Gender and Preschoolers’ Perception of Emotion

8/8/2019 Gender and Preschoolers Perception of Emotion

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ENDER AND RESCHOOLERSERCEPTION OF EMOTION

. .Sherri C Widen and James A RussellUniversity of British Columbia


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ABSTRACT

A person s gender plays a role in the emotion,children attribute to that person even given.unambiguous cues to a basic emotion

80 preschoolers were asked to name the emotion of

( ) ( )either a boy Judd or a girl Suzy in otherwiseidentical stories about prototypical emotional, ,events and separately as shown with identical

.prototypical facial expressions

,Boys more often labeled Judd than Suzy as disgusted

both in the disgust story and with the disgust.face

,Girls more often labeled Suzy as afraid both in the.fear story and with the fear face


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INTRODUCTION

( )ondry and Condry 1976 found that observersattributed more anger to a boy than to a girl reacting- - - , to a jack in the box even though the boy and the

,girl in the videotape were the same infant labeled.differently by the experimenter

. ( )lant et al 2000 examined gender effects withunambiguous stimuli on adults perception of adult

. faces They found gender effects with a pure as well .as an ambiguous expression

. ( )arbon et al 1992 showed preschoolers simple line, .drawings each of a person but displaying no emotion

When the children were asked to rate the frequency andintensity with which the person in each drawing felt

,different emotions females were rated as feeling sad,more often than males and males were rated as feeling

.angry more often than females


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PURPOSE

To gather more definitive evidence that theeffects of ascribed gender do exist in

the eye of the beholder even given

unambiguous cues to emotion

To extend this finding to preschoolers


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HYPOTHESIS

If the children participating in thecurrent study based their emotion

judgments entirely on their gender

,stereotypes available evidence suggests,that they would attribute more happiness

, ,fear and sadness to Suzy and more anger.to Judd


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METHODParticipants

80 children representing the ethnic diversity of, . .,Vancouver B C Canada

;40 girls and 40 boys between the ages of 4 0 and;5 11 Girls mean age was 56 months Boys mean age was 58 months

Proficient in English

Enrolled in one of the 19 day caresparticipating in this study


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METHODMaterials

:Photographs of facial expressions - -Two sets of printed 3 x 5 black and white

photographs ; ( ),6 each in each set one set male Judd one

( )female Suzy Photographs displayed prototypical facial

( ,expressions of five basic emotions happiness, , , ),sadness anger fear disgust and a neutral

.expression

:Stories of Emotional Events -Five stories describing stereotypical emotion

eliciting events and responses complete with a.drawing depicting a setting for each

Stories were identical for the two characters( )Judd and Suzy except for the character name

.and related pronouns


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METHODProcedure

Design:

Children go through a priming procedure

-Children are assigned to between subject:factors

( )Gender of participant male or female

( )Gender of protagonist Judd or Suzy

( -Order of stimulus presentation story first or- )face first

For each child and within each mode of( ),presentation faces and stories the five

,stimuli were presented one at a time in a.separate random order


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METHODProcedure

Priming:

Each child s emotion concepts were primedduring a conversation with the

.experimenter about emotions

Six emotion words were inserted into this( , , , ,conversation happy scared mad sad)disgusted or yucky

Experimenter used every effort to use aneutral tone of voice when presenting


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METHODProcedure

:Faces :Faces were introduced by saying

/ ,I brought some pictures of Judd Suzy would you like tolook at them with me?

:The experimenter showed the neutral face and said

, / .Okay here is a picture of Judd Suzy Do you know what/ /Judd Suzy is going to do? He She is going to show us

/ .how he she feels sometimes

,The five facial expressions were then shown one at a time in a.random order


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METHODProcedure

Stories:

:The experimenter introduced the stories by saying I m going to tell you some stories about things that

/ . ,happened to Judd Suzy After each one you get to tell/ .me how you think Judd Suzy feels How does that sound?

: ,Remember listen carefully because you have to tell/ .me how Judd Suzy feels

The stories were presented one at a time in a random order

:The first story began Once upon a time


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METHOD

Method of Data Analysis

Repeated Measures ANOVA:

- :Between subject factors ( , )Gender of protagonist Judd Suzy ( - , - )Order story first face first ( , )Gender of participant male female

- :Within subject factors ( )Emotion 5 levels ( , )Mode of presentation story face


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RESULTS Major Findings

The ain effect for emotion ,was significant( , )= . ,


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RESULTS.Table 2

( )roportion Correct and Standard Deviation for Boys andirls ( )or Each Emotion for Each Protagonist Judd or SuzyBoys Girls ean

Judd Suzy Judd Suzy

EMOTION

Happiness . (. )93 24 a A . (. )98 11 a A . (. )98 11 a A . (. )95 26 a A . (. )6 17Sadness . (. )93 18 a A . (. )1 00 00 a A . (. )98 11 a A . (. )90 26 a A . (. )5 17

Anger . (. )65 37 b BE . (. )77 26 b E . (. )75 30 b E . (. )65 37 b B . (. )1 33Fear . (. )73 34 b BE . (. )65 29 b BE . (. )60 38 b B . (. )75 30 b E . (. )8 33

Disgust . (. )38 36 c C . (. )15 33 d D . (. )17 33 d D . (. )28 38 cd CD . (. )4 36ean . (. )2 17 . (. )1 12 . (. )0 16 . (. )1 17


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RESULTS Major Findings

The ain effect for mode of presentation was, ( , )= . , =.significant F 1 72 4 68 p 03

Significance was due to greater accuracy in the story(. ) (. )mode 73 than in the face mode 68

The *motion mode interaction ,was significant( , )= . ,


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RESULTS

Major Findings

The - - * - - *ender of protagonist gender of participant emotionnteraction , ( , )= . , =.was significant F 4 288 4 02 p 003

Separate ANOVAS calculated for each emotion indicated that

- - * - -only the gender of protagonist gender of participantinteraction was significant for disgust ,( , )= . , =.F 1 76 4 29 p 04

( =. ) -LSD comparisons alpha 05 indicated a Judd Suzy difference,in boy participants who labeled Judd significantly

( =. )p 04 more often than Suzy as disgusted , in each modeand order of presentation

( =. ) -Additional LSD comparisons alpha 10 indicated a Judd Suzy,difference found in girl participants who labeled Suzy( =. )significantly more often than Judd p 08 as afraid , in

each mode and order of presentation


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DISCUSSION

Ascribed gender of the protagonist played a role in the( , , )attribution of disgust and possibly fear to the

.preschooler

,Though limited to girls and not significant at conventional, -levels a Judd Suzy difference was seen in the gender effect

with fear

Ceiling effects are present in happiness and sadness because

,they did not differ significantly from each other and bothwere significantly higher than for any other emotion


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REFERENCES

, ., & , . ( ). :Condry J Condry S 1976 Gender differences A study of the.eye of the beholder , ,Child Development 47 - .812 819

, ., , . ., , ., & , . . ( ).Karbon M Fabes R A Carlo G Martin C L 1992Preschoolers beliefs about sex and age differences in

.emotionality ,Sex Roles 27, - .377 390

, . ., , . ., , ., & , . . ( ).Plant E A Hyde J S Keltner D Devine P G 2000 The.gender stereotyping of emotions Psychology of Women

, ,Quarterly 24 - .81 92

, . ., & , . . ( ). Widen S C Russell J A 2002 Gender and Preschoolers'.Perception of Emotion - ,Merrill Palmer Quarterly 48 ( ), -3 248

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Gender and Preschoolers’ Perception of Emotion

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