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Psychological characteristics of boys and girls. Age differences in the emotional sphere

All children develop differently. Psychophysiologists have obtained data on differences in perception, thinking, and the emotional sphere of boys and girls, the basis of which lies at the level of interhemispheric interactions of the brain.

Girls develop much faster the functions of the left hemisphere, which is responsible for conscious voluntary acts, the verbal-logical form of memory, rational thinking, and positive emotions. And in boys, the right hemisphere matures faster, leading in the implementation of involuntary intuitive reactions, irrational mental activity, imaginative memory, and negative emotions.

Girls are better aware of their behavior and know how to manage it, comprehend actions in different directions, and are more often openly happy. Boys have a slower development of the left hemisphere, which leads to underdevelopment of the sphere of positive emotions, affecting behavior where negative emotions, even some aggressiveness, are more easily and vividly manifested. For boys, an emotionally positive assessment of his activities is more significant, for girls - a negative one; for boys it is important “what” is assessed in his activity, for girls it is “by whom” the assessment is made; Boys show lower rates of understanding another person, since their “understanding” of another occurs through intellectual similarity, while for girls it occurs through emotional sympathy and empathy. Girls rarely overestimate the qualities of their personality and give adequate or underestimated self-esteem due to great criticality. Boys' overestimated or underestimated self-esteem is usually associated with a low level of assessment of others. Boys are better at problem solving and crossword puzzles; they are more excitable, irritable, restless, intolerant, lacking self-confidence and more aggressive than girls. Girls are sensitive to noise, sharp sounds irritate them, their skin sensitivity is more developed, so girls need to stroke their skin more often. Girls have better speech fluency and reading speed; Girls have better developed fine motor skills, so they write accurately and do better work related to fine motor skills (embroidery, beading). The girls’ brain is ready to respond to any trouble, ready to respond to influence from any side (survival instinct), since the goal of the female sex is the birth of life and its preservation. And the goal of the male sex is progress. Men make discoveries, and women improve these discoveries.

When assessing the behavior of children and the results of their activities, the teacher must remember that girls are extremely sensitive to intonation, to the form of assessment, and its publicity. It is very important for girls to be admired in the presence of other children, parents, etc. For boys, the most significant is the indication that he has achieved results in this very area: he has learned to say hello, take care of his clothes, design something, etc. Every acquired skill and result that the boy managed to achieve has a positive effect on his personal growth, allows him to be proud of himself and strive for new achievements.

Aspects of training		Boys
	Use of language	They say more words. Learn out loud, communicate using language rich in detail	They teach silently, speech uses coding or jargon
	Abstract and concrete thinking	They comprehend the material better from the textbook using notes	They perform calculations better, perceive the material better if it is presented on the board, visual aids, signs, and symbols are used. (method of V.F. Shatalov)
	Deductive and inductive thinking	When forming concepts. Characterized by inductive thinking (gradually expanding the base of concept formation). A general theory is built from specific examples.	When forming concepts. Prone to deduction. The thinking process begins from the general to the specific (shows the best results in quick tests with given answer options (quick deductive reasoning).
	Logic and evidence	Listen better, remember numerous details, less need for control	They hear less and more often demand clear evidence to support their statements.
	Attention	Cope better with boredom	To maintain attention, they require a large number of different stimuli.
	Space	Limited to a small space	Strives to use more space (even on a desk he takes over large areas)
	Sensitivity	More busy with personal narcissism	Their place in the informal hierarchy significantly affects the success of their studies (the level of stress hormones increases if they feel unwanted).
	Position in society has little effect on educational success	If they are leaders, then less cortisone, which causes the brain to switch from intellectual activity to overcoming stress, is produced
	Movement	Doesn't require a lot of movement	Movement helps stimulate the brain and reduce impulsive behavior. Their movements are natural in a confined space. Physical education minutes in class are necessary.
	Symbolism	Prefer written texts with pictures	They gravitate toward symbols, diagrams, and graphs. Working with pictures stimulates the developed right hemisphere
	Group training	Create free associations	Create structured teams. They quickly choose a leader, spend less time managing the team work process, focusing on the final goal.

psychological thinking teenager

annotation scientific article on psychology, author of the scientific work - Shimanovskaya Y.V., Kozlovskaya S.N., Starovoitova L.I.

Preschool age This is a period of improvement, personal development, which is characterized by individual characteristics. The importance of studying age characteristics emotional sphere children is determined by the presence of a close connection between emotional and intellectual development. It is noted that disturbances in the emotional development of a child preschool age lead to the fact that the child cannot use other abilities, in particular intelligence, for further development. As a working hypothesis for the study, it was accepted that older boys and girls preschool age will have differences in the development of the intellectual and emotional-volitional spheres. The study involved 300 children aged 6-7 years in Moscow and the Moscow region. The study was carried out in two stages. At the first stage, the levels of verbal and social intelligence of children were assessed using psychodiagnostic techniques. At the second, the emotional-volitional sphere of boys and girls was studied. Statistical processing of data included a comparative analysis of group average indicators; Student's t-test for unrelated samples was used to assess statistical significance. It has been established that the verbal intelligence of older girls preschool age in the area of associative thinking is higher than that of boys (p = 0.027), and the volume of vocabulary in girls by the beginning of school is much larger. Boys are more aggressive than girls (p< 0,001), однако девочки более тревожны (p = 0,027). Кроме того, у мальчиков старшего preschool age higher spontaneous speech communication compared to girls (p< 0,001), они более интеллектуально продуктивны в ситуациях положительного эмоционального подкрепления (p < 0,001). Данный фактор необходимо учитывать в процессе обучения дошкольников, особенно при оценке их интеллектуальной деятельности.

Text of scientific work on the topic “Psychological differences in the intellectual and emotional spheres of girls and boys of senior preschool age”

UDC 612.821.3-053.4

PSYCHOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INTELLECTUAL AND EMOTIONAL SPHERES OF GIRLS AND BOYS OF SENIOR PRESCHOOL AGE

Russian State Social University, Moscow

Preschool age is a period of improvement and personality development, which is characterized by individual characteristics. The importance of studying age-related characteristics of the emotional sphere of children is determined by the presence of a close connection between emotional and intellectual development. It is noted that disturbances in the emotional development of a preschool child lead to the fact that the child cannot use other abilities, in particular intelligence, for further development. As a working hypothesis for the study, it was accepted that boys and girls of senior preschool age will have differences in the development of the intellectual and emotional-volitional spheres.

The study involved 300 children aged 6-7 years in Moscow and the Moscow region. The study was carried out in two stages. At the first stage, the levels of verbal and social intelligence of children were assessed using psychodiagnostic techniques. At the second, the emotional-volitional sphere of boys and girls was studied. Statistical processing of data included a comparative analysis of group average indicators; Student's t-test for unrelated samples was used to assess statistical significance.

It was found that the verbal intelligence of girls of senior preschool age in the field of associative thinking is higher than that of boys (p = 0.027), and the volume of vocabulary in girls by the beginning of school is much larger. Boys are more aggressive than girls (p< 0,001), однако девочки более тревожны (p = 0,027). Кроме того, у мальчиков старшего дошкольного возраста выше произвольность речевого общения по сравнению с девочками (p < 0,001), они более интеллектуально продуктивны в ситуациях положительного эмоционального подкрепления (p < 0,001). Данный фактор необходимо учитывать в процессе обучения дошкольников, особенно при оценке их интеллектуальной деятельности.

Key words: psychological differences, intellectual sphere, emotional sphere, preschool age

PSYCHOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES OF INTELLECTUAL AND EMOTIONAL SPHERES OF BOYS AND GIRLS AT PRESCHOOL AGE

Y. V. Shimanovskaya, S. N. Kozlovskaya, L. I. Starovoytova

Russian State Social University, Moscow, Russia

The study included 300 preschool children aged 6-7 years in the city of Moscow and the Moscow region. A mandatory condition for inclusion in the survey was a voluntary written informed consent of the child's legal representatives. The study was conducted in two stages. In the first stage with the help of the psycho-diagnostic techniques, there were assessed the levels of verbal and social intelligence. In the second phase, there were studied the emotional and volitional spheres of the boys and girls. Statistical processing of the data included a comparative analysis of the average group indices, for statistical significance assessment, there was used the t- student test for unrelated samples.

It has been found that verbal intelligence of the senior preschool girls in the sphere of associative thinking was higher than in the boys (p = 0.027), and the amount of vocabulary at the beginning of the girls schooling was much bigger. The boys were more aggressive than the girls (p< 0.001), but the girls were more anxious (p = 0.027). In addition, the senior preschool boys had higher arbitrariness of verbal communication than the girls (p < 0.001), they were more intellectually productive in situations of positive emotional reinforcement (p < 0.001). This factor must be considered in the process of training of preschool children, especially in evaluation of their intellectual activity.

Keywords: psychological differences, intellectual sphere, emotional sphere, preschool age

Shimanovskaya Ya. V., Kozlovskaya S. N., Starovoitova L. I. Psychological differences in the intellectual and emotional spheres of girls and boys of senior preschool age // Human Ecology. 2016. No. 1. P. 32-37.

