EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 7

EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The Chapter at a Glance

Definition of emotion.

Characteristic features of emotions.

Emotional predominance in human behavior.

Emotional development of children.

Past and present attitudes of the school.

Emotional growth during infancy, childhood and adolescence.

Educational implications of emotional development.

Treatment of children’s emotional difficulties.

Prevention is better than cure.

Definition of Emotion

The word “emotion” comes from the Latin word emotus which means “a movement from, or outward.” Emotion, therefore, signifies a tendency towards action that arises from some inner need and is directed toward the outside world. As ordinarily defined an emotion is a complex phenomenon which implies a state of being stirred up or aroused in one way or another, involving extensive visceral disturbance, including many feeling tones and resulting in some sort of an overt action. In order to understand the characteristic features of an emotion as pointed out in the foregoing definition let us take as a concrete example the emotion of anger. Any angry person presents a picture of being stirred up and agitated. If one takes as X-ray picture of an angry person it would reveal extensive disturbances in his viscera. That some upheaval is taking place inside an angry person can also be seen from his angry looks, marked movements of certain outer parts of his body, e.g. face, forehead, eyes, hands, etc. Widespread physiological changes in breathing, pulse, gland secretion, etc, are also common bodily manifestations of emotions. Furthermore it is a matter of common experience and observation that the anger of the angry person invariably seeks an outlet in the form of an overt action. An angry man usually feels a strong impulse towards a definite form of behavior. He seems to be all out for a ‘prey’ to give vent to his anger, to hurl abuses at him, to hit him, strike at him or clash with him.

“Characteristic features of Emotion”

Following are thus the three features which characterize any emotion:-

(1)               The stirred up state which is psychologically labeled as the affective tone of the emotion.

(2)               The bodily disturbances, especially the visceral changes.

(3)               The overt action or the outward bodily behavior resultant upon the experiencing of the emotional state.

Our emotional life is determined by a number of inner and outer forces. The fundamental factor in the quality of our emotional life is the extent to which our urges, needs and interests get satisfied. An individual who happens to be enjoying smooth life, whose fundamental urges, desires and interests are reasonably fulfilled and whose efforts are usually crowned with achievement and success has abundant chances to be emotionally stable, balanced and healthy. On the contrary, an unfortunate person whose urges, desires and interests get frustrated too often and whose efforts result mostly in failure has far less chances for emotional health and adjustment.

“Emotional Predominance in Human Behavior”

We, the Homo Sapiens, take great delight in believing that we are rational animals. We claim that our behavior is based on the operation of intellectual factors rather than on the vagaries of feelings and emotions. It is quite true that many fields of human behavior are directed by intellect, objective reasoning, a spirit of careful calculation, judgment, etc. There are times in our lives, however when our thought and behavior gets completely colored by strong and pressing emotional urges and desires. We then find ourselves in the grips of the impelling current of these omnipotent emotional forces. Will the reader pause for a moment, close this book and recollect the number of actions in his past life which were controlled by love, affection, hope, anger, fear, anxiety, frustration and other emotional urges? He could then compare the number of such actions which were motivated by these emotional urges to those wherein the main guiding factor was intellect and reason. This simple comparison would, perhaps, be sufficient to make the reader realize the predominance of emotions in controlling and directing our behavior. Emotional forces are the most powerful motives at all level of human behavior. A study of the emotional life, therefore, is an indispensable step towards understanding an individual.

“Emotional Development of Children”

The role of emotional growth in child development is far more complex than physical, mental and even social growth. Emotional characteristics are harder to understand. A teacher or a parent can observe, without much difficulty, the growth in weight and height of a child. That a child is becoming more and more efficient at games is again quite easy to perceive. Similarly, the development in language and the ability to construct sentences can also be studied and measured by a skilled teacher. But the feelings of pleasure or displeasure, the causes and remedies of anger, fear, anxiety, etc. and the subtle dynamics of other emotional attitudes like joy and elation, depression and excitement, etc. are comparatively very difficult to grasp. Nevertheless, the emotional life of the child, being exceedingly significant, cannot be possibly ignored by a teacher or a parent. The emotional behavior of the child in the class is as important as his scholastic pursuits. No teacher can ever proceed smoothly with the teaching of the prescribed syllabus to a class wherein students either are unruly and make frequent demonstrative angry outbursts, have violent temper tantrums, take delight in pugnacious and aggressive actions, and exchange filthy abuses, or where they are mostly given to day dreaming, shyness and introversion and are withdrawing from others. A teacher must understand the root causes of such undesirable expressions of emotional behavior among the children and endeavor to treat them effectively.

“Past and Present Attitudes of the School”

Not very long ago teachers used to believe that their only responsibility towards children was to enable them to finish a prescribed course of studies at the school. Consequently they used to be concerned exclusively with stuffing the minds of the children with bookish knowledge in certain school subjects. This, however, has fortunately now come to be regarded as a narrow and outmoded outlook on education. The contemporary teacher has now realized that emotions affect immensely human performance and achievement of all kinds. He knows that learning is seriously hindered if the child’s emotional development is impeded or assumes unhealthy directions. Modern school teacher seems to have discovered the vital truth that favorable emotional growth promotes not only the proper acquirement of knowledge and skill but is also conducive to better social, cultural and moral growth of children. A reasonable school now pays primary attention to the emotion health of its children. Adequate provisions are, therefore, being made for abundant and diversified activities at the schools which are favorable to the development in the child of a cheerful and adjusted personality.

