Title: The Child's Understanding of Emotion: Developmental Change and the Family Environment
Abstract: Journal of Child Psychology and PsychiatryVolume 35, Issue 1 p. 3-28 The Child's Understanding of Emotion: Developmental Change and the Family Environment Paul L. Harris, Corresponding Author Paul L. HarrisRequests for reprints to: P. L. Harris, Department of Experimental Psychology, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3UD, U.K.Search for more papers by this author Paul L. Harris, Corresponding Author Paul L. HarrisRequests for reprints to: P. L. Harris, Department of Experimental Psychology, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3UD, U.K.Search for more papers by this author First published: January 1994 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.1994.tb01131.xCitations: 87AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat References Adlam-Hill, S. & Harris, P. L. (1988). Understanding of display rules for emotion by normal and maladjusted children. Unpublished paper, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford. Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E. & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: a psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale , NJ : Erlbaum. Avis, J. & Harris, P. L. (1991). Belief-desire reasoning among Baka children: evidence for a universal conception of mind. Child Development, 62, 400–467. Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations; of thought and action: a social cognitive analysis. Englewood Cliff , NJ ; Prentice-Hall. Baron-Cohen, S. (1991). Do people with autism understand what causes emotion? Child Development, 62, 385–395. Bauer, P. J. (1992). Holding it all together: how enabling relations facilitate young children's recall. Cognitive Development, 7, 1–28. Bauer, P. J. & Fivush, R. (1992). Constructing event representations: building tin a Foundation of variation and enabling relations. Cognitive Development, 7, 381–401. Belsky, J., Rovine, M., & Taylor, D. (1984). The Pennsylvania infant and family development project: III. The origins of individual differences in infant-mother attachment. Child Development, 55, 718–728. Bettes, B. A. (1988) Maternal depression and motherese: temporal and intonational features. Child Development, 59, 1089–1096. Boccia, M. & Campos, J. J. (1989). Maternal emotional signals, social referencing, and infants' reactions to strangers. New Directions for Child Development, 44, 24–29. Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss: Volume 1, Attachment, New York : Basic Books. Bowlby, J. (1980). Attachment and loss. Volume 3, Loss, New York : Basic Books. Bretherton, I. (1985). Attachment theory: retrospect and prospect. In I. Bretherton & E. Waters, (Eds), Growing points of attachment theory and research (pp. 3–34). Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50, (1–2, Serial No. 209). Bretherton, I. (1990). Open communication and internal working models: their role in the development of attachment relationships. In R. A. Thompson, (Eds), Socioemotional development: Nebraska symposium on motivation (pp. 57–113). Lindon University of Nebraska Press. Bretherton, I., Fritz, Zahn-Waxler, C. & Ridgeway, D. (1986). Learning to talk about emotions: a functionalist perspective. Child Development, 57, 529–548. Bretherton, I., Ridgeway, D. & Cassidy, J. (1990). Assessing internal working models of the attachment relationship. In M. T. Greenberg, D. Cicchetti & E. M. Cummings (eds). Attachment in the preschool years, (pp. 273–308). Chicago : University of Chicago Press. Brown, J. R. & Dunn, J. (1991). "You can cry, mum": the social and developmental implications of talk about internal states. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 9, 237–257. Brown, J. R. & Dunn, J. (1992). Talk with your mother or your sibling? Developmental changes in early family conversations about feelings. Child Development, 63, 336–349. Bryant, P. E. (1990). Empirical evidence for causes in development. In G. E. Butterworth & P. E. Bryant, (Eds), The causes of development (pp. 33–45). London : Harvester Wheatsheaf. Butterworth, G. E. & Cochran, E. (1980). Towards a mechanism of joint visual attention in human infancy. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 3, 253–270. Camras, L. A. & Sachs, V. B. (1991). Social referencing and caretaker expressive behavior in a day care setting. Infant Behavior and Development. 14, 27–36. Cohn, J. F., Campbell, S. B., Matias, R. & Hopkins, J. (1990). Face-to-face interactions of postpartum depressed and nondepressed mother-infant pairs at 2 months. Developmental Psychology. 