Shimanovskaya Y. V., Kozlovskaya S. N., Starovojtova L. I. Psychological Differences of Intellectual and Emotional Spheres of Boys and Girls at Preschool Age. Ekologiya cheloveka. 2016, 1, pp. 32-37.

Preschool development, as the first link in the education system, plays an important role in the life of our society, taking care of the protection and promotion of children's health, creating conditions for their development at school age.

In the preschool years, the foundations of health are laid

human growth and physical development. A serious disadvantage of preschool education is the lack of mobility of children: if they do a lot of sitting, move little and play in the fresh air, this has a bad effect not only on their physical but also spiritual development, reduces the tone of their nervous system.

system, inhibits mental activity. In physically weakened children who are prone to fatigue, emotional tone and mood are reduced. This, in turn, negatively affects the nature of children's mental performance.

The development process involves not only the active influence of an adult on a child, but also the activity of the child himself (play, study, work), which has its own goals and direction. The task of developing preschool children also provides for a fairly high level of formation of their intellectual, emotional sphere, social orientation and moral position. The education of feelings in a child should serve, first of all, the formation of personality, and one of the indicators of this is a certain ratio of intellectual and emotional development. Underestimation of this requirement may lead to exaggerated or one-sided development of one of the qualities. A preschool child’s emotions become calmer and more balanced, and his desires gradually come into agreement with his ideas about what is permissible and “correct.” At the same time, they remain the leading link in behavior management, so preschoolers are usually sincere, spontaneous, and easily distracted [1]. The range of emotions expands, and compassion and empathy, which are important for joint activities and games with peers, become more distinct. Communication with peers begins to play an increasingly important role in a child’s life; it becomes diverse, full-fledged, and affects his development and self-esteem.

In every human society, boys and girls behave differently, and in every human society, children of different sexes are expected to behave differently and are treated differently. There are two areas in which differences were identified: the intellectual sphere of development and the emotional-volitional sphere. The presence of differences was identified and substantiated in empirical studies by scientists V.V. Abramenkova, R. Baron, D. Richardson, M. KaShoriek, V.E. Kagan, A.V. Libin, K.E. Izard, A. D. Kosheleva, A. V. Ukhanova, L. M. Shipitsina. In the intellectual sphere, it can be considered established that there are gender differences in verbal, spatial and mathematical abilities.

But how great and universal are these differences, and what is the relationship between the laws of sexual differentiation (sexual characteristics) and the style of gender socialization characteristic of a given culture or of humanity as a whole? The differences in the socialization of boys and girls in content and in their tasks depend, on the one hand, on gender-left differentiation, on what activities children are prepared for, and on the other hand, on gender symbolism: what moral and psychological qualities they try to instill in them. The formation of masculine and feminine principles is carried out with the help of words, feelings and

actions. It has been experimentally proven that boys and girls have different archetypes, images on the basis of which their emotional sphere works and their thinking is formed. They have different imaginations, dreams and fantasies, different mosaics and brain architecture, which has also been proven by specialist psychologists. There are other fundamental differences in the psychology of boys and girls. In the subconscious of any person there are archetypes - fundamental images dating back to ancient times, common to a wide variety of peoples, but different for the two sexes. Similar archetypal symbols appear in children's dreams and drawings. For boys, these are symbols of freedom and travel (wind, window, mountains, bridges, horizon, space flights, cars, planes, rockets, bicycles, ships), symbols of the enemy (dragons, robots, monsters, snakes), symbols of strength and struggle (sword , spear, bow, arrows, fortress), symbols of victory (flag, bugle, shouts of “Hurray!”). But girls have a completely different system of symbols in their dreams and drawings: symbols of motherhood (dolls, brides, cribs or strollers), femininity, grace, lightness, tenderness (balloons, birds, princesses), hearth and home comfort (home, table , curtains, dishes), prosperity in the house (berries, fruits, vegetables, mushrooms), female beauty (flowers, bright lips, eyes, outfits). In role-playing play with other children, the child not only improves his objective activity, attention, memory, speech, but also masters and “acts out” the meaningful and emotional nuances of the life around him, learns to find a common language with peers, manage his feelings and behavior, subordinate your desires to a general plan of action, develops imagination. By the end of preschool age, the child is able to sufficiently control his behavior, evaluate the results of his activities, be aware of his experiences and emotional states and express them in words.

The importance of studying age-related characteristics of the emotional sphere of children is determined by the presence of a close connection between emotional and intellectual development. E. I. Yankina notes that disturbances in the emotional development of a preschool child lead to the fact that the child cannot use other abilities, in particular intelligence, for further development. In children with emotional disorders, negative emotions such as grief, fear, anger, shame, and disgust predominate. They have a high level of anxiety, and positive emotions are rarely shown. Their level of intelligence development corresponds to the average values according to the Wechsler test. Thus, it is necessary to study the emotional and intellectual development of children and, if necessary, use psychocorrectional programs in their development.

Purpose of the study: to identify the features of the intellectual and emotional sphere of children of senior preschool age in modern conditions. In co-

In accordance with the set goal, we identified the following research objectives:

1) explore the intellectual abilities of boys and girls of senior preschool age;

2) explore the emotional-volitional sphere of boys and girls of senior preschool age;

3) statistically evaluate the differential psychological differences in the intellectual and emotional spheres of girls and boys of senior preschool age.

The study was carried out in two stages. At the first stage, the intellectual abilities of boys and girls of senior preschool age were identified. In the second, the emotional-volitional sphere of boys and girls was studied. The study involved 300 children aged 6-7 years in Moscow and the Moscow region. A mandatory condition for inclusion in the survey was the voluntary written informed consent of the child’s legal representatives.

Psychodiagnostic techniques were used during the research:

At the first stage:

1. “Word game” for the study of verbal intelligence (associative experiment, directed associative experiment allow you to calculate the coefficient of verbal intelligence - CVI).

2. Subtest 1 “Stories with completion” and subtest 2 “Groups of expressions” to study the development of social intelligence.

At the second stage:

1. Questionnaire “Assessment of a child’s aggressiveness” (G. P. Lavrentieva and T. M. Titarenko).

2. Test for the study of emotional stability.

3. “Corrective test” to study the arbitrariness of attention.

4. Test for assessing voluntary speech communication (author L. Krasilnikova).

Statistical processing of data included a comparative analysis of group average indicators; Student's t-test for unrelated samples was used to assess statistical significance.

results

First stage of the study

Using the “Word Game” technique; Subtests “Stories with completion” and “Groups of expressions” were used to study verbal and social intelligence in boys and girls of senior preschool age.

Using the “Word Game” technique, data were obtained on the verbal intelligence of boys and girls (Fig. 1).

When examining children of senior preschool age (150 girls and 150 boys), it was found that 60 girls (40%) showed a high result, since the proposed work did not cause difficulties, they answered quickly and without auxiliary questions, which indicates a high level of intelligence. 90 girls (60%) had an average result, since they found it difficult to answer and were asked auxiliary questions. Among boys, 20 people (13%) showed a high result, 130 (87%) showed an average result.

To assess the CVI, a directed association experiment was used, characterized in that the child’s speech activity is limited by certain rules. For example, a stimulus word can determine the part of speech of an association: a verb requires an association of a verb form in response. This feature of the associative experiment, in addition to the quality of verbal activity, assesses the level of development of verbal-logical thinking of preschoolers. The test for older preschoolers uses instructions that require the child to select an antonym in response to a stimulus word. For example, the following verbal reactions should be correct: to the word “big” - the answer is “small”, “man - woman”, “run - stand”. All variants of inflections are incorrect,

Rice. 1. Results of diagnosing the level of intelligence in children of senior preschool age Note. * - significance of differences p< 0,001.

transforming the stimulus word. For example, partial echolalia, when a child uses the prefix “not” to generate a response word with the opposite meaning such as “small - rather big.”

Analyzing the results obtained, it was revealed that among preschoolers with whom adults constantly study for the purpose of cognitive development, test performance indicators fall within the range from 62 to 75%. For girls, such indicators are 27% (41 people), for boys they are 7% (11 people). Preschoolers who do not have opportunities for intensive development of intellectual abilities, as a rule, have lower rates of completion of this test, 55-62%. For girls, such indicators are 73% (110 people), for boys - 93% (140 people). If the success rate of speech activity in this task is below 40%, then this indicates a significant decrease not only in speech development, but also in intellectual development in general; such indicators were not found in either girls or boys.

To study the social intelligence of children, two adapted subtests were used: “Stories with completion” and “Expression groups”. The results of subtest 1 allow you to foresee the possible consequences of a child’s behavior in a certain situation and predict what will happen in the future. The child can choose the desired plot from the three proposed, reasoning out loud or doing it silently, and so on, all the cards. Subtest 2 is designed to measure the ability to perceive nonverbal expression, recognize it and identify significant features of its various manifestations. It is easy for children to analyze and predict situations of communication and social interaction. Preschoolers differ greatly from each other in their ability to analyze and predict situations of communication and social interaction.

