The socio-affective development of the
individual influences in several ambits. Throughout the development, the
improvement and acquisition of skills regarding interpersonal relations,
emotional regulation, identity construction and critical thinking is achieved. Besides,
the discovery and understanding one’s own emotions and the others’ is also a
competence that appears and is worked on when the developing of the
socio-affective dimension occurs.
Emotions
Our reaction to stimulus
An emotion is a complex state of the organism of an
individual that is developed because of the excitation or disturbance produced
by a stimulus. The organism of the individual produces an organized answer
regarding the stimulus that has caused this emotion. Emotions lead the
individual to act regarding the people that surround him and even with himself.
Emotions are closely related with the development of the personality.
Regardless the common belief, not all emotions are universal, only basic emotions, such as
happiness, fear or sadness, are the ones shared by all human beings. Another characteristic of emotions is that
they are neither expressed nor felt voluntarily,
they are manifested through impulses that cannot be avoided. The manifestation
of these impulses is the behavioral component of emotions which, in other
words, means the reaction and actions that the individual carries out when
experiencing a determined emotion. Some examples of reactions regarding
emotions are the different gestures and facial expressions that the subject
reproduces when experiencing them. Both gestures and facial expressions let us
guess the emotions that other people is experiencing as it has been proved
(Russell, J. 1994) that the representation of basic emotions has common traits
amongst human beings.
Emotions
- Feelings - Mood
Are they the same?
Before starting to talk about emotions and their
relation with the development of the child and education, it is needed to be
done an appreciation, as there are three concepts that are usually considered
the same and their difference has to be clarified. These three concepts are emotions, feelings
and mood.
As it has been said before, emotions are the
reactions of the organism of a subject to a determined stimulus. However, feelings
are considered the cognitive component of an emotion or, in other words, the subjective
interpretation of an emotion experienced. Mood, instead, is defined as the
prolongation of an emotional state or an emotion that lingers in time. Besides,
moods can be also the precursors of feelings if they are prevail for long time
in the subject.
As it can
be seen, those three concepts are closely linked and related but the several
differences among them have to be acknowledged by us teachers as, when teaching
our students, we will have to be able to distinguish them easily in order to
make the students understand them and use the appropriate words when expressing
what they experience and feel.
The
child’s emotional development and education
In
terms of emotional development, the child moves through several stages that are
defined regarding the evolution they experience in their emotional
comprehension and regulation. In the
following table (Soldevila, A., Filella, G., Ribes, R. i Agulló, M. J. 2007),
the emotional development that the child experiences will be explained:
It is needed to highlight that this emotional
development grid is not universal as all
children are different and neither their rhythm of development nor their
characteristics are the same.
Regarding education, the behavioral component of basic
emotions can be educated if the subject is capable of identifying them and the
physical reactions that the experiencing of this emotion leads to. In this
sense, the school works for the development of the emotional self-regulation, meaning by this, the self-control and
regulation of the emotions that a determined subject may experience. In order
to achieve this objective, the school has to focus not only on the intellectual
development of the individual but on the emotional too. The achievement of
emotional self-regulation can be reached by working on the enhance of the
identification of emotions, the recognition of one’s own emotions and the
emotions experienced by other individuals in the context and finally the
expression of one’s own emotions.
Self-regulation of emotions is an important issue to
lay stress upon in school and further education since the subject will have to deal
with situations in his daily life that require the domain of this competence.
The more it is worked at early ages, the more the individual will be capable of
defending himself in the context where he is immersed.
When teaching
emotions to our future students, first of all, we will have to take into
consideration the different stages that the child goes through in terms of
emotional development. It is also important, as it has been said previously, to
take into account the differences among students as, even though they will
share common traits in their emotional development, some will arise and will
have to be treated properly in order to achieve the best outcomes for everyone.
 |
| Calvin and Hobbes, an example of lack of emotional self-regulation. |
In the next video, two dynamics regarding the
emotional development are displayed. It can be seen that both teachers are not
only working on the identification of the emotions by explanations and facial
expressions or gestures but in the recognition of emotions in others. It is
really interesting to see in situ how kids of 4-5 years old lay aside their
egocentric perspective and try to empathize and to stand in someone else’s
shoes.
