APPEARANCE AND REALITY:
THE RECONCILIATION OF DISCREPANT SIGNS OF EMOTION
Keywords:
Phenomenism error, Intelectual realism, Dual coding, Contextual cues, Metacognitive processesAbstract
According to Flavell questions involving
appearance-reality (AR) notions tend to provoke some conceptual error
patterns in children, specially the younger ones. A Phenomenism error
pattern occurs when reality is assimilated to appearances and the child
incorrectly reports appearance when asked to report reality. On the other
hand, the notion of schema, used to denote generic structures of world
knowledge that guide information processing, explains the ocurrence of an
Intellectual Realism error pattern, and the child incorrectly reports reality
when asked to report appearance. Recent research suggests that in order
for the child to correctly infer real and apparent behaviors she must have
in mind simultaneously, two apparently incompatible identities and she
must apply both properties to the same object. This hypothesis implies the
development of Dual Coding Abilities (DCA). The present study questions
the traditional approach of Contextual Cues (CC) with its emphasis on
events leading up to an outcome, as means to achieve a better
understanding of intentional disguising or masking of the inner emotional
experience of TV Game Show looser constestants. The specific design
and conceptualization of this study led to the following expectations: Ss in
the Dual Coding Condition (DCC) would manifest superior performance in
AR tasks when compared with subjects in the CCC. Furthermore, a
predominance of intellectual realism type of error was expected in Ss
exposed to the CCC. The sample consisted of 29 second-graders from a
public school. The main results revealed a superior performance in AR
tasks for subjects in the DCA condition. A predominance of Phenomenism
error pattern was detected in the CC condition as compared to DCA
condition. The results are interpreted in terms of Flavell's findings on
distinctions between appearance and reality and possible connections
with metacognitive processes.
Downloads
References
Bradley, F.H. (1969). Appearance and reality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Braine, M.D.S., & Shanks, B.L (1965). The Conservation of a shape property and a
proposal about the origin of conservations. Canadian Journal of Psychology,
79,197-207.
Burns, N., & Cavey, L. (1957). Age difference in empathic ability among children.
Canadian Journal of Psychology, 11, 227-230.
Chandler, M.J. (1977). Social cognition; A selective review of current research. Em W.F.
Overton & J.M. Gallagher (Ed.), Knowledge and development. New York: Plenum
Press.
Chomsky, N. (1971). Linguagem e pensamento. Petrópolis: Vozes.
Damon, W. (1977). The social world of the child. San Francisco: Jossey Bass
Publishers.
Davis, A. (1985). Developmental Psychology in the Mid. Educational Psychplogy, 5,
203-205.
De Paulo, B.M.; Irvine, A.; Jordan, A., & Laser,. P.S. (1980). Age changes in the
detection of deception. Em R. Buck (Ed.). Development of nonverbal behavbral
skill. Symposium presented at the American Psychological Association, Montreal,
Canadá.
Deutsch, F. (1974). Female prescholers perception of affective responses and
interpersonal behavior in videotape episodes. Developmental Psychology, 10,
733-740.
De Vries, R. (1969). Constancy of generic identity in the years three to six.
Monographs, of the Society for Research in Child Development, 34 (3) serial n9
127,8.
Durkheim, E. (1976). The elementary forms of religious life. N.J.: Allen Unwin.
Elkind, D. (1966). Conservation across illusory transformations in young children. Acta
Psychologica, 25, 389-400.
Flavell, J. (1977). Cognitive development. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
Flavell, J.H. (1983). Monitoring Social Cognitive Interprises: something else that may
develop in the area of social cognition. Em John H. Flavell e Lee Ross (Ed.), Social
Cognitive Development - Frontiers and Possible futures. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Flavell, J.H. (1986). The development of children's knowledge about the appearance -
reality distinction. American Psychologist, 41, 40-418-425.
Flavell, J.H.; Flavell, E.L., & Green, F.L. (1983a). Development of the
appearance-reality distinction, Cognitive Psychology, 15, 95-120.
Flavell,J.H.; Green, F.L., & Flavell, È.R. (1986). Development of knowledge about the
appearance-reality distinction. Monographs of the society for research in child
development, 51,1, serial n° 212.
Flavell, J.H.; Zhang, X.D.; Zou, H.; Dong, Q., & Qui, S. (1983b). A comparison between
the development of appearance reality distinction in the People's Republic of
China and the United States. Cognitive Psychology, 15, 459-466.
Frijda, N.H. (1969). Recognition of Emotion. Em L. Berkowitz (Ed.). Advances in
Experimental Social Psychology, 4, New York: Academic Press.
Gnepp, J. (1983). Children's social sensitivity: Inferring emotions from conflicting cues.
Developmental Psychology, 19, 805-814.
Gove, F.L & Keating, D.P. (1979). Empathic role - taking precursors. Developmental
Psychology, 19, 805-814.
Gove, F.L. & Keating, D.P. (1979). Empathic role - taking precursors. Developmental
Psychology, 15, 594-600.
Greenspan, S.; Bareboim, C, & Chandler, M.J. (1976). Empathy and pseudoempathy:
The affective judgments of first and third-graders. Journal of Genetic Psychology,
129, 77-88.
Harris, P. & Olthof, T. (1982). The child concept of emotion. Em G. Butterworth & Light
(Ed.) Social Cognition: Studies of the Development of Understanding. Chicago,
University of Chicago Press.
Harris, P.L.; Donnely, K.; Guz, G.R. & Pitt-Watson, R. (1986). Children's
understanding of the distinctions of real and apparent emotion. Child
Development, 57, 895-909.
lanotti, R.J. (1978). Effect of role-taking experiences on role-taking, empathy, altruism,
and agression. Developmental Psychology, 14, 119-124.
Kosslyn, S.M., & Kagan, J. (1983). Concrete thinking and the development of social
cognition. In: John H. Flavell e Lee Ross. Social Cognitive Development -
Frontiers and Possible futures. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Liben, L.S., & Belknap, B. (1981). Intellectual Realism: Implications for investigations of
perceptual perspective taking in young children. Child Development, 52, 921-924.
Nelson, K. (1983). Social Cognition in a Script Framework. Em John H. Flavell e Lee
Ross (Ed.), Social Cognitive Development - Frontiers and Possible futures. New
York: Cambridge University Press.
Piaget, J. (1929). The child's conception of the world. New York: Hartcourt, Brace.
Piaget, J. (1969). Piaget's theory. Em P.H. Mussen (Ed.), Carmichael's: Manual of
child psychology. New York: John Wiley.
Russel, J. & Mitchell. (1985). Thigs are not always as they seem: The appearance -
reality distinction and conservation. Educational Psychology, 5, 227-238.
Saarni, С (1979).Children's understanding of display rules for expressive behavior.
Developmental Psychology, 15, 424-429.
Shantz, C.U. (1975). The development of social cognition. Em E.M. Hetherington
(Ed.), Review of child development research. Chicago University Press.
Slobin, D.I. (1971). Psycholinguistics. Gleview Scott, Foresman.
Smither, S.A. (1977). A reconsideration of the developmental study of empathy.
Human Development, 20, 253-276.
Taylor, M. & Flavell, J.H. (1984). Seeing and believing: children's understanding of the
distinction between appearance and reality. Child Development, 55, 1710-1720.
Wheldall, K. (1985). The "New Developmental Psychology" and Education.
Educational Psychology, 5, 199-201.