Using the obtained numerical indicators of the performance of two subtests and combining them, we compared the results.

calculated total score with a normal range of values for the development of social intelligence in children 6-7 years old. For most children, social intelligence values fall within the range of 9-14 points, which indicates normal development (150 girls with this indicator, 140 boys).

The range corresponds to the good development of social intelligence, which allows preschoolers to easily cope with communication situations and provides them with a high level of adaptation to life and the ability to master the social role of a student and a new form of activity - educational. The lower values of the range and all indicators less than 9 points - 0 for girls, 10 for boys - indicate a reduced ability to perceive social situations and a poorly developed ability to correctly predict the development of situations. A low level of development of social intelligence will not allow a child to easily learn new rules of behavior at school and apply them adequately, without giving rise to various conflicts with peers and teachers.

Statistically significant differences at the level of p = 0.027 between boys and girls were found according to the results of the associative experiment; the verbal intelligence of girls in the field of associative thinking is higher than that of boys, and the volume of vocabulary in girls by the beginning of school is much larger. In other characteristics of verbal intelligence, as well as in parameters of social intelligence, no significant differences were found between the indicators of boys and girls.

Second stage of the study

Using the questionnaire “Assessment of a child’s aggressiveness”, tests for the study of emotional stability, voluntary attention and voluntary speech communication, the emotional-volitional sphere of boys and girls of senior preschool age was studied.

Rice. 2. Results of assessing the aggressiveness of children of senior preschool age Note. * - significance of differences p< 0,001.

The results of assessing the child’s aggressiveness were obtained using a parent survey (Fig. 2).

When analyzing the results obtained, it was found that the indicators of girls are lower than those of boys; in girls, aggression is reduced (53%) or is at an average level (40%), a low indicator is 7%, in boys the average indicator is 40%, high aggression 27% of respondents had a low rate of 33%.

To study the emotional sphere of children, a test was taken to assess emotional stability and forms of emotional control of intellectual activity. Preschoolers are more emotional than adults, since they still do not know how not to react to unpleasant events, assessments and relationships. Thus, the child becomes easily upset, and at the same time the indicators of his cognitive activity decrease. As a result of performing three associative stages, results were obtained in three series of verbal tasks. Important signs of performing an associative experiment in situations of varying emotional intensity are the quality of test task performance. The norm for performing an associative experiment for 6-7 year old children in a neutral situation is the range from 60 to 88%, the answers of all 150 girls (100%) are within this range, for boys the norm is 67%. Neither girls nor boys showed higher values. Low values are typical for preschool children with poorly developed speech activity; girls do not have such indicators, and boys - 33%.

The second thing that attracts attention is the change in CVI in situations of emotional tension. For the majority of older preschoolers, the introduction of emotionally charged influences led to a decrease in the quality of verbal association. However, an improvement in the performance of this test in the emotionally positive series was found to be 10 or 15%. Here the girls showed a better result (high result 30 people (20%), average - 120 people (80%) than boys (high result 0 people, average 110 people (73%)), boys who found it difficult to cope with the task (41 people (27%) showed low results.

Approximately 16-20% of older preschoolers show an amazing ability to improve their performance on a test when they are threatened with loss or loss, such as candy in our experiment. The indicators of the associative experiment in girls improved, with an average indicator detected in 60 people (40%), a high indicator in 90 (60%), an increase in intellectual activity indicators was noted (by 20-30%).

To study the volitional sphere of boys and girls of senior preschool age, voluntary attention was studied.

Voluntary attention is usually assessed based on the results of completing some understandable and accessible task. Most often used for this

one of the tasks of D. Wexler's tests is a proofreading test. The average level of development of voluntary attention was shown by 60% of girls and 63% of boys, a high level was shown by 27% of girls and 20% of boys, there are children with a low level of development of voluntary attention - 13% of girls, 27% of boys.

The test for assessing voluntary speech communication showed an average result of completing this task - 40%; 7% of girls failed the task or did it poorly. The development of voluntary speech communication in most boys is at an average level (53%), which is 13% more than in girls; the number of girls with a high level of development is 39% more than boys (14%); a low level of development of voluntary speech communication is also present in boys - 33%, which is 26% more than in girls.

Significant differences between boys and girls were found in parameters of aggressiveness (p< 0,001), тревожности (р = 0,027) и показателям интеллектуальной деятельности в положительных эмоциональных ситуациях (р < 0,001). Мальчики более агрессивны, чем девочки, однако девочки более тревожны. Кроме того, мальчики старшего дошкольного возраста больше девочек интеллектуально продуктивны в ситуациях положительного эмоционального подкрепления. Данный фактор необходимо учитывать в процессе обучения дошкольников, особенно при оценке их интеллектуальной деятельности.

In the sphere of volitional regulation of intellectual activity, significant differences between boys and girls were found in the productivity of voluntary speech communication (p< 0,001). У мальчиков произвольность речевого общения гораздо выше, чем у девочек. Они лучше девочек умеют подчинять свою речь определенной задаче и контролировать этот процесс. Данное качество имеет большое значение для успешности дальнейшего обучения в школе, поэтому в процессе подготовки к школьному обучению необходимо обращать внимание на формирование произвольности речевого общения, и прежде всего у девочек.

The discussion of the results

According to the results of the study, it was found that the verbal intelligence of girls of senior preschool age in the field of associative thinking is higher than that of boys, and by the beginning of school education the volume of vocabulary in girls is much larger. No significant differences were found between boys and girls in other characteristics of verbal intelligence, as well as in parameters of social intelligence. Statistically significant differences between boys and girls were found in the parameters of aggressiveness, anxiety and indicators of intellectual activity in positive emotional situations; boys are more aggressive than girls,

however, girls are more anxious. In addition, boys of older preschool age are more intellectually productive in situations of positive emotional reinforcement than girls. In the sphere of volitional regulation of intellectual activity, significant differences between boys and girls were found in the productivity of voluntary speech communication. Boys have a much higher level of spontaneous verbal communication than girls. They are better than girls at subordinating their speech to a specific task and controlling this process.

The results of the empirical study of the psychological differences between boys and girls of senior preschool age must be taken into account in the process of educating preschoolers, especially when assessing their intellectual activity.

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15. Shipicina L. M. Kompleksnoe soprovozhdenie detej doshkol "nogo vozrasta. Saint Petersburg, Rech Publ., 2003, 240 p.

16. Yankina E. I. Emotsii v razvitii intellekta rebenka doshkol "nogo vozrasta. In: Tezisy scientific-prakticheskoi konferentsii "Ananievskii chteniya-99". Saint Petersburg, 1999, pp. 238-239.

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Contact Information:

Shimanovskaya Yanina Vasilievna - candidate of sociological sciences, associate professor, head. Department of Social Technologies, Russian State Social University

Address: 129226, Moscow, st. Wilhelm Pieck, 4, building 1

In this section, we will look at the differences between men and women in the manifestation of emotions and feelings, find out who is more prone to what emotions, who is more emotional and expressive, who recognizes emotions better, etc. 1 ) Emotionality. The literature notes greater emotional sensitivity and emotional instability of women. Studies have shown that at all ages, females are superior to males, first of all, in emotional excitability (especially in hot temper, as a manifestation of emotional excitability in conflict situations), then in the intensity of emotions (women tend to react emotionally to an emotional situation, and men - motorly; at the same time, vegetative indicators change more strongly in men, which may indicate their greater mobilization - greater energy expenditure in situations of stress) and, to a lesser extent, in the duration of persistence of emotions and emotional instability. 2) Expressiveness. Studies have shown greater expressiveness in females at any age. Moreover, women exhibit stronger emotional behavior in all-female groups rather than in mixed groups. Women are more smiling and, in general, show their emotions more through gestures and facial expressions. True, this does not apply to manifestations of anger, malice and aggression, which are more strongly coded by men. This gave grounds to say that emotionality (as the strength of experienced emotions) is the same in men and women, but the degree of external expression is different. What is decent and socially acceptable for women - to cry, to be sentimental, to be afraid - is indecent for men, and, conversely, the manifestation of anger and aggression is socially acceptable for men and indecent for women. 3) Basic emotions(subject to the above). Anger. In the first years of life, there is no difference, but with age, the frequency and intensity of anger in boys increases, and in girls it decreases. Sadness. In younger schoolchildren (8-9 years old), the tendency to experience sadness is more pronounced in boys, and among adults, the tendency to experience sadness is more pronounced in women. Anxiety and fear. In girls and young women in all age groups, the tendency to fear is much more pronounced than in boys and young men. The number of fears (what they are afraid of) is greater in girls than in boys. The number of imaginary fears (doing something wrong, not having time to do it, etc.) is 6 times greater than among young men. Adult men have a more pronounced fear of heights, and women have a more pronounced fear of the death of their parents. In general, women show greater anxiety, but also a greater tendency to suppress it. Increased anxiety in girls is accompanied by greater problematic concerns (the inability to combine family and work). Joy. The tendency to experience joy from the age of 16-17 does not show clear gender differences (10-11, 14-15 girls). Touchiness. Does not show clear sex differences Shyness. Women are more likely to fall into the shy category than men (30% of women/23% of men). The exceptions are Japan and Taiwan. Guilt. In men, the experience of guilt is less pronounced and manifests itself less frequently. Envy. In women, envy is higher in all areas of life, excluding career (there are no gender differences). Jealousy. Differences were identified in the areas of manifestation of jealousy. Men are most jealous when their partner has sex with someone else; women are most jealous when their partner becomes emotionally attached to someone else. (Authority of paternity and care for offspring?) Empathy and ability to recognize emotions. Most researchers say that women are more prone to empathy than men. They are more likely to react emotionally in response to another person's emotional discomfort. (Gender roles). At the same time, men need emotional involvement more (1005 men/600 women), women more often remain emotionally indifferent in relationships (400 men/600 women). This paradox can be explained using different criteria of empathy - the differences decreased in a number of criteria - how empathic you consider yourself, what feelings you experience, facial or physiological reactions. Forms of empathic behavior are expressed differently in different genders. Empathy predominates in women, while sympathy predominates in men. In general, both of them sympathize more often than they empathize. The empathic reaction in men and women is also determined by the type of emotiogenic stimulus. For example, women show their maximum emotional reaction when they hear a child crying, and men - when they hear the word “crying.” When it comes to emotion recognition, women are more interested in it than men. When recognizing emotions by voice, negative signals are more accurately recognized by men, while pleasure signals are more accurately recognized by women. In general, women decode emotions from facial expressions more accurately than men. At the same time, emotions such as grief, pride, indifference and tenderness are better decoded by men. Emotional disturbances. People with emotional disorders are divided into three groups. The first category includes people with pronounced intrapersonal conflicts (anxiety, unreasonable fears, frequent mood swings). The second group consists of people with pronounced interpersonal conflicts (irritability, aggressiveness, emotional excitability). The third group consists of people with pronounced interpersonal and intrapersonal conflicts (on the one hand - anxiety, suspiciousness, frequent mood swings, on the other hand - irritability, aggressiveness, emotional instability). The first group is dominated by women, the second and third – men.

