Psihološka Obzorja (Jun 2007)
Understanding the control of emotions in childhood and adolescence
Abstract
The paper deals with control of emotions, which is important for effective social interaction. We investigated how children and adolescents comprehend control over the emotions of joy, sadness, anger, and fear. In a half-structured interview, 7-, 9-, and 11-year-old children/adolescents (N = 54) responded whether they believe people are able to control the intensity and quality of four basic emotions and what are the reasons for their opinion. The results and their compatibility with findings of previous studies on the development of understanding emotions in other areas have led to the following conclusions: In middle and late childhood and early adolescence explanations of control of emotions show that middle level of understanding prevails (e. g. a person believes that people control their emotions by a single action or thought). Compared to children, early adolescents more often explain control of emotions at higher levels (e. g. they believe that people control their emotions with longer mental processes). Compared to children in late childhood and adolescents, children in middle childhood more often explain control of emotions at lower levels of understanding (e. g. they believe that people control their emotions with behaviour).
