Eight-year-old children and adult female college students were asked to describe situations in which each of six emotions would be felt (production task) and to judge which emotion would be felt in situations described by other subjects (judgment task). In addition, mothers of the child subjects were asked to judge descriptions generated by their own child and by other children. Data analysis showed that adults and children produced stories that could be classified into the same set of thematic categories. In addition, adults and children could accurately identify the emotion in stories produced by other adults and children. Last, mothers judged descriptions produced by other children as easily as descriptions produced by their own child.

This research was supported by a grant from the DePaul University Faculty Research and Development Committee. The authors wish to thank the children, parents, and staff of the Circle M Daycamp and the New City YMCA.