The emotional world of man. The emotional world of the family. Human feelings and emotions
In human life, emotions perform two functions : signaling and regulating. The signaling function is a message about compliance with a certain need. Regulation is associated with the fact that a person strives to move towards what he wants and distance himself from what is undesirable.
Emotional changes in a person are caused by two types of sources: irritant signals and expected thoughts. Stimulus signals inform a person about phenomena related to his needs. Expectation thoughts think through possible future good or bad events. Their emotional impact can significantly exceed that caused by stimulus signals.
The mechanism of influence of signals and thoughts on the emotional world is unique for each person. Psychologists identify the following main types of emotional characteristics personality: excitability, impulsiveness, affectivity, stress resistance, emotional balance, strength and rhythm of emotional reactions, nervousness, emotional tone. Emotional characteristics determine the type of nervous activity and are manifested in human behavior.
Depending on the emotional characteristics of a person, emotional properties. The main ones are: impressionability, responsiveness, sentimentality, emotionality, passion, coldness. Considering that emotional properties have a significant impact on a person’s professional activity, we will give them an explanation.
Impressionability- this is a person’s ability to deeply feel and experience with relatively small pathogens (stimulants).
Responsiveness- This is a person’s ability to respond to the emotions of other people. The antipodes of this property are callousness, cruelty, and inhumanity.
Sentimentality- This is a person’s perception of the world through the prism of his own experiences. This is contemplation and sensitivity combined with passivity.
Emotionality– active external manifestation of a person’s internal experiences.
Passion- This is an active experience, vigorously expressed in human behavior.
Cold- this is a person’s manifestation of emotions to such a minimal extent that it has almost no impact on his behavior.
Natural emotional condition a person is called a mood. Although the mood itself can be different - from good to bad, this phenomenon is normal. No person with a healthy psyche can constantly be in the same mood.
A significant deviation from the norm is characterized by six types of emotional states: excitement, depression, stress, affect, shock, frustration. The last three types are uncontrollable for humans. In such states, a person cannot be responsible for his thoughts and actions. Let us explain the named emotional states.
Excitation- increased emotionality.
Depression– decreased emotionality.
Stress– emotional stress (we will consider it more thoroughly below).
Affect– a short-term violent uncontrollable emotional reaction.
Shock- uncontrollable nervous shock.
Frustration– temporary blockade of consciousness and activity (psyche and muscles).
The manager must be clearly aware that trying to manage an employee who is out of a normal emotional state is unacceptable. First you need to return him to a normal emotional state, and only after that resolve any professional or other issues with him.
Unfortunately, the life of modern man is full of stress. This condition has a very negative effect on the health of the nervous system. Stress is one of the main enemies of effective professional activity and family well-being of people.
In a state of stress, a person consistently goes through three phase. The first is a sharp mobilization of the body's resources. For this reason, a person under stress can sometimes do something that is absolutely impossible for him in his normal state. The second phase of stress is the rapid consumption of resources. And most often this is done completely irrationally. The third phase is exhaustion of the body and a decline in performance. In addition, there is a significant decrease in the protective functions of the body. This is the main negative role of stress.
So, the professional and psychological characteristics and emotional world of workers should be subjects of constant study for a modern manager. This is one of the most important conditions for effective personnel management.
Emotional factors
Difficult social and economic circumstances in the country show the need for constant attention of educators and parents to protect not only the physical but also the mental health of preschool children. After all, at this age children are most vulnerable; they acutely perceive all the actions of adults and peers that affect their “I”. So, for example, if the family atmosphere is completely saturated with anxiety about the future health of the child, this negatively affects his overall mental development. But the emotional sphere suffers the most. When relatives are openly worried about the child’s well-being, he or she develops various fears, including about the possible behavior of adults.
The emotional experiences of children are directly related to how they and social events are assessed by father and mother, grandparents, and teachers of children's educational institutions. Feeling sharp disapproval by adults of what is happening around, the child begins to perceive it as evil, threatening, and capable of traumatizing. As a result, mental tension, stiffness, indecision, and the like appear.
Anxiety and anxiety also arise in children under the influence of older children, who quite often perceive the apparent danger as real and willingly boast of their “awareness” in front of the younger ones. Anxious anticipation of trouble becomes one of the leading motives of children's behavior, which occurs in the games of preschoolers. Psychologists call the combination of such negative influences emotiogenic factors, since they give rise to experiences and, therefore, really threaten the child’s mental health.
The concept of “mental health” is by no means limited to purely medical indications. Psychological science has clearly defined: this is a state of mental and emotional comfort, it is also confidence about one’s future, and is associated with a feeling of security of one’s own “I”. The mental health of a person - both an adult and a child - is determined by his ability to successfully regulate the child’s own behavior and immediately has a detrimental effect on her relationships with those with whom she constantly communicates.
