The Development of Emotional Competence

By Carolyn Saarni

Book Overview

Synthesizing the latest research and theory with compelling narratives and case vignettes, this book explores the development of emotional competence in school-age children and young adolescents. Saarni examines the formation of eight key emotional skills in relation to processes of self-understanding, socialization, and cognitive growth. The cultural and gender context of emotional experience is emphasized, and the role of moral disposition and other individual differences is considered. Tracing the connections between emotional competence, interpersonal relationships, and resilience in the face of stress, the book also explores why and what happens when development is delayed.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1572304340
• ISBN13: 9781572304345
• Release Date: March 1999
• Publisher: Guilford Publications
• Length: 381 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Elegant and thoughtful...

...and sometimes hard to penetrate, this book is Prof. Saarni's most complete statement of how children develop emotional competence. She grounds the book in developmental psychology, and listens very carefully to children as they state or "explain" how they think and feel. Her theory is largely constructionist, but also is framed by neo-Piagetian theory.She outlines the development of 8 skills that make up for and "create" emotional competence: (1) Awareness of one's own emotions, (2) Ability to discern and understand others' emotions, (3) ability to use the vocabulary of emotion and expression, (4) capacity for empathic involvement, (5) ability to differentiate internal experience from external expression, (6) capacity for coping with aversive emotions and distressing circumstances, (7) awareness of emotional communication in relationships, and (8) capacity for emotional self-efficacy.While this is a lot (!) and her writing is very precise, I loved her descriptions of children and their thinking and feeling. I left this book with a sense of someone who genuinely cares for children and their development. She listens very carefully.I think clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and school psychologists or guidance counselors will get a lot from this book, but there is nothing "practical" or "applied" in her descriptions of children. This is a book on normal social and emotional development, not intervention. Nevertheless, much of the recent interest in social emotional learning must rest on the concepts she presents, so the book's usefulness is apparent.

Excellent and conclusive work on an important subject.

Dr. Saarni problematizes this issue with stunning clarity and remarkable insight. A delineation of lucid dimensionality, overcoming the otherwise commonplace factor of distanciated, historicist interpretations of emotionality and its discontents. A must-buy for the holiday season.