Literature for the section differential psychophysiology of men and women:

1. Adler A. Raising children and interaction between the sexes.

2. Anastasi A. Differential psychology.

3. Bern S. Gender psychology.

4. Butovskaya M.L. Biology of gender, culture and sex-role stereotypes of behavior in children.

5. Bukhanovsky A.O. Structural-dynamic hierarchy of sex in humans.

6. Khodyreva N.V. Gender in psychology: history, approaches, problems.

7. Khrizman T.P., Eremeeva V.D. Girls and boys are two different worlds (etc.)

8. Shardin S.A. Gender, age and diseases (Ural State University)

9. Ellis G. Man and Woman.

8. E. P. Ilyin Differential psychophysiology of men and women

Information about gender differences in the area of emotional intelligence (EI) - the totality of intellectual abilities for processing emotional information - is quite contradictory. Thus, S. Bern points out the insignificance of differences in the emotional sphere between males and females.

According to other studies, despite the lack of differences between men and women in overall EQ (emotionality quotient), women show higher levels in interpersonal indicators of emotional intelligence (emotionality, interpersonal relationships, social responsibility). In men, intrapersonal indicators predominate (self-affirmation, ability to defend one’s rights), stress management abilities (stress tolerance, impulse control) and adaptability (determining credibility, problem solving).

Significant differences were found in the level of emotional intelligence between teenage girls and boys: boys, compared to girls, have a generally lower level of emotional intelligence. At the same time, according to the results of another study, significant differences in the level of emotional intelligence were found only among parents (in women, emotional intelligence reaches a higher level than in men), while no such differences were found in children.

According to the results of our research, among adolescents there were no gender differences in integral indicators of emotional intelligence, but differences were found in the severity of its individual abilities. Thus, in girls, unlike boys, there is a predominance of empathy, recognition of the emotions of other people, and understanding of emotions in general; in boys, unlike girls, there is a dominance of intrapersonal emotional intelligence and its component “expression control”. It can be assumed that since these differences in the level of individual indicators of emotional intelligence do not affect the level of EQ as a whole, compensation of emotional abilities takes place.

The results of our research allow us to suggest that in girls the general level of emotional intelligence is associated, first of all, with the cognitive processes of understanding and comprehending emotions, in boys - to a greater extent with the quality of interpersonal connections.

Let's consider gender differences in the severity of the components of emotional intelligence identified in the ability model.

The identification of one's own experiences is significantly influenced by gender stereotypes. Thus, in situations that contributed to the emergence of anger, for example, in conditions of betrayal or criticism, men reacted with expressions of anger. In contrast, women tended to say that in these situations they would feel sad, hurt or disappointed. Differences in empathy levels are only found when male subjects are asked to report how empathic they aspire to be. It is noteworthy that in similar studies, in men and women, despite the differences in their emotional expression, the same physiological reactions were observed.

Men and women express their emotions with different intensities and in different ways. A number of studies have shown greater expressiveness in females, regardless of their age, with women exhibiting more emotional behavior in all-female groups than in mixed groups. It is noted that women are more smiling than men.

Differences in the intensity of emotional expression may be due to the fact that women have generally higher facial activity than men. One should also take into account the fact that men, within the framework of their traditional gender role, are prone to “restrictive emotionality” - minimizing emotional expression.

The greater variety of ways of expressing emotions in females may be explained by the fact that their ability to verbalize emotions is formed earlier and develops faster than in males. As an example of the evolution of emotional expression, we can offer the expression of the emotion of anger. Interestingly, under the age of 10, boys and girls do not differ significantly in their displays of aggression: when experiencing the emotion of anger, both demonstrate physical aggression. However, by the age of 13, girls acquire a number of effective skills in the tactics of verbal and non-verbal expression of emotions, and boys continue to express their anger through physical actions. Subsequently, direct aggression (physical and verbal) predominates among men, while indirect aggression, or “relationship aggression” (spreading rumors), prevails among women.

Gender stereotypes limit the expression of emotions that are “uncharacteristic” of representatives of a certain gender. For men, open display of emotions in some cases is worthy of ridicule and shame.

Expressions of sadness, depression, fear, and social emotions such as shame and embarrassment are seen as “unmasculine.” Men who show such emotions are assessed more negatively compared to women; they are not inclined to be consoled in these cases, as is customary in relation to women. Expressing anger and aggression, on the other hand, is considered acceptable for men, but not for women. Aggressive boys are rated as more attractive and competent than non-aggressive boys, while aggressive girls are rated as less attractive and tend to experience a wide range of peer relationship problems. In a conflict situation, men are more prone to external aggression, while women are more prone to auto-aggression (self-accusation).

Women, starting in adolescence, show a greater tendency to experience depression and sadness, shame, fear and anxiety. It cannot be said that men do not experience such “unmasculine” emotions, but in situations of direct communication they tend not to show them. For example, representatives of the stronger sex show the same willingness to reveal their emotional problems as women if they talk about them in a tape recording or in a letter to a magazine.

According to studies conducted in the United States and Hungary, both sexes believe that women are more willing to share their feelings than men. At the same time, men are the most open in their friendships with women. Apparently, concerns about gender role incongruence among men are strongest when surrounded by members of the same sex.

A “prohibition” on the expression of a number of emotions and feelings also exists among women. R. Salvaggio (1996) notes that in women it is highly desirable to express emotional dependence on the opposite sex, immersion in “love” with a ban on open expression of feelings and manifestations of aggression. According to the author, this creates a masochistic attitude in women.

The results of the above studies gave the basis for S. Bern to say that emotionality, i.e. The strength of the emotions experienced is the same for representatives of both sexes, only the degree of their external expression is different. E.P. Ilyin makes a clarification that men and women also have different quality of expression of certain emotions: “...what is “decent” for women (crying, being sentimental, being afraid, etc.) is “indecent” for men, and vice versa, then what is “decent” for men (to show anger and aggression) is “indecent” for women.”

Differences in emotion coding may also be associated with gender stereotypes. It has been established that women are better at encoding expressive expressions of happiness, men - at anger and malice.

Using emotions to improve the efficiency of thinking and activity (facilitation of thinking).

In everyday life, there is an established idea that “emotional thinking” predominates in women, which implies the inhibitory influence of emotions on activity.

This means that women tend to react not rationally, but emotionally, and the reaction is determined not so much by the content of the statement as by the relationships that have developed at that moment. Such a reaction is involuntary and unconstructive. This approach corresponds to stereotypical ideas about gender roles, but seems far from modern reality.

The idea of greater emotionality in women compared to men and knowledge of the empirically established relationship between emotionality and creativity makes it possible to assume not so much an inhibitory, but rather a facilitative effect of emotions on mental activity in females. This hypothesis is already being confirmed in modern research. Thus, a more pronounced influence of the emotional factor on the creative productivity of girls was revealed compared to boys.

Understanding (comprehension) of emotions predominates among females. Women, compared to men, show greater ability to read changing social information based on facial expression and other nonverbal signs. This may be due to the fact that women have a larger area of the brain that processes emotional information than men.