Some kids become too excitable, restless, annoying, while others, on the contrary, become passive, lethargic, fearful and prone to alienation. We all talk about them: they are emotionally vulnerable. In their relationships with adults and peers, conflicts and misunderstandings often arise, and manifestations of affective behavior are observed. This can be aggression directed at others, outbursts of anger, tears, threats to harm one’s own health, and the like. With the accumulation of negative experiences, the child’s mental health noticeably deteriorates. The natural ability to rejoice, admire, and trust is replaced by anxiety, fear, and worry. That is, the baby loses emotional comfort and a sense of security.
Considering the harmful effects of emotiogenic factors, it is necessary to carefully monitor the mental health indicators of a preschooler, remembering that disorders in the sphere of mental regulation are at the same time a barometer of his physical condition.
It is on the ability of educators and parents to promptly notice, correctly qualify and correct the characteristics of a child’s emotional manifestations in the process of regulating her objective-practical activities and communication that further progress in personality development largely depends.
The emotional world of a preschooler in a family environment
So, let's talk about the emotional world of a child in his family circle. However, are we, the closest adults, always a blessing to him? When does he feel happy, so we give him joy, spiritual comfort, and when does he feel lonely, depressed, even in a normal, healthy, so-called prosperous family?What is a healthy or prosperous family, what criteria do we use when giving such a definition? Let's say briefly, this is, first of all, a complete family - when there is a mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, grandmother, grandfather, brothers, sisters, etc. Secondly, it is financially secure - there is an optimal state to satisfy the natural needs of the child; thirdly, the child is provided with emotional comfort - he is taken into account, his rights are not trampled upon, desire and interest count, that is, he is an object of care for adults.
However, let's take a closer look: in all families where children of preschool age grow up and are considered good, do we observe real warmth, a friendly attitude of relatives towards children? Science is the opposite phenomenon of psychological incompatibility, mental deprivation of the child. The point is that he feels a state that occurs when there is a lack of love, affection, attention, and suffers from the fact that he feels superfluous, left out.
The child feels depressed when one of the relatives does not fulfill his immediate responsibilities, in particular when the father neglects to perform the educational function. There are dads who consider themselves only the main suppliers and consider their main concern to be earning money, purchasing food and household items, workshops and repairs, etc., and raising a child is, they say, the mother’s job.
How does the child feel in this case, what emotions does he deal with? She experiences a lack of love from one of her loved ones. It always seems to her that dad (or mom) doesn’t love her because she’s bad, and that’s why he avoids communicating with her. The feeling of guilt is established, which naturally cannot but cause a certain inhibition in its development. What feelings and experiences fill a child’s soul? Any kind of violence causes a back reaction in the little one, protest - first unwillingness to obey, stubbornness, whims, and over time, mental oppression.
Sometimes situations arise in the family of psychological disinterest in the child, indifference to him. This is observed when parents only occasionally occupy and caress the child, considering such manifestations of attention unnecessary. In such cases, the child does not develop a “sense of security.” Suppressed by constant prohibitions, when he needs help or support from an adult, he has fear in his soul - he is afraid of being rejected or spanked. If she develops normal confidence that she is understood and supported, she will constantly turn to the people who surround her and try to attract attention to herself. Growing up in an atmosphere of indifference and alienation, I avoid such contact, because I have learned well that no one will respond to the call “look at me.”
Quite often, children have to experience humiliation in their family circle with a word aimed at a certain personality trait that causes negativism in others. Constant condemnation becomes habitual for him, and parents do not even notice that their negative assessment is a stereotype.
Scientific research shows that children who experience psychological distress are even more affected than those who are physically punished.
FOR PARENTS
- Remove from your vocabulary the negative attitudes that make a child's life miserable, and replace them with positive ones.
- Speak soft words to your children as often as possible.
- Ask yourself: “Why do kids like me?”
- Use nonverbal means of communication more often to prevent verbal techniques from overloading children's nervous systems.
- Introduce into the regime moments of “relaxation” with elements of auto-relaxation, with psycho-gymnastic games and exercises, “minutes of pranks”, “musical breaks”.
- Use a special mood card to record each child's emotional state throughout the day.
- Be sure to keep in touch with parents and develop joint requirements and effective means of restoring peace of mind in the garden and at home.
The problems of perception and emotional impact of architectural objects in professional architectural, psychological and aesthetic aspects are covered. For the first time in Russian art history, the evolution of professional ideas of architectural theorists about the role of architecture in the emotional world of man is traced. The specifics of the emotional impact of architectural objects of various types are considered, as well as the process of the emergence and formation of aesthetic emotions in the perception of architecture, the relationship of aesthetic emotions with the content and formal-compositional aspects of architectural objects. For architects and art historians. Published by decision of the section of the theory and practice of modern architecture of the Academic Council of TsNIITIA (Central Research Institute of Theory and History of Architecture).
