Cognitive-Developmental Processes in the Integration of Concepts about Emotions and the Self

The present paper focuses on children's ability to integrate seemingly contradictory emotions (e.g., happy and mad) as well as attributes about the self (e.g., smart and dumb). Findings documenting a five-stage developmental sequence of children's understanding of the simultaneity of two emotions are presented. This sequence is interpreted with a cognitive-developmental framework (Fischer's skill theory) that emphasizes the integration and differentiation of emotion concepts. The second topic involves an examination of the acknowledgment of opposing attributes within the sell system during adolescence. We were specifically interested in whether opposing attributes within the self were experienced as conflictual. The findings revealed that the identification of opposites and the experience of conflict is minimal in early adolescence, peaks in middle adolescence, and then declines in later adolescence. A combination of cognitive-developmental principles and socialization theory were suggested as the most appropriate framework for interpreting these patterns.