Factors influencing the emotional
development
There are
several factors that play an important role in the emotional development of the
individual. Factors like the attachment bond and the interrelations that a
concrete individual may have established with other members of a common
context. Depending on these two factors, the emotional development of a subject
will be easier to happen or not.
The attachment bond
The
attachment bond is considered the connection that the child, when he is born,
needs to establish with at least a primary caregiver (person who takes
responsibility of a subject which is not able to take care of himself) in order
to achieve social and emotional development. The attachment bond (Weiss, R. S.
1991) is characterized by three main features that make it different from any
other relational bond: proximity seeking,
secure base effect and separation protest.
1. Proximity seeking: Child’s attempt to remain close to his
parents. The distance range that the subject considers acceptable varies
depending on the situation as, in threatening situations the range will
decrease.
2. Secure base effect: While being with the attachment figure, the
child’s security will increase.
3. Separation protest: When the threat of being separated of the
attachment figure exists, the child will protest in order to return to a safe
and secure situation.
There are
four main types of attachment bond classified depending on how they influence
in the emotional development of the individual. The following grid will explain
them in deep and the consequences each type of attachment bond lead the child
to:
By
taking a look at the previous grid, it can be concluded that depending on the
attachment bond established between the adult and the child, the emotional
self-regulation of the latter will vary. It can be clearly seen that the most
stable attachment bond is the secure while the others have several lacks that
may affect the subject negatively.
When
being teachers, it will be very important for us to be able to detect the kind
of attachment bond that the different children have established with their families
as, therefore, we will be able to know which are their lacks and needs in terms
of emotional development. Those with attachment bonds different to the secure
one will have to be taught in deep and more helped in order for them to
overcome their difficulties and achieve emotional self-regulation. Moreover, as
teachers we will also have to design the dynamics and activities
Peers’ interaction and group relation
Another
factor influencing the emotional development of the individual is the
interaction and the relations he establishes with other members of the same context.
Friendship is one type of relation that influences the most in the child’s
development.
Friendship
Friendship
is defined as the affective relationship that is established between two or
more people. This interpersonal relation creates a solid affective bond that is
stronger than the one created by association. This type of social relation is
created voluntarily, based on reciprocity and the willingness of joy from the
members forming it.
People
involved in friendship establishment experience several changes in their
individual structure throughout the development of this process (García, F.
2013). First of all, positive emotions and feelings experienced lead to the
validation of the self of each of the individuals as so their moral and
self-concept development. Besides, the affective bond created among the
individuals involved in this process makes them protect each other against risk
factors that may affect them.
Friendship
also develops a sharing feeling that leads to the development of the detection
of needs and emotions that the friend is experiencing and, therefore, the
enhancing of empathy and the emotional comprehension of the individuals.
Even
though friendship provides lots of positive experiences, benefits and helps the
individual develop his own characteristics, the affiliation with people that
provide conflicts or poor individual enrichment may sometimes be negative for
the people involved in this process.
Friendship
does not only influence on the emotional development of the subject involved
but it also has a huge impact on the identity construction of the individual as
other social interaction processes do.
Identity construction
The construction of the identity of the subject
is determined by three main factors: self-esteem,
self-concept and group identity.
The
self-concept is the cognitive aspect of the self. It is the idea that the individual
builds of himself, the image not only physical but psychological of his being. However,
self-esteem is the evaluative aspect of the self, the conscious assessment of
the concept that the subject has previously established. The group identity is
closely related with the social interactions and friendship, which have been
explained previously.
