META-EMOTIONS: CONCEPT, STRUCTURE AND APPROACHES TO STUDY

Abstract

The article examines the concept of meta-emotions or second-order emotions. The latter are understood as the emotions that the subject experiences regarding his own emotions, as well as the emotions of another person. An analysis of the development of this construct in philosophical and psychological research is presented. In this context, the relevance of introducing the concept of meta-emotions into the categorical apparatus of psychology and the empirical study of meta-emotional processes is discussed. In psychological studies of meta-emotions, two approaches have been identified that have developed to date. First, meta-emotions are considered as a component of emotional education strategies that parents implement in relation to their children. Secondly, meta-emotions are studied as part of the development of the problem of emotional intelligence, in particular based on the phenomena of meta-mood. The article also discusses the question of the structure of meta-emotions. Options are analyzed that provide a general formal description of the structure of meta-emotional activity (the object of meta-emotions, goals in the context of which meta-emotional states arise, feedback between meta-emotions and emotional goals). At the same time, the model of J. Gottman et al. is presented, in which meta-emotions act as an essential component of parents’ approaches to the emotional regulation of the child’s behavior, which are different in their productivity. Conclusions are drawn regarding the possibility of using the model of parental meta-emotions in relation to situations of educational interaction between a teacher and a student. Purpose. The article is devoted to the topic of meta-emotions, which is relevant in the current state of development of psychology and pedagogy. The subject of analysis is meta-emotions in parent-child relationships. The author aims to explore the concept, structure and modern approaches to the study of meta-emotions, as well as to analyze the model of the influence of parental meta-emotions on the child’s results in the development of emotional self-regulation skills by J. Gottman and Katz and determine the possibilities of its use in relation to the interaction between teacher and student. Methodology. The basis of the study is observation, the method of generalization of independent characteristics and twin methods. Results. The results of the work are that the author emphasizes the presence of a close relationship between the child’s ability for emotional self-regulation based on the understanding of meta-emotions by the subjects of education represented by parents or teachers. Practical implications. The results of the study can be applied in the field of psychological and pedagogical interaction between subjects of education and students based on the analysis of meta-emotions and emotional self-regulation.

Keywords

• meta-emotions
• metacognition
• regulation of a child’s emotions
• emotional self-regulation of the child
• models of regulation of children's emotions