Chapter 10 Flashcards
What is Emotion?
A combination of physiological and cognitive responses to thoughts and experiences
Physiological and cognitive responses of emotions
Neural responses
Physiological factors
(Heart rate and breathing changes, hormone levels may spike)
Subjective feelings
Emotional expressions
Desire to take action
(Fight or flight or emotions influence what happens in environment)
theories of emotion
discrete emotions theory
functionalism
discrete emotions theory
argues that neurological and biological systems have evolved to allow humans, from infancy, to experience and then express a set of basic emotions through adaptation to our surroundings
Nature
—Use emotions to survive
—Each emotion has a unique set of physiological and cognitive responses
—Emotions are innate because even young infants have similar emotional expression
—Basic emotions are similar across cultures
—Emotions are automatic
functionalism
argues that individuals experience emotions in order to manage the relationship between themselves and the environment
Nurture
—Using emotions to change environment
—Emotions are goal driven
—Emotions are not unique or discrete or innate
—Emotions can vary depending on the environment you’re in (polite smiles to say hi, similar to being genuinely happy)
nurture: parental influences and definitions
Parents can influence an infant and child’s development of emotions
Parents’ expression of emotions
Parents’ reactions to child’s emotions
Parents’ discussion of emotions
Parents’ expression of emotions
Parents are models that show children what emotions look like and when it is acceptable to show or not show emotions
Parents who don’t share emotions freely may have kids who think they need to suppress their emotions
Too much emotion can also be overwhelming (chaotic home environment)
Kids can be hypersensitive to parent’s emotions
In addition to being affected by parents’ displays of emotion, children’s emotional development is influenced by parents’ emotion socialization of their children
—the direct and indirect influence that parents have on their children’s standards, values, and ways of thinking and feeling.
Parents’ reactions to child’s emotions
Dismissive parents of child’s emotions makes them feel their feelings are invalid and not normal
Parents who are dismissive of child’s emotions makes less sympathetic kids more prone to anger and inability to deal with stress
parents who are supportive when their children are upset help their children regulate their emotional arousal and find ways to express their emotions constructively
the more parents acknowledge and respond contingently to their children’s emotions, the more their children feel validated. In turn, these children tend to be better adjusted and more competent with their peers and to perform better in school
Parents’ discussion of emotions
Talking about/ labelling emotions helps kids cope with it all
Emotion coaching
emotion coaching
Labelling emotions and teaching coping strategies to deal with them
parents not only discuss emotions with their children but also help them learn ways to cope with their emotions and express them appropriately
Children who receive this type of guidance tend to display better emotional understanding than children who do not.
The emergence of emotion: 6 main emotions
happiness
fear
anger
sadness
surprise
disgust
The emergence of emotion: happiness
Reflexive at first
Social smiles (Smiles directed at people)
Laughing
Humour
The emergence of emotion: fear
Signal for support
Stranger danger
Separation anxiety
(distress due to separation from the parent who is the child’s primary caregiver)
Imaginary vs. real-life
The emergence of emotion: anger
Blended with sadness
Anger declines
Unintended harm
The emergence of emotion: sadness
Pain, separation & lack of control
Less common than anger
Signal for support
The emergence of emotion: surprise
Central to learning
Quickly transforms
Violation-of expectancy
The emergence of emotion: disgust
Strong evolutionary basis
Learned
Food then injustices
Self Conscious Emotions definition
Step above basic emotions
Some other emotions are considered self-conscious emotions because they require that children have a sense of themselves as separate from other people
5 of them
Self Conscious Emotions list
Guilt
Shame
Embarrassment
Pride
Jealousy
guilt
you did a bad thing
outward
desire to rectify
requires empathy
shame
you are a bad person
inward
focus on self
Identifying the emotions of others
Social referencing
At 3 months can tell happiness apart from surprise or anger
At 7 months can tell apart fear and sadness, and can tell apart all main 6 emotions
Cultural differences in abilities to identify expressions
social referencing
the child uses their facial expression or vocal cues to decide how to deal with a novel, ambiguous, or possibly threatening situation