Pronounced gender differences in the processing of emotional information are detected already in adolescence. Thus, modern girls are generally better than boys at regulating and controlling their feelings, verbalizing them better, having a richer thesaurus for describing emotional states, and their emotional channel of empathy is more developed.

Women are more empathic than men, and they are more likely to cry and talk about their troubles in response to others talking about their troubles.

N. Eisenberg and her colleagues attribute the greater empathy of 10-12 year old girls compared to boys to the former’s earlier moral development. The greater propensity for empathy of women compared to men is explained by their gender roles (the caring nature of the former and the authority, independence, competition of the latter), as well as the appropriate upbringing of children. Girls' games with dolls develop empathic expression, but boys' toys do not develop it. According to D. Blok, men, as a result, have less rich experience in the field of empathic responsiveness. As a result, they simply don't know how to respond to another person's emotional discomfort. Note that these studies of empathy are related to the study of grief. It is interesting to see what the differences in this area would be between men and women in situations requiring co-rejoicing.

In connection with the last remark, the fact we discovered is interesting: in girls, with an increase in the level of understanding of other people’s emotions through expression, a decrease in the frequency of experiencing the emotion of joy and an increase in the frequency of experiencing grief are associated. This suggests that empathy manifests itself primarily as grief. In other words, female students use their emotional abilities to share their negative experiences with other people and, thereby, reduce their intensity.

Research data shows that men and women differ in their explanations of the causes of emotional outbursts—especially intense feelings of anger and sadness. For example, males and females indicate different determinants of emotions such as anger, fear or sadness. Men tend to look for the causes of emotions in interpersonal situations, while women tend to see them in personal relationships or in mood.

If a man fails, he explains it by external reasons (lack of opportunities, insufficient support from management). Women usually look for the reasons for failure in their own personal inadequacy.

Conscious regulation of emotions is associated mainly with their suppression.
Men are generally more restrained in expressing sympathy, sadness and distress, while women are more restrained in displaying sexuality, anger and aggression. Even among men prone to alexithemia, the inhibition is higher for fear, and for women it is higher for anger.

The reasons for the differences described above are more social than biological. Patterns of emotional differences among adult men and women are initially determined by the approach to raising children. According to K. Jung, in boys, in the process of their upbringing, feelings are suppressed, while in girls they dominate. Parents require boys to control their emotions, but with girls emotional openness is emphasized. The superiority of females in the tendency to discuss emotions, which appears in early childhood, remains at a fairly stable level in the future.

Differences in the socialization of girls and boys are dictated by the unconscious desire of parents to prepare their children to fulfill appropriate gender roles. Competition in the subject and broad social spheres requires a man to be able to regulate his own arousal, limit the expression of “non-male” emotions (and, thus, not demonstrate his own weaknesses to his opponent). In a competitive environment, aggressive pressure is acceptable if necessary—hence the social “permission” for men to express anger. Encouraging boys to express aggression and anger and prohibiting them from expressing sadness, anxiety, and vulnerability prepares them to be competitive earners seeking individual achievement, power, and status.

On the contrary, aggressive behavior in accordance with stereotypical ideas about gender roles is completely unwelcome among females. This is due to the fact that in the sphere of family relationships, a more productive strategy of behavior is the manifestation of positive emotions and control of external manifestations of aggression. By being encouraged to express emotions such as warmth, cheerfulness, vulnerability, embarrassment, and discouraged from expressing anger and aggression, women are more likely to successfully fulfill their social roles as caregivers and homemakers. In addition, the position of a “follower” (namely, in most cases this is the position of a woman in relationships with a man in the family) encourages careful recognition of the emotions of other people. Therefore, taking into account the requirements of the gender role, it is quite natural that for female students, more than for male students, it is subjectively important to be able to manage their own emotions and understand the emotions of other people.

Growing up, girls believe that they are required to express positive emotions towards other people, otherwise others will judge them. Men in similar situations do not expect similar consequences for themselves.

A one-sided approach to the socialization of girls and boys leads to sad consequences. Men turn out to be unable to show tenderness, warmth and participation so necessary in relationships between the sexes and in family communication; they do not allow fear and shame into the sphere of consciousness. Women find themselves deprived of the opportunity to adequately recognize and express aggression and anger; they are forced to inhibit the expression of sexuality. In both cases, society requires control of certain emotions, which is carried out in a way that is far from safe for health and relationships - through their suppression.

So, data on gender differences in emotional intelligence in general are quite contradictory. If we talk about the severity of its structural components, then in women, compared to men, the understanding of emotions prevails. Otherwise, the differences are more qualitative than quantitative. Men and women experience certain events equally and demonstrate identical physiological reactions. However, they explain the causes of emotions differently, in accordance with their gender role. The expression of certain emotions in female or male representatives, as well as their regulation, are largely determined by the influence of gender norms, which are formed through upbringing.

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The importance of studying age-related characteristics of the emotional sphere in children is determined by the fact that there is a close connection between emotional and intellectual development. Scientists note that disturbances in the emotional development of a preschool child lead to the fact that the child cannot use other abilities, in particular intelligence, for further development. In children with emotional disorders, negative emotions such as grief, fear, anger, shame, and disgust predominate. They have a high level of anxiety, and positive emotions are rarely expressed. Their level of intelligence development corresponds to the average values according to the Wechsler test. This raises the task of monitoring the emotional development of children and, if necessary, applying psychocorrectional programs.

Emotions appear in a person even before he is born. It has been revealed that emotional reactions of pleasure and displeasure are already observed in a five- to six-month-old human fetus.

Tracing the path of development of the child’s emotional sphere, G. Munsterberg wrote: “At first, feelings are caused only by the states of the child’s own body. Hunger, fatigue and physical irritation are unpleasant, slight excitement and eating are pleasant; later, objects of the external world and people give pleasure or displeasure, and then finally the stage is reached when things are replaced by words, and the objects of thought become sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction.” Similar dynamics of development of the child’s emotional sphere were described by S.L. Rubinstein: “The emotional development of a person follows... a path similar to the path of his intellectual development: feeling, like the thought of a child, is first absorbed directly by the given; Only at a certain level of development does it free itself from the immediate environment - family, friends, into which the child has grown, and begins to consciously move beyond the boundaries of this narrow environment. Along with the movement of emotions from individual and private objects to the area of the general and abstract, another, no less significant shift occurs - the feeling becomes selective.”

The ways of voluntarily reacting to certain emotions are changing. For example, a small child, experiencing fear, will most likely rush to people close to him (mother, father, sister, brother). However, already in preschool age, basic (innate) emotions acquire a social connotation. Therefore, a teenager associates escape from danger with the emotion of shame. As a result, he chooses a different way of coping with fear - he tries to assess the degree of danger, take a more advantageous position, or simply ignores the threat and does not attach importance to it.

As studies note, not only emotional reactions change with age, but also the meaning of activators of specific emotions. So, at three weeks of age, the sound of a woman's voice makes the child smile, but as the child gets older, the same voice can make him irritated. The mother's retreating face will not cause much of a reaction in a three-month-old baby, while a 13-month-old child will react to this with an angry protest, and a 13-year-old teenager may even be happy because he is left at home alone, without parental care.

Psychologists have found that in ontogenesis, the development of basal emotions, as well as knowledge about them, is formed ahead of time compared to secondary emotions. Even children two or three years old not only understand the state of fear and joy, but can voluntarily reproduce them on their faces. It is characteristic that from younger to older schoolchildren, the number of students who have correct knowledge about the emotions of joy and fear practically does not change. This may indicate that the final understanding of these emotions appears no later than nine years of age.

K. Bühler once showed how positive emotions develop with age. The moment of experiencing pleasure in children's games shifts as the child develops: the baby experiences pleasure at the moment of obtaining the desired result. At the next stage of development, pleasure comes not only from the result, but also from the process of the game itself. At the third stage, older children begin to anticipate pleasure at the beginning of play activities.

During the process of ontogenesis, the ability to use emotional expression as a means of communication develops - studies have found an increase in control of the expression of negative emotions with age and its invariance in relation to positive emotions.

On the other hand, recognition of emotions from facial expressions also improves with age. True, at the age of 11 - 13 years there is a temporary regression in the recognition of a number of emotions.

According to Western psychologists, the entire process of socialization of a child is accompanied by a state of anxiety, as he tries to avoid unpleasant experiences due to parental dissatisfaction and punishment. It is impossible not to take into account the presence of school anxiety associated with the educational process. Throughout primary school age, its relative stability is observed, then there is a sharp surge in anxiety in older adolescence, especially in the 9th grade. In the 10th grade, anxiety levels drop sharply and rise again before leaving school.

The social transformation of emotional reactions is clearly visible from the data on the manifestations of anger in children in the period from 7 months. up to 7 years 10 months - with age, anger as an explosion, not directed at a specific object, occurs less and less often, and anger directed at a specific object (for example, breaking something) occurs more and more often.

So, each age period is characterized by its own characteristics of the manifestation of emotions and feelings. The Russian poet KD talks about this. Balmont wrote in one poem:

When I was a boy, small, tender,

My gaze was gentle and deep...

