Chapter 10: Emotional Development Flashcards
What is emotion?
neural and physiological responses to the environment, subjective feelings, cognitions related to those feelings, and the desire to take action
What are components of emotion?
- neural responses
- physiological factors
- subjective feelings
- emotional expressions
- the desire to take action
What is the discrete emotions theory?
a theory in which emotions are viewed as innate, and each emotion has a specific and distinctive set of bodily and facial reactions
What evidence support the discrete emotions theory?
- infants express a set of recognizable, discrete emotions before they are taught about it
- similar emotional facial expressions have been observed around the world
- vocalizations of basic emotions are recognizable across very different cultural groups
What is the functionalist perspective of emotion?
a theory which argues that the basic function of emotions is to promote action toward achieving a goal; goal-driven
What are the two theories of emotion?
discrete emotions theory and functionalist perspective
What are the six basic emotions?
happiness, fear, anger, sadness, surprise, and disgust
What is AFFEX?
system for coding emotions in infants that links particular facial expressions and facial muscle movements with particular emotions
How do infants show that they are happy or content?
- 6 weeks = social smile
- 3 months = laughter; curiosity
- 4 months = full, responsive smiles
- 7 months = smile primarily at familiar people, rather than at people in general
How do infants show that they are angry or sad?
- 4-8 months = anger
- 18-24 months = peak in anger manifestation
How do infants show that they are fearful?
- 9-14 months = with strangers (stranger wariness; separation anxiety)
- 12 months = fear of unexpected sights and sounds
How do infants show that they are prideful or shameful?
- 18 months = self-awareness; pride; shame; embarrassment
What are social smiles?
smiles that are directed at people
What is separation anxiety?
feelings of distress that children, especially infants and toddlers. experience when separated, or expect to be separated, from individuals to whom they are emotionally attached
What are self-conscious emotions?
emotions such as guilt, shame, embarrassment, and pride that related to our sense of self and our consciousness of others’ reactions to us
Why is understanding emotions important for infants?
it affects social behaviour so it is critical to the development of social competence
What emotion can children distinguish at 3 months?
children can distinguish facial expressions of happiness, surprise, and anger
What emotion can infants distinguish at 16- to 18- months?
prefer toys associated with surprise and happy faces
What is social referencing?
the use of a parent’s or other adult’s facial expression or vocal cues to decide how to deal with novel, ambiguous, or possibly threatening situations
At what age does social referencing occur?
12 months
At what age does labeling emotions occur?
2 years
What is the first step for children to develop an understanding of emotion?
to recognize different emotions in others
How do children’s environments determine their facility for reading others’ emotions?
children who grow up in environments with violence or without adults they can trust may develop heightened awareness to emotional cues of conflict
What is emotional intelligence?
the ability to cognitively process information about emotions and to use that information to guide both thought and behaviour
What is cognitive intelligence?
the ability to reason about, learn from, and remember verbal or visual information
When do children begin to have the realization that the emotions people express do not necessarily reflect their true feelings?
3 year olds’ occasional attempts to mask their negative emotions when they receive a disappointing gift or prise
What are display rules?
a social group’s informal norms about when, where, and how much one should show emotions and when and where displays of emotions should be suppressed or masked by displays of other emotions
Why is emotional intelligence important for infants?
it has been linked to a range of positive outcomes in both childhood and adolescence
- better able to manage their own emotions
- less likely to engage in aggressive behaviour than are children with lower emotional intelligence
What are the two main strategies for engaging in display rules?
- simulating an emotion typically to be nice
- masking an emotion as a self-protective measure
What is emotion regulation?
a set of both conscious and unconscious processes used to both monitor and modulate emotional experiences and expressions
Why is emotion regulation important?
- used to monitor and modulate emotional experiences and expressions
- paves the way for success in social interactions and academic settings
What is co-regulation?
the process by which a caregiver provides the needed comfort or distraction to help a child reduce his or her stress
What are self-comforting behaviours?
repetitive actions that regulate arousal by providing a mildly positive physical sensation
What are methods that infants use for emotion regulating?
- self-comforting behaviours
- self-distraction
What is self-distraction?
looking away from an upsetting stimulus in order to regulate one’s level of arousal
When do infants start show signs of rudimentary emotion regulation?
5 months
Why are there changes in children’s self-regulation?
- increasing maturation of the neurological systems (frontal lobe)
- changes in what adults expect of children
What is emotional self-regulation?
the process of initiating, inhibiting, or modulating
What is social competence?
the ability to achieve personal goals in social interactions while simultaneously maintaining positive relationships with others
What happens to children who are unable to successfully regulate their emotions?
higher risk of becoming victims of bullying compared with their peers who are better at emotion regulation
How do parents affect their children’s emotional development?