“The Stages of Emotional Growth”

In order to meet the emotional requirements of children adequately and to treat their emotional difficulties effectively, knowledge of the characteristic features of various stages of their emotional development is absolutely indispensable. In the following pages an attempt has, therefore, been made to describe in brief the emotional growth and consequent problems, etc. of children at various level of their maturity.

“Emotional Growth during Infancy”

Some psychoanalysts believe that the child is capable of emotional experiences at birth and perhaps even before birth. Thus Sadger held that experiences of pleasure and pain and sensitivity to parental attitudes of acceptance and rejection may befall not only the embryo but even the spermatozoon and ovum. Freud felt convinced that the inborn infant is subject to feeling. He believed that the fetus is aware of large amounts of “excitation” giving rise to “novel sensation of un-pleasure”.

“Emotions of the New-Born Baby”

According to some writers the event of being born is itself a great emotional experience. It is a drastic organic upheaval leading to a traumatic physical experience. It is, therefore, comparable to a full-fledged emotional experience at later life. Rank holds that the new-born baby is subject to anxiety. Freud maintained that the human being is born in an “unfinished” state. His helplessness at birth makes him alive to a situation involving danger and insecurity.  Such a feeling, therefore, creates in him a need to be attended to and loved. Similarly, Bender believes that a child is born lonely and feels “afraid.” Referring to the emotional life of new-born babies Isaacs maintains that “knowledge is lacking, understanding has not yet begun: but wants and wishes, fears and angers, love and hate are there from the beginning” The foregoing views, held by some of the leading psychoanalysts must, however, be considered as conjectural opinions. They are not established descriptions of objectively observed facts. The reader will be interested to note that Freud and a number of other psychoanalysts remind us of an infant’s incompleteness and helplessness at birth. Nevertheless, they maintain, at the same time, that the physiological equipment involved in the experiencing of emotions is well developed from the very day life begins. Such an apparently self contradictory stand in this direction, therefore, must not be accepted uncritically.

“Precise Nature of Early Emotions

A more reasonable view maintained by most of the writers in the field is that rough beginnings of the feeling tone of emotions do arise during early infancy. What, however, these early emotional experiences of the new born infants are cannot be established with absolute certainty because they are diffused rather than specific patterns of responses. Views diverge regarding a child’s ability to experience pain, anxiety, fear, etc., at birth. But the bodily movements, cries, etc., of the infants are strongly suggestive of the fact that some sort of an emotional experience is in fact taking place. What is the precise nature of this early emotional experience? It is a question which needs prolonged observation, systematic experimentation and careful analyses. It cannot be answered on the basis of any dogmatic assertions. Findings of a few of the investigators who seem to have done some fruitful experimentation and insightful research on the subject are briefly presented in the following pages.

“Watson’s Studies on Infant Emotions”

Watson’s and his followers conducted an extensive series of observations and experiments on the emotional behavior of new-born and young infants starting in the period following World War I.  Watson’s studies are very enlightening and revolutionary in nature. His studies have affected our entire thinking and research on the emotional life of children. Watson observed the presence of three emotions in a human infant at the time of its birth__ fear, rage and love. He believed that the entire scale of the complicated emotions present in the adult are developed from these three basic emotions through a process of learning which he calls “conditioning.”

“Emotions Acquired not Inherited”

Watson opposed the widespread traditional view that the sources of fear, anger, love and other related emotions were inborn. He rather held that it was largely the associations and experiences which the child meets in his external environment that become responsible for arousing these emotions. Watson gave an elaborate description of the various stimuli that set off an emotion and thereby result in a particular pattern of action. He discovered that the number of such stimuli was limited to a few only. According to him only two natural or adequate stimuli capable of arousing fear among the infants can be observed. These are the removal of support and a sudden loud noise. Rage appears only in response to hindering the free bodily movements of the infants. Attitude signifying love manifest only when the child is caressed or stroked. According to him, therefore, each one of these three fundamental emotions is aroused because of the presence of a certain stimulus in the environments of the child. This revolutionary discovery was extremely suggestive. It did away with the popular belief in the inheritance of some of the emotions. Watson shook the popular notion which held that fear of darkness, fire, snakes, etc, were natural inborn and inherited by the infants. With the help of systematic experiments of infants he attempted to demonstrate the fact that fears were acquired. He endeavored to prove further that fear and other emotional responses of children could be created as well as removed by conditioned learning.

