Authors:
Hajimu Hayashi and Yuki Shiomi

Title:
Do children understand that people selectively conceal or express emotion?

Journal:
International Journal of Behavioral Development , 39(1), 1-8.

doi: DOI: 10.1177/0165025414548777

論文URL:

Abstract:
This study examined whether children understand that people selectively conceal or express emotion
depending upon the context. We prepared two contexts for a verbal display task for 70 first-graders,
80 third-graders, 64 fifth-graders, and 71 adults. In both contexts, protagonists had negative
feelings because of the behavior of the other character. In the prosocial context, children were
instructed that the protagonist wished to spare the other character’s feelings. In contrast, in the
real-emotion context, children were told that the protagonist was fed up with the other character’s
behavior. Participants were asked to imagine what the protagonists would say. Adults selected
utterances with positive or neutral emotion in the prosocial context but chose utterances with
negative emotion in the real-emotion context, whereas first-graders selected utterances with
negative emotion in both contexts. In the prosocial context, the proportion of utterances with
negative emotion decreased from first-graders to adults, whereas in the real-emotion context the
proportion was U-shaped, decreasing from first- to third-graders and increasing from fifth-graders
to adults. Further, performance on both contexts was associated with second-order false beliefs as
well as second-order intention understanding. These results indicate that children begin to
understand that people selectively conceal or express emotion depending upon context after 8 to 9
years. This ability is also related to second-order theory of mind.

著者Contact先の email:
hajimu[at]port.kobe-u.ac.jp

日本語によるコメント（オプション，200-300字で）
  本研究は，「人は状況に応じて，選択的に感情を隠したり表出したりする」ということを，子どもが児童期に
理解することを明らかにしたものです。
  課題では，主人公が相手の行動でネガティブな感情をもつのですが，「向社会的状況」（相手を傷つけたくな
い）と「本心を伝えたい状況」（相手の行動にうんざりしている）を設定し，主人公が「何と言うか」を判断し
てもらいました。その結果，向社会的状況では，ネガティブな発話を選んだ割合は，小学1年生から大人へと
減ったのですが，本心を伝えたい状況では，1年生から3年生にかけて減少し，5年生から大学生にかけて増大し
ました。さらに，これらの選択率は，二次の心の理論と関連がありました。


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