- quality of parent-child relationships
- parents’ emotional expression
- parents’ reactions to children’s emotions
- teaching display rules
What is emotion socialization?
the process through which children acquire the values, standards, skills, knowledge, and behaviours that are regarded as appropriate for their present and future roles in their particular culture
What is emotion coaching?
the use of discussion and other forms of instruction to teach children how to cope with and properly express emotions
Why is iy important for parents to discuss emotion to children?
teaches children about emotions
Why is the way parents react to children’s emotions important?
- children are less socially competent when their parents dismiss their emotions or criticize them
- supportive parents help in the regulation of their children’s emotion
What is temperament?
individual differences in emotion, activity level, and attention that are exhibited across contexts and that are present from infancy and thus thought to be genetically based
What are the three classifications of infants?
- easy babies
- difficult babies
- slow-to-warm-up babies
What are easy babies?
adjusted readily to new situations, quickly established daily routines such as sleeping and eating, and generally were cheerful in mood and easy to calm
What are difficult babies?
slow to adjust to new situations, tended to react negatively and intensely to novel stimuli and events, and were irregular in their daily routines and bodily functions
What are slow-to-warm-up babies?
somewhat difficult at first but became easier over time as they had repeated contact with new objects, people, and situations
What is a new way researchers measure temperament?
within-person approach: every child has some level of each dimension of temeperament
What are determinants of temperament?
genetic (biological factors) and parenting (environmental factors)
How do genetics play a role in temperament?
more similarity in emotion and regulation found in identical twins than in fraternal twins
How does parenting play a role in temperament?
warm parenting leads to fewer emotional problems
What is the active child theme in children’s temperament?
children’s temperamental characteristics can affect their environments and their parents’ behaviours
What is goodness of fit?
the degree to which an individual’s temperament is compatible with the demands and expectations of his or her social environment
What is differential susceptibility?
a circumstance in which the same temperament characteristic that puts some children at high risk for negative outcomes when exposed to a harsh home environment also causes them to blossom when their home environment is positive
What are “orchids” children?
children with such susceptible, or highly responsive, temperaments
What are “dandelion” children?
children who are less sensitive to their environments and do well in all but the most high-risk environments
What is mental health?
children’s sense of well-being both internally and externally
What is stress?
a physiological reaction to some change or threat in the environment
What causes stress?
arises from threatening, frightening, or overwhelming environments
What happens when you are stressed?
leads to “fight or flight”, the body’s physiological response to increased stress
What is toxic stress?
the experience of overwhelming levels of stress without support from adults to help mitigate the effects of stress
What causes toxic stress?
adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)
What are adverse childhood experiences?
traumatic childhood experiences, such as abuse, neglect, violence exposure, or death of a parents, that are linked to mental and physical health problems later in life
What is traumatic stress?
severe stress brought on by a sudden catastrophic event
What are mental disorders?
a state of having problems with emotional reactions to the environment and with social relationships in ways that affect daily life
What is equifinality?
the concept that various causes can lead to the same mental disorders
What is multifinality?
the concept that certain risk factors do not always lead to a mental disorder
What is depression?
a mental disorder that involves a sad or irritable mood along with physical and cognitive changes that interfere with daily life
What are symptoms of depression?
combination of the following occurring nearly everyday for at least 2 weeks
- depressed mood
- loss of interest or pleasure in most activities
- significant weight loss
- insomnia or excessive sleeping
- motor agitation
- fatigue or loss of energy
- feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt
- inability to think or concentrate
- recurrent thoughts of death
Why is depression more common in adolescent girls than in adolescent boys?
- puberty
- focusing on negative emotions
- early maturity
- body image and appearance
- socioemotional stress
What is rumination?
focusing on negative emotions and the causes and consequences without engaging in efforts to improve the situation
What is co-rumination?
extensively discussing and self-disclosing emotional problems with another person
How does nature influence depression?
- elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol
- exhibit differences in brain structure and function
- runs in families
How does nurture influence depression?
- low levels of parental sensitivity, support, or acceptance
- ACEs
What are anxiety disorders?
a set of mental disorders that involve the inability to regulate fear and worry
What are treatments of internalizing mental disorders?
- drug therapy (serotonin reuptake inhibitors)
- cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
What is synchrony?
a reciprocal, coordinated exchange of response between infant and caregiver
What are anxiety disorders an overactivation of?
- amygdala and hippocampus
- parts of the brain associated with fear
- sympathetic nervous system
