I recently attended the birthday party of two-year-old Jack. His four-year-old brother, Michael, found it very hard to cope with all the presents and attention Jack received. He grew angry and aggressive towards Jack, and his mum took him away to calm down and reflect.
Michael’s parents interpreted his behaviour as jealousy. Michael is also able to use that label to describe his feelings, which are usually expressed with anger, or sometimes with sadness. He has watched the CBeebies programme ‘What’s the Big Idea?’ where the character Hugo asks, ‘What is jealousy?’ This series takes a different abstract concept in each programme and the characters raise important philosophical questions to be considered. Aimed at 3-5 year olds it has an expectation of cognitive sophistication in young viewers and high expectations for their ability to engage in the kind of philosophical dialogue that is modelled in the programme. Furthermore, the notes that accompany the series encourage parents to explore the questions raised by the characters with their own young children. This marks a significant shift in assumptions about what the 3-5year-old child is capable of expressing, both cognitively and affectively. It signals a very welcome change in expectations for children’s engagement with abstract ideas such as jealousy and reflects recent findings from cognitive scientists about the ability of young children to perceive the intentions and perspectives of others. It is certain that young siblings experience jealousy in their interactions with each other and few would deny the importance of this component of such relationships.
In schools that practise Philosophy for Children, the concept of jealousy may well come up as a focus for enquiry and it is an important concept to explore. In this article, I want to think about how P4C teachers might prepare for an enquiry on jealousy.
The 4C’s of P4C:
- Caring thinking skills
- Collaborative thinking skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Creative thinking skills
What is jealousy?
Jealousy is an emotion and, as such, has been discussed in the psychological literature as an emotional response to a situation. However, as anthropologists and sociologists have pointed out, jealousy is a cultural construct that differs across cultures and historical times and is not, in fact, present in all cultures. I want to raise the question of how we might think about jealousy in a philosophical enquiry and avoid either a psychological or sociological approach. That doesn’t mean we ignore other approaches – but we need to distinguish what makes an enquiry philosophical.
Jealousy is a big concept and, therefore, suitable for philosophical enquiry; it fulfils the Philosophy for Children requirement that it meets the 4Cs criteria: it is common to many human cultures in both time and place, it is central to how we regulate relationships between each other in our culture today; yet it is contestable – we probably won’t agree on a definition, and, lastly, we can connect it to our own experience. Taking the last criterion, watching four-year-old Michael experience and react to feelings that seemed to indicate jealousy will inform my discussion here.
Jealousy is a mental state that cries out for mastery and control. We can talk about our emotions, which makes it a good focus for philosophical enquiry. When the adults in his life see Michael exhibiting anger or sadness in response to jealousy, they want to help him identify the feeling by giving it a name – jealousy; they want to give him a word for the concept that will help him talk about his feelings and his responsive actions so that he can raise questions about why he is feeling jealous and also think about what can he can do about it. In other words, they want to help him understand and manage his emotions.