Display Rules for Anger, Sadness, and Pain: It Depends on Who Is Watching

Abstract

This study examined factors that may influence children's decisions to control or express their emotions including type of emotion (anger, sadness, physical pain), type of audience (mother, father, peer, alone), age, and sex. Children's reported use of display rules, reasons for their decisions, and reported method of expression were examined. Subjects were 32 boys and 32 girls in each of the first (M = 7.25 years old), third (M = 9.33 years old), and fifth grades (M = 11.75 years old). Regardless of the type of emotion experienced, children reported controlling their expression of emotion significantly more in the presence of peers than when they were with either their mother or father or when they were alone. Younger children reported expressing sadness and anger significantly more often than did older children, and girls were more likely than boys to report expressing sadness and pain. Children's primary reason for controlling their emotional expressions was the expectation of a negative interpersonal interaction following disclosure.

Future Directions in Emotion Dysregulation and Youth Psychopathology

“…In adolescent samples, the Difficulties with Emotion Regulation Scale (Gratz & Roemer, 2004), which was developed originally for use with adults, is well validated and increasingly popular (Weinberg & Klonsky, 2009). The Emotion=Affect Regulation Interview (Zeman & Garber, 1996), which includes questions about emotional reactions to several vignettes, is also used frequently. 4 Allostasis refers to long-term, stress-induced changes in the functional operating ranges of vital biological systems (Sterling & Eyer, 1981).…”

A biopsychosocial formulation of pain communication.

“…More specifically, responses to pain responses (i.e., both self-report and facial behavior as assessed by judges who viewed videos of the participants' responses) to electric shock were attenuated when subjects were being observed. Self-report tends to be exquisitely sensitive to the social context as perceived, with individuals typically using language to optimize situational outcomes and nonverbal expression is demonstrably sensitive to context in both adults and children (Crombez & Eccleston, 2002;Hadjistavropoulos & Craig, 2002;Kleck et al, 1976;Larochette et al, 2006;Prkachin & Craig, 1985;Sullivan et al, 2004;Vervoort et al, 2008b; Pain Communication 37 Williams, 2002;Zeman & Garber, 1996). Levine and De Simone (1991) showed that males report less experimentally-induced pain in the presence of an attractively dressed female experimenter than in the presence of a male.…”

“…For example, children as young as nine years old report being less likely to express pain in front of a peer than in presence of their parent because they perceive peers to be less accepting of pain displays and responding more negatively than parents (Zeman & Garber, 1996). Children may also hide their pain because of other-protective reasons (Crombez & Eccleston, 2002) like not wanting to worry or upset their parents (Larochette et al, 2006).…”

Reglas de despliegue emocional: estudio preliminar de un procedimiento de evaluación y análisis de sus implicaciones

“…a partir de los resultados obtenidos surgen objeciones en cuanto a la validez del procedimiento para evaluar este fenómeno psicológico. aunque teóricamente los niños hacia los nueve años muestran algún grado de control expresivo e incluso usan rde (cole, 1986;Fuchs & thelen, 1988;gnepp & Hess, 1986;Jones et ál., 1998;saarni, 1984;Zeman & garber, 1996), sólo uno de los once participantes parece haber usado rde en sus respuestas al escenario hipotético.…”

“…en el caso de aquellos que mostraron coherencia o no respondieron, es probable que no hayan entendido las preguntas, que sus respuestas estén indicando un patrón incipiente de desarrollo de rde o que desde la pregunta 1 usaron una rde verbal (ekman & Friesen, 1975;gnepp & Hess, 1986;Zeman & garber, 1996), es decir, que desde que se ven enfrentados a reportar la emoción sentida, la enmascaran o fingen una distinta en su reporte (aunque efectivamente el escenario hipotético haya evocado ira o tristeza) porque siguieron una regla según la cual los niños no deben sentirse de ciertas maneras en determinadas situaciones. de haber sido así, probablemente reportaron en la pregunta 1 una emoción coherente con la respuesta a la pregunta 2, pero dicha respuesta (a la pregunta 1) en realidad no corresponde con la emoción verdaderamente sentida (presuntamente evocada por el escenario), la cual aparentemente no fue verbalizada.…”