26, 15–23. Cohn, J. F., Matias, R., Tronick, E. Z., Council, D. & Lyons-Ruth, D. (1986), Face-to-face interaction of depressed mothers and their infants. In E. Z. Tronick & T. Field, (Eds), Maternal depression and infant disturbance (pp 31–45). San Fancisco : Jossey-Bass. Cole, P. M. (1986). Children's spontaneous control of facial expression. Child Development, 57, 1309–1321. Cox, A. D., Puckering, C. Pound, A. & Mills, M. (1987). The impact of maternal depression of young children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 28, 917–928. Cummings, E. M. (1987). Coping with background anger in early childhood. Child Development, 58, 976–984. Cummings, E. M. & Cummings, J. (1988), A process-oriented approach to children's coping with adults' angry behavior. Developmental Review, 8, 296–321. Cummings, E. M., Iannotti, R. J. & Zahn-Waxler, C. (1985). Influence of conflict between adults on the emotions and affection of young children. Developmental Psychology, 21, 495–507. Cummings, E. M., Zahn-Waxler, C. & Radke-Yarrow, M. (1981). Young children's respon expressions of anger and affection by Others in the family. Child Development, 52, 1275–1282. Cummings, E. M., Zahn-Waxler, C. & Radke-Yarrow, M. (1984). Developmental changes in children's read lions to anger in the home. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 25, 63–74. Cummings, J. S., Pellegrini, D. S. & Notarius, C. I. (1989). Children's responses to angry adult behavior as a function of marital distress and history of intraparent hostility. Child Development, 60, 1035–1045. Dix, T. (1991). The affective organization of parenting; Adaptive and maladaptive processes. Psychological Bulletin, 110, 3–25. Dodge, K. A., Bales, J. E. & Pettit, G. S. (1991). Mechanisms in the cycle of violence. Science, 250, 1678–1683. Downey, G. & Coyne, J. C. (1990). Children of depressed parents: an integrative review. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 50–76. Dunn, J., Bretherton, I. & Munn, P. (1987). Conversations about feeling states between mothers and their young children. Developmental Psychology, 23, 132–139. Dunn, J. & Brown, J. (in press). Affect expression in the family, children's understanding of emotions, and their interactions with others. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly. Dunn, J., Brown, J. & Beardsall, L. (1991a). Family talk about feeling states and children's later understanding of others' emotions. Developmental Psychology, 27, 448–455. Dunn, J., Brown, J., Slomkowaki, C., Tesla, C. & Youngblade, L. (1991b). Young children's understanding of other people's feelings and beliefs: individual differences and their antecedents. Child Development, 62, 1352–1366. Dunn, J. & Dale, N. (1984). I a Daddy: 2-year-olds collaboration in joint pretend with the sibling and with mother. In I. Bretherton, (Eds), Symbolic play; the development of social understanding, (pp. 3–41). New York : Academic Press. Ellsworth, C. P., Muir, D. W. & Hains, S. M. J. (1993). Social competence and person-object differentiation: an analysis of the still-face-effect. Developmental Psychology, 29, 63–73. Fernald, A. (1992). Human maternal vocalizations to infants as biologically relevant signals: an evolutionary perspective. In J. H. Barkow, L. Cosmides and J. Tooby, (Eds), The adapted mind: evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture (pp. 391–128). Oxford : Oxford University Press. Fernald, A., Taeschner, T., Dunn, J., Papousek, M., Boysson-Bardies, B. & Fukui, I. (1988). A cross-language study of prosodic modifications in mothers' and fathers' speech to pre-verbal infants. Journal of Child Language. 16, 477–501. Field, T. (1984). Early interactions between infants and their post-partum depressed mothers. Infant Behavior and Development, 7, 517–522. Field, T., Healy, B., Goldstein, S. & Gathertz, M. (1990). Behavior-state matching and synchrony in mother-infant interactions of nondepressed versus depressed dyads. Developmental Psychology, 26, 7–14. Field, T., Healy, B., Goldstein, S., Perry, S., Bendell, D., Schanberg, S., Zimmerman, E. & Kuhn, C. (1988). Infants of depressed mothers shim: "depressed" behavior even with nondepressed adults. Child Development, 59, 1569–1579. Field, T., Sandburg, D., Garcia, R., Vega-Lahr, N., Goldstein, S. & Guy, L. (1985). Pregnancy problems, postpartum depression and early mother-infant interactions. Developmental Psychology, 21, 1152–1156. Flavell, J. H., Green, F. L. & Flavell, E. R. (1986). Development of knowledge about the appearance reality distinction. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 51, (1, Serial No. 212). Gardner, D., Harris, P. L., Ohmoto, M., & Hamazaki, T. (1988). Japanese children's understanding of the distinction between real and apparent emotion. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 11, 203–218. Goldman, A. (1992). In defense of the simulation theory. Mind and Language, 7, 104–119. Goodman, S. H. & Brumley, H. E. (1990), Schizophrenic and depressed mothers, relational deficits in parenting. Developmental Psychology, 26, 31–39. Gopnik, A., & Arlington, J. W. (1988). Children's understanding of representational change and its relation to the understanding of the appearance-reality distinction. Child Development, 59, 26–27. Gopnik, A. & Wellman, H. M. (1992). Why the child's theory of mind really is a theory. Mind and Language, 7, 145–171. Gordon, R (1986). Folk psychology as simulation. Mind and Language, 1, 158–171. Gross, D. & Harris, P. L. (1988). Understanding false beliefs about emotion. