Re: affectivity in education

diane celia hodges (dchodges who-is-at interchg.ubc.ca)
Mon, 23 Feb 1998 00:55:24 -0800

At 6:21 PM 2/22/98, Jay Lemke wrote:

>
>One way towards a topology of feelings is to look at
>feelings-in-development, on the ontogenetic time-scale, and try to see,
>within and across cultures, what the range and dimensions of
>differentiations are from the (presumably more universal) early biological
>feeling repertory. How, in effect, do feelings become 'emotions'? and how
>does the potential diversity of the one compare to that of the other?
>

I'm restless tonight, partly provoked by Jay's really rather outstanding
articulation of all that's been said thus far... (and partly
too-much-coffee: a kind of biolcultural condition perhaps) ... but yes!
what an excellent question. when does a feeling become an emotion?

I wonder if feelings aren't the bio, and emotions are the cultural; that
feelings are "wired" responses, and emotions are the cultural
interpretation of those expressions.
with something simple, like what makes babies cry - hunger, fear, faigue,
...I would suppose that how crying is responded to will organize the
differentiations; we learn to tolerate hunger, for example; we try to
recognize when we are tired ("I'm cranky today leave me alone" code, for
example)

but fear is about the unknown. so it's trucky to account for it eh? she
thought aloud (canuckly).

It would be interesting if, say, aggression was interpreted as fear, so we
wouldn't "language" in terms of hostility, but in terms of "fear," or/and
in terms of how do we deal with the unexpected...

I'm thinking of the "use-your-words" practice of managing children's emotions.

Where I worked, aggression was a constant issue, most of our kids were
coming from violent, or unpredictable home lives, so there was a lot of
acting out. In this case, we interpreted it as "needs", quite literally
Maslow's notions, that these kids had basic needs which
weren't being met.

but "languaging" this with the children proved difficult, because they
were all quite captivated with languages of violence: fighting, anger,
fury, rage, death; not just from homes, but certainly media immersion...

now, looking back, it seems to me it was also about unpredictability,
unknown outcomes, manifesting in simple expressions, such as running
outside and thinking you are going to get the red bike, and not getting it
- a fight breaks out. Suddenly it isn't about the bike anymore, it's about
who started the fight, "feelings" are hurt, maybe one kid shoves the other
off the bike (oiy it happened so often!) and a finger is scratched, so now
the feeling shifts to pain, surprise - the kid wasn't expecting to get
shoved, wasn't expecting to get hurt, so s/he cries. Or gets angry. Or
both. The kid who did the shoving is confused now, because all of this has
happened in 2 seconds. We talked about respect, about treating others well,
but the bottom line is about an ability to handle to the unpredictable.

This is the internalized Other, of course.

as for when the feeling becomes an emotion, I think it's in the initial
interactions of say, the first three or four years of life, and depending
upon how the caregivers interpret expressions such as crying, "emotions"
will evolve...I guess I mean, that we rely on expressions of others to
interpret emotions.

hm. dunno where I'm going here really. just roaming, what is "stream of
consciousness" email writing? I'm drifting in an E-stream.

sweet dreams all.

diane

"Every tool is a weapon if you hold it right." Ani Difranco
*********************************************
diane celia hodges
faculty of education, centre for the study of curriculum and
instruction,
university of british columbia
vancouver, bc canada

tel: (604)-874-4807
mail:
3519 Hull Street

Vancouver, BC, Canada V5N 4R8