Introduction
Chapter 1. Emotions and professional consciousness of an architect
1.1. Criticism of the "emotional approach" to architecture
1.2. Apology for architectural emotions and the “emotional approach” in the theory of architecture
1.3. Dialectics of emotions in architecture
Chapter 2. Ways to explore the emotional impact of architecture
2.1. Emotions and architecture
2.2. Emotions, perception and activity in the architectural environment
2.3. Redundancy and complexity of the architectural environment as factors of its emotional impact
Chapter 3. Emotional impact of the architectural environment and its organization
3.1. Emotional properties of the architectural environment
3.2. Means of forming the emotional impact of the architectural environment
3.3. Features of organizing environments of different types
Chapter 4. Aesthetic sense and architecture
4.1. Expressiveness of architectural form and aesthetic experiences
4.2. Features of the emotional impact of various forms of expressiveness in architecture
4 3. Organization of an aesthetically significant architectural form
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
This study is not motivated by abstract academic interest. The deep background of the topic “Architecture and the emotional world of man” is our unconditional dissatisfaction with the strikingness of modern architecture. It is hardly by chance that all over the world she is increasingly receiving epithets of inexpressive, boring, monotonous. The most controversial critical judgments in modern architecture are united by a negative assessment of its emotional impact. This criticism, wittingly or unwittingly, intensifies against the backdrop of recognition of the highest achievements of the architecture of bygone eras. Classical architecture testifies to the fundamentally limitless artistic possibilities of architecture to evoke an emotional uplift in the viewer.
It seems that the formulation of the problem stated in the title begins with the contrast of the great architecture of the past, rich in emotional content, with the emotionally poor modern mass buildings. However, the concepts of “modern architecture” and “emotional richness” are too abstract to provide food for specific analysis. After all, even among the works of modern architecture, many cannot be called emotionally poor, and from the architecture of the past we usually remember only the most outstanding, most significant buildings. A suspicion arises that the problem of emotional dissatisfaction with the state of modern architecture needs to be specified both in “statistical” and typological terms.
Is it appropriate to compare the massive development of current residential areas with temples or palaces, or should a comparison of the effectiveness of architectural and artistic images be carried out within the framework of typologically homogeneous objects, that is, residential buildings should be compared with residential ones, public ones with public ones, memorial ones with memorial ones? But even in this more specific formulation of the question there is still a lot of schematism. It is necessary not only to take into account changes in certain typological tasks, but also to take into account the dramatically changed social, industrial, and demographic conditions in which architectural objects live. Perhaps, by reproaching modern residential development for negative emotional properties, we indirectly express our attitude towards modern urbanization or some other socio-economic conditions of its development, inseparable from architecture, which can only be changed to a very small extent in architectural creativity. After all, architecture, while shaping the image of a modern city, at the same time expresses its objective properties. And if this image itself, internally contradictory, contains both positive and negative sides, then one can hardly blame architecture for all this (noise, tiring movement, redundancy of visual information, huge scale of production and consumption), just as one can hope that these negative properties can be eliminated through architecture.
Objective circumstances include not only the social and production conditions of the urban lifestyle, but also the objectively prevailing conditions of design and construction: standardization of construction production, a narrow economic approach to the development of design solutions, lack of time and professional costs for design. These circumstances, which determine the solution of pressing life problems in specific socio-economic and organizational conditions, largely depend on the cultural and economic resources of a particular region or country and cannot be changed by professional means of architecture. Consequently, we should talk about larger-scale events of a socio-economic, organizational, legislative order, although associated with architectural creativity, but still going far beyond its limits.
At the June (1983) Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, it was noted that in connection with the preparation, by decision of the 26th Congress of the CPSU, of a new edition of the Party Program, one should “assume that the coming years and decades will bring with them significant changes also in the political and ideological superstructure, in the spiritual life of society" and that "the improvement of developed socialism is unthinkable without great work on the spiritual development of people." It is necessary to find out the place and share of professional capabilities of architecture in solving these problems if we do not want to fall back into the widespread in the 20th century. the temptation of an architectural reformist utopia.
Another question is directly related to this. Why do precisely those features of modern architecture, which were the result of practically the only possible solution to architectural and urban planning problems in the historical situation of the 60-70s, now seem to us aesthetically and emotionally inferior? After all, the transition to mass industrial housing construction, free planning, new principles of organizing the urban structure and individual housing was at one time a revolutionary creative step forward, and in the era of its appearance, it was these creative techniques that aroused the enthusiasm of both architects and citizens. We remember well the public approval with which the buildings of the early 60s, devoid of decorative stucco molding and very austere in appearance, were greeted by the public. Today these same structures seem boring to us. Obviously, the semantic associations that we associated with new architectural structures in the 60s have changed. Then these were hopes for the quick and final elimination of housing hunger, for the rapid pace of social transformation, for the rapid progress of technology designed to make our existence easier and more diversified. What happened now? In part, hopes and expectations were apparently exaggerated, but in part we have simply become accustomed to the benefits that modern architecture and its new methods have brought us; we no longer notice them and are looking for something new in architecture.
