Children's Knowledge of the Situations that Provoke Emotion

In two studies, the development of children's knowledge of the situations that provoke emotion was examined. In the first study, English and Dutch children aged 5, 7, 10 and 14 years were presented with 20 common emotion terms and asked to describe situations likely to provoke each emotion. For children of both nationalities, knowledge of the determinants of emotion was not restricted to emotions that can be easily linked with a discrete facial expression. It rapidly extended to more complex emotions such as pride, worry, or jealousy. A second study undertaken with children living in an isolated Himalayan village confirmed and extended these basic findings. Additional analysis of both the accuracy with which children suggested determinants, and inter-relationships among those determinants suggested that children acquire such knowledge quite abruptly for any given emotion term.