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Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood
Published on: February 11, 2017
The "disgust face" conveys anger to children
Sherri C Widen1, James A Russell
1Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA. widensh@bc.edu
Emotion (Washington, D.C.)
|August 4, 2010
Summary
Children often confuse the facial expression of disgust with anger. This study reveals that young children (4-9 years) are more likely to label a disgust face as anger, impacting their understanding of emotions.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Emotion Recognition
- Social Cognition
Background:
- Facial expressions are crucial for social communication and emotional understanding.
- Accurate recognition of emotions like disgust is vital for navigating social interactions.
- Previous research indicates potential variations in emotion labeling across age groups.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how children aged 4 to 9 years interpret the facial expression of disgust.
- To compare children's labeling and understanding of disgust with their interpretation of anger.
- To examine developmental differences in emotion recognition between children and adults.
Main Methods:
- Children (N=84, 4-9 years) and adults (N=22) were presented with standardized facial expressions.
- Participants were asked to label the emotion conveyed by each facial expression.
- Participants generated potential causes and consequences for the displayed emotions.
Main Results:
- Children were significantly more likely to label the 'disgust face' as 'anger' than 'disgust'.
- Children's generated causes and consequences for the 'disgust face' were similar to those for the 'angry face'.
- Adults accurately labeled the 'disgust face' as 'disgust' and provided contextually appropriate causes and consequences.
Conclusions:
- Young children may not reliably distinguish between the facial expressions of disgust and anger.
- This confusion suggests a potential developmental lag in the social cognition of disgust.
- Findings highlight the importance of targeted interventions to improve children's emotion recognition skills.
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