But if we try to look from the outside at these still topical metamorphoses in assessments of the architecture of the recent past, we will see that this is a historically typical phenomenon. The criteria for assessing architecture are constantly changing, and along with them, emotional reactions are changing. Not only large-panel houses of twenty years ago seem less expressive today than they seemed in the late 50s. Gothic, which we recognize as one of the peaks of world architecture, was perceived negatively during the Renaissance. Classical Renaissance architecture evoked in the mid-19th century. John Ruskin's dissatisfaction. The architecture of the 40s and 50s, which later received the disparaging epithet “decorative”, is now beginning to evoke sympathy again; avant-garde architecture of the 20s and 30s, completely rejected in the mid-50s, is today seen as a unique contribution to the history of culture. Art Nouveau architecture has long been an example of “bad taste,” but today it reveals innumerable virtues. Even eclecticism, which once served as a symbol of the lowest point of architectural creativity, came back into fashion in the 80s.
The inconstancy of artistic and architectural tastes does not allow us to limit ourselves to posing the question of which architecture should evoke positive and which negative emotions. The emotional reaction is closely related to the semantic, cultural, artistic assessment of a work of architecture, the environment in which it is perceived and experienced, be it the real environment and real living conditions or fantasies, utopias and ideals that architectural structures symbolize. Given this, it is necessary to consider the extent to which the emotional impact of architecture can be separated from cultural interpretation and human evaluation of the environment as a whole.
Speaking below about the essence of emotions themselves, we only want to understand how the problems of architectural activity and human perception of architectural phenomena are refracted in the sphere of the psyche. It would be naive to expect this work to solve all the challenging problems that constantly confront architects, critics and the public. But it is our professional duty to try to understand the essence of the intended problem with its actual historical complexity. This work should therefore be considered as one of the first attempts to pose the topic and feel for the main directions of its development in the future.
The authors saw their task not so much in collecting material scattered across various scientific sources, but in reflecting the point of view of a professional architect. With a professional position as a starting point, the book examines the contradictory aspects of the emotional approach to architecture and architectural creativity (Chapter I. Emotions and the professional consciousness of the architect). However, behind these contradictions we can see something more important - the dependence of the degree of emotional intensity in architecture on historical collisions of architectural creativity and professional self-awareness. The theory of architecture and architectural criticism turn out to be poles of architectural studies, to varying degrees sensitive to emotional issues.
However, it is impossible to limit ourselves only to the professional sphere and professional consciousness in the study of the emotional impact of architecture. Already the object itself - the emotional impact - points to the viewer, that is, not only to the architectural audience, but also to the public with its everyday, non-professional consciousness as the main addressee of architectural creativity. This required the use of methods for studying the emotional impact of the architectural environment, which are being developed in psychological research. Of course, when analyzing the experience of such studies (Chapter 2. Ways to study the emotional impact of architecture), the main emphasis had to be on correlating psychological ideas with professional traditions and the existing problems of architectural and urban planning.
Another aspect of the problem is entirely related to the sphere of professional thinking and compositional creativity (Chapter 3. Emotional impact of the architectural environment and its organization). Compositional techniques and means of architectural design are considered here through the prism of scientific and methodological analysis of the function of emotions in human activity and behavior. Here the topic is concretized to the typological level, since the variety of emotional reactions evoked by architecture is closely related to the types of architectural environments. Of course, there is no direct correspondence between the type of building and the range of emotional reactions it arouses. In fact, there is a complex and not fully identified dependence between the nature of activity and behavior, on the one hand, and the environment, on the other, a dependence reflected in the integral human reaction - the sensory perception of architecture.
The most clear evidence of a certain independence of a person’s emotional reaction to the type of environment is the assessment of the perfection of an architectural structure, that is, the emotional-aesthetic reaction of a person (Chapter 4. Aesthetic feeling and architecture). It is in aesthetic emotion that the whole variety of emotional reactions is integrated, in particular, the individual experience of comprehending architecture merges with the generic cultural experience of humanity.
Chapter 1 written by A.G. Rappaport, chapter 2 - G.V. Zabelshansky, chapter 3 - G.Yu. Somov, chapter 4 - G.B. Minervin (sections 4.1 and 4.2) and G.Yu. Somov (section 4.3). General editing was carried out by prof. G.B. Minervin. The authors express sincere gratitude to the book’s reviewers V. Vilyunas, Y. Volchk, L. Monakhova, as well as M. Milova, who took an active part in preparing the manuscript for publication.
