Chapter 5: Emotions Flashcards
What is the first form of communication?
Emotional expression. Children express wide array of emotions from infancy. Emotional expression is first form of communication. Children communicate feelings, needs, and desires by means of these expressions and, thereby, influence other people’s behavior.
What are emotions?
Subjective reaction to something in the environment. Generally accompanied by some form of physiological arousal. Often communicated to others by some expression or action. Usually experienced as either pleasant or unpleasant
What are the primary emotions?
Fear, joy, disgust, surprise, sadness, and interest
emerge early in life- do not require introspection or self-reflection
What are the secondary emotions?
Pride, shame, guilt, jealousy, embarrassment, and empathy- emerge in the second year of life and,
depend on a sense of self and the awareness of other people’s reactions.
Why are emotions important?
- They are a way that children let other people know how they feel.
- They are a window into children’s likes and dislikes and way to communicate their general views of the world
- They are linked to children’s social success
- They are linked to children’s mental and physical health
What is the biological perspective on emotion development?
Emotional expressions are innate and universal, rooted in human evolution, and based on anatomical structures.
Facial expressions of basic emotions are the same in different cultures. Each emotion is expressed by a distinct group of facial muscles
When do all infants begin to smile?
All infants began to smile at 46 weeks post conception—regardless of how long they have been exposed to smiling faces
What are identical twins more similar in than fraternal twins?
Identical twins are more similar than fraternal twins in:
the age at which they first smile, the amount they smile, the onset of their fear reactions to strangers, and their general degree of emotional inhibition
What emotions does the left hemisphere contral vs. the right hemisphere?
The left cerebral hemisphere controls the expression of the emotion of joy; the right hemisphere, the expression of fear
What is the learning perspective on emotional development?
Useful for explaining individual differences in emotional expression. When adults respond to a baby’s smiles with positive stimulation, the baby’s rate of smiling increases.
Children may become classically conditioned (E.g., fear the doctor who gives a painful shot during their first office visit). Children may also acquire fear through operant conditioning (E.g., when an adverse consequence, such as a painful fall, follows climbing up a high ladder)
Children learn other fears simply by observing other people’s reactions
What is the functional perspective on emotion development?
The purpose of emotions is to help people achieve their social and survival goals (e.g., joy of making new friends, fear and avoiding danger).Emotions help children reach their goals. Emotional signals provide feedback that guides other people’s behavior. Memories of past emotions shape how people respond to new situations
What are reflex smiles?
Newborns display reflex smiles - An upturned mouth seen in the newborn. usually spontaneous and appears to depend on some internal stimulus rather than on something external such as another person’s behavior. These smiles have adaptive value for the infant by ensuring caregiver attention and stimulation. Smiling helps keep caregivers nearby and thus becomes a means of communication and an aid to survival
When do infants start to display smiles in response to external stimuli?
by 3-8 weeks
When do infants start to display social smile? and who they are directed at?
By 2-6 months infant displays social smile - An upturned mouth in response to a human face or voice. Smiles more at familiar faces than unfamiliar ones. Smiles more when mother rather than unfamiliar other reinforces their smile
What is a duchenne smile?
a smile reflecting genuine pleasure, shown in crinkles around the eyes as well as an upturned mouth – reserved for caregivers
from birth, do boys or girls smile more?
From birth, girls smile more than boys. Why? Interplay of environmental and biological factors.
What is the role of culture in terms of smiling rates?
European American males and females differ more in their smiling rates than African American males and females. Suggests that African American parents treat their sons and daughters more alike than do European American parents.
What makes babies laugh?
- Auditory stimuli elicit few laughs at any age during infancy
- Tactile stimuli elicit a substantial amount of laughter in infants 7 to 9 months old
- Visual and social stimuli elicit more laughter overall and the likelihood of this laughter increases with age
- Laughing continues to increase in frequency and becomes more social as children mature
What are the two phases of the emergence of fear?
From 3 to 7 months of age, infants develop wariness, which they exhibit when they encounter events they do not understand
From 7 to 9 months of age, infants begin to show genuine fear
What is stranger distress/fear of strangers?
A negative emotional reaction to unfamiliar people, which typically emerges in infants around the age of 9 months. But, not inevitable or universal – cultural differences
What does a baby’s reaction to fear often depend on?
Baby’s reaction may depend on how mother reacts to the situation. Social referencing - The process of “reading” emotional cues in others to help determine how to act in an uncertain situation. Younger infants are likely to act first and look later and older infants are more likely to check with the mother before they act
What is separation anxiety?
A universal fear. It is the fear of being apart from a familiar caregiver (usually the mother or father), which typically peaks at about 15 months of age
What was the visual cliff experiment?
A test of a baby’s fear of heights. There is an apparatus that consists of a glass surface placed over a checkerboard base that is close to the glass on one side, the so-called shallow side, and some distance below it on the deep side. The infant is placed on the shallow side and encouraged to crawl across the deep side to reach the mother. At about 6 months of age, infants begin to refuse to crawl from the shallow side to the deep side–indicating that they see and fear the drop. Experience walking and perhaps falling contributes to the onset of this fear.
What cause fear in 0-1 year olds?
loss of support, loud noises, unexpected looming object, strangers, heights
What causes fear in 1-2 year olds?
separation from parent; injury; stranger; baths
What causes fear in 2-3 year olds?
separation from parents; animals (esp. large dogs); insect; darkness
What causes fear in 3-6 year olds?
separation from parents; animals; darkness; strangers; bodily harm; monsters and ghosts; nightmares
What causes fear in 6-10 year olds?
Snakes; injury; darkness; being alone; burglars; new situations such as starting school
What causes fear in 10-12 year olds?
Negative evaluation by peers; school failures; thunderstorms; ridicule and embarrassment; injury; burglars; death
What causes fear in adolescence?
evaluation by peers; school failures; breaking up; family issues such as divorce; war and other disasters; the future
What are newborns first negative expressions?
Anger; Newborns’ first negative expressions are not anger, per se, but startle, disgust, and distress. By 2 to 3 months old infants reliably display facial expressions of anger. Anger is elicited by pain and frustration
When do secondary emotions begin to develop?
In second year of life secondary emotions arise.
These social or self-conscious emotions depend on children’s abilities to be aware of, talk about, and think about themselves in relation to others