Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Communication Disorders, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 30-33).

Thesis (Ph. D.) in Psychology--University of Maine, 2001. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 113-123).

The current study investigated the developmental course of how young children label various facial expressions of emotion. 160 children (2 to 5 years) freely produced labels for six prototypical facial expressions of emotion and six animals. Even 2-year-olds were able to correctly label 5 of 6 animals, but the proportion of correct specific emotion category responses for this age group was < .30 for each of the six facial expressions. The 5-year-olds' proportion of correct specific emotion category labels was at ceiling for the happy and angry faces, but significantly lower for each of the other four facial expressions, and at floor level for the disgust face. The type of errors in labeling facial expressions changed with age: when incorrect, the youngest children produced any emotion label; older children produced labels of the correct valence; and the majority of the 5-year-olds' responses were of the correct specific emotion category. These results indicate that the free-labeling task per se is not too difficult even for 2-year-olds, but that children's use of emotion terms is not initially linked to facial expressions. Thus, the children's production of emotion terms far exceeded their proportion of correct specific emotion category labels. With age, children's implicit definition of emotion terms develops to include the associated facial expression, though this process is not complete for all expressions before the age of 6 years.

The emotions of aggressive and withdrawn children were examined in object-conflict and group-entry situations. Izard's (1977) differential theory of emotion suggests that aggressive children should have more hostile emotions, and withdrawn children more depressive emotions. Wright and Mischel's (1987) conditional approach to dispositional constructs suggests that aggressive children's hostility would be most evident during object-conflict, and withdrawn children's depressive responses most evident during group entry. Four- and 5-year-old boys and girls (N = 128) were assigned to aggressive, withdrawn, or control groups according to teachers' behaviour ratings. Interviews about children's emotional experiences in hypothetical object-conflict and group-entry situations failed to yield predicted group and situation differences. However, during semi-structured object-conflict and group-entry situations, aggressive children displayed more intense anger and more frequent anger blends, while withdrawn children were observed to show more intense sadness and more frequent fear-sadness blends. Displays of negative affect were related in theoretically meaningful ways to patterns of children's social behaviour. Failure to find situational specificity suggests that affective features of children's social competence may operate at a general level.

This study was designed to measure if a teacher’s intentional interventions during sensory play had an impact on the emotional development of preschoolers. The aspects of emotional development measured were the ability of children to recognize and label the expressed emotions of others and the frequency of self regulatory, aggressive, and non-aggressive problem solving behaviors. Data was collected from a control group and an experimental group using two self designed research instruments. Results were analyzed using multi-variant analysis indicating no significant difference in behavior changes by group. While quantitative data indicates no significant change at a class wide level, accounts of individual children illuminate the need for further research on this topic. / Access to thesis permanently restricted to Ball State community only / Department of Family and Consumer Sciences

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-73).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2006. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 170-208.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto (Canada), 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2007. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 3312.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wyoming, 2007. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on July 28, 2008). Includes bibliographical references (p. 34-42).