoller, D. (1992). Baby looks very sad: Implications of conversations about feelings between mother and preschooler. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 10, 301-315.
Denham, S., von Salisch, M., Olthof, T., Kochanoff, A., & Caverly, S. (2002). Emotional and social development in childhood. In P. Smith & C. Hart (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of childhood social development (pp. 307-328). London: Blackwell.
de Villiers, P. (1999, April). Language and thought: False complements and false beliefs. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Albuquerque, NM.
Dunn, J. (1988). The beginning of social understanding. Oxford: Blackwell.
Dunn, J., & Hughes, C. (1998). Young children's understanding of emotions within close relationships. Cognition and Emotion, 12, 171-190.
Dunn, J., Maguire, M., & Brown, J. (1995). The development of children's moral sensibility: Individual differences and emotion understanding. Developmental Psychology, 31, 649-659.
Dunn, L., & Dunn, L. (1997). Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (3rd ed.). Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.
Evans, G., Maxwell, L., & Hart, B. (1999). Parental language and verbal responsiveness to children in crowded homes. Developmental Psychology, 35, 1020-1023.
Fivush, R. (1989). Exploring sex differences in the emotional content of mother–child conversations about the past. Sex Roles, 20, 675-691.
Gergen, K. (2001). Social construction in context. London: Sage.
Golombok, S., & Rust, J. (1993). The pre-school activities inventory: A standardized assessment of gender role in children. Psychological Assessment, 5, 131-136.
Griffin, S. (1995). A cognitive-developmental analysis of pride, shame, and embarrassment in middle childhood. In J. Tangney & K. Fischer (Eds.), Self-conscious emotions: The psychology of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride (pp. 219-236). New York: Guilford Press.
Haden, C., Haine, R., & Fivush, R. (1997). Developing narrative structure in parent–child reminiscing across the preschool years. Developmental Psychology, 33, 295-307.
Halpern, D. (1992). Sex differences in cognitive abilities (2rd nd.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Harre, R. (1986). The social construction of emotions. Oxford: Blackwell.
Harris, P. (1989). Children and emotion: The development of psychological understanding. Cambridge, UK: Blackwell.
Hughes, C., Deater-Deckard, K., & Cutting, A. (1999). `Speak roughly to your little boy'? Sex differences in the relations between parenting and preschoolers' understanding of mind. Social Development, 8, 143-160.
Hughes, C., & Dunn, J. (1999). Theory of mind and emotion understanding: Longitudinal associations with mental-state talk between young friends. Developmental Psychology, 34, 1026-1037.
Isenberg, A. (1980). Natural pride and natural shame. In A. Rorty (Ed.), Explaining emotions (pp. 355-383). Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Jenkins, J., & Astington, J. (1996). Cognitive factors and family structure associated with theory of mind development in young children. Developmental Psychology, 32, 70-78.
Kagan, J. (1987). Introduction. In J. Kagan & S. Lamb (Eds.), The emergence of morality in young children (pp. ix-xx). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kitayama, S., Markus, H., & Matsumoto, H. (1995). Culture, self, and emotion: A cultural perspective on “self-conscious” emotions. In J. Tangney & K. Fischer (Eds.), Self-conscious emotions: The psychology of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride (pp. 439-464). New York: Guilford Press.
Kochanska, G. (1994). Maternal reports of conscience development and temperament in Young children. Child Development, 65, 852-868.
Kopp, C. (1989). Regulation of distress and negative emotions: A developmental view. Developmental Psychology, 25, 343-354.
Kuebli, J., & Fivush, R. (1992). Gender differences in parent–child conversations about past emotions. Sex Roles, 27, 683-698.
Laible, D., & Thompson, R. (1998). Attachment and emotional understanding in preschool. Developmental Psychology, 34, 1038-1045.
Lewis, M. (1995). Embarrassment: The emotion of self-exposure and evaluation. In J. Tangney & K. Fischer (Eds.), Self-conscious emotions: The psychology of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride (pp. 198-218). New York: GuilfordPress.
Lillard, A. (1997). Other folks' theories of mind and behavior. Psychological Science, 14, 96-107.
Lutz, C. (1988). Unnatural emotions: Everyday sentiments on a Micronesian atoll and their challenge to Western theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lutz, C., & White, G. (1986). The anthropology of emotions. Annual Reviews in Anthrolopology, 15, 405-435.
