Relationship Between the Self-Concept of Children and Their Ability to Recognize Emotions in Others

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between the self-concept of children and their ability to recognize emotions in others from facial expressions. It is hypothesized that children use their self-representations to interpret depictions of emotion in others and that higher self-concepts might be associated with earlier development of emotion recognition skills. A total of 54 children aged between 5 and 11 years participated in this study. Self-concept was assessed in all children using the Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale for Children (Piers-Harris 2). To assess emotion recognition, a computerized instrument, the Penn Emotion Recognition Task (PERT), was applied. Despite the small sample of children, results show clear statistical effects. It is shown that emotion recognition ability is directly correlated with self-concept for intellectual/school status. The ability to correctly identify emotions from facial expressions is affected by general self-concept, intellectual/school status, and stimulus features of gender, intensity, and emotion. Further analysis shows that the general self-concept of children particularly affects the ability to identify happy faces. Children with a higher intellectual status score recognize happiness and neutral faces more easily. We concluded that the self-concept in children relates to the ability to recognize emotions in others, particularly positive emotions. These findings provide some support to the simulation theory of social cognition, where children use their own self-representations to interpret mental states in others. The effect of the self-concept for intellectual status on emotion recognition might also indicate that intellectual abilities act as a mediator between self-concept and emotion recognition, but further studies are needed.

“I See What You Feel”: An Exploratory Study to Investigate the Understanding of Robot Emotions in Deaf Children

“…There was a varying ability to recognize emotions in NAO among the children in both groups. The emotions happiness and sadness were the most frequently correctly guessed emotions, which is in line with previous findings on emotion recognition in humans [40]. Even though several of the children reported that it was easy to recognize the emotions NAO exhibited, many also struggled to identify the right emotion expressed by NAO.…”

“…There was no difference between hearing and deaf children's ability to recognize emotions in NAO. Even though no difference was found in this study, previous findings have suggested that deaf children have a poorer ability to recognize emotions in others compared to hearing children [17,40]. Wiefferink et al [41] showed that children with cochlear implants recognized fewer emotions than children with normal hearing and that emotion recognition skills are affected by hearing loss, including when using non-verbal communication to express emotions.…”

“…Several factors can explain these contradictory results. First, factors such as general self-concept and age have been found to influence emotion recognition in humans [40]. This study's young sample may therefore be an explanation for why the previous results were not replicated in this experiment.…”

Principais instrumentos utilizados na avaliação de autoestima de crianças entre 4 e 6 anos: uma revisão sistemática

“…Neste período, a criança constantemente retoma seu interesse para as interações sociais, no intuito de consolidar suas próprias interpretações e diferenciar-se do outro e, consequentemente, firmando-se como um sujeito importante no grupo ao qual está inserido (Arslan, 2021;Butler & Gasson, 2005;Cordeiro et al, 2021;Galvão, 1995;La Taille et al, 2019;Mahoney et al, 2007;Silva et al, 2021).…”

“…Compreende-se a autoestima como uma percepção positiva ou negativa do indivíduo para si mesmo numa totalidade e que é expressado empiricamente através de um conjunto de comportamentos manifestos pelo indivíduo que possuem, necessariamente, uma conotação de valor sobre as situações da vida ao qual interagem (Cordeiro et al, 2021;Rosenberg et al, 1995;Schultheisz & Aprile, 2013).…”