Individual differences in understanding emotion: the role of attachment status and psychological discourse

Recent studies have shown how children develop an understanding of emotion: pre-school children identify and talk accurately about the basic emotions and increasingly appreciate the way that desires and beliefs give rise to those emotions. However, children also display stable individual differences in their understanding. Two different interpretations of such individual differences are discussed. Caregivers show more or less sensitivity to their children's emotions. One interpretation, therefore, is that early variation in caregiver sensitivity is responsible for individual differences in children's attachment status; in turn, children's attachment status leads to enduring differences in their understanding of emotion. A second interpretation focuses on the fact that children grow up in families that vary in the manner and extent to which feelings are put into words. Accordingly, early differences in family discourse about emotion, especially on the part of the primary caregiver, may lead to variation among children in their understanding of emotion. Evidence supporting or undermining these two different interpretations is reviewed.