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European Journal of Education Studies ISSN: 2501 - 1111 ISSN-L: 2501 - 1111 Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu doi: 10.5281/zenodo.833785 Volume 3 │ Issue 8 │ 2017 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS’ EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION AND SELF-CONCEPT Mehmet Kanaki, Eyüpcan Yazici Department of Guidance and Psychological Counseling, Faculty of Education, Cumhuriyet University, Sivas, Turkey Abstract: The purpose of this study is to reveal the relationships between middle school students’ emotional expression levels and their self-concept, gender, and school types. It was conducted on the seventh-grade students of five middle schools in Sivas province in the 2016-2017 academic year. Relational survey model was used. The Emotional Expression Questionnaire developed by King and Emmons (1990) and adapted into Turkish by Kuzucu and the Social Comparison Scale adapted into Turkish by Şahin, Şahin, and Durak (1993) were used as measurement tools. No significant difference was found between the emotional expression levels of the females and the males. However, the females were found to have significantly higher social comparison scores than the males. A significant difference was found between the scores obtained from the Emotional Expression Questionnaire by school type. A low-level significant, positive relationship was found between the scores obtained from the Emotional Expression Questionnaire and those obtained from the Social Comparison Scale. Keywords: emotional expression, social comparison, self, middle school 1. Introduction Emotion means move in Latin (Koçak, 2002). The literature contains many definitions of emotion. One of these definitions was made by Lazarus (1984), who defined it as an individual’s internal experience arising from his perceptions of the stimuli around him (qtd. by Koçak, 2002). Emotions help to adapt to the different situations encountered Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. © 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group 385 Mehmet Kanak, Eyüpcan Yazici THE REL“TIONSHIP ”ETWEEN MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS’ EMOTION“L EXPRESSION AND SELF-CONCEPT and enable to give reactions compatible with important opportunities Uysal and Satıcı, 2014). Being an important part of the daily life, emotions affect psychological and physiological well-being as well. Repression, which Sigmund Freud lists among defense mechanisms, refers to how emotions transform into unwanted behaviors through distortion or exaggeration when they are not expressed. At this point, the importance of the expression of emotions becomes evident. This is called emotional expression. Emotions start to be destructive once they disrupt the balance of the mind (Goleman and Lama, 2003). Whether they are positive or negative, every emotion has a risk of disrupting the balance of the mind and being destructive. When the people in depression direct their anger out, they may display more developed behaviors than they are capable of; however, anger may lead to traumas and physiological harms when it is not managed well (Lazarus, 1991). What is critical at this point is to have emotional and behavioral balance. Though emotions are expressed with body language and facial expressions besides verbal expressions in the daily life, individuals want to keep them under control sometimes Kuyumcu, ; İşleroğlu, . “lthough such desire for control is helpful in some situations, it prevents the expression of emotions. The expression of emotions may be shaped by how an individual perceives himself and his environment. This being the case, it is important to think on selfconcept, which started to be discussed with the development of psychology and has been subject to intense research in recent years (Uran, 2016). It is the broadest concept about self as it involves all perceptions of an individual about himself (qtd. by KorkutOwen, from Shavelson, 9 . That is, all statements starting with including the expressions according to me, I and for me are about self-concept. Self- concept is a person’s perception of himself. Previous research shows that self-concept is associated with parental attitudes (Sezer, 2010), and that the individuals having a positive self-concept have lower levels of depression (Erözkan, 2004). In other words, environment affects self-concept, which, in turn, affects the subjective well-being of the individual. Subjective well-being should be mentioned more here. Subjective well-being is defined as an individual’s experiencing positive emotions more than negative emotions qtd. by Kasapoğlu and Kış, from Myres and Deiner, 99 . “dolescence is a critical period for self-concept to be shaped. This is also the period when social comparisons, which are an important part of self, are made. Social comparison is an individual’s evaluation of his own abilities and thoughts through comparison with others (Myers, 2015). This is because self does not develop by itself in an isolated environment, but is shaped by the individuals around (Aronson, Wilson, and Akert, 2012). As is seen, self-concept is affected by many environmental and individual factors. Bosma and Jackson (1990) list the eight problems concerning adolescents most as European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 3 │ Issue 8 │ 2017 386 Mehmet Kanak, Eyüpcan Yazici THE REL“TIONSHIP ”ETWEEN MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS’ EMOTION“L EXPRESSION AND SELF-CONCEPT follows: opinions about oneself, school, teachers, parents, peers, relations with the opposite sex, free time activities, and future plans. Emotions and emotional expression level are important parts of an individual’s self. It has been proved by research that expression of emotions has many positive influences, and positive self-concept has a positive influence on individuals’ psychological well-being. It is considered that there may be a relationship between emotional expression level and self-concept, which can be identified with social comparison level. For downloading the full article, please access the following link: http://oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejes/article/view/911 European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 3 │ Issue 8 │ 2017 387