Meta-Emotion: How Families Communicate Emotionally

by Gottman; John Mordechai

• ISBN13: 9780805819953
• ISBN10: 0805819959
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-01-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book describes research on the emotional communication between parents and children and its effect on the children's emotional development. Inspired by the work, and dedicated to the memory of Dr. Haim Ginott, it presents the results of initial exploratory work with meta-emotion--feelings about feelings. The initial study of meta-emotion generated some theory and made it possible to propose a research agenda. Clearly replication is necessary, and experiments are needed to test the path analytic models which have been developed from the authors' correlational data. The authors hope that other researchers will find these ideas interesting and stimulating, and will inspire investigation in this exciting new area of a family's emotional life.

Table of Contents

Foreword	xi
Acknowledgments	xvii
PART I: THE EMOTIONAL LIFE OF FAMILIES
Introduction to the Concept of Meta-Emotion	3	(6)
Research on Parenting and Meta-Emotions	9	(5)
Popular Parenting Guides: Introducing Ginott	14	(25)
Appendix 2.1 Life Space Interviewing in More Detail	35	(4)
PART II: MEASUREMENT AND CONCEPTUALIZATION
The Selection of Development Outcomes	39	(6)
The Meta-Emotion Interview	45	(41)
An ``Emotion Regulation Theory'' of Meta-Emotion, Parenting, and Child Outcomes	86	(37)
Appendix 5.1 How Specifically Might Meta-Emotion and Parenting Affect a Child's Development?	106	(11)
Appendix 5.2 Necessary Concepts From Child Physiology: A Brief Review of Research	117	(6)
Designing a Family Psychophysiology Laboratory: The Methods of Our Study	123	(17)
Appendix 6.1 More Detail on Measures and Coding	132	(8)
The Internal Structure of Parents' Meta-Emotions	140	(3)
Validity of the Meta-Emotion Interview	143	(6)
PART III: PARENTING, META-EMOTIONS, AND CHILD OUTCOMES
Parenting, Parental Meta-Emotions, and the Child's Peer Relations	149	(3)
Parenting, Parental Meta-Emotions, and the Physical Health and Negative Affectivity of Children	152	(3)
Parenting, Parental Meta-Emotions, and Childrens' Academic Achievement at Age 8	155	(8)
PART IV: MECHANISMS, PROCESS MODELS, AND THE PARENTS' MARRIAGE
How Might Meta-Emotions Have Their Effects? Preliminary Tests of Our Theory	163	(27)
Parenting, Meta-Emotion, and the Parents' Marriage	190	(24)
The Effects of Marital Conflict and Buffering Children From Marital Conflict	214	(15)
PART V: EXTENSIONS
Meta-Emotion and Gender	229	(7)
When Parents Feel Emotionally Out of Control	236	(23)
Meta-Emotion, Emotional Expressiveness, and Parental Social Class	259	(13)
Appendix 17.1 Vagal Tone and the Inhibition of Expressiveness	268	(2)
Appendix 17.2 Child Temperament	270	(2)
Discussion and a Research Agenda	272	(34)
Emotion Metaphors	306	(17)
Appendix A Methodology for the Vagal Tone Computations	323	(10)
References	333	(22)
Author Index	355	(5)
Subject Index	360