Development of emotions Flashcards
What are emotions?
Neural responses, physiological factors such as heart and breath rate and hormones, subjective feelings, emotional expression and desires to act.
What methods are used to identify children’s emotional expressions?
Research. Interpretation of infants’ emotions objectively: highly elaborate systems for coding and classifying the emotional meaning of infants facial expressions.
What is AFFEX and how does it work?
It is a system for coding emotions in infants. It looks at the link between particular facial expressions and facial muscle movements.
What 4 emotions do adults normally talk about?
Happiness, anger, fear and sadness.
What is recommended to do when studying early development emotions?
Split emotions into 2 categories - positive and negative emotions.
What are the stages of development of smile/happiness?
1 -3/4 weeks: smiles are physiological reaction, e.g., REM sleep.
3/4 - 8 weeks: children smiles as a reaction to a stimulus e.g., touch, objects.
From 3/4 months onwards: Babies laugh as well as smile. Inwards babies start showing smiles directed at people.
7-8months: Babies smiles primarily to people they know or are familiar with and become wary of unfamiliar people.
1 year+: Infants expression of happiness increases to wider objects and events as their cognition develops.
Where do babies social smiles start?
Initially are between the baby and the parents or carers. Can promote a bond between the baby and the parents/carers.
What do negative emotions in babies include?
fear, anger, sadness and distress.
Why is it difficult to know about whether a baby experiences different types of negative emotions?
- The type of cry a baby makes might be determined on the position of their head, respiration and eye fixation.
- It might be possible that they express mixed emotions instead of differentiated emotions.
- The same child in the same situation might express different emotions e.g. may show anger first time but fear the next.
When does the emotion ‘fear’ emerge in infancy?
around 4 months: there is evidence that children start experiencing wariness when shown unfamiliar objects.
The first signs of fear show around 6/7months. This is the same stage that babies smile at familiar people and start being wary of unfamiliar people.
Fear of people intensifies and lasts until about the age of 2. Though there are variation depending on the temperament of the baby and how the stranger approaches the baby.
Give an example study on the development of fear.
Braungart-Rieker et al., (2010): Fear and anger reactivity trajectories from 4 to 16 months. The roles of temperament, regulation and maternal sensitivity. Measuring facial expression of fear.
What is anger a response to?
A threatening or frustrating situation. Infants rarely experience anger alone.
What emotion do infants experience alongside anger/
Sadness, this is to indicate a state of distress but are not yet able to distinguish between the 2 emotions.
What age can children clearly express anger by?
12 months.
What age do toddlers express more anger?
18-24 months
What age do children start expressing less anger and why?
3-6years because they can express themselves using language.
As getting older, where do children express more anger?
At home.
Why do toddlers express more anger?
Because they cannot distinguish between intentional and non-intentional acts.
What self-concious emotions emerge at 2yrs+?
Guilt, shame, jealousy, empathy, pride and embarrassment.
When do self-concious emotions develop (not age wise)?
The same time the child develops a sense of self. these emotions are socially constructed and hence vary across culture.
When does separation anxiety emerge?
8 months.
What is separation anxiety?
It is the distress a baby/toddler might suffer if their primary caregiver is separated from them. They experience this more if the caregiver is the one moving away not the baby.
What is emotional expression?
The ability to make others understand how you are feeling.
