DEVELOPMENT OF THE MENTAL LEVEL OF EMOTION UNDERSTANDING IN PRESCHOOL CHILDHOOD

The actual and insufficiently developed in native child psychology problem of the development of the levels of emotion understanding as a component of emotional intelligence in preschoolers is discussed. The sub- ject of the author's research is the key changes in the development of the mental level of emotion understanding in preschool childhood and beyond. The article presents a meaningful characteristic of the following aspects of children's understanding of the mentalistic nature of emotions: awareness the relationship between emotions, desires and beliefs, understanding the role of expectations and past emotional experience in predicting emotions, understanding the influence of thoughts on emotions, understanding of hidden emotion. The article contains the results of foreign psychological research in the field of children's understanding the interrelation between emo- tions and mental states, including the author's empirical data