chapter 10: emotional development Flashcards
what is an emotion
- accompanied by distinct changes in heart rate and blood pressure
- emotions can be outwardly expressed in several ways (facial expressions, body language)
- prefrontal cortex influences the conscious experience of emotion
- motivate us to engage in different types of behav.
what are basic emotions
experienced by people worldwide, and each consists of three elements:
1. a subjective feeling
2. a physiological change
3. an overt behaviour
list of basic emotions
- joy
- fear
- anger
- surprise
- sadness
- disgust
these expression ensure an infants basic needs are met, promote making connections w caregiver and others in community
video - baby human to feel 1 facial reactions
- micheal lewis lab
- infant able to express emotions
- frustration, surprise, delight, anger
- able to understand when the string is pulled something will happen
happiness
“social smile”
- begins at about 6-10 weeks (also when infants start to make out features of the human face”
- smiles encourage caregivers to smile even more
- a child’s first laugh (at 3-4 months) occurs in response to active stimuli
Anger
- increases in intensity and frequency from 4-6 months into the 2nd year
- when infants become capable of intentional behav. they want to control own actions
- young children get angry when someone blocks from achieving desired goal
fear
- increases during 2nd half of first year
- stranger anxiety
- most frequent expression of fear is to unfamilar adults
- depends on temperament
- parents are used as a secure base
what are self conscious emotions
emotions such as guilt, pride, shame and embarrassment
- involves injury to or enhancement of our sense of self
- appears at 18-24 mo
how do toddlers show shame and embarrassment
lowering eyes, hanging their heads, covering face with han ds
- dependent on culture
(ex. in china told to not call attention to success but in canada reinforces personal accomplishment)
self conscious emotions in society
- guilt is more adaptive than shame
guilt is related to better adjustment, as it helps children resist harmful impulses, motivates a misbehaving child to repair the damage they’ve done, and behave more considerately
shame used more in collectivist culture to teach right from wrong (ex. china)
social referencing
use of parents facial expression or vocal cues to decide how to deal with unfamilar situations
- infants read facial expressions to make decisions
recognizing and using other emotions
- infants are first able to identify others emotions by 4-6 months (happiness, surprise, anger)
at 12 months: stay near caregiver if he or she shows fear and will go towards a new object or person if caregiver shows no emotion
vocal cues
young children rely on their parents vocal cues, rather than facial expression s to determine if a new object or person is safe to approach
- voice conveys both emotional and verbal information
voice cues = more effective than facial cues
display rules
culture specific norms that dictate the appropriate expression of emotions
- children outwardly express an emotion that doesnt match felt emotion
ex. react with gratitude when u get a present, but if u dont like it majority of kids will show they dont
- when reach age 8: can do more successfully
regulating emotions
strategies we use to adjust the intensity and duration of our emotional reactions to a comfortable level
- requires attention focus and shifting, inhibit thoughts and behaviour
- requires voluntary, effortful management of emotions
- improves gradually w brain development
ex. telling yourself a stressful exam will be over soon
regulating emotions by age
4-6 mo: ability to shift attention and engage in self soothing helps infants control emotion
12 mo: can crawl or walk away from source of distress
2-6 yo: develop strategies for regulating emotions (e.g. closing eyes, turning away, putting hands over ears)
how caregivers affect regulating emotion responses
contingently & sympathetically = less fussy child, more positive, more interested , easier to soothe
impatiently or angrily = intensified fussiness, brain structures fail to develop, emotionally reactive
IV. Temperament
the characteristics of infants that indicate a consistent style or pattern to their behaviour
- is a precursor to the type of personality they will develop as older children
- resembles personality
- linked to school success, good peer relations, compliance with parents, depression
Mary Rothbart’s theory of temperament highlights three basic dimensions of personality:
- negative affect
- irritable distress (fussiness/anger when desires are frustrated)
- fearful distress (wariness in new situations) - surgency/extraversion
- frequency of smiling, laughing, willingness to approach and cooperate with others - attention span/effortful control
- length of time child focuses on objects and events of interest
others:
- dimensions of activity level
- biological naturation
- experiences in enciorment
Infant Behaviour Questionnaire (IBQ)
measure where infant falls on each dimension
- requires parents or other caregivers to rate the extent to which several statements characterize their infant
Children with “difficult” temperaments (i.e., scoring higher on the dimensions of irritability and fear, lower on surgency) are more likely to retain this type of temperament throughout childhood if parents are impatient and forceful with them
stability of temperament
plays an important role in determining childrens social adjustment in school
- temperament styles in early childhood often persist into middle childhood
- highly reactive to both positive and negative family enviorments
harsh parents: high behavior problems
positive family enviorment: low behavioural problems
