La conoscenza delle emozioni in età scolare: Gli antecedenti situazionali

Studied the effects of age on the use, acquired meanings, and comprehension of emotional words; and examined the influence of specific situational antecedents on the choice of emotional words and the presence of semantic confusion. Human subjects: 60 male and female Italian schoolage children (aged 6 yrs) (1st-grade elementary school students). 60 male and female Italian schoolage children (aged 10 yrs) (5th-grade elementary school students). One group of Ss was asked to produce a story representing situational antecedents for the following emotions: happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, disgust, guilt, jealousy, and shame. A 2nd group of Ss was asked to evaluate the stories by attributing 1 of the emotional words to each story. Stories were evaluated by Ss of the same or different age as Ss who produced the writings. The results were analyzed statistically.