In recent years, sociologists and psychologists have expressed concern that the value of the family is falling, that young people prefer “open relationships” and are in no hurry to go to the registry office. Analyzing the reasons for what is happening, A. Bossart came to the following conclusion: “The family has not fallen in value at all as much as the intriguing divorce statistics and no less intriguing publications about conscious loneliness suggest. Yes, many men and women make the bachelor choice. Do they hate their family? In principle, no. Almost all bachelors are not averse to getting married, and almost all “conscious singles” are not averse to getting married. In principle, their family does not dislike them. They are disgusted like this family. The kind they see in their friends. The kind you may have once tasted yourself. The one we grew up in. I hate a family in which feelings are in short supply.”
It is the deficit of feelings that is the key to unraveling the ever-increasing alienation of parents and children. “There are children who, from childhood, have already thought about their family, from childhood have been offended by the indecency of their fathers and their environment, and most importantly, from childhood they begin to understand the disorder and randomness of the foundations of their entire lives...” – wrote Dostoevsky in the drafts for the novel “The Adolescent”.
Judge for yourself. Here is the confession of a thirteen-year-old girl who was referred for counseling by teachers who were concerned about her conflict-prone nature, explosive temperament, and inability to communicate with peers. “My parents live like cats and dogs, and I’m constantly waiting for someone to yell at me. They got married not out of love, but because I was about to be born. Every time during quarrels, the father expresses this to the mother. They are completely different people and are similar in only one way - they are never inferior to each other in anything. If my father allows me to go for a walk, my mother starts yelling at both him and me. Their argument often turns into mother hysterics. And when they get tired of arguing among themselves, it turns out that everything is my fault, and now curses and threats are raining down on me. At such moments it is better not to catch their eye. Friends have repeatedly advised my parents to get a divorce, but they don’t want to hear about it. They say: I feel sorry for my daughter - how will she live without her father or mother? Why do I need such pity, what is the use of it? After all, they not only torture each other, but they also tormented me. Why do I need such a family? And really – why?
In the eyes of a child, parents appear in several guises: as a source of emotional warmth and support, without which he feels defenseless and helpless; as administrators of benefits, rewards or punishments; as an example to follow; as a decision-making authority; as an authority capable of taking upon itself the protection of a child or punishing for wrongdoing; as an older friend and advisor. How often do we think about what quality we are in every time we communicate with a child? After all, in order to understand our child, the motives of certain of his actions, we must first of all learn to understand ourselves. What is most important to us in life? What do we want from a child and by what means do we achieve what we want? How do we show our emotions towards each other, towards our child and towards people in general? At what level do we communicate with everyone?
Research conducted by psychologists has shown that already at the end of the preschool period, a special form of communication, the so-called extra-situational-personal, begins to predominate in children. It is based on the child’s deep need for mutual understanding with adults, for emotional empathy with them; the need for open communication with dad and mom - all that shows true parental love. In the family, the little person begins to accumulate emotional and social experience, process it and assimilate it. In the family, he receives interpersonal feedback, and this is an important moment in the formation of his own self. Much depends on how this connection is presented by the parents and how the child perceives it. Feedback can be verbal and non-verbal, consciously given and unconsciously. Sometimes she doesn’t need words, but the child feels her. If there is no emotional resonance, then he perceives it as the coldness of the parents. He doesn't know how he is treated and suffers from it. You can shower a child with material goods, but not satisfy his immediate emotional needs: love, understanding, recognition, safety, security, and he will feel lonely and abandoned. Paradoxically, a child who is allowed to do everything is unhappy even in childhood. Just remember the movie “Toy”. Watch a spoiled child. He is capricious every now and then, increasing his demands, as if he was deliberately running into refusal. It seems that the child is subconsciously looking for the limit of what is permitted, which his parents do not point out to him. Finding this line on your own is an impossible task for a child. And in the boundless, formless space of permissiveness, where there are no guidelines and therefore nothing to cling to, he is scared, uncomfortable, and he begins to become neurotic. The neurotic state of the parents themselves, especially the mother, does not have the best effect on the emotional development of children. The expression of love for a child is blocked, which begins to irritate literally everyone. This often happens in families where the child is like an unloved family member; where the gender of the child does not correspond to what was expected (they were expecting a boy, but a girl was born), where he was born from an unplanned pregnancy or does not live up to the ambitious expectations of his parents. The child is also uncomfortable in a family of closed, emotionally cold parents or “over-correct” parents who believe that only strictness is the best means of education. The situation is also difficult when parents are so busy with each other (be it all-consuming love or sizzling jealousy with surveillance and scenes) that they do not notice the love of their children; or with the birth of a second child, all attention is switched to him, pushing the first-born into the background and leaving him alone with his experiences: resentment, jealousy, envy, fear, which does not contribute to normal emotional development and makes it difficult for him to communicate with peers in the future.
