COMPREHENSION OF HAPPINESS IN THE PERIOD FROM MIDDLE CHILDHOOD TO THE EARLY ADOLESCENCE

Transcription

1 COMPREHENSION OF HAPPINESS IN THE PERIOD FROM MIDDLE CHILDHOOD TO THE EARLY ADOLESCENCE Helena Smrtnik Vitulić*, Simona Prosen** *Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, ** Faculty of Education Koper, University of Primorska, Koper, Slovenia ABSTRACT The research on emotional comprehension has mainly focused on individual areas of its understanding so far, e.g. on reasons for emotions, their awareness, emotional control, etc. In the following research paper many areas of understanding the feeling of happiness are included at the same time. This article aims to determine age-related trends in understanding happiness in the period from middle to late childhood and in the early adolescence period. The authors were trying to establish whether children and youngsters respectively, aged 7, 9 and 11 (54 respondents) perceived the complexity of understanding individual areas of happiness differently. Children and youngsters responded to questions in a semistructured interview, designed solely for the purpose of this research. Based on the results obtained from the qualitative analysis of data and their consistency with the findings of other authors, we were able to prove that: (1) With the aging of the participants the number of their explanations as regards understanding happiness on the lower and medium levels remains almost the same. (2) With the aging of the participants the number of explanations as regards the understanding of happiness on the higher levels increases. (3) The greatest differences in the number of explanations as regards the understanding of happiness on higher levels are mostly revealed between ages 9 and 11. The findings of this research can contribute to the selection of appropriate strategies in order to encourage social cognition of individual areas of emotions with children and youngsters.

2 2 AIMS This study is focused on developmental aspects in understanding basic emotion happiness in the period from middle childhood to the early adolescence period. METHOD Subjects The study covered 54 children and adolescents - aged 7, 9 and 11 - from a suburban primary school and its annex in the Koroška region of Slovenia. Measures Questions were devised in the form of semi-structured interviews designed solely for the purpose of this study. The questions related to understanding of happiness in other people and included understanding of nine areas of emotion: 1. reasons for happiness, 2. recognition of happiness, 3. awareness of happiness, 4. control of intensity of happiness, 5. simultaneous experiencing of happiness. Procedure We carried out individual interviews with all participants, that were recorded using a dictaphone and then transcribed. The collected data were analysed using the qualitative analysis - content analysis method (Mayring, 2000). We defined lower, medium and higher levels of understanding of happiness in five areas based on theoretical findings (e.g. Banerjee, 1997; Harris, 1996; Harris & Olthof, 1989; Selman, 1980; Saarni, 1999). RESULTS Taking into account all possible combinations of areas and levels of understanding of happiness and directional combinations we formulated 12 groups of response categories called the groups of categories 5 of them were categories with a lower level of understanding of happiness, 5 with a higher level, and 2 of the medium.

3 3 Table 1 The number of answers (meaningful statements) in the age groups within the groups of categories of understanding of happiness Understanding of happiness number of answer (%) Group of categories 7 years 9 years 11 years Age trends Identical/different reasons lower level >9>11 Identical/different reasons higher level >9>7 Reasons for (non) recognition lower level >7>9 Reasons for (non) recognition higher level >7>9 Reasons for (non) awareness lower level =9>11 Reasons for (non) awareness higher level >9>7 Control of intensity lower level >9>11 Control of intensity medium level >9>7 Control of intensity higher level >11>9 Simultaneous two emotions lower level =9>11 Simultaneous two emotions medium level =9>11 Simultaneous two emotions higher level >9>7 Lower levels 58 (36%) 37 (23%) 67 (41%) Σ 162 Medium levels 24 (34%) 20 (29%) 26 (37%) Σ 70 Higher levels 82 (27%) 79 (28%) 134 (45%) Σ 295 Note: Age trends: > more answer from the first group than the second group; = the same number of answer from the first and second groups.