“Experimental Studies of Infant Emotions”

Watson’s interesting and revealing experiments on the conditioning of emotional responses among infants have great scientific as well as historical value. One of his famous experiments, for instance, was conducted on a healthy infant, Albert. Before the experiment started Albert was found to possess no fears except those for loud noises and removal of support. In the psychological laboratory a white furry rat was brought near him. Albert showed no fear of the animal. He rather displayed friendly and affectionate feeling for it. He soon started playing with it. A gong was then sounded. After ten repetitions Albert showed a marked fear reaction to the rat. It was further found that the fear of the white rat had also extended to other similar furry objects. When other furry objects, e.g. a rabbit, were brought near Albert he showed fear for these objects as well. Albert, thus, had developed fear for the white rat and other furry objects by conditioned association of these objects with loud sounds.

“Unlearning of Fear by Conditioning”

Further experiments proved that the fear of the furry object could be removed by the same process of conditioning. While Albert sat eating in the laboratory or was engaged in playing with his toys the white rat was gradually brought near to him without the accompanying loud sounds. Occasionally another child who had no fear for rats was also brought in the laboratory. This child patted the rat while Albert looked on. It was found that after a number of repetitions of this procedure Albert gradually gave up his fear reaction towards the rat which he had earlier acquired in the laboratory.From this and similar other experiments on infant emotions, Watson draws the conclusion that all fears and, in fact, all emotions are the result of some sort of conditioning in early childhood. According to him, therefore, emotions are not inherited but acquired. They can be learned as wells as unlearned through the same process of conditioning.

“Individual Variations in Conditioning”

It has, however, been observed by a number of other investigators that conditioning of emotions does not occur with equal readiness under all circumstances and in all individuals. Bregman, for instance, found that the infant did not develop any conditioned fear reaction to certain “indifferent” objects such as large black and white wooden rings. Some objects and situations are more capable of arousing or eliminating an emotion response than others. Similarly, individuals too, differ with regard to their responsiveness to particular types of stimuli that are otherwise potentially capable of arousing an emotional reaction.

“Bridges’ Studies on Emotional Growth among Infants”

Bridges has also conducted very extensive observations on the emotions development of infants and young children.  These studies, of a relatively recent origin, are also very enlightening. The gist of her finding is that shortly after birth the human infant reacts to the external stimuli by showing excitement.  By the time the infant is 3 months old, excitement is differentiated into two emotions. Bridges calls one the emotion of distress and the other of delight. At six months, distress is further broken up into anger, fear and disgust. By 12^th month delight differentiates into elation and affection. At the age of 18 months, affection is further differentiated into affections for adults and affection for children. Feelings of jealousy are also observable at this stage. By the time the infant reaches the age of 2 years, further differentiation takes place. As growth proceeds still further, the emotional life of the infant becomes richer and richer day by day. This is clearly observable from his varied facial expressions and use of diverse words which he gradually learns to depict the wealth of his developing emotional life.

“Emotional Development during Childhood”

During childhood, the feeling tone, the bodily expressions of emotions and the situation arousing them undergo considerable change and modification. It should be remembered that emotional patterns which bear the same name do not remain the same with age. The excitement of the new-born babe which is different from the excitement of the two-year 0ld infant is still further different from the excitement of the six-year old child. Fears of the infant, the child, the adolescent and the adult all undergo a process of metamorphosis. These and similar changes that take place in other emotions consequent upon maturation provide an extremely interesting field of study.

“Effect of Maturation on Emotions”

Many studies have emphasized the effect of maturation on children’s emotions. Increase in age brings a corresponding decrease in the fear of many concrete, simple matters such as loud noises falling, strange people, unknown places, etc. The early infant fears are gradually replaced by fear of injury, death, imaginary creatures, failure, etc. The emotion of anger is also considerably modified with age. Primitive temper tantrums or crying is the external bodily manifestation of anger among the young infants. During the third year, temper tantrums reach their peak. After that age, however, their frequency declines. In older children, the bodily vigor in anger is quite different. It may assume the shape of hurling abuses at the object of anger, hitting, kicking, etc. Later on it may simply remain confined to resenting him or cherishing a feeling of ill-will against him, etc.

“Individual Variations in Bodily Behavior”

The feeling tone and the resulting bodily behavior associated with various emotions are more or less the same on the whole among children belonging to the same age groups. Certain individual differences are, however, bound to be observed.  Such individual variations have been made a subject of extensive studies by a number of investigators working in the field of emotions. ‘Good enough’, for instance, made a study of anger in young children. She observed several types of bodily manifestations resulting from the same emotion of anger in different children. Some of these bodily reactions are: kicking, stamping, jumping up and down, throwing oneself on the floor, holding ones breath, pulling, struggling, turning the head, pouting, frowning, throwing objects, grabbing, biting, striking, crying, screaming, etc. It is indeed somewhat bewildering to realize that all these and many more patterns of overt bodily behavior of children can result from one and the same emotion, anger. This shows that children do in fact display extreme individual differences in the type of bodily reaction to the same emotional experience.

