Children's understanding of anticipatory regret and disappointment

Guttentag, Robert; Ferrell, Jennifer

Abstract

The anticipation of regret and disappointment plays an important role in decision making by adults. The anticipation of regret may also lead to a desire to avoid feedback about likely outcomes of non-chosen courses of action, while the anticipation of disappointment is associated with avoidance of risk-taking and the deliberate dampening of expectations. The present study used the context of a simple game to examine children's understanding of these anticipatory regret and disappointment emotion-regulation strategies. It was found that even though children 7/8 years of age were able to understand the situational factors that produce disappointment and regret, it was not until 9/10 years of age that children exhibited an understanding of anticipatory regret emotion-regulation strategies, and even at this age children did not exhibit an understanding of the use of dampening of expectations as a strategy for coping with the anticipation of disappointment.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jul 21, 2008
• Journal: Cognition and Emotion
• Print ISSN: 0269-9931
• Electronic ISSN: 1464-0600
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 815-832
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930701541542
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1011619
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02699930701541542