Processes in Emotional Socialization

Abstract

This participant observation study of the emotional socialization of disturbed 3to 5-year-olds in a therapeutic schoolfocuses on how children are instructed to interpret their feelings, to identify what emotions are appropriate to feel and display, and to modify their expressive behaviors. Analysis shows that staff members make explicit verbal connections among three aspects of emotional experience-situational stimuli, expressive gestures, and emotion words-to teach children how to identify their feelings; the physiological sensations that accompany different emotions are not mentioned. The interactional context influences the specific verbal connections made for the child; in explaining the child's feelings, situational stimuli and emotion words are linked, but in explaining other people's feelings, expressive gestures and emotion labels are linked. Staff members offer much more elaborate explanations of normative feelings and displays when a child exhibits inappropriate affect or behavior. The results of this analysis help elaborate the sociocentric model of emotional socialization which was described by Harris and Olthof.

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