Abstract

GARCIA-SERPA, Fabíola Alvares; MEYER, Sonia Beatriz  and  DEL PRETTE, Zilda Aparecida Pereira. Social origin of reported feelings: indirect empirical evidence. Rev. bras. ter. comport. cogn. [online]. 2003, vol.5, n.1, pp. 21-29. ISSN 1517-5545.

Contrary to what some people think, behaviorism values the study of emotions, since the descriptions of what is felt in the world under the skin are clues to past behavior and the conditions that affected it, as well as to the actual and future behaviors. Considering Skinner’s propositions about the social origin of feeling’s report, its importance in children’s initial development and the lack of empiric studies about this in our context (and in general literature, when dealing with boys) we may ask if the influence of the verbal community can be noted in a short period of children’s development and if there are differences in learning diverse kinds of feelings. This study examines part of the data collected for another research, where a sample of 72 four and five year-old boys were asked to identify the emotions of the protagonist of a story presented in videotape. Results showed differences between four and five year-old kids concerning the kind of identified feeling, indicating a cumulative effect of experience and providing indirect empirical evidence to Skinner’s formulations. Some theoretical and methodological questions about emotional learning and related factors are discussed.

Keywords : Behaviorism; Feelings; Verbal report; Pre-school boys.

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