When I was a young man, timid and strange,

I was eternally filled with melancholy...

When I became passionate, desirable and powerful,

I kiss everyone along the way...

With age, knowledge about emotions expands and becomes more complex. The number of concepts in which emotions are conceptualized is increasing (the “vocabulary of emotions” is expanding), which occurs due to the differentiation of the initial generalized concepts “pleasant-unpleasant.” The boundaries of emotional concepts become clearer - for example, young children use the same term to refer to a wider range of emotional phenomena than older children. The number of parameters by which emotions are characterized is increasing: at first there are two of them - “excitement-calming” and “pleasure-displeasure”, then the parameters “connection with others”, “correspondence to the place”, etc. appear. If at the age of five children closely associate an emotion with the situation of its occurrence and define the first through the second, then later the child begins to differentiate ideas about the causes of emotion and internal states that mediate the connection of the situation with the emotional reaction.

Indicative in terms of the formation of the child’s emotional sphere in ontogenesis are changes in the manifestation of negative and positive emotions in infants in the period from three to nine months in connection with the characteristics of the family atmosphere. Children's emotionality depends on the emotional atmosphere in the family - this is already an obvious fact.

Thus, contrary to the opinion of some scientists, we can talk about the development of the emotional sphere of personality in ontogenesis.

Based on an analysis of a number of experimental studies, scientists came to the conclusion that in the first years of life there are no differences in the frequency and duration of negative emotional reactions in boys and girls, but with age their frequency and intensity increase in boys and decrease in girls. They explain this by the fact that girls, having the same aggressive tendencies as boys, are afraid to show them because of punishment, while others view boys’ aggression more favorably.

K. Horney writes that in accordance with the division of social roles, a certain view has been formed on women as infantile creatures who live by emotions. This is confirmed in some studies. Thus, it was revealed that for high school girls the social environment is more saturated with emotional events that have a stressful significance than for boys. It is noted that in women the emotional sphere is more differentiated and complex than in men.

Indeed, many studies have revealed clear differences in the emotional sphere of males and females. True, it is still unclear whether at least some of them are congenital or all these features are acquired in the process of specific upbringing of boys and girls.

Many psychologists associate differences in the emotional sphere of men and women precisely with the peculiarities of the upbringing of both. In women, emotional dependence on the opposite sex, immersion in “love” with a ban on open expression of feelings and aggression are highly desirable. This creates a masochistic attitude. At the same time, for men, all this is worthy of ridicule and shame. According to K. Jung, in a man, in the process of his upbringing, feelings are suppressed, while in girls they dominate.

In younger schoolchildren, according to numerous observations, differences are noted between boys and girls in a number of emotional states. Anxiety scores in boys are lower than in girls. Scientists attribute this to the fact that girls perceive the role of a schoolchild with greater awareness. Boys and girls also differ in the dominant causes (types) of anxiety. In girls, school anxiety dominates at 7-9 years old, and at 10 years old it gives way to self-esteem anxiety. In elementary school girls, against the background of a smaller number of neurotic reactions than in boys, instability of mood, capriciousness, tearfulness, sadness, melancholy, shyness, timidity, susceptibility to fear, and increased sensitivity are most often noted. In seven-year-old boys, interpersonal anxiety dominates; school anxiety predominates at 8-9 years of age. At the same time, in boys, already at the age of 9, indicators of self-assessed anxiety begin to be compared with indicators of school anxiety. Against the background of a greater number of neurotic reactions, boys in junior grades experience aggressiveness, pugnacity, and hyperactivity.

It was revealed that differences between boys and girls in anxiety exist only at the age of 12. In older adolescence (14-15 years), no differences between them are found, and at the age of 16-17 years, girls again turn out to be more anxious.

The fact of greater anxiety and neuroticism in females compared to males has been revealed in many studies.

It should be noted that significant gender differences were also revealed in self-assessment of sadness, anxiety and guilt. A comparison of the tendency to experience basic emotions in schoolchildren and schoolgirls of different ages showed that in girls and young women in all age groups the tendency to fear is significantly more pronounced than in boys and young men.

Interesting age dynamics have been identified in relation to the tendency to experience anger and sadness. The younger the schoolchildren, the more pronounced the tendency to experience these emotions is in males, and the older the schoolchildren, the more pronounced these tendencies are in females.

The tendency to joy did not show clear age dynamics: at the ages of 8-9, 12-13 and 16-17 years it is expressed equally in boys and girls, and at the ages of 10-11 and 14-15 years it is more pronounced in girls.

As is already known in science, men more often restrain the expression of emotions than women (60 versus 40%), and are more in need of emotional participation (100 versus 60%). At the same time, representatives of the stronger sex more often ignore emotional problems (80 versus 30%). Women are more likely to remain emotionally indifferent in relationships (60 vs. 40%). We can conclude that in men, emotional problems are masked or even denied at the level of self-esteem.

Among girls who are friends, relationships are more trusting than among boys. Girls develop a desire for close friendships with the opposite sex earlier than boys.

The literature notes greater emotional sensitivity and emotional instability of women. The study of this issue using assessments of their own life manifestations revealed that females are clearly superior to males in all age groups in emotional excitability, to a lesser extent in intensity, and to an even lesser extent in the duration of preservation of emotions and emotional stability.

Females pay significantly more attention to the emotional aspects of interpersonal relationships and their experiences. They are considered to be more empathic. This is probably because girls mature morally earlier than boys.

With regard to touchiness, no significant gender differences were found, and assessments of one’s own vindictiveness among males were higher than among females.

According to research, both men and women have a common emotional type when joy dominates with equal fear and anger. In addition, in men the most common structure is one in which anger and joy dominate over fear, and in women the most common structure of emotionality is in which joy and fear dominate. These data are consistent with data already available in the scientific literature on the greater severity of direct physical and verbal aggression in men. The equal predisposition of women to anger and fear can be explained from the perspective of K. Izard, who believes that the tendency to fear can balance the predisposition to anger, keeping individuals from aggressive actions and conflicts, or transferring them to “softer” forms. On the other hand, anger can serve as a defense against fear, provide psychological compensation and release, increasing a sense of self-confidence.

In foreign studies, the emotional characteristics of women are associated with their social position in society and are considered in two planes: as the guilt of family working women and as women’s fear of success.

Guilt among working women with families has become the object of close attention by Western psychologists. It is a consequence of intrapersonal conflict, when a woman strives to live up to both the role of the keeper of the family hearth and the role of a good professional. These two roles place conflicting demands on women, and often women simply lack the physical and mental resources to perform both roles well. Realizing this, the woman begins to experience guilt in front of her children, her husband, and her superiors at work, which can result in psychosomatic symptoms.

The feeling of guilt in front of children (obviously, especially acutely experienced when a woman returns to work after the birth of a child and, as it were, leaves him) produces certain patterns of behavior with them, in particular - overcompensating behavior, which is called "overwhelming love." Overcompensation takes many forms. In one case, the mother, coming home from work in the evening, tries to compensate the child for the entire day of her absence with close communication and care, fulfilling all his desires, without giving him the opportunity to relax. In the evening, most children, after such maternal care, become mentally “twitched.”

Other forms include buying the child a large number of toys, especially if the mother was on a business trip or was late from work. This behavior is called "behavior for oneself" since toys are needed not so much by the child as by the mother, who is trying to make amends for her guilt in this way. All this ultimately leads to improper upbringing of the child, development of lack of independence, anxiety and other personal distortions.

It is believed that experiencing guilt makes a woman less effective as a mother. The child, realizing that his mother feels guilty towards him, will begin to manipulate her, deliberately causing emotional distress in the mother. This, in turn, can cause the mother to become angry and even hateful towards the child. A number of psychologists claim that when a woman blames herself for not coping well with her maternal responsibilities, her communication with her child is very often accompanied by numerous outbursts of “reasonless” anger.

In a relationship with her husband, a working woman’s feeling of guilt may manifest itself in refusing her husband’s help in household chores. A woman deliberately does not ask her husband for help, so as not to “disappoint” him as the mistress of the house. In addition, a woman, feeling guilty towards her children and husband, subconsciously strives to give up her career at work, especially since cultural traditions do not approve of wives who have achieved more success than their husbands. This phenomenon is called " conflict of fear of success."

Finally, the feeling of guilt before the family forces a woman to pay less attention to herself, since others (children and husband) remain without her attention.

Even success causes anxiety in women, as it is associated with undesirable consequences - loss of femininity, loss of meaningful relationships with the social environment. Success in the professional sphere and in the sphere of significant relationships (family, friends) seems to be mutually exclusive for a woman. Therefore, giving preference to meaningful relationships, she begins to fear success in her professional activities.

Fear of success is sometimes considered an inherent feature of female nature that inhibits women's achievements in any field of activity. Psychologists have seen the emergence of fear of success as influenced by external factors. This point of view is supported by the fact that in those situations where achievements are acceptable from a gender-role point of view, fear of achieving success does not appear in women. Thus, studies have shown that the fear of success among women employed in medicine (a field that is not typical for Western women) is higher than among teachers (in a field that is typical for women). The same was found when comparing female engineers with nurses. The fear of success was greatest when a woman was at the top of the engineering hierarchy and had many family responsibilities.

