The Development of the Language of Emotions
WILLIAM C. LEWIS M.D.1,
RICHARD N. WOLMAN PH.D.2, , and
MURIEL KING M.D.3
1 Professor of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison, Wis. 53706
2 Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison, Wis. 53706
3 Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, University of Washington Medical School
A study of 256 school children revealed that with increasing age, children—especially boys—demonstrate increased freedom from the external environment for cues to emotional arousal; girls tend to be more visceral and less cerebral in the body sites they associate with certain emotions; and older children describe emotions more as ideas or thoughts than as body sensations. The authors feel that children should be encouraged to explore their emotions, thereby facilitating the communication of those feelings to others.