“Changes in Expression and Arousal”

With further increase in age, refinements begin to take place in children’s expression of emotions. The change is from a general gross and crude expression of emotions to a more individual, precise and refined expression. Such a change in the refinement of emotional expression indicates the effect of training and control over children’s emotionality. The younger child is more directly demonstrative in his emotional expression. He careers abut gleefully and dances in delight during pleasure-yielding situations and experiences. The older child, however, soon finds that society expects him to be less demonstrative. He, therefore, learns the art of subduing emotions and of expressing them in a culturally appreciable manner. Besides effecting changes in the modes of emotion expression, maturation also brings about change in the way in which various emotions are aroused. A situation that might cause pleasure at one developmental phase may lose that stimulus value entirely or considerably at a later stage. Similarly, experiences and objects which caused great pleasure, anger, hatred, etc. during early childhood years may lose that emotionalizing effect during later childhood. The major factors conducive to these changes are the increased knowledge and experiences of the child and the growing pressure upon him of various socializing processes. New knowledge, new skills, new interests and new desires are accompanied by new hopes, new fears and new anxieties.

“Further Changes with Increase in Understanding”

As understanding improves still further, events to which the child was formerly indifferent take on their precise meaning and become loaded with affective tones. With the acquisition of skills, sources of frustration diminish. Increased sensitivity to the attitudes and customs of his family and social group bring about a change in the emotional patterns of the child. The strength of a given external stimulus for the arousal of an emotional response  now begins to be determined not merely by the kind of event that takes place, the intensity, duration, novelty and the context of the event also assume importance in determining emotional feeling and behavior.

“Developing Emotional Control”

With increase in age the child learns more and more the art of controlling the expression of his emotions. He learns that he must not give vent to his anger every time and any time he wants. He realizes the necessity of controlling, suppressing, postponing, etc., his emotional reactions.

Brooks considers the following conditions to be favorable to the development of emotional control among children:

(1)               Good general health.

(2)               Wholesome parental attitude.

(3)               Avoidance of too highly exciting situations.

(4)               Inhibition of over expression of emotions.

(5)               Reinterpretation of the exciting stimuli.

(1)                       Good General Health: The child in a good and well-nourished condition, enjoying sufficient food and sleep, etc., has relatively better opportunities to learn emotional control than an unhealthy child. The undernourished, easily tired or sickly child is usually fretful, fearful, easily provoked, etc. Good health, therefore, is very essential for developing emotional control.

(2)                       Wholesome Parental Attitude: The attitudes of the parents towards their children also influence their emotional health. A wholesome parental attitude is one that is balanced, neither over-protective nor rejecting.

(3)                       Avoidance of Too Highly Exciting Situations: We live in an extremely wonderful world, so full of thrills and excitements! Exciting events are fast becoming common in our everyday life. A child must experience them and learn to meet them adequately.

Some specially highly exciting situations, however, are too shocking for a child. Attempts should be made to keep the child away from such excessively stimulating events. Some of the instances of such over-exciting events are feuds, strifes, scenes of murders and riots, parental wrangling and bickering at home, photographs and motion pictures depicting these and other over exciting events, etc. Being too strong for the tender mind of a child, such excessively exciting sciences and situations are liable to undermine his emotional health.

(4)                       Inhibition of Overt Expression of Emotions: From very early infancy, society endeavors to train the child to express his emotions only in socially approved and culturally acceptable ways. As he grows older he learns to inhibit many emotional responses which people around him usually disapprove.

It may, however, be remembered that forcing a child too much to inhibit or suppress the expression of his strong emotional responses is undesirable. Excessive inhibition of the emotions of fear, anger, jealousy, etc., for example, may introduce psychological complications in the life of a child and thereby undermine his emotional health considerably. A better course would, therefore, be either training him in the avoidance of too highly exciting situations, experiences and persons, or placing emphasis upon substitute activities having positive value.

(5)                       Reinterpretation of the Exciting Stimuli: One of the most effective methods of controlling emotions is by reinterpreting the exciting stimuli that arouse them. We all known so well that as soon as we have a revised attitude, a better understanding, a careful and a comprehensive analysis, etc., of a highly provoking and exceedingly disturbing situation, it loses all or much of its provocative or exciting nature.

It has perhaps been rightly said: “the event itself is pure water that flows from the pitcher of fate, and seldom has it either savor or perfume or color; but even as the soul itself may be wherein it seeks shelter, so will the event become joyous or sad, become tender or hateful, become deadly or quick with life.” Careful understanding of the situation before adopting any course of action is an exceedingly desirable emotional attitude. Children must be trained to develop this attitude more or less permanently. Development of such an understating attitude among the children is an uphill task. Parents and teachers must pay serious attention to this significant aspect of emotional training. Such training is indispensable to enable the child to prepare for a full-fledged emotional control and serve extremely useful functions in life. True, this level of maturity can only be achieved with age and experience. Some sort of a preparation, however, must be made during infancy.

“A Child’s Level of Emotional Maturity”

A full-fledged emotional maturity is nether aimed at nor possible to achieve during childhood. A certain minimum emotional maturity, however, is expected even of a child. This expected level of maturity at this developmental phase, according to Brooks means that the child has achieved the following:-

(1)        Learned to differentiate a large number of emotional patterns of response which are intricately combined with other elements of behavior.

