Identifying Emotions through Language Means in Early Childhood

1348

Abstract

The paper focuses on the development of higher mental functions responsible for emotional regulation and describes a study revealing the stages in which young children acquire certain language means that help them to identify emotional states and understand emotional relationships. The sample of the study consisted of 94 children aged from 1.8 to 7.5 years. The outcomes suggest that at the age of 1.8 the children begin to acquire skills necessary for recognizing emotions basing on what the adults tell them. The revealed general tendency in the development of object reference of words is as follows: at first the children are able to identify emotional states and relationships according to the context of intersubjective interactions; later, basing on facial expressions; and finally, basing on pictograms of facial expressions. At the age of 2.4 years the children begin to employ language tools for identifying and naming emotions in others by themselves. Basing on their experience of analyzing emotions in others, the children then gradually develop the skills for identifying and partly rec¬ognizing their own emotions. Such skills may actually be found in some children at the age of 3.5 years, but usually it is not until the age of 7.5 that they can be observed in most preschoolers.

General Information

Keywords: higher mental functions, emotional states and relationships, language means and speech actions, emotional regulation in ontogenesis

Journal rubric: Developmental Psychology

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/chp.2015110206

For citation: Malanov S.V. Identifying Emotions through Language Means in Early Childhood. Kul'turno-istoricheskaya psikhologiya = Cultural-Historical Psychology, 2015. Vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 57–67. DOI: 10.17759/chp.2015110206. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

References

  1. Breslav G.M. Psikhologiya emotsii [Psychology of emo­tions]. Moscow: Smysl; Publ. tsentr "Akademiya", 2004. 544 p.
  2. Vekker L.M. Psikhika i real'nost': edinaya teoriya psikhicheskikh protsessov [Mind and Reality: a unified theory of mental processes]. Moscow: Smysl, 1998. 685 p.
  3. Vilyunas V.K. Psikhologicheskie mekhanizmy motivat­sii cheloveka [Psychological mechanisms of human motiva­tion]. Moscow: MGU, 1990. 288 p.
  4. Vygotskii L.S. Sobranie sochinenii: Vol. 6. Nauchnoe nasledstvo [Works: In 6 v. V. 6. The scientific legacy]. Moscow: "Pedagogika", 1984. 400 p.
  5. Gal'perin P.Ya. Lektsii po psikhologii [Lectures on psy­chology]. Moscow: Knizhnyi dom "Universitet": Vysshaya shkola, 2002. 480 p.
  6. Gal'perin P.Ya. Psikhologiya kak ob"ektivnaya nauka [Psychology as an objective science]. Moscow: Moskovskii psikhologo-sotsial'nyi institut; Voronezh: Publ. NPO "MODEK", 1998. 400 p.
  7. Gushchina D.V. Vklyuchenie yazykovykh sredstv v organizatsiyu emotsional'nykh sostoyanii u detei rannego i doshkol'nogo vozrasta [The inclusion of linguistic resources in the organization of emotional states in infants and preschool children]. Vypusknaya kvalifikatsionnaya rabota. Ioshkar-Ola, MarGU, kafedra obshchei i prikladnoi psikhologii, 2014.
  8. Gushchina D.V. Problema vklyucheniya yazykovykh sredstv v organizatsiyu emotsional'nykh sostoyanii u detei rannego i doshkol'nogo vozrasta [The problem of inclusion of linguistic resources in the organization of emotional states in infants and preschool children]. Studencheskaya nauka i XXI vek [Students' Science and XXI century], 2014, no. 11, pp. 105—107.
  9. Zagvozdkin V.K. Emotsional'nyi intellekt i ego razvitie [Emotional intelligence and its development]. Kul'turno­istoricheskaya psikhologiya [Cultural­Historical Psychology], 2008, no. 2, pp. 97—103.
  10. Zaporozhets A.V. Razvitie emotsional'noi regulyatsii deistvii u rebenka [The development of emotional regulation of the child's actions]. Izbrannye psikhologicheskie trudy: Vol. 1. Psikhicheskoe razvitie rebenka [Selected psychological works: In 2 t. T. 1. Mental development of children]. Moscow: Pedagogi­ka, 1986, pp. 216—221.
  11. Lisina M.I. Obshchenie, lichnost' i psikhika rebenka [Communication, personality and psyche of the child]. Moscow: Publ. "Institut prakticheskoi psikhologii", Voronezh: NPO "MODEK", 1997. 384 p.
  12. Malanov S.V. Sistemno-deyatel'nostnyi kul'turno­istoricheskii podkhod k analizu i ob"yasneniyu psikhicheskikh yavlenii: ob"yasnitel'nye printsipy i teoreticheskie polozhe­niya [Systematic-activity of cultural-historical approach to the analysis and explanation of psychic phenomena: explanatory principles and theoretical positions]. Moscow: Publ. Moskovskogo psikhologo-sotsial'nogo instituta; Voronezh: Publ. NPO "MODEK", 2010. 496 p.
  13. Malanov S.V. Dve al'ternativnye paradigmy v nauchno ori­entirovannoi psikhologii. [Two alternative paradigms in the scien­tific-oriented psychology]. Paradigmy v psikhologii: naukovedcheskii analiz. [Paradigm in psychology: the scientific analysis].Moscow: Publ. "Institut psikhologii RAN", 2012, pp. 288—307.
  14. Malanov S.V. K voprosu o psikhologicheskikh mekha­nizmakh razvitiya emotsional'noi regulyatsii u zhivotnykh i cheloveka [On the question of the psychological mechanisms of emotional regulation in animals and humans]. Vestnik Mariiskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta [Vestnik Mari State University], 2013, no. 11, pp. 56—61.
  15. Nartova-Bochaver S.K., Potapova A.V. Uroven' alek­sitimii kak indikator psikhologicheskoi ustoichivosti studen­tov tekhnicheskikh i gumanitarnykh vuzov [The level of alex­ithymia as an indicator of psychological stability of the stu­dents of technical and liberal arts colleges]. Psikhologicheskaya nauka i obrazovanie [Psychological Science and Education], 2012, no. 3, pp. 10—17.
  16. Semago M.Ya. Diagnosticheskii komplekt psikhologa [Diagnostic kit psychologist]. Moscow. 2007. 17 p.
  17. Sergienko E.A. Rannee kognitivnoe razvitie: Novyi vzglyad. [Early cognitive development: A new look]. Moscow: Publ. "Institut psikhologii RAN", 2006. 464 p.
  18. El'konin D.B. Psikhicheskoe razvitie v detskikh vozrastakh: Izbrannye psikhologicheskie trudy [Mental devel­opment in childhood: Selected psychological works]. Moscow: Moskovskii psikhologo-sotsial'nyi institut; Voronezh: NPO "MODEK", 2001. 416 p.

Information About the Authors

Sergey V. Malanov, Doctor of Psychology, Associate Professor, Associate Professor, Chair of Psychology in Education, Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1234-077X, e-mail: MalanovSV@mail.ru

Metrics

Views

Total: 3433
Previous month: 14
Current month: 7

Downloads

Total: 1348
Previous month: 4
Current month: 1