Further Evidence on Preschoolers' Interpretation of Facial Expressions

Abstract

Two studies assessed the organization and basis for children's categories of emotion. In one, children (N = 240) from 2 to 5 years of age and adults (N = 60) chose facial expressions that exemplify such emotion categories as fear, anger, and happiness. In the other (N =100), they grouped expressions differing in arousal level or pleasure-displeasure according to perceived similarity. Preschoolers demonstrated more knowledge of emotion than had been seen in previous investigations, in which they were said to be inaccurate in categorizing expressions of all but a few emotions. The results fit a model of emotion categories in which the boundaries separating different categories are more fuzzy than distinct, and in which the categories are interrelated in a systematic order, an order based on their degree of pleasure and arousal. Children's categories were not identical to those of adults, however; categories of the youngest children were broad, admitting as members expressions similar in pleasure and arousal, and categories of older children became increasingly narrow with age.