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 11, 475–488. Grossman, K., Grossman, K. E., Spangler, G., Suess, G. & Unzer, L. (1985). Maternal sensitivity and newborns' orientation responses as related to quality of attachment in Northern Germany. In I. Bretherton & E. Waters, (Eds), Growing points of attachment theory and research (pp. 233–256). Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50, (1–2, Serial No. 209). Hadwin, J. & Perner, J. (1991). Pleased and surprised: children's cognitive theory of emotion. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 9, 215–234. Harris, P. I. (1989). Children and emotion. Oxford : Blackwell. Harris, P. L. (1991). The work of the imagination. In A. Whiten, (Eds), Natural theories of mind (pp. 283–304). Oxford : Blackwell. Harris, P. L. (1992). From simulation to folk psychology: die case for development. Mind and Language, 7, 120–144. Harris, P. L. (1993). Pretending and planning. In S. Baron-Cohen, H. Tager-Flusberg & D. Cohen, (Eds), Understanding other minds: perspective from autism (pp. 228–246), Oxford : Oxford University Press. Harris, P. L. (in press). Children's awareness and lack of awareness of emotion. In D. Cicchetti & S. L. Toth, (Eds), Rochester symposium on developmental psychopatology. Volume VI Emotion, cognition and representation. Rochester , NY : University of Rochester Press. Harris, P. L., Donnelly, K., Guz, G. R. & Pitt-Watson, R. (1986). Children's understanding of the distinction between real and apparent emotion. Child Development, 57, 895–909. Harris, P. L. & Gross, D. (1988). Children's understanding of real and apparent emotion. In J. W. Astington, P. L. Harris & D. R. Olson, (Eds), Developing theories of mind (pp. 295–314). New York : Cambridge University Press. Harris, P. L., Johnson, C. N., Hutton, D., Andrews, G. & Cooke, T. (1989). Young children's theory of mind and emotion. Cognition and Emotion. 3, 379–400. Harter, S. (1977). A cognitive-developmental approach to children's expression of conflicting feelings and a technique to facilitate such expression in play therapy. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 45, 417–432. Haviland, J. M. & Lelwica, M. (1987). The induced affect response: 10-week-old infants' responses to three emotional expressions. Developmental Psychology, 23, 97–104. Heinicke, C. & Westheimer, I. (1966). Brief separations. New York : International Universities Press. Hoffman, M. (1970). Moral development. In P. H. Mussen, (Eds), Carmichael's manual of child psychology ( 3rd Edn, Vol. 2). New York : John Wiley. Hoffman, M. & Saltzstein, H. D. (1967). parent discipline and the child's moral development. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 5, 45–57. Hornik, R., Risenhoover, N. & Gunnar, M. (1967). The effects of maternal positive, neutral, and negative affective communications on infant responses to new toys. Child Development, 58, 937–944. Howe, N. (1991). Sibling-directed internal stale language, perspective-taking, and affective behavior. Child Development, 62, 1503–1512. Howe M. & Ross, H. (1990). Socialization, perspective-taking, and the sibling relationship. Developmental Psychology, 26, 160–165. Jenkins, J. M. & Astington, J. W. (1993), Cognitive, linguistic, and social factors associated with theory of mind development in young children. Paper presented at die Society for Research in Child Development meeting. New Orleans . Jenkins, J. M. & Smith, M. A. (1991). Marital disharmony and childrens: behaviour problems. Aspects of a poor marriage that affect children adversely. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 32, 793–810. Kenny, A. (1963). Action, emotion and will. New York : Humanities Press Inc. Klaczynski, P. A. & Cummings, E. M. (1989). Responding to anger in aggressive and nonaggressive boys: a Research note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 30, 309–314. Lutkenhaus, P., Grossman, K. E., & Grossman, K. (1985). Infant-mother attachment at 12 months and style of interaction with a stranger at the age of Three years. Child Development, 56, 1538–1572. Main, M. (1991). Metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive monitoring, and singular (coherent) vs multiple (incoherent) models of attachment. In C. Murray Parkes, J. Stevenson-Hinde & V. Marris, (Eds), Attachment across the life cycle (pp. 127–159) London : Tavistock/Routledge. Main, M., Kaplan, N. & Cassidy, J. (1985). Security in infancy, childhood, and adulthood: a move to the level of representation. In I. Brutherton & E. Waters, (Eds), Growing points of attachment theory and research (pp. 66–104). Monographs of the Society far Research in Child Development, 50 (1–2, Serial No. 209). Martin, L. McCabe, S. B. & Gotlib, I. H. (1993). Previous maternal depression, child functioning and mother-child interactions. Paper presented at the Society for the- Research in Child Development Meeting. New Orleans , March. Murray, D. L. (1993). Rethinking social referencing: the influence of facial and vocal affect on infant behaviour. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Department of Psychology, Stanford University. Murray, L. & Trevarthen, C. (1983). Emotional regulation of interactions between two-month-olds and their mothers. In T. M. Field and N. A. Fox, (Eds), Social perception in infants. Norwood , NJ : Ablex. Perner, J. (1991). Understanding the representational mind. Cambridge , MA : MIT Press. Perner, J., Leekam, S. & Wimmer, M. (1987). Three-year-olds' difficulty in understanding false belief: cognitive limitation, lack of knowledge, or pragmatic misunderstanding?. British Journal of Development Psychology, 5, 125–137. Perner, J., Huffman, T. & Leekarn, S. R. (in press). Theory of mind is contagious: you catch it Irani your sibs (if you are close in them). Child Development. Peskin, J. (1992). Ruse and representation: on young children's ability to conceal their intentions. Developmental Psychology, 28, 84–89. Radke- Yarrow, M., Cummings, E. M., Kuczynski, L. & Chapman, M. (1985). Patterns of attachment in two-and three-year-olds in normal families with parental depression. Child Development, 56, 884–893. Robertson, J. & Robertson, J. (1971). Young children in brief separation: a fresh look. Psychoanalytic Study of the. Child, 26, 264–315. Ruffman, T., Olson, D. R., Ash, T. & Keenan, T. (1993). The ABCs at deception: do young children understand deception in the same way as adults. Developmental Psychology, 29, 74–87. Saarni, C. (1988). Children's understanding of the interpersonal consequences of dissemblance of nonverbal emotional–expressive behavior. Journal of nonverbal Behavior, 12, 275–294. Sameroff, A. J., Seifer, R. & Zax, M. (1982). Early development of children at risk for emotional disorder. Monograph of the Society for Research in Child Development, 47 (7, Serial No. 199). Scaife, M. & Bruner, J. (1975). The capacity for joint visual attention in the infant. Nature, 253, 265–266. Sissons Joshi, M. & MacLean, M. (in press). Indian and English children's understanding of the distinction between real and apparent emotion. Child Development. Slade, A. (1987). The quality of attachment and early symbolic play. Developmental Psychology, 23, 78–85. Slade, A. (in press). Making meaning and making believe. In A. Slade & D. Wolf, (Eds), Modes of meaning: clinical and developmental approaches to the study of symbolic play. New York : Oxford University Press. Sodian, B., Taylor, C., Harris, P. L. & Perner, J. (1991) Early deception and the child's theory of mind: false trails and genuine markers. Child Development, 62, 468–483. Sorce, J. F., Emde, R. N., Campos, J. J. & Klinnert, M. D. (1985), Maternal emotional signaling: its effects on the visual cliff behavior of 1-year-olds. Developmental Psychology, 21, 195–200. Stich, S. P. & Nichols, S. (1992), Folk psychology: simulation or tacit theory?. Mind and language, 7, 35–71. Taylor, M., Gerow, L. E. & Carlson, S. M. (1993). The relationship between individual differences in fantasy and theory of mind. Paper presented at the Society for Research in Child Development meeting. New Orleans . Termine, N. T. & Izard, C. E. (1988). Infants' response to their mothers expressions of joy and sadness. Developmental Psychology, 24, 223–229. Underwood, M. K., Coie, J. D. & Herbsman, C. R. (1992). Display rules for anger and aggression in school-age children. Child Development, 63, 366–380. Weissman, M. M. & Paykel, E. S. (1974). The depressed woman: a study of social relationships. Chicago : University of Chicago Press. Wellman, H. M. (1990). The child's theory of mind. Cambridge , MA : MIT Press. Wellman, H. M. & Banerjee, M. (1991). Mind and emotion: children's understanding of the emotional consequence of beliefs and desires. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 9, 191–214. Wellman, H. M., Harris, P. I., Banerejec, M. & Sinclair, A. (in press). Early understandings or emotion: evidence from natural language. Cognition find Emotion. Willman, H. H. & Woolley, J. D. (1990). From simple desires to ordinary beliefs: the early development of everyday psychology. Cognition, 35, 245–275. Youngblade, L. (1993). Individual differences in young children's pretend play with mother and sibling; links to relationship quality and understanding of other people's failings and beliefs. Paper presented at the Society for Research in Child Development meeting, New Orleans . Yuill, N. (1984), Young children's coordination of motive and outcome in judgements of satisfaction and morality. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 2, 73–81. Citing Literature Volume35, Issue1January 1994Pages 3-28 ReferencesRelatedInformation
Publication Year: 1994
Publication Date: 1994-01-01
Language: en
Type: review
Indexed In: ['crossref', 'pubmed']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 153
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot