Specifics of Perception of Verbal Indications and Graphic Expressions of Basic Emotions by Children of Elementary and Middle School Age

Abstract

The work studied the components of emotional competence of children of primary and secondary school age using the method of semantic differential. An analysis was made of differences in the distribution of verbal designation assessments and a comparison of the assessment profiles of verbal designations and graphic expressions (of different levels of severity) of 9 basic emotions. It is shown that the lowest level of differences in the assessments of verbal designations of children of primary and secondary school age is observed for the emotions of “joy”, “anger”, “fear” and “disgust”; the most different assessments are “interest”, “contempt” and “shame”; “guilt”, “surprise” and “sadness” occupy an intermediate position. The affective vocabulary of children of primary school age is represented by affective concepts understood at the level of children of secondary school age: “joy”, “anger” and “fear”; as well as characteristics that are extremely pronounced in terms of valence — “friendly / hostile”, and associated with communication needs — “social / unsociable”. The results obtained can be useful in the further use of graphic expressions of basic emotions as a stimulus material for studying the characteristics of perception and in the procedures for self-assessment of emotions when working with children of primary and secondary school age.