Maccoby, E. (1998). The two sexes: Growing up apart, coming together. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UniversityPress.
Markus, H., & Kitayama, S. (1994). The cultural construction of self and emotion: Implications for social behavior. In S. Kitayama & H. Markus (Eds.), Emotion and culture: Empirical studies of mutual influence (pp. 89-130). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Nelson, K. (1996). Language in cognitive development: The emergence of the mediated mind. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Nussbaum, M. (2000). Emotions and social norms. In L. Nucci, G. Saxe, & E. Turiel (Eds.), Culture, thought, and development (pp. 41-63). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Parent, S., Normandeau, S., Cossett-Richard, M., & Letarte, M. (1999, April). Preschoolers' emotional competence and social behavior within the family: May gender differences be in the eye of the beholder? Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Albuquerque, NM.
Ridgeway, D., Waters, E., & Kuczaj, S. (1985). Acquisition of emotion-descriptive language: Receptive and productive vocabulary norms for ages 18 months to 6 years. Developmental Psychology, 5, 901-908.
Ruble, D., & Martin, C. (1998). Gender development. In N. Eisenberg (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Social, emotional and personality development (5th ed., pp. 933-1016). New York: Wiley.
Russell, J. (1989). Culture, scripts, and children's understanding of emotion. In C. Saarni & P. Harris (Eds.), Children's understanding of emotion (pp. 293-318). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Russell, J. (1990). The preschoolers' understanding of the causes and consequences of emotion. Child Development, 61, 1872-1881.
Russell, J., & Paris, F. (1994). Do children acquire concepts for complex emotions abruptly? International Journal of Behavioral Development, 17, 349-365.
Saarni, C. (1999). The development of emotional competence. New York: Guilford Press.
Saarni, C., & Harris, P. (Eds.). (1989). Children's understanding of emotions. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Salovey, P., & Sluyter, D. (1997). Emotional development and emotional intelligence: Educational implications. New York: Basic Books.
Seidner, L., Stepik, D., & Feshbach, N. (1988). A developmental analysis of elementary school-aged children's concepts of pride and embarrassment. Child Development, 59, 367-377.
Stipek, D. (1995). The development of pride and shame in toddlers. In J. Tangney & K. Fischer (Eds.), Self-conscious emotions: The psychology of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride (pp. 237-252). New York: Guilford Press.
Stipek, D., Recchia, S., & McClintic, S. (1992). Self-evaluation in young children. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 57(1, Serial No. 226), 1-84.
Tangney, J., & Fischer, K. (Eds.). (1995). Self-conscious emotions: The psychology of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride. New York: Guildford Press.
Tavris, C. (1992). The mismeasure of women. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Thompson, R. (1994). Emotional regulation: A theme in search of definition. In N. Fox (Ed.), The development of emotion regulation: Biological and behavioral considerations. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 59(2–3, Serial No. 240), 25-52.
Vinden, P. G., & Astington, J. W. (2000). Culture and understanding other minds. In S. Baron-Cohen, H. Tager-Flusberg, & D. Cohen (Eds.), Understanding other minds: Perspectives from autism and cognitive neuroscience (2nd ed., pp. 503-519). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (Original works published 1930, 1933, 1935).
Wellman, H., & Banerjee, M. (1991). Mind and emotion: Children's understanding of the emotional consequences of beliefs and emotion. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 9, 191-214.
Whissell, C., & Nicholson, H. (1991). Children's freely produced synonyms for seven key emotions. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 72, 1107-1111.
White, A. (1994). Affecting culture: Emotions and morality in everyday life. In S. Kitayama & H. Markus (Eds.), Emotion and culture: Empirical studies of mutual influence (pp. 219-239). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Wierzbicka, A. (1994). Emotion, language, and cultural scripts. In S. Kitayama & H. Markus (Eds.), Emotion and culture: Empirical studies of mutual influence (pp. 133-196). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bosacki, S.L., Moore, C. Preschoolers' Understanding of Simple and Complex Emotions: Links with Gender and Language. Sex Roles 50, 659–675 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:SERS.0000027568.26966.27
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:SERS.0000027568.26966.27