Look to parent to know how to react
Understanding real and false emotions
As young as 1.5 years old, notice fake or overreacting expressions
Display rules→ protection of others, self-protection (2 reasons why emotions may be masked)
display rules
social or cultural group’s informal norms about when, where, and how much one should show emotions, as well as when and where displays of emotion should be suppressed or masked by displays of other emotions
Our particular social group/ culture has norms about when and where it is appropriate to show certain emotions
protection of others
Don’t want to hurt someone else’s feelings
self-protection
Preventing your own feelings from being hurt
What is emotion regulation
A set of conscious and unconscious processes used to both monitor and control your emotions
monitor/ identify emotions and then be able to control it
Development of emotion regulation steps
Co-regulation
Self-regulation
(self-comforting,
Self-distraction)
Cognitive strategies
co-regulation
Relying on an external person to regulate emotions for them (ex: caregiver rocking baby)
self regulation
(self comforting. self-distraction)
self comforting:
—Repetitive actions to generate positive emotion or sensation
—(ex: thumb sucking)
—Security blanket holding
—Gradually decrease
Self-distraction
—Run away, trying to ignore, later start using play as a distraction tactic
—Gradually increase
cognitive strategies
Solutions focused
social competence
derives from a set of skills that helps individuals achieve their personal goals in social interactions while maintaining positive relationships with others
temperament
More than just emotions
Individual differences in: Emotion, Activity level, and Attention That are exhibited across contexts
spectrum
Three types of temperament
Low→ high degree of difficulty
Easy (happy baby “I can!”) → Slow-to-warm-up (shy baby “I can’t !”) → difficult (cranky baby “I won’t!”)
40% of babies are easy temperament, easy to put to sleep, feed, happy, quick to calm down, etc, good adjustment
10% of babies are difficult, difficult to soothe, sleep, feed, etc, big responses to emotions
15% of babies are slow to warm up babies. Have a hard time with new situations, but gets there eventually
35% of babies are “other” because they don’t have consistent behaviours
Determinants of temperaments: nature
Twin studies
—Similar temperaments in identical twins, but not fraternal
—Self control, negative mood, extraversion
Gene contributions
—Temperament can be inherited from parents due to genes that dictate temperament
Determinants of temperaments: nurture
Teratogens
—Drugs, nutritional deficiencies, maternal stress mean worse temperament
Home environment
—Negative experiences can impact temperament
Goodness-of-fit
The compatibility of a person’s temperament with the demands and expectations of the social environment
How well your temperament fits into the environment you’re put into
Also connects to home environment. Getting attention from parents means high goodness of fit
High goodness of fit means getting what you need from the environment around you
Differential Susceptibility
A child’s temperament may put them at high risk for negative (harsh home) OR positive outcomes (supportive home)
the same temperament characteristic that puts some children at high risk for negative outcomes when exposed to a harsh home environment also leads them to blossom when their home environments are positive
Children are like orchids
why are children like orchids
Thrive when conditions are good, but wither when conditions are bad
the same temperament characteristic that puts some children at high risk for negative outcomes when exposed to a harsh home environment also leads them to blossom when their home environments are positive
Some children are less affected by the environment around them, like dandelions (resilant, do good in any environment)
origins of mental illness
equifinality
multifinality
note: risk factors don’t automatically make you mentally ill
equifinality
Has to do with beginning of things
Multiple risk factors that all contribute to one mental illness
multifinality
End product of things
One risk factor can lead to many types of outcomes
depression and anxiety nature
↑ cortisol
Brain differences
Hereditary
depression and anxiety nurture
Parental influences
depression
4.5% Canadian teens
Risk increases with age
Girls 2-3x more likely
anxiety
7% children worldwide
Separation Anxiety Disorder
(Decrease with age)
Panic attacks & phobias
(Increase with age)
why are rates of depression increasing
Covid, divorce rates, world falling apart, social media, etc
Anxiety: Nurture examples- ways environment triggers environment
Conditioning
(Ex: bit by dog→ now scared of dogs)
observing/ modelling
(Develops fear from parents fear)
Direct instruction
(Fear due to being told to)