gene x environment interaction
the same reactive temperament (associated with a specific allele pattern in the DRD4 gene) that predisposes children toward high risk for negative outcomes when exposed to a harsh home environment also causes them to thrive / blossom when home environments are positive
- genetic predisposition can put children at risk for problems, but the child’s outcome is going to depend to a large extent on their environmental surroundings
attachment
an emotional special bond between children and their caregivers characterized by mutual affection and a desire to maintain proximity
- develops around 7-9 months
- for infants first and closest is with parents
- comfort and security met
Bowlbys Ethological Explanation
attachment provides a sense of security and safe base from which to explore the world
- research showed that those seperated from their parents showed a worse emotional and behavioural outcomes compared to those that kept contact w parents
Harry Harlow research (monkeys)
removed infant monkeys from mothers at birth and had them raised by surrogate mothers
- monkeys preffered warm cloth mother to wire mother even if it wasnt their source of food
results show: infants of any species require comfort and security - attachment from primary caregiver will form based on safety
internal working model
a mental model that children construct as a result of their experiences
- use to guide interactions with caregivers and others
- if early attachment is positive then they learn people can be trusted
Bowlby described 4 phases of attachment:
attachment forms gradually
- preattachment (birth to 6 weeks)
- infants remain in close contact w caregivers, dont get top upset if left with someone unfamilar - “attachment in the making” (6 weeks to 8 months)
- infants start to show a clear preference for familiar caregivers over strangers
- smile and laugh more often - clear cut attachment (8 months to 18 months)
- infants use their primary caregiver as a secure base
- seperation anxiety
- stranger anxiety
- social refrencing - reciprocal relationship (18 months to 2 years)
- seperation protest declines
- understand factors for coming and going
- negotiation begins
mary ainsworth (“strange situation”)
designed to test to strength of an infants attachment to his primary caregiver
“strange situation” takes an infant through 8 short episodes to test security of the mother child relationship
observe how babies:
- use mother as a secure base
- respond to seperation from mother
- respond to a stranger
Attachment Styles
secure: (60%) use parent as secure base; upset when separated; happy when reunited
- only positive one
- consistent reliable support, confident, assured
resistant: (10%) cling to mother; upset when separated; ambivalent when reunited
- desire comfort, inconsistent parenting
avoidant: (15%) not upset when separated; indifferent when reunited
- little emotion
- ignore mother when returns
- emotionally unavailable, rejecting parents
disorganized: 10%) responses unpredictable; often seem confused
- most distressed
- overwhelmed, abusive parenting
fathers and infant attachment
A secure father-infant attachment was associated with positive father attitudes such as delight in having the baby, acceptance of the baby despite intrusions on independence, sensitivity to the baby’s communications, and investment in their father role over investing in other roles
- same attachment styles can occur
parental roles: mother vs father
mother: more time devoted to physical care, expressing affection, provide toys
fathers: engage in physical play, bursts of excitement that increase as play increases
mother who works outside of home: more playful stimulation than stay at home
stay at home fathers: retain arousing play style, less gender sterotyped
how day care can affect children
- low quality daycare contributes to insecurity only if a child spends long hours in daycare and receives insensitive care at home
- high quality child care has many benefits for young children, especially those who come from families whose home environments are less stimulating
- Children from low-SES households placed in high-quality daycare show significant and lasting gains in IQ, and later, school performance
signs of quality child care
- ratio of children to caregivers should be no greater than 3 to 1 for infants and 6 to 1 for toddlers
- well trained and experienced staff
- positive interactions
- appropriate toys and equipment
- ample educational and social stimulation
cultural differences in attachment
germany - mothers discourage physical contact and encourage independence (avoidant style)
dogon - mothers carry infants almost constantly during first year (no avoidant displayed)
israeli - raised communally, show resistant attachment
orphanages
- experienced ongoing emotional problems in romania in 1990s
main problem: lack of consistent caregiver
- usually, younger a child gets out the better outcome
securely attached infants tend to be:
- more socially skilled
- empathetic
- emotionally mature through adolescence and adulthood
Lewis 2000 research on newborns
newborns experience only 2 general emotions:
1. pleasure (smiling and cooing)
2. distress
older children and adolescents with regulating emotions (Eisenberg & Morris 2002)
- children begin to regulate their own emotions and rely less on others to do it for them
- children more often rely on mental strategies to regulate emotions
- children more accurately match strategies for regulating emotion within a particular setting
twin studies: influence of hereditary
identical twins are more alike in most aspects of temperament than fraternal twins
- neg. affect is more influenced by heredity than the other dimensions