4 4 Content Analysis The participants of all three age groups gave replies (meaningful statements) that were classified at lower, medium and higher levels of understanding of happiness. In all three age groups, the participants at lower levels answered that happiness was triggered by external circumstances, which one cannot influence, and attention was directed towards physical expressions of feelings and behaviour. In all three age groups, the participants at medium levels answered that control of happiness was possible through a single action, decision or completed thought and that people can experience happiness and sadness in a rapid succession, but not simultaneously. In all three age groups, the participants at higher levels answered that the manner of experiencing and expressing feelings depends on each individual's personality. Age trends Lower levels of understanding of happiness: the number of these explanations decreased or remained almost the same with age. Medium levels of understanding of happiness: the number of these explanations remained almost the same with age. Higher levels of understanding of happiness: the number of these explanations increased in a group of adolescents. DISCUSSION Most authors of empirical studies into the development of understanding of emotions had focused on the individual areas of emotions whereas in our study we included many areas of understanding of happiness. The results of the qualitative analysis showed that participants in all three age groups replied at lower, medium and higher levels of understanding of happiness. The authors (e.g. Banerjee, 1997; Harris, 1996; Harris & Olthof, 1989; Saarni, 1999) suggested that the explanations of emotions at the lower levels were more characteristic for younger children and less for the older ones. In our study these answers appeared also in the older age groups although the trends were not the same regarding different areas of understanding of happiness. In our study the explanations of happiness at the medium levels appeared in all three age groups alike. At the higher levels adolescents usually gave these answers more frequently than both groups of children. The results can be linked to Selman s (1980) findings, according to which the development of understanding of emotional control evolves from early childhood to adolescence from simple to increasingly complex.

5 5 Similar conclusions, i.e. that in the course of their development individuals gradually discover and use increasingly effective and complex interpretations of reasons, have been reached by other researchers into the individual areas of understanding of emotions in children and adolescents (e.g., Harris, 1996; Saarni, 1999). In our study the greatest differences in the number of explanations of happiness at the higher levels are mostly revealed between ages 9 and 11 which may be due to the development of formal operational thought (Piaget & Inhelder, 1978). The results of our study suggest that the children and adolescents continue to use the simpler explanations of happiness (at the medium and lower levels) and add the usage of the more complex explanations (at the higher levels of understanding) in the adolescence. The development of understanding of emotions is probably similar to the development of the material world, which Siegler (1997) consistently explained with his evolutionary theory of development. He argued that as individuals grow older they discover and use increasingly complex explanations of phenomena in the material world, even though they frequently continue to use less complex and effective ones. CONCLUSIONS (1) With the aging of the participants the number of their explanations as regards understanding happiness on the lower and medium levels remains almost the same, e.g. emotions are triggered by external circumstances, which one cannot influence, and attention is directed towards physical expressions of feelings and behaviour. (2) In the group of adolescents the number of explanations as regards the understanding of happiness on a higher levels increases, e.g. the manner of experiencing and expressing feelings depends on each individual's personality. (3) The greatest differences in the number of explanations as regards the understanding of happiness on higher levels are mostly revealed between ages 9 and 11. The findings of this research can contribute to the selection of appropriate strategies in order to encourage social cognition of individual areas of emotions with children and youngsters.

6 6 REFERENCES Banerjee, M. (1997). Peeling the Onion: A Multilayered View of Children s Emotional Development. In: S. Hala (red.), The Development of Social Cognition (p ). UK: Psychology Press. Harris, P. (1996). Children and Emotion: The Development of Psychological Understanding. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Harris, P. & Olthof, T. (1989). Social Cognition and Affect: The Child s Concept of Emotion. In: G. Butterworth & P. Light (red.), Social Cognition: Studies of the Development of Understanding (p ). GB: The University of Chicago Press. Mayring, P. (2000). Qualitative Content Analysis. Forum: Qualitative Social Research. On line journal, 1 (2). Retrieved , from Piaget, J. & Inhelder, B. (1978). Intelektualni razvoj deteta [Cognitive Development of a Child]. Beograd: Zavod za udžbenike i nastavna sredstva. Saarni, C. (1999). The Development of Emotional Competence. New York, London: The Guilford Press. Selman, R. L. (1980). The Growth of Interpersonal Understanding: Developmental and Clinical Analysis. New York: Academic Press. Siegler, R. S. (1997). Concepts and Methods for Studying Change. In: E. Amsel in K. Ann Renninger (red.), Change and Development: Issues of Theory, Method, and Application (p ). London: Lawrence Erlabaum Associates.