Children's Emotional Memories: An Analysis in Terms of Differential Emotions Theory

Abstract

This article is a theory driven descriptive study of the emotional memories of economically disadvantaged children. We confirmed our hypothesis that children's emotional memories would fit into categories defined in terms of the phenomenology and functions of discrete emotions, as described in differential emotions theory. We hold that such theoretically derived categories are exemplified by events that act as affordances or that constrain causal interpretations and the development of emotional memories. We also argue that the ability to recount appropriate causal events for a broad range of emotions indexes an aspect of emotion knowledge. We see the latter as a part of the broader construct of emotional intelligence.