Often the actions of children frighten parents, but in order to understand them, it is necessary to look at the family situation through the eyes of a child. This is not the same thing as putting yourself in his shoes. How to do it? Just! In your free time, take sheets of writing paper, felt-tip pens or colored pencils and, with the whole family, each draw your own picture entitled “My family doing something.” Just don’t give children instructions on who and how to draw (“As you want.”) Compare the drawings. Match up? No? Many people are surprised to discover that the child does not perceive the family as happily as the parents would like. For many, it becomes a revelation that children do not feel comfortable in the family, that the family itself is aggressive for them. Sometimes parents themselves are not aware of their family troubles or stubbornly hide it even from themselves. Draw a “picture” and a lot will be revealed to you.
“Contact with the world begins with the family,” writes A. Bossart in his book “Paradoxes of Age or Education.” – A person who owes honor, goodness and nobility to her begins with the family, if she is wise; not free from it - at least by the fact of his protest against it if it is bad; and doomed to search for it if it is not there.” How often we have to state with regret that even with living parents, a child feels like an orphan, although the family is considered prosperous by generally accepted standards. And the very concept of family well-being has become relative.
Observing the lives of those around you, you have obviously wondered more than once: why is a single mother barely making ends meet, but living in perfect harmony with her teenage daughter? Why is it that in the house from which the mother ran away in search of a “beautiful life”, and the father spins like a squirrel in a wheel, raising two sons, everyone is comfortable and warm, and the children grow up to be people without moral damage? Why is it that in a house where there is hubbub and disorder and there is nothing but debts, everyone understands and respects each other? And why in a “proper” family, where everyone works, where there is prosperity and “impeccable” morality, the son, in deep hatred of it all, drinks himself to death, and the daughter is on the verge of suicide? The fact is that every family has something what makes her prosperous or dysfunctional for the child, first of all. And this name is the emotional world.
Various types of activities and forms of communication with others are formed, causing profound changes in the emotional sphere of the child. A correct understanding of a person’s emotional states is very important for the formation of adequate interpersonal relationships, mastering one’s own emotions, their regulation and influence on others. Understanding emotions and feelings contributes to a better understanding of fiction and feature films, theatrical productions, which in turn enriches children's knowledge about the world of feelings.
A.V. Zaporozhets noted that the development of the child’s emotional sphere and the education of his feelings on this basis is a primary task, “no less, and in some sense even more important than the education of his mind.” His research indicates that the development of emotional processes is associated, on the one hand, with the transition from relatively immediate to complexly mediated emotional experiences through words, and on the other, with the development of the motivational and semantic sphere of the individual. The mechanism of qualitative dynamics and development of emotions lies in the mediation of socially determined emotions by activity. However, as noted by L.I. Bozhovich, A.V. Zaporozhets, A.N. Leontyev, Ya.Z. Neverovich et al., not all components of children's activity play the same role in the emergence and development of emotions. The goals and motives of the activities performed are especially important, and the methods of actions performed have only an indirect impact.
The role of an adult is to, based on the child’s life experience, use verbal explanations to help him understand the connection between the motive and the product of the activity. This allows the child, even before the start of an activity, to anticipate its social significance and emotionally tune in to it, which in turn leads to the actualization of the simplest social motives of activity that develop in the child and enhances their influence on the overall direction and dynamics of behavior.
The basis of such emotional anticipation is noted by L.S. Vygotsky, the shift of affect from the end to the beginning of activity and the emergence in preschoolers of a special “emotional imagination” that combines affective and cognitive processes.
The unity of emotions and cognitive mental processes, as well as the role of cognitive elements in emotional processes, were considered in the works of E.R. Baenskaya, N.Ya. Grota, A.V. Zaporozhets, A.N. Leontyeva, Ya.Z. Neverovich, S.L., Nikolskaya O.S., Rubinshteina, P.V. Simonov, B. Spinoza, D.B. Elkonina et al. Researchers noted that emotion is knowledge plus attitude (excitement); that emotions are associated with activity, cognitive processes and interact with morality and free will of the individual. L.S. Vygotsky pointed out the need to “consider the relationship between intellect and affect not as a thing, but as a process,” and also “to free ourselves from the view of the connection between intellect and affect as a one-sided mechanical dependence of thinking and feeling” and recognize their internal connection and unity. L.S. Vygotsky noted that “the transition from lower to higher affective formations is directly related to a change in the relationship between affect and intellect.” Thus, the emotional and cognitive systems jointly provide orientation in the environment.
Emotional development involves the formation of ideas about emotions, the structure of which includes the external expression of emotions, their adequate experience and understanding of their content in various situations. Studying the development of the child’s emotional sphere, S.L. Rubinstein, K.V. Shuleikina et al. noted that emotions appear in a person even before birth. In particular, such emotional reactions as pleasure and displeasure are noted already in a five to six month old fetus. As K. Izard pointed out, in the process of ontogenesis, the ability to use emotional expression as a means of communication develops, and the recognition of emotions by facial expression improves. Researchers associate these changes, first of all, with the fact that with age, knowledge about emotions expands and becomes more complex, the “vocabulary of emotions” expands, the boundaries of emotional concepts become clearer, and ideas about the causes of emotions and internal states are differentiated. This becomes possible only in conditions of communication in the process of joint activity of the child with adults who are bearers of the socio-historical experience of mankind.
The trend toward increased sophistication in children's knowledge of emotions occurs in several ways. Due to rapid cognitive development, the child becomes more and more accurately aware of the nuances of emotions in everyday life and expresses them in speech form. It has been established that with age a child better identifies emotions, the boundaries of emotional concepts become clearer, and the number of parameters by which he distinguishes emotions increases. In addition, knowledge about emotions becomes more complex. Complication should be understood as the destruction of rigid cohesion between its individual components. As noted by A.N. Leontyev, L.I. Bozhovich and others, the development of emotions is closely related to the development of behavioral motives, with the emergence of new needs and interests in the child. Throughout childhood, not only a profound restructuring of organic needs occurs, but also the assimilation of material and spiritual values created by society, which, under certain conditions, become the content of the internal motivations of the child’s personality.
In their studies, Bylkina and D.V. Lyusina note that already one-year-old children, through nonverbal behavior, can express contradictory emotions in an unfamiliar situation, ambivalent feelings, mixing the desire for contact and resistance as soon as it is achieved (anger because they were left alone; relief when mom or dad returns). Clearly, there is a significant gap between the child's emotional experience and his ability to cognitively organize and report on that experience. In some situations, children are aware of only the most vivid emotion, but when trying to cope with this situation or express their feelings, they experience the complexity of emotional experience.
By the beginning of preschool age, the child has a relatively rich emotional experience. He usually reacts quite vividly to joyful and sad events, and is easily imbued with the mood of the people around him. The expression of emotions is very spontaneous in nature, they are violently manifested in his facial expressions, words, movements, there is an expectation (anticipation) of emotions, which, according to A.V. Zaporozhets and Ya.Z. Neverovich, significant influence on the motivation of behavior and activity. A.M. Shchetinina noted that preschoolers gradually develop the ability to determine the emotional state of other people, which depends not only on the age of the children and their accumulated experience, but also on the modality of emotion. However, for a five-year-old child, expressive means become signaling only in the context of actions and situations. In a study by V.Kh. Manerov found that for most children 5-6 years old it becomes possible to determine the emotions of another person from his speech.
O.A. Denisova, O.L. Lekhanova et al. note that by the age of four, a child should be able to recognize emotional states: joy, sadness, anger, surprise, fear. Knows some ways of expressing these emotional states (through drawing, vocalization, with the help of facial expressions, gestures and pantomime). By the age of five, a child should be able to recognize a pictogram and name emotional states: joy, sadness, anger, surprise, fear. Knows how to talk about his mood. Knows ways to express and change these emotional states. Able to identify the emotional states of fairy tale characters. According to La Frenier, most 4-year-old children are not yet able to clearly distinguish between real and visible emotions. They take any facial expression at face value. However, already at the age of 6, most begin to understand: if, for example, you fall, then you can mislead your friend and not show that you hurt yourself, otherwise they will tease you. This task is more successfully solved by those who have mastered the skill of masking emotions. This fact can be considered an important step in development, leading to an understanding of social life (including contradictory motives both in oneself and in surrounding ambivalent interpersonal relationships). This is on the one hand; on the other hand, it leads to more complex ideas about oneself.
By the age of six, a child should be able to recognize by pictogram and name emotional states: joy-delight, sadness, anger-rage, surprise, fear, confusion, calm. Ideas about such personal qualities of people as kindness and anger, greed and generosity, laziness, capriciousness have been formed. The child knows how to evaluate himself, highlighting these qualities in his behavior. Elements of reflection appear. By the age of seven, the child should be able to be critical of his actions; elements of reflection appear; stable self-esteem.
The ability to understand the emotions of other people through facial expressions develops most intensively in the preschool period. The level of children’s understanding of a particular emotional state depends on a number of conditions:
- on the sign and modality of the emotion (for example, children recognize positive emotions easier and better than negative ones, but children understand surprise poorly, although this emotion is a positive one);
- on age and the experience accumulated during life in recognizing experiences in various life situations, in different emotional microclimates (such experience accumulates in children most often spontaneously, but it can apparently be enriched in specially organized conditions, which will certainly increase the capabilities and skills of children understand the state of people);
- on the child’s degree of proficiency in verbal designations of emotions (it is legitimate to assume that the transfer from a concrete sensory understanding of expression to the level of its comprehension is possible provided that emotional states and their external expressions are accurately and completely verbalized);
- on the child’s ability to isolate expression and differentiate its elements, that is, on the type of perception, on the formation of standards for state expressions.
