Hello, can you explain to me the meaning of the phrase “in harness”?
Here is the context in which it is used:
In Boekaerts’ (1991) review of emotion the learning of very high IQ and highly achieving children, she found emotional forces in harness. They were not only curious, but often had a strong desire to control their environment, improve their learning efficiency and increase their own learning resources.
Thank you in advance.
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I think it means that children with a high IQ are capable of controlling their emotions.
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I have never heard “in harness” used in quite this way.
A horse in harness is ready to work.
By extension, a person actively working could be in harness. “He died in harness”.
Two people working together could be working in harness, cooperatively like a team of horses.
I looked up several definitions but didn’t find a good match for something abstract like emotional forces being in harness, but based on the context, it seems that the children’s emotions are helping to drive them towards high achievement.
Perhaps:
“she found that emotional forces came into play.”
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The expression to “rein in” is somewhat common. I’m not sure if I have ever heard the expression “harness” used as an alternative to “rein in”. Although because of the similarities of harness and rein, I can see someone using them interchangeably.
“she found emotional forces in harness.”
I understand this, especially in context, but it’s an awkward way of saying it. I have also not heard emotions being called forces.
“review of emotion the learning of very high IQ and highly achieving children”
This is also confusing. To review something normally implies that they are reviewing the work of someone else. In which case “emotion…” would be a book title or a the name of a study.
Is Boekaert doing their own study on emotions? The entire sentence is unclear. The second sentence is fine though.
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Yes, it is a phrase in use.
To be in harness means to put things together so as to achieve the best result.
Here, I think, different emotional forces are controlled so that they get harnessed for achieving a high IQ in children.
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