Imagine the emotion: the use of mental simulations in supporting the development of emotional skills of preschool children

Abstract

Emotional intelligence plays a great role in human adaptation to social environments. The individual level of emotional skills depends on one's genes, family environment, and socialisation, as well as personal experience and education. The purpose of the present study was to examine the educational influence of mental simulation in developing the emotional skills of preschool children. A total of 30 children between the ages of three and five took part in our experiment. The dependent variables were recognising, understanding, and controlling emotions measured by a tool created especially for this study. Our experiment included repeated measurement conducted before and after mental training. The content of the mental simulation contained clues about how to recognise and understand emotions. Our results confirmed the expectations that mental simulations enhance children's ability to recognise, understand, and control emotions. IntroductionEmotions You do not have to be a psychologist to notice that there is a difference between children and adults in the ability to recognise, understand, and control emotions. Many parents, teachers, educators, and specialists wonder how their pupils' emotional skills develop. Actually we all are curious about emotions because all of us feel them almost all the time and we know how powerful they can be. Izard (1993) claims that emotions appear in such different situations that there must be more than one mechanism that generates emotions. He distinguished four systems for emotion activation: neural, sensorimotor, motivational, and cognitive. The neural system (activity of neurotransmitters and brain structures) is, on one hand, an independent generator of emotion, but on the other hand, it is also the structure used to release more complex emotions and moods. The sensorimotor system contains efferent or motor information that activates emotions, and the motivational system includes emotions and physiological drive states (e.g. pain). Emotions can then be activated by cognitive processes such as appraisal, categorising, and attribution within the cognitive system of emotion activation (Izard, 1993). According to Izard (1993), the four systems have a hierarchical structure. All of the systems involve the basic neural system which appears early in ontogeny. More complex systems (motivational and cognitive) arise

An analysis of factors affecting student wellbeing: Emotional intelligence, family and school environment

“…The dysfunctional family dynamics caused by inappropriate rules and ties result in insufficient and unsatisfactory relationships in the future [60]. The level of an individuals' emotional skills depends on a person's genes, family environment, socialization, personal experience and education [61]. Although most of the literature suggests that family environment influences emotional intelligence, the level of education as an essential determinant underpinning this effect has received little empirical attention.…”

Research Through Design for Anger Co-Emotion Regulation Learning in Young Children: A Soft Toy Design for Deep Breathing

“…Relying solely on facial expressions (e.g., a clenched jaw and furrowed brows) to identify and teach their children about anger is insufficient for parents. Most of the existing literature emphasises the role of facial expressions in identifying emotions in children(Fernández-Sánchez et al, 2014;Jarczewska-Gerc & Gorgolewska, 2015); and most of the toys focus solely on static facial expressions to teach about different emotions, for instance, emoticapsules(Miniland, n.d.-c), eggspressions (HapeToys, n.d.), and emotiblocks(Miniland, n.d.-b). However, this study's significance suggests that parents need to know the physiological components of anger to help their children identify and manage it.…”