Abstract
There are several good reasons for studying children’s insight into their emotional processes. We occasionally think of an emotional reaction as being more-or-less involuntary, but it is obvious that, in certain respects, we can exercise control over our emotions. We can be taught to hide our emotions or we can be taught to exaggerate them. Indeed, some cultures expect their members to inhibit displays of emotion, and others encourage lavish displays. These cultures presumably teach their children both explicitly and implicitly what is acceptable. We also, as most psychotherapies presuppose, try to exercise control, not just over the outward display of our feelings but over the actual experience of emotion. We put anxiety-provoking thoughts out of our mind. Alternatively, we dwell on an emotionally charged episode in an effort to prolong the emotion. Thus, both our outward display of emotion and our emotional experience can be redirected and controlled. By analogy with the development of memory (Flavell & Wellman, 1977), therefore, we might expect the developing child to gradually acquire insight into such strategies for self-control and put them into practice.
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Harris, P.L. (1985). What Children Know about the Situations That Provoke Emotion. In: Lewis, M., Saarni, C. (eds) The Socialization of Emotions. Genesis of Behavior, vol 5. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-2421-8_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-2421-8_8
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