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The effects of explanatory conversations on children's emotion understanding
Author(s) -
Tenenbaum Harriet R.,
Alfieri Louis,
Brooks Patricia J.,
Dunne Guler
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
british journal of developmental psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.062
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 2044-835X
pISSN - 0261-510X
DOI - 10.1348/026151007x231057
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , ambivalence , explanatory model , cognitive psychology , social psychology , epistemology , philosophy
Ninety‐three children ranging in age from 5 to 8 years ( M = 82.46 months, SD = 13.20) participated in a training study designed to improve their emotion understanding. Children either explained (self‐explanation condition) or listened to an experimenter who explained (experimenter‐explanation condition) the causes of protagonists' hidden and ambivalent emotional reactions in nine different vignettes. Compared to a control group who listened to the vignettes and answered questions unrelated to emotions, children assigned to the self‐explanation and experimenter‐explanation conditions increased from pre‐ to post‐test in their emotion understanding. The educational implications of explanatory conversations in facilitating children's emotion understanding and general learning are discussed.