Women are less likely to fear success when they are not in the majority in a gender-mixed group or when they work alone.

Fear of success is also possible among men when their type of activity does not correspond to their gender role, as well as in cases where they do not want to arouse the envy of their colleagues.

A number of studies have provided evidence that the expression of certain emotional properties of a person can influence professional self-determination. Thus, it was revealed that high school graduates with lability of emotions show interest in professions such as “person-person” and “person-artistic image”; those with emotional sensitivity - to professions of the “man-nature” type, and those with stability of emotions - to professions such as “man-technology” and “man-sign system”.

According to science, 23% of writers note increased emotional sensitivity during their school years, which often acted as the first impetus for their literary creativity. Some writers call emotional sensitivity the greatest gift: “If a person does not lose this gift throughout his sober years, then he is a poet or writer"- wrote K.G. Paustovsky.

Unfortunately, the question of the role of the emotional sphere in choosing a profession and successful activity in it has been poorly studied.

If we talk about specific professions, then, as noted, the emotionality of a teacher is the most important factor of influence and interaction in educational work - the success of emotional influence depends on it, it mobilizes students, encourages them to action, and activates their intellectual activity.

The qualitative emotionality of female teachers (the tendency to display emotions of different modalities) has a clear dynamics of change in the emotional sphere with increasing teaching experience.

In the first years of work at school, the tendency of young teachers to experience joy decreases, and to experience sadness, anger and fear increases. Then, as the length of service increases and experience is gained, the picture changes: the tendency to experience joy increases, and the tendency to experience negative emotions decreases. Teachers' optimism is also increasing. Obviously, this is due to the fact that, on the one hand, teachers become less likely to make mistakes and failures, and on the other hand, they develop a kind of immunity against failures and disappointments that arise in the course of teaching. It is also important that teachers’ anger decreases with increasing experience.

Of the four emotion modalities studied, the highest scores are noticeable for the emotion of joy. Ratings of sadness were higher than fear and anger, which seems natural: fear and anger are bad assistants in teaching activities, since they lead to confusion and constraint of the teacher, prevent him from showing creative initiative, the desire for innovation, and interfere with establishing contact with students.

The highest emotionality was found among primary school teachers, which can be associated with the characteristics of the student population with whom they work, its responsiveness and spontaneity in expressing their feelings.

According to research, emotional stability is a professionally important quality for a teacher.

Emotional differences between subject teachers were revealed. Teachers of physical education, technology and singing have a higher overall emotionality than teachers teaching the humanities and natural sciences.

Identification of emotional types showed that female teachers were dominated by the second (joy prevails over equally expressed anger and fear), third (with dominance of joy, fear prevails over anger) and sixth (equally expressed joy and fear prevail over anger) types. At the same time, among teachers with a low level of professional skill, the second type was more common (in 64% of cases) and there were no cases when anger and fear dominated other emotions. For teachers with an average level of skill, the first, second and sixth types dominated (21, 21 and 18% of cases, respectively). The same was found among teachers with a high level of skill (22, 19 and 14% of cases, respectively).

Thus, teachers with average and high levels of skill have a greater variety of emotional types than teachers with low levels of skill.

The emotional background that teachers have obviously largely depends on the population they work with.

A significant deformation of the emotional sphere of the orphanage employees was discovered. Most of them are dominated by negative emotions (sadness and fear). In 75% of the entire sample, the level of personal and situational anxiety was higher than normal. A high level of emotionality was noted when communicating with students. A low ability to adequately recognize the type of emotional experience of a person from his voice was revealed (i.e., emotional hearing is poorly developed). Against the backdrop of greater “emotional deafness” of orphanage employees, they also exhibit other characteristics in recognizing specific emotions. Compared to school teachers, they are less likely to recognize joy, fear, and especially anger, as well as a neutral background (Table 7).

With increasing work experience in an orphanage, the deformation of the emotional sphere of employees increases. It is noteworthy that

Table 7

Number of persons (in%) with deviations from the norm in a number of characteristics of the emotional sphere

that between the employees of the orphanage and their pupils there is greater similarity in the emotional sphere than between the employees of the orphanage and the school teachers.

A survey of applicants and students of pedagogical institutes showed that among many professionally important qualities for a teacher, they put empathy in first place. For young teachers with up to five years of experience, the importance of this emotional characteristic of a teacher increases even more. Only experienced teachers with six years of experience or more have empathy in second place, second in importance to professional knowledge and intelligence.

The overall expressiveness of behavior practically does not change with increasing experience, although there is a decrease in individual expression channels. Teachers with extensive experience (over 20 years) have a faster rate of speech, greater imagery and intonation expressiveness than teachers with little experience (less than five years).

The highest expressiveness is found among teachers with an average level of professional skill. Teachers with a high level of pedagogical skill are characterized by an average degree of expressiveness, while teachers with a low level of skill have a weak expression with a large number of unnecessary movements. It is likely that teachers with an average level of skill have learned to show expression, but have not learned to control it. Thus, there is an inverted curvilinear relationship between skill level and expressiveness. It is obvious that both too high and too low teacher expressiveness are bad for the effectiveness of teaching activities.

Excessively expressed emotional stability (inexcitability) has a negative impact on the psychoregulation of teaching activities. But, on the other hand, the teacher’s high emotionality and expressiveness also harms the work.

Elementary school teachers' overall expressiveness is higher than that of teachers teaching in middle and high schools, which indicates their greater openness and spontaneity in expressing their feelings when communicating with younger students.

The level of empathy among teachers-practical psychologists towards parents, old people and animals is higher than that of subject teachers, in relation to children and literary characters - the same, and in relation to strangers - lower. Teachers receiving a second education as a practical psychologist have higher empathy towards all objects than subject teachers. Empathy is least expressed among students who are graduates of a pedagogical university.

An important professional quality of a teacher is insight. This quality is associated with the emotional sphere of a person. Persons with low insight are most often “hypoemotive”, having low scores on all three modalities (joy, anger, fear), as well as “fearful”, having a high score on the emotion of fear, and “angry”, having a high score on the emotion of anger. Thus, for some professions, their normal functioning requires sufficient expression of emotionality.

Teachers, compared to students, have less expressive emotions, and students are more prone to show negative emotions and are less able to adequately express emotions.

The success of interaction between teachers and students depends not only on the empathy of the former, but also on the social status and personality traits of the latter. Among the three types of teachers, there are teachers who are focused on the personality of students. Their feature is high empathy and communication skills. It turned out that these teachers only interact optimally with rejected students. These teachers may have not only suboptimal, but even conflictual relationships with other students (active and sociable, accepted by the team, etc.). From this we can assume that empathic people are needed mainly by those who are suffering, in need of sympathy, support, and help. For others, the high empathy of the object of interaction, his excessive care and compassion can be annoying.

Medicine is also an area of human activity where negative emotional states predominate. Patients expect compassion and care from medical personnel, which requires empathy. Therefore, it is believed that people with a high level of empathy should go into medicine, as well as into other socionomic professions. It is believed that high empathy of the doctor helps to better feel the patient's condition. Along with this, the doctor is characterized by the ability to easily overcome unpleasant impressions.

It is also impossible not to take into account the fact that medical workers, constantly faced with people’s suffering, are forced to erect a kind of barrier of psychological protection from the patient, becoming less empathetic, otherwise they are at risk of emotional burnout and even neurotic breakdowns. By the way, it has been shown that two-thirds of doctors and nurses in intensive care units experience emotional exhaustion as one of the symptoms of emotional burnout. Another study found that emotional burnout is more pronounced among cardiologists than among oncologists and dentists. This is explained by the fact that cardiologists are more often in extreme situations.

Hence, the requirements for the emotional sphere of medical workers are quite contradictory. Along with empathy, doctors must also be emotionally stable. Both excessive emotionality and emotional inhibition can be an obstacle to clear and quick action.

As revealed, nurses have different types of emotionality. The so-called “routine nurse” does not empathize with the sick, does not sympathize with them. The “nervous sister” type is prone to emotional instability and neurotic reactions. They are irritable, quick-tempered, look gloomy, as if offended by innocent patients. They are haunted by the fear of becoming infected or contracting a “serious disease.” Perhaps only the maternal type sister meets the requirements of her profession: she is empathic and caring.

Studies of nurses' empathy conducted in our country have shown only one thing clearly: they do not have very high empathy. Otherwise, the data is quite contradictory.

Some differences were found in the emotional sphere of nurses working in intensive care units and nurses working in a clinic or in therapy. Although all sisters have an average level of anxiety, among the first it is still slightly higher, which can be associated with the specifics of their work in extreme situations. Nurses from intensive care units also have a higher ability to emotionally identify with patients, but lower emotional stability.

Doctors have slightly higher empathy than nurses, but no differences were found in neuroticism.

