Exploring Some Cultural Factors in the Recognition of Emotions in Children Through Mothers’ Recollections: A Memory-Based Method

This chapter proposes a memory-based method to study the recognition of emotions in children, by focusing on mothers’ recollections of the various emotions in their children and expressions and actions of their children. Mothers’ detailed recall of these actions facilitated an understanding of their recognition of emotions in their children. The impact of the environment, including family type and the socioeconomic status (SES) of the family, on mothers’ recollection of the emotions of their children was also examined. This chapter elaborates on the details of the method and reports diverse patterns of emotions obtained after interviewing 505 mothers from the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi in India. The mothers in this study were from the lower middle class, representing a community/social group in which members share similar expressions and appraisals of emotions. Implications of this method for studying the recognition of emotions in cultural contexts are discussed.