Development of Emotion Flashcards
what do children communication through emotional expression?
feelings, needs and desires - which therefore influence other people’s behaviours
what are emotions?
subjective reaction to something in the environment. usually comes with physiological arousal. often communicated through expression or action. pleasant or unpleasant.
why are emotions important - specifically for children?
let other people know how they feel; window into children’s likes and dislikes; linked to social and school success; help us adapt to our environment
what does emotion knowledge at age 5 predict?
social skills and academic competence age 9 after controlling for gender, verbal ability and temperament (Izard, Fine, Schultz, Mostow, Ackerman & Youngstrom)
describe emotional expression at birth
positive (content) and negative (distress) emotions become more differentiated
describe emotional expression from 1 month old
can show joy, fear, anger, surprise and sadness. possibly disgust and contempt
what are the primary emotions (and who termed them as such)
joy, sadness, interest, surprise, fear, anger, love - Schwarts, Kirson & O’Connor, 1987
how can we determine emotions in infants?
facial expressions provide important clues about which emotion the child is experiencing
give an example of a study showing how we can determine emotions in infants
mothers can distinguish several emotions displayed by infants in the first few months of life - Campos et al, 1983
type 1 in the sequence of emotion understanding (TEC)
simple cause and effect
type 2 in the sequence of emotion understanding (TEC)
mentalistic
type 3 in the sequence of emotion understanding (TEC)
reflecitve
components of simple cause and effect in the sequence of emotion understanding (TEC)
recognition, reminder, eternal cause
components of mentalistic in the sequence of emotion understanding (TEC)
belief, desire, hiding
components of reflective in the sequence of emotion understanding (TEC)
morality, regulation, mixed
age for simple cause and effect in the sequence of emotion understanding (TEC)
3-5
age for mentalistic in the sequence of emotion understanding (TEC)
5-7
age for reflective in the sequence of emotion understanding (TEC)
7-9
give an example of a ‘recognising faces’ question
which is happy?
give an example of an ‘external causes’ question
this boy is trying to draw a picture and his brother won’t let him. how does he feel?
give an example of a ‘reminiscence’ question
how does the girl feel when asked to think about her turtle who just died?
give an example of a mentalistic, hidden emotions study
Joshi & MacLean (1994). Meena’s granddad gave her a chocolate and she doesn’t want her mum to know she’s had chocolate or she won’t get more. how does mean feel, and how does she try to look when her mum comes in?
give an example of a desire study
Harris and colleagues, 1989. ellie the elephants wants a drink, but she only likes coke/milk. how does she feel then she gets coke/milk. 3-5 year olds said she would be happy if she got what she wanted. 5yr olds more likely to differentiate whether animal got what they wanted or not
what is theory of mind?
children’s understanding that people have mental states such as thoughts, beliefs, and desires that affect their behaviour. it allows children to get beyond peoples observable actions and appearances and respond to their unseen states.
give an example of a false belief task
maxi puts his chocolate in the kitchen and leaves the room. when he’s away, his mother moves the chocolate from the cupboard to a drawer. where will he look for his chocolate?
what generally happens in studies of emotions based on false belief?
typically children are more successful in answering belief than strong emotion questions. eg. little red riding hood stories - who will answer the door? how will little red riding hood feel?
give an example of a mentalistic emotions study
Avis & Harris, 1991. experimenter says ‘look at these tasty kernels I’ve got.’ then leaves. child and experimenter 2 move them. where will he look? before he lifts the lid, how will he feel? after he lifts the lid, how will he feel?
give an example of a study showing self versus others’ false-belief emotions
Bender, Pons, Harris & deRosnay, 2011. asked about unexpected contents task (smarties) for self and others. both age groups understood beliefs better than emotion, and did better on self than other.
give 3 examples of reflective emotions
ambivalent emotions, regulation, moral emotions
give an example of a study on ambivalent emotions
Harris, 1983. can you feel two emotions at the same time? 5-7 deny, 10-11 accept. 10 because you haven’t got two heads/can’t make your face go up and down at the same time. if yes, some part of his body is happy and some part is sad.
multiple emotions (Harter & Buddin, 1987) - what do 4-6yr olds believe?
one emotion at a time
multiple emotions (Harter & Buddin, 1987) - what do 6-8yr olds believe?
two emotions of the same type
multiple emotions (Harter & Buddin, 1987) - what do 8-9 yrs olds beleive
two distinct emotions in response to different situations at the same time
multiple emotions (Harter & Buddin, 1987) - what do 10 yr olds believe
two opposing feelings when the events are different or there are different aspects of the same situation
multiple emotions (Harter & Buddin, 1987) - what do 11-12 yr olds believe
same event causing opposing feelings
give an example of a study looking at regulation
Salas, Pons & Molina, 2014. 3,4,5, and 6 yr olds. told to complete stories. then looked at the different strategies - behaviour strategy, social support, attentional deployment and cognitive reappraisal. older children had more cognitive reappraisal, more strategies and more valid strategies
what impact do parents have on children’s emotion? and name the researcher.
Morris et al, 2007. model emotion behaviours. develop the emotional climate in the family. specific behaviours, such as conversations and coaching and dismissing
what is the impact of mothers having social phobia on children?
25% develop it too. no difference for 10 month old infants, but infants of mothers with SP increased in social avoidance when interacting with stranger compared to comparison mothers
how does Fivush (2007) argue that parents help their children learn about emotions?
by reminiscing with them about shared past emotional experiences
children whose mothers discuss feelings more are better able to…
recognise others’ emotions and have better emotional regulation (Dunn, 2004)
children whose mothers use more emotion questions have a better…
understanding of emotion causes (Denham & Auerbach, 1995)
mothers’ use of emotion language predicts ability to…
label emotions (Denham & Auerbach, 1995)
what were the two parts of the conversation and emotion understanding study by Aznar &T Tenenbaum (2013)
reminiscence and play
what predicts increases in children’s emotional understanding from 4-6 yrs?
Karstad and colleagues, 2015. parents’ mentalisation scores; child social skills (rated by teachers); verbal skills. NO EFFECT of emotional availability or gender.
what is the evidence that conversations aid emotion understanding?
children may talk themselves to understanding (deRosnay & Hughes, 2006).
example of a self-summary question
how high did charlie climb?
example of a self-explanation question
why is charlie laughing instead of crying?
example of an experimenter-explanation
charlie laughs instead of cries so that his classmates won’t know how bad his knee feels