A.M. Shchetinina, working with children of middle and senior preschool age, studied in detail the problem of developing the ability to understand the emotions of other people by facial expressions. She identified several types of perception of emotional states by expression.
- Preverbal type. An emotion is not indicated by words; its recognition is revealed when the child adopts a facial expression that corresponds to the nature of a particular situation (“He’s probably watching a cartoon”).
- Diffuse amorphous type. The child names the emotion, but perceives it superficially and vaguely (“Cheerful,” “I looked and found out that he was sad”). The constituent elements of the emotion standard have not yet been differentiated.
- Diffuse-local type. Perceiving the expression of emotion globally and superficially, the child begins to highlight a separate, often single element of expression (in most cases - with the eyes).
- Analytical type. Emotion is recognized through elements of expression. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the child relies on facial expression rather than posture.
- Synthetic type. This is no longer a global and superficial perception of emotions, but a holistic, generalized one (“She’s evil because she’s all evil”).
- Analytical - synthetic type. The child identifies elements of expression and generalizes them (“She is cheerful, her whole face is like that - her eyes and mouth are cheerful”).
According to N. Dovga and O. Perelygina, pupils of senior preschool age quite easily understand the causes of such emotions as joy, sadness, fear, anger, shame. The most difficult emotions to understand are pride and surprise for children in the preschool group. With age, the understanding of the causes of a particular emotional state expands and deepens. If in the middle group children focus on the satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) of their needs, then in the older groups the answers extend to a greater extent to the sphere of interpersonal relationships and include categories not related to the child’s direct experience. Noticeable progress, especially when moving from the older group to preparatory, can be traced in the development of understanding of external manifestations of emotions, characteristics of behavior in a particular emotional state: children not only realize their behavior under the influence of certain emotions, but also try to control their own emotions.
The results of a study on understanding the causes of emotions were quite successful for six- and seven-year-old children. N. Dovgaya, studying the understanding of the characteristics of human behavior in an emotional state, revealed that many children experienced significant difficulties. She explains this by saying that when naming possible causes, children used “abstract” knowledge, i.e. those received during educational conversations and reading literary works. Knowing clearly what a person should be ashamed of or what a person should be proud of, they, nevertheless, did not load this knowledge with personal meaning. And this is necessary when the task is set to indicate the characteristics of one’s behavior in a state of the corresponding emotion and when asked to remember a similar incident.
Insufficient personal experience and a low level of reflection, characteristic of older preschool age, lead to less success when it comes to completing a task that requires an understanding of emotions as the causes of behavior, which cannot be said for the task of identifying possible causes of emotions. A study of verbal identification of emotions showed that children have insufficient development of an active vocabulary of emotions. Most often, children used concepts of a more general nature (“Sadness is a bad mood”). As in other tasks, the task associated with a sense of pride caused the greatest difficulties. Even in the pre-school group, only 40% of children used this word. What is noteworthy: even those who demonstrated good command of the language of emotions (47%) found it difficult to give an example from their own experience. N. Dovgaya and O. Perelygina made the following conclusions:
- Knowledge of the appropriate words denoting an emotional state is divorced from experience and characterizes speech development (vocabulary) rather than emotional development.
- In kindergarten (and in the family), the main emphasis is on the development of the child’s intellectual and strong-willed qualities. Often, 5-year-old children are already being prepared to enter school, which significantly impoverishes the gaming experience - a natural source of emotions.
- Adults do not sufficiently voice their own emotions, do not talk to the child about feelings and experiences, which, naturally, does not add to the vocabulary. Hence the lack of command of the language of emotions, the inability to verbalize one’s experiences and, as a consequence, the inability to control and adequately express emotions.
- Children have difficulty navigating their emotional experience. In the majority of those who took part in the experiment, we observed repression of the emotion of anger, which significantly hampered learning constructive ways of expressing it. Guilt was perceived not as an emotion, but as an objectivity (the commission of an unseemly act that deserves condemnation). But the experience of guilt is a natural regulator of behavior.
Understanding emotions depends on the child's own emotional experience. E.L. Yakovleva notes that in understanding the emotional state of another person, the need to understand one’s own emotional reactions, which develop in the interaction of a preschooler with an adult. A child’s awareness of his own emotions is facilitated by the adult’s naming of the child’s emotional reactions and state, the adult’s acceptance or non-acceptance of these emotions, the support of adequate reactions and the rejection of inappropriate ones. In addition, the role of the adult is that he provides the preschooler with examples of ways of emotional self-expression.