(2)        Become so accustomed to a number of stimuli and situations that they no longer evoke emotions.

(3)        Has so modified his emotional reactions that very strong and primitive emotional outbursts do not interfere with his happiness and general effectiveness any longer.

(4)        Has built up friendship and affection for many children of his own age so that his emotional relations are not confined exclusively to his parents.

(5)        Has acquired considerable emotional stability, balance and control. Emotions now begin to serve as servants and further his life purposes rather than dominate and interfere with him.

“Emotional Development during Adolescence”

Adolescence, as we have already seen in discussing children’s social development is a period of great “storm and stress.” On the emotional side too it is a period of unique internal upheaval. As the child enters into adolescence his maturing physique brings further complications in his emotional feelings and overt bodily behavior. Adolescents are bursting with energy. They are buds unfolding in spring sunlight. The blood is awakening.  Their personality is expanding. The urge to feel and to do is extremely intense in them. They want to be mobile all the time. When healthy and legitimate outlets for emotional expressions are not available, there is an immense danger that adolescent may go astray.

“Sexual Complications in Adolescent Emotion”

   

Adolescent emotions are generally charged with sexual content. The fast maturing sex glands make the adolescent feel very acutely the need to love and be loved. This strongly felt impulse for affection and love is liable to develop many complications due to lack of proper understanding of the sex impulses. Sex guilt and shame of the body among adolescent boys and girls produces self-consciousness and inferiority. It might lead to sex worries and conflicts of a hysterical nature. Many adolescent boys are exceedingly frightened by the first experience of nocturnal emissions. Emissions from masturbation also often upset them. Similarly, many adolescent girls take to worrying over their menstruations. All such confusions, phobias and anxieties consequent upon the adolescents’ wrong and unhealthy attitude towards their sexual maturation make them self-conscious, sulky, moody, difficult and in cases, even social nuisances and  trouble makers. Sympathetic and wise emotional guidance by parents and teachers is badly needed at his stage. Provision of diversified and abundant activities alone can offset the injurious effects of these undesirable adolescent worries and thereby safeguard their emotional health. An adequate and timely emotional guidance alone enables the adolescent to march confidently towards emotional maturity, a reasonable level of which must be gradually achieved during this developmental period. 

“Emotional Maturity”

A person whose life is so primitive and crude that he does not seem to employ any understanding, discrimination, discretion, control, etc. in his emotional expression is emotionally stunted and childish. An emotionally mature person, on the other hand is one who can control his emotions properly. Moreover, he can express them spontaneously in diverse useful directions which are socially approved. The emotional expressions of the emotionally mature person thus are conducive to his personal well- being as well as that of those living around him. On the contrary, the emotional expressions of the immature person are generally socially undesirable. His emotional behavior is inimical to his personal health and happiness. It also jeopardizes the emotional health of all those who come in contact with him. An emotionally immature person, therefore, is liable to become a great social nuisance, if left unguided.

“Trends and Tendencies in Emotional Maturity”

Some of the trends and tendencies bearing on emotional maturity that have been listed by Jersild are discussed in the following pages:-

(1)               Self Help: It is a change from helplessness to a greatly increased capacity for self help. This tendency results in a progressive freedom from frustration and fears which usually beset an emotionally immature person who presents the picture of helpless creature.

(2)               Balanced Independence: This trend is a shift from abject dependence upon others to increasing balanced independence. Such a desirable shift increases one’s opportunities for the enjoyment of gains accruing out of attitudes and habits of self support.

(3)               Anticipation of Future: Another tendency indicative of emotional maturity is a shift from the capacity to appreciate and to react only to the immediate present to increasing capacity to anticipate the future. Such a change enables one to foresee and to keep one-self prepared all the time to meet both good as well as evil in life.

(4)               Increased Intellectual Capacity: This includes increased capacity for dealing with various aspects of life on a symbolic level, increased ability to plan well, increased attention span and concentration. This development further results in increased  ability to see beyond and to be immune from momentary or intermediate frustrations, increased intellectual prospective and an ability to take a panoramic view of persons, events, situations, places and things etc. 

(5)               Sedentary Pursuits: This trend involves a transition from a disposition of physical over- activity to an increased capacity during adolescence and later life to tolerate and to enjoy sedentary pursuits   

(6)               Balanced Social Life: This is a shift from parent-centered social life to a type of social life and an emotional outlook which encompasses one’s peers. This changed social outlook also includes a capacity to tolerate as well as appreciate persons considerably older and younger than one self.

(7)               Capacity to Give and Take: Development of this capacity involves a change from being a person who receives much and gives little in the beginning to one who is capable of giving as well as receiving. With this development the individual also becomes capable of getting enjoyment from giving help to others and becoming a socially useful person.

(8)               Participation is Large Groups: It is a development of the capacity to identify oneself with a larger social group and the ability to participate emotionally in its activities.

(9)               Capacity to be Parent: This trend involves development from the status of being the child of the family to the status, ultimately, of being able to have children of one’s own. Along with this goes the development of a capacity to exercise the feelings and attitudes involved in being a parent psychologically, whether or not one is in fact a parent biologically.

