Aina Cadafalch Grau

Seminar A (Group 71)

Questionnaire
1. How do you typically manage negative emotions?
I am a so emotive person, everything affects me a lot, and since a few years ago, I didnt
know how to manage negative emotions.
So I think that until few years ago I was engaged in emotion-centered coping because I
couldnt control my emotions. I learned how to manage them when I went to the
psychologist three yeas ago. I needed the help of a psychologist because I broke up with
boyfriend (two years relationship) and I couldnt control all the anger and sadness that
I was feeling. So my psychologist help me to first of all, identify what I was feeling and
why, and then learn how to manage it. So I learned to control my distress.
Even that it was a hard and long process, since then I think I have engaged in problemcentered coping, because when something negative happens to me I know how to
manage it. First of all I identify the difficulty and then I decide what to do about it.
2. Describe several recent examples. How might your early experiences, gender,
and cultural background have influenced your style of emotional regulation?
I personally think that my gender and culture have influenced positively to my style of
emotional regulation because in our culture it is well seen that a girl cries if she is sad or
afraid. But I dont agree with our cultural background because regarding boys style, its
not the same. If a man cries because he is sad or afraid of something, it would be seen
as he is a nenaza. This is due to our sexist cultural background pressure among the
masculinity of men and I think that this must change soon. As future teachers, we should
try to avoid this type of thinking so distinctive to our students and promote gender
equality in all the aspects, especially in emotional regulation.
3. How would you describe your temperament or your personality traits as a
child? Do you think it has remained stable, or has it changed? What factors
might be involved?
Temperament is the stable individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation.
Reactivity refers to variations in quickness and intensity of emotional arousal, attention,
and motor action.
When I was a child, I was cheerful and I adapted easily to new experiences, I was very
active and energetic and I also had a friendly behaviour.
But I think that during the years it has changed because nowadays I feel embarrassed
with things that I didnt before. For example, I consider myself as a shy person in some

situations like being in front of all my classmates doing an oral presentation, in this
situation I felt really anxious and nervous.
So I think that the factors that influence on our temperament are our family, our
immediate context, the relations we have had and also the stage of your life in which
you are (childhood, adolescence).
4. How would you characterize your internal working model? What factors in
addition to your early relationship with your parents, might have influenced
you?
The internal working model is a set of expectations about the availability of attachment
figures, their likelihood of providing support during times of stress, and the selfs
interaction with those figures. It becomes a vital part of personality, serving as a guide
for all future close relationships.
As my parents divorced when I was a two months baby, and I didnt see my father very
often, my mother was afraid that this could influence to my internal working model. But
Ive never missed anything. We were a few years living with my grandparents, and they
and my mother, gave me all the love and affection that I need and more.
When I was three years-old, we went to live alone my mother and I, but I still had my
grandparents as before. My grandfather was my father figure, and thanks to him, I am
who I am today. I also spend many time with my grandmother, who took care of me
every time I was ill, she also took me to school every morning and in the afternoons we
went together to the swimming pool every day.
So I think that if I had not had my grandparents I would probably have weaknesses in
my early childhood internal working model, because the absence of my father would
have greatly influenced. But luckily it did not happen, and when my grandfather died a
few years ago, it was one of the worst moments of my life, because I lost one of the
most important people in my life. And I will always be grateful to them and to all my
family for all the love and affection that they have always given to me.
But even all of this, as I have had a difficult relationship with my father when I grew up,
this influenced to my internal working model lately. Since I was 8 years old, every two
weeks I had to spend a weekend with my father, but I felt very distressed when I was
with him, because I adopted secure attachment. My mother was my secure base
because when I was separated of her, I felt very badly because I wasnt with her, but
when I returned with her everything was okay.
As I grow up, this feeling started to disappear, but not at all, because I didnt feel
comfortable when I was with my father. So three years ago I had to go to a psychologist
for one year to overcome all the emotional conflicts that I had with my father. This
helped me a lot, and nowadays, Im very proud because I have achieved a good
relationship with my father and things are going really good.

So, when I was a child the absence of my father didnt influence anything to my internal
working model, but as I grew up and mostly when I entry to the adolescence it does.

5. What have you learned for your teaching practice from emotional regulation?
As future teachers, we will have to manage our emotions in order to be in the best
possible way with our students. Emotional self-regulation refers to the strategies we use
to adjust our emotional state to a comfortable level of intensity so we can accomplish
our goals, which requires several cognitive capacities.
It requires voluntary and effortful management of emotions. This capacity for effort full
control improves gradually, as the result of development of the prefrontal cortex. So we
as future teachers we will also have to help children to manage intense emotions and
teach them strategies for doing so.
Between ages 6 and 8, as kids become aware of the difference between feeling an
emotion and expressing it, children increasingly reserve the full performance of
emotional expressions for communicating with others. So from my point of view, a good
teacher should help children to reflect on their emotions and also to manage them.