Emotion development

Question 1

What is emotion

Answer 1

1) Physiological factors - heart rate, breathing rate, and hormone levels
2) Subjective feelings linked to the emotional state
3) Cognitions and perceptions that are associated with the emotional state
4) Expressive behaviour - an outward expression of the emotional state
5) The desire to take action - fight or flight, change

Question 2

What are emotions - examples

Answer 2

1) Physiological factors - heart rate, breathing, cortisol levels increase
2) Subjective feelings - fearful
3) Cognitions and perceptions - thoughts of how the bear may hurt you, worst case scenario outcomes
4) Expressive behaviour - fearful expression such as widened eyes and mouth
The desire to take action - a desire to run

Question 3

Emotions and action tendency

Answer 3

Disgust - active rejection of the thing causing disgust
Fear - fight or flight - maintain self-preservation
Anger - forward movement, eliminating obstacles to goal
Sadness - disengagement and withdrawal
Shame - withdrawal