(10)           Enjoyment of Matured Sex Life: The gist of this trend is progressive sexual development and the capacity for enjoying mature sex experiences after puberty.

(11)           Capacity to bear Sufferings: This is an increased capacity for bearing the inevitable sufferings, hardships, and pains of life and growth without the feeling that one has been abused.

(12)           Sympathy and Compassion: Growth of this tend involves the development of an increased capacity for sympathy and compassion as one assimilates the meaning of joy and vicissitudes for oneself and for others.

These are some of the fundamental trends and tendencies that have a bearing on a person’s development in emotional maturity. In short if an adolescent is set on the road to emotional maturity, his behavior reflects most of these trends and tendencies to a degree appropriate to his age level. To sum up the emotionally mature person is friendly towards others and is less involved in the hostilities and the outbursts of anger and rage typical of childhood. He is more inspired by pleasure, satisfaction and contentment than ridden with worries, anxieties and frustrations. An emotionally mature person may not have resolved all the situations and factors leading to hostilities, anxieties and frustration. He is, however, perpetually seeing himself in clearer perspective. Consequently he is continuously involved in a struggle to lead a matured, balanced and healthy emotional life. On the other hand an emotionally immature adolescent is one whose general behavior is devoid of most of the trends and tendencies described in the foregoing page. His thoughts and behavior rather indicate that he still belongs to the infantile emotional level.

“Emotional Infantilism”

Some of the behavior patterns found in an adolescent who has not attained emotional maturity and who still belongs to an emotionally infantile stage have been enumerated by Thorpe. These infantile patterns of emotional behavior are as follows:--

(1)                 Rationalization or the tendency to give plausible reasons for inconsistent behavior.

(2)                 Showing off or attempting to attach undue attention by bluffing, posing or wearing loud clothes.

(3)                 Anger when thwarted and resentment against authority and advice.

(4)                 Refusal to face reality or conditions as they exist.

(5)                 Lack of consistency in conduct and emotion.

(6)                 Selfishness.

(7)                 Avoidance of difficult tasks.

(8)                 Jealousy.

(9)                 Decided crushes on individuals of the same sex.

(10)             Hero-worship

Thorp found that those individuals who had outgrown these infantile modes of emotional behavior were usually well adjusted and socially competent men and women. Liberal and whole-hearted participation in interesting and useful work and abundant playful activities directs one’s emotional growth to healthier and mature channels. The process of emotional maturity is invariably quickened by “activity-filled days and sleep-filled nights.” As he grows older, an adolescent must endeavor to say goodbye to his emotional infantilism and makes firmer advances towards emotional maturity in order eventually to become one day a healthy, responsible and useful adult.

“Educational Implications of Emotional Development”

                 

As repeatedly pointed out, the correct role of emotions in the life of a person is that of good servants, promoting one’s efficiency in all fields of life. Emotions further the goals and purposes of the life of that individual alone who is able to understand, control and utilize them properly. Teachers and parents should, therefore, pay particular attention to the task of promoting the smooth development of children’s emotional life. They should be always alert to avail themselves of all possible opportunities to guide a child’s thought and behavior towards emotional balance and maturity appropriate to the lever of his growth.

“Role of Teachers”

Teachers should realize that the emotional health of the child is an essential scholastic achievement. They should, therefore, endeavor to attend to this aspect of child education as seriously and as whole-heartedly as his formal education. Some suggestions that might stimulate and guide the thought and action of a teacher in this direction are offered in the followings pages.

“Emotional At-Home-ness in the Class Room”

If children enjoy reasonable liberty of thought and behavior in the class room, their emotional growth is more likely to proceed along favorable lines. One the contrary, class room in which children are glued to tiring seats and forced to work according to monotonous schedules, offering little chances of expression of their individual opinions and ideas, and of exchanging of their individual opinions and ideas, and of exchanging their views and reactions freely with teachers and class mates, provides little chance of a desirable emotional growth. A teacher must, therefore, take proper car that the children enjoy the liberty to change their seats in the class room if and when they choose to do so. They should not be made to feel the least inhibited to ask any question on any issue that comes into their inquisitive minds. In a good class room the child should feel like a free bird in a meadow. Never even for a single moment should he be made to feel like a miserable convict undergoing rigorous imprisonment in a jail.   An atmosphere of emotional at-home-ness at school is bound to turn the child into a cheerful student at school and a well adjusted and socially useful adult in later life.

“Promotion of Friendly Relations”

Bookish learning and passing of examination is not the sole aim of education. An important purpose of education is to develop in the child a matured sense of human relations. A teacher should, therefore, be alive to this important responsibility which every school is expected to fulfill. A teacher can do this only by helping the child to develop an ability to get along with others. Every child should be encouraged to develop friendly relations with a maximum possible number of his class mates. Should certain class-room quarrels, disputes, etc., be brought to his notice he should make a serious attempt to understand their root causes. He could then teach the children the art of settling their disputes quite amicably without repeated intervention on the part of the teacher.

