Abstract:
People\'s emotional states are influenced not just by events occurring in the present but also by how events have unfolded in the past and how they are likely to unfold in the future. To what extent do young children understand the ways in which past events can affect current emotions even if they are no longer ongoing? In the current study, we explored children\'s ability to understand how others feel at the cessation of events-as events change from being present to being past. We asked 97 4- to 6-year-olds (40.2% female) and 35 adults (54.3% female) to judge how characters felt once particular types of events had ended relative to how they felt during these events. We found that from age 4, children judged (as adults do) that the character would feel positive at the cessation of negative events-what we refer to as temporal relief. This understanding of relief occurs earlier than has been shown in previous research. However, children were less likely than adults to judge others as feeling sad at the cessation of positive events-what we refer to as temporal disappointment. Overall, our findings suggest that children not only understand that the cessation of events can affect others\' emotions but also recognize that people feel differently following the cessation of positive, negative, and neutral events.
摘要:
人们的情绪状态不仅受到当前发生的事件的影响,还受到过去事件的发展方式以及未来事件的发展方式的影响。幼儿在多大程度上理解过去的事件会影响当前情绪的方式,即使它们不再持续?在当前的研究中,我们探讨了儿童理解其他人在事件停止时的感受的能力,因为事件从现在变成了过去。我们询问了97名4至6岁的儿童(40.2%的女性)和35名成年人(54.3%的女性),以判断角色在特定类型的事件结束后相对于他们在这些事件中的感受如何。我们发现,从4岁起,孩子们就(像成年人一样)判断,在负面事件停止时,角色会感到积极-我们称之为时间救济。这种对救济的理解比以前的研究中所显示的要早。然而,儿童比成年人更不可能认为其他人在积极事件停止时感到悲伤-我们称之为暂时性失望。总的来说,我们的研究结果表明,孩子们不仅明白事件的停止会影响他人的情绪,而且还认识到人们在停止积极之后的感觉有所不同,负,中立事件