As they study at the university, the emotional state of future doctors changes: from carelessness, relaxation, and serenity among first-year students, there is a shift towards anxiety, tension, and greater spiritual gentleness among third-year students (Table 8). Obviously, this is due to the fact that from the third year, medical students begin to communicate with patients. Thus, the comparison of empathic

Table 8

The severity of emotional characteristics in medical students of different

gender (points)

of future doctors - students of a medical university and their attitude towards patients with whom the students had contact for two weeks showed that among highly empathic students, their positive attitude towards patients increased compared to the first impression, while among 50% of low-empathic students the attitude did not change , or there was a deterioration in attitude towards the patient.

The sphere of art in this regard has not yet attracted the proper attention of psychologists. Therefore, the emotional characteristics of musicians, actors, and artists have been studied very poorly.

An important condition for the success of musical performing activities on the stage is emotional stability (Table 9). Thus, the laureates were found to have a minimal level of pre-concert anxiety. At the same time, newcomers have high pre-concert anxiety (“fear of stage music”). But in general it is clear that the expression of the performing musician (emotional or intellectual component) influences the adequacy of listeners’ recognition of the emotional content of the music.

It was suggested that musicality has nothing to do with exalted enthusiasm or, on the contrary, all-consuming melancholy and other extreme emotional manifestations. Whether this is true or not can be found out only by examining the emotional sphere of musicians.

Musicians can be characterized as more empathetic, more anxious, and have the ability to more adequately recognize emotions. They are more energetic and emotional. It is characteristic that none of these indicators of the emotional sphere are associated with the level of education.

At the same time, the specificity of the activity - performing or pedagogical - is reflected in the nature of the dominant emotional

Table 9

Expressiveness of professional characteristics among choreographic school students with different emotional reactivity

(points)

national background and emotional response. Thus, performers, compared to teachers, are more likely to experience joy, while the manifestation of negative emotions and the intensity of emotional response in the process of social interaction are very weakly expressed.

The emotional characteristics of musicians, according to research, are associated with the level of their musicality. The greater the peace of mind a musician shows, the higher his musicality, and the higher the anxiety, the lower the level of development of musicality (however, a number of works assert another thesis: musical abilities are associated with emotional instability and high anxiety). Those who have low musicality are characterized by feelings of sadness and fear, and positive emotions are either weakly expressed or not expressed at all.

Emotional hearing (the ability to detect emotions in speech and singing) is often not related to the level of musicality development.

Research has revealed that all the characteristics of success in mastering the art of choreography are more pronounced among those students of choreographic schools who have high emotional reactivity.

High neuroticism was detected in approximately 84.4% of ballet dancers. High anxiety was also characteristic of them. Obviously, this is no coincidence. Low anxiety can hinder creativity. And the artists themselves point to the need for emotional uplift and anxiety. Those with high emotional expressiveness were more likely to have average neuroticism.

Depending on the availability of talent, two groups are sometimes distinguished - “leading soloists” and “ordinary artists”. So-called “ordinary” artists are characterized by high anxiety and emotional instability. These features of the emotional sphere correlate with excessive mental tension, which causes difficulties in self-expression and creative transformation on stage. The emotional hearing of “ordinary” artists corresponds to the norm. They also exhibit some emotional inhibition and excessive limitation of feelings.

“Leading soloists” have anxiety at the upper level of the norm or slightly higher, and their emotional hearing is highly developed.

By hearing, artists are better able to identify the emotions of joy and a neutral state, and worse - anger and sadness. This is specific to ballet dancers compared to doctors and engineers, who are also best at identifying the neutral state, but fear comes second in identification, followed by sadness and anger, and joy comes last in terms of number of correct identifications.

According to some data, extroverted dancers choose parts that encourage them to experience anger, while introverted dancers choose to experience sadness and fear.

Emotions among drama theater actors are of particular importance. They must portray the emotional experiences of their characters, and this requires them to have their own deep stage experience, which depends on emotional excitability and reactivity, as well as on a rich sensory-specific imagination.

Adolescents with the most acting ability had a more pronounced increase in heart rate in response to a mental representation of an emotionally charged situation.

Students of a theater university who successfully master the basics of the acting profession are characterized by significantly greater efficiency in controlling reactions (its voluntary activation and voluntary extinction) using the mental representation of emotionally charged situations. At the same time, it is noted that high emotional reactivity in itself is not an indicator of acting talent or professional skill. Rather, moderate emotional reactivity is important, but with high emotional lability.

A number of features of the emotional reactivity of more successful acting students compared to less successful ones are also noted. The former are characterized by a higher initial level of emotional activation and a less pronounced tendency for this level to increase after an electric shock. They are also characterized by a greater amplitude and shorter response time to an imaginary electric shock. They have a greater correspondence between the amplitude of the reaction to an imaginary electric shock and the amplitude of the reaction to an actual electric shock.

Actors, compared to representatives of other professions, show greater susceptibility to feelings (factor G according to J. Kettel), are more impressionable, have a wide range of feelings (factor 7), they have a more pronounced desire to constantly monitor their emotions and feelings and, despite this, their behavior is more expressive (factor F).

Actors, compared to people in technical professions, have increased personal anxiety and emotional instability (neuroticism). Empathy is also more pronounced among actors, but significant differences were found only between groups of men. There are no differences in empathy between male and female actors, and anxiety is higher in women.

The tendency for orchestra members to perform certain musical works depends on whether they have extraversion or introversion. The first strive to perform works that encourage the experience of joy, and avoid works that evoke sadness; the latter ignore musical works that evoke feelings of anger and joy.

Special studies in recent years have revealed some features of the emotional sphere of leading television programs and television announcers. What they have in common is emotional “thick skin” and discipline of emotions. This is consistent with existing evidence indicating that television announcers need to be able to control their mood.

Speakers (television presenters) are characterized by emotional stability, the ability to hide their emotional experiences, and manage emotions.

TV program hosts are characterized by emotional flexibility, the ability not to get upset over trifles, a love of thrills, and a pronounced emotional “thick skin,” which allows them to overcome tense conflict situations and cruelty in treating people. They lack self-blame and self-dissatisfaction.

Both are characterized by a high emotional assessment of themselves (they generally like themselves and are satisfied with themselves).

It was also revealed that presenters popular among viewers are emotional, expressive and optimistic.

Regarding the emotional characteristics of representatives of other professions, data are still scarce.

It is noted that both high and too low levels of anxiety are suboptimal for flight activities. Accidents occur in pilots who have less fear of danger. Accidents among drivers driving heavy dump trucks are associated with frustration tension and anxiety.

Entrepreneurs are of the opinion that both emotionally sensitive people and “tough”, “thick-skinned” people can do business. According to another point of view, business needs people who can calmly solve any given task. Emotions interfere with an objective assessment of reality and therefore they must be excluded from assessments and actions. Objective research largely confirms the second point of view. Entrepreneurs can be classified as emotionally stable individuals. According to this indicator, they are superior to both potential entrepreneurs and those not involved in business. At the same time, those actively engaged in business have a higher level of emotional stability. They rarely trust their emotional impressions. The range of situations that evoke strong emotional reactions in them is very limited. They also maintain emotional balance in interpersonal communication.

Potential entrepreneurs have an average level of emotional stability. They remain calm in situations the development of which they can predict. Additional and unexpected difficulties disrupt their emotional balance, anxiety, restlessness, and emotional stress appear. Criticism from others causes irritation.

Male entrepreneurs with low personal anxiety have virtually no fear of action. At the same time, they are less exposed to fear than women entrepreneurs.

Among public sector workers, the majority have personal anxiety and a pronounced fear of action.

Things to remember:

basal emotions, school anxiety, self-esteem anxiety, interpersonal anxiety, overcompensation behavior, conflict of fear of success, behavior for oneself, pre-concert anxiety.

Questions and assignments for Chapter 10

1. Why is it so important in psychology to study the characteristics of a person’s emotional sphere?
2. Tell us about the age-related characteristics of the development of the emotional sphere?
3. Give a general idea of the peculiarities of the development of the emotional sphere of men and women.
4. What is overcompensation behavior?
5. What are basal emotions?

Q. Give an idea of the conflict of fear of success.

7. What is lability?
8. Tell us about the emotional differences between medical workers, teaching staff, and people in creative professions.

Basal emotions are a theoretical construct that unites a minimum set of emotions, on the basis of which the entire variety of emotional processes and states is formed. Such emotions include those of joy, grief (sadness), fear, anger, surprise, and disgust. They are recorded by electrical stimulation of various subcortical areas of the brain.
Lability (from Latin labilis - sliding, unstable) (physiol.) - functional mobility, the speed of elementary cycles of excitation in nervous and muscle tissues. The concept of “lability” was introduced by the Russian physiologist N.E. Vvedensky (1886), who considered the measure of lability to be the highest frequency of tissue irritation that can be reproduced without rhythm transformation. Lability reflects the time during which the tissue restores its functionality after the next cycle of excitation. In biology and medicine, the term “lability” refers to mobility, instability, variability (for example, the psyche, physiological state, pulse, body temperature, etc.).

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