“Emotional Training at the Play-Field”

The play-field is perhaps one of the best training centers for the promotion of children’s emotional health. Participation in sports develops a sense of friendliness, cooperation and fellow-feeling. It also provides the child with a most healthy and socially approved medium of giving vent to his pent up feeling of aggression and hostility. It is matter of common experience that in every school a certain number of children usually refrain from participating in sports and games. This undesirable tendency is unfavorable to their proper physical growth besides being inimical to their emotional health. There is a great danger for such students to develop into introverts, maladjusted persons, anti-social and even delinquents and criminals in later life. A teacher should, therefore, aim at encouraging every child to participate in some sort of a game or organized group recreations during and after school hours. Dearth of suitable play field attached to a school could be overcome by utilizing for this purpose open stretches of land lying unoccupied in and around the school premises.

“Emotional Health of the Teacher”

Never can a child either like or learn anything from an ill-tempered and an emotionally unstable teacher. Children are very keen observers of the behavior of adults in their environment. They might not be able to pluck up courage to stand up and tell a hot tempered and callous school teacher that they hate him. Their resentment, however, though subdued, continues to rage in their unconscious. A large number of children have come to the notice of the author who harbored even death wishes for the school teachers whom they disliked. Besides endangering the mental health of the children, an emotionally unhealthy teacher is also liable to infect others, especially his colleagues at the school, with his diseased temperament. In order to be successful in the class, be loved and respected by the children and the colleagues and in order to promote the emotional health of the school, a teacher must, therefore, make searching analysis of his own self. He should endeavor to understand the root causes of his personal conflicts, anxieties and frustrations and make an effort to resolve them. This self understanding attitude is bound to help him to become a better person and a better teacher.

“Judging a School and its Staff”

In fact, one of the most unfailing standards to judge whether a school is worth the bother of sending the child there is: Does it cater for the emotional health of the children? A school wherein children participate in their educational programs with zest and enthusiasm and feel cheerful and friendly all the time speaks volume of the emotional health of the children as well as of the teaching staff. Conversely, a school which looks like a boring prison and in which children appear like unhealthy prisoners serving periods of penal servitude or one in which classes give the appearance of unorganized crowds of unruly children quite untouched by culture obviously indicates the emotional illness of its students and the teachers. A child must be kept as far away from such a “school” as possible.

“Role of the Parents”

Parents, too, have an important obligation to perform in this direction. Children’s fundamental needs are not confined to food, clothes and protection from physical dangers. A balanced emotional diet is an equally fundamental requirement of childhood. Parents must not forget to feed regularly children’s need for affection and security. They should always endeavor to make their children feel that they are being loved and wanted. Efforts should also be made to mete out equal, uniform and just treatment to all the children in the home. An emotionally healthy home is one which creates a complete feeling of well being and security among all the children. Some practical hints which might prove suggestive and helpful for parents for the promotion of emotional health of their children are briefly discussed in the pages that follow.

“Avoidance of Extremist Tendencies”

Certain emotional idiosyncrasies, inconsistencies and extremist tendencies of the parents often become responsible for ruining the emotional health of their children. Some of these wrong emotional attitudes of the parents are:--

(1)               Partial treatment.

(2)               Parental over-protection and rejection.

(3)               Emotionally negligent attitudes.

(1)               Partial Treatment: Some parents show preference and partiality in their attitudes towards various

(2)               children at home. Some of them treat sons and daughters differently. In most of our families, sons, especially the only sons, are given exceptionally good treatment at home. Girls, on the contrary, are

often more or less ignored and, in some cases, even mal-treated. His unjust treatment leads to a

perpetual heart-burning and generates extremely undesirable feelings amongst the girls.

Consequently, they never feel themselves to be an equally important sex. The seeds of inferiority

               complex which are thus sowed in them from the very beginning go on marring their entire later

               development.

(3)               Parental Over-Protection and Rejection: Some parents are either fondly overprotective or callously rejecting in their emotional attitude towards children. Over-protection spoils a child. In adult life such a child might become over-dependent, lacking all initiative. Rejection makes him sullen and withdrawing. Both are equally defective and unwholesome attitudes which must be avoided by the parents.

Affection and security are a child’s basic emotional needs. If he does not get this emotional nourishment from his parents, he feels utterly disappointed. Such a child is liable to develop a feeling that the world is a cold and a lonely place and that to love and be loved is a futile wish. In our culture, parents are usually over protective with regard to sons, particularly the only sons, and ejecting towards the daughters. Parents should strike a happy medium between these two extreme emotional tendencies. They should adopt an emotional attitude at home which is both protective as well as ejective to some extent. A child needs to be loved and protected. But an overdose of affection and protection must be avoided, irrespective of the fact whether it is a son or a daughter. Similarly, all the demands of a child are not to be, and cannot possibly be, acceded to forthwith. At occasions when the child is too irrational a reasonable amount of parental rejection has to be judicially exercised in the interests of proper child growth.

