Distinguishing Between Negative Emotions: Children's Understanding of the Social-regulatory Aspects of Emotion

This paper deals with children's understanding of the social-regulatory aspects of emotion. A total of 108 children between 6 and 12 years old responded to three vignettes describing social dilemmas. In each story one child (the expresser) displayed anger, sadness, or fear to their partner (the recipient), and children were asked about the expresser's goals as well as the effects of the emotion on recipients' actions and emotions. Anger expression was associated with children thinking that expressers feel dominant in interaction. When anger was expressed during interaction children thought that it elicited more anger and aggression from recipients. Sadness and fear elicited prosocial responses from recipients, including comfort, proximity, and goal reinstatement. The differentiation between anger, sadness, and fear was greater in older than in younger children. Results are discussed in terms of the differentiation between emotions, the development of individual differences in emotion expression, and emotion regulation.