The
evolution of the self-concept, as all developmental processes, takes place
throughout the life of the individual. Starting at early ages (2-6), the
individual develops an isolated representation of the self with few coherence
and highly changeable. This image built is idealized and more positive than
realistic. During the first years of primary schooling (6-8), the image built
does not only involve the external characteristics of the subject (physical)
but the internal aspects (psychological) too. At this stage, children still
compares only with themselves and not with other individuals, so their
perception of themselves positive. Finally, at the last years of primary
schooling (8-11), friendship plays an important role as group relations start
to gain importance. The kids at this stage tend to compare with other members
of the group and, while making these comparisons, they realize the differences
among individuals.
Self-esteem
is formed by three main dimensions: physical (the one related with the physical
appearance and skills), social (the one related with the different social
interaction processes that the child takes part into) and academic (which is
related to the school subjects and the outcomes obtained).
One
aspect that is closely related with the self-esteem is the locus of control which is understood as the idea of the control
that a subject has over the consequences of the acts carried out by him. There
are two types of locus of control, the internal and the external
1. Internal:
the responsibility of the consequences relies on oneself (i.e. “I passed the
exam”).
2. External:
the responsibility of the consequences relies on external causes (i.e. “The
teacher gave me a bad grade”).
We develop and construct our own locus of
control depending on the situations and interactions with parents or from
others, it is not genetically determined.
Regulating the locus of control between the
two, internal and external poles, is important regarding the self-esteem as it can
affect negatively on it. For instance, if a student with high internal locus of
control prepares a lot for an exam and fails it, he may think that he is not
capable of obtaining good outcomes even though he studies a lot. This attitude can
lead to the decrease of the self-esteem of the individual as the
self-assessment he carries out will provide negative information.
Gender influence in identity construction
Most of the traits that define the identity of
an individual are mainly determined by their genetic inheritance. Although the
common conception that people has regarding the identity construction is that
socialization plays the main role in this process, the construction that
society has built for both genders is way less than the role of genetics
(Tellegen, A. 1988).
It is important to acknowledge that the
condition of being born man or woman does not determine the identity traits as
we are not born knowing the existent differences among genders or the role we
will play throughout our life. It is socialization and the later awareness of
social constructions of genders what define this acquired part of our identity.
In the same way stereotypes, which determine the main traits that are expected
for each of the genders and even the social position of girls and boys, are
other agent that influence the identity construction of the individual.
Besides, stereotypes do not only influence on the individual’s building of
identity but they promote the appearance and maintenance of inequalities and
prejudices regarding this topic which lead to misleading beliefs, negative
attitudes and behaviors.
In the following video about Disney’s films can be clearly seen how stereotypes are reproduced and transmitted to children without they noticing it.
When working with kids, it will be essential
for us to try to foster the positive identity construction for each of our
students by balancing all different factors that play a role in this process.
We will have to act regarding all needs of students and help them in their path
towards the development. Besides, we will have to work taking into account the
importance that gender has in this process and trying to avoid popular
stereotypes or negative beliefs in our lessons and classes for every children
to create his/her own idea and without prejudices.
Activities related with this topic:
REFERENCES
- Soldevila, A., Filella, G., Ribes, R. i Agulló, M. J. (2007). Una propuesta de contenidos para desarrollar la conciencia y la regulación emocional en la Educación Primaria. Cultura y Educación, 19 (1), 47-59
- Russell, J. 1994. Psychological Bulletin 1994, Vol. 115, No. 1, 102-141
- Is There Universal Recognition of Emotion From Facial Expression? A Review of the Cross-Cultural Studies. Retrieved from:
- Weiss, R. S. 1991. Attachment across the life cycle.
- Chapter 4: The attachment bond in childhood and adulthood. Retrieved from:
- García, F. 2013. El aprendizaje de la amistad en la Educación Primaria. Retrieved from:
- Judge, T. A. and Bono, J. E. 2001. Journal of Applied Psychology 2001, Vol. 86, No. 1, 80-92
- Relationship of Core Self-Evaluations Traits—Self-Esteem, Generalized Self-Efficacy, Locus of Control, and Emotional Stability—With Job Satisfaction and Job Performance. Retrieved from:
- Tellegen, A. 1988. Personality similarity in twins reared apart and together. Retrieved from:
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