著者
増岡 怜那 高橋 靖恵
出版者
九州大学
雑誌
九州大学心理学研究 (ISSN:13453904)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.7, pp.139-146, 2006-03-31

When small children (three to six years old) express their anger through inappropriate behavior or over reacting, most parents and other adults find this anger hard to deal with. That is because people see anger as a negative emotion. In actuality expressing anger can be a positive step in emotional development. In this study two kinds of tests were conducted on six years olds. The first test, [Tree drawing test] a drawing of a tree from each subject, was used to measure the individual's level of emotional development. In the second test each subject was shown four conflicting scenes and then asked to give an emotional reaction by choosing from four different facial expressions - happy, sad, anger, surprise. From this study it became evident that helping small children to understand their anger and encouraging expression of anger in an acceptable manner, positive emotional development occurs.