The Child's Emotionality: A Naturalistic Investigation

Abstract

A descriptive, interpretative study of emotionality in early childhood was undertaken through a three year naturalistic investigation of emotional interactions in preschool-age children. Following interpretative interactionism, children were observed in natural settings, interacting with relatives, friends, and strangers, using the ordinary language of their everyday life-world. This approach was based on the premise that the embeddedness of children in their own social-emotional, cultural-historical world necessitates that they be studied in context, and that their emotions, like their language, be studied in use.

The socializing of emotionality in early childhood was examined, including how children come to recognize expressions of emotions in self and others, come to identify these expressions as indicative of recurrent feeling-states, learn the commonly held linguistic labels attached to these feeling states and their expression, and learn to manage their emotions in interactional situations. It was found that emotional associates, emotional talk, and emotional situations provide the structure of recurring emotional experiences, and are the foundation upon which children build their interpretations and emotional understandings. It was concluded that emotions, or self-feelings, occupy a pivotal position in the socializing of young children.