Children's abilities and strategies in managing the facial display of affect

Springer Science and Business Media LLC - Tập 16 - Trang 215-230 - 1992
Amy G. Halberstadt1, D. Kirk Grotjohn1, Cheryl A. Johnson1, Meredith Swanson Furth1, M. Melissa Greig2
1Department of Psychology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh
2Dutchess County (New York) Board of Cooperative Educational Services, USA

Tóm tắt

To examine children's ability to control their affective expression facially, 68 second- and fourth-grade boys and girls were unobtrusively videotaped while discussing six self-chosen activities about which they felt positively, neutrally, or negatively. Children then performed three facial management tasks: (a)inhibition (showing no emotion instead of a felt emotion); (b)simulation (showing an emotion when not feeling anything); and (c)masking (showing an emotion that is different than what is felt). Twelve raters judged the edited tapes of the children's performance for affect positivity and deceptiveness. Repeated measures ANOVAs indicated, in contrast to previous research, that children were highly competent in managing facial displays. To understand children's techniques for managing affective displays, two raters categorized the primary cognitive strategies children used. Results showed that fourth graders used more complex strategies more often than second graders. These results highlight children's skill and strategies in affect management.

Tài liệu tham khảo

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