(4)               Emotionally Negligent Attitudes: Some parents are surprisingly negligent towards their children, especially the step-children, the physically deformed and other categories of un-wanted children. Needless to emphasize such an unhealthy attitude is not only repugnant but definitely criminal on the part of the parents. Parents must take proper emotional interest in all of their children.

In the case of unwanted children, they should rather transfer them to the custody of some near relatives if they themselves don’t feel any emotional warmth for them. Even sending an unwanted child to an institution is better than meting out an inhumane treatment or adopting an utterly negligent or partial attitude towards him at home. These are some of the kinds of undesirable extremist attitudes that some parents habitually adopt at home. As their injurious effects on the emotional life of the child are quite obvious, every parent should endeavor to avoid such extremist attitudes.

“Emotional Life of the Parents”

A home in which the relationship between the husband and wife is smooth and harmonious provides unique opportunities for healthy emotional growth of the child. On the contrary, an unfortunate home which is torn asunder with parental discord, perpetual bickering and emotional disharmony is liable to affect children’s emotional health very adversely. Parents should, therefore, endeavor their utmost to promote their mutual emotional harmony. They should try to understand each other and set personal example of health and adjustment for their children. In case, however, occasional parental tiffs, rites and clashes take place, children should not be allowed to witness these unpleasant occurrences. A child who finds his parents at loggerhead with each other undergoes a profoundly disturbing experience.

“Treatment of Children’s Emotional Difficulties”

Normally healthy parents and teachers are naturally competent enough to treat the every day emotional difficulties of the children in their care. In case, however, the emotional behavior of a child perplexes them too much they must consult a trained psychologist. Some of the most commonly used methods of treating an emotionally troublesome child are mentioned in the following pages. As these methods are not too technical, an average teacher or a parent can try them with an emotionally difficult child.

(1)        Removal of the Cause

            If a child fails to adjust to a particular teacher, a class or a school, he may be removed to the custody of another teacher, shifted to another class or migrated to another school. Similarly, a child who finds it difficult to pull on well with his own parents or is hostile towards the neighboring children may be sent to relatives for some time for a change.

            It has often been noted that sheer removal of the child from a particular emotionally disturbing person, place or situation helps him a lot to make improved emotional adjustment.

(2)        Re-education

            Re-education involves the substitution of a new and effective method of meeting problems for the ineffective ones tried earlier. Sometime an effort to make the child understand a particular annoying situation or person can also result in a lot of change in him. A teacher could help the child in thinking things out critically.  The child could be stimulated to make fresh plan to improve his understanding of the same disturbing person or situation. Such an emotional re-education enables him to read just himself to the same person or the same situation without necessitating any change of environment. This process of re-education has also been found to work wonders with many an emotionally difficult child.                  

(3)        Catharsis: Catharsis literally means ‘purging.’ In its psychological sense it means enabling an emotionally disturbed person to express his repressed emotional feelings with a view to relieving the mind of the painful tensions etc., resulting out of the recession of these feelings.  For a successful catharsis any method, verbal or overt, can be employed if it enables a child to get at least a temporary release from his tensions. Says Rogers the value of this method lies in the fact that “the child clarifies his feelings by verbalizing them, and gains a release from tension which makes it possible to face the real situation more constructively.”

(4)        Insight:

Our emotionally disturbed behavior is usually characterized by confused thinking. However, once the emotionally upset individual is able to develop a somewhat deeper insight into the disturbing situation, he  finds that most of his anger, rage, worry, tension and frustration diminishes, if not vanishes altogether. The salient features of this technique are enabling the child to put events in their proper perspective, eliminating exaggeration, emphasizing the actual fact and keeping an eye on the positive qualities rather than the negative features in an issue.  As is obvious this method involves a fairly great degree of understanding, thinking and use of language. It cannot, therefore, be employed with younger children.

(5)               Desensitization

Familiarity and repetition often reduces the intensity of the distress or conflict caused by an emotionally perplexing situation or a person. Think for a moment what happens to use when we get used to an undesirable person or a disturbing situation etc., and that without effecting any objective change in it.

If an annoying situation cannot be improved otherwise a teacher could attempt to so familiarize the child with it that he gets desensitized to it. With the development of this immunity or lack of sensitivity to an irritating situation a child is relieved, totally or partially at least, of his adverse emotional reaction to it.

“Prevention is Better than Cure”

The foregoing methods have been found to work out well with innumerable emotionally troubled boys and girls. In case, however, these methods fail to be effective with a particular difficult child he must be referred to a psychological clinic for elaborate guidance and treatment. Parents and teachers should, however, remember that prevention is far better than cure. Proper precautions should, therefore, be made to see that children do not develop any emotional difficulty at home or school during the early period of their life. If they show any symptoms of an emotional trouble, it should not at all be allowed to go unchecked and develop into a major emotional maladjustment which may become extremely troublesome at a later stage. If teachers and parents are themselves emotionally healthy, provide all the needed emotional nourishment to their children, adopt all the necessary precautions to prevent emotional complexities from disturbing them, chance are that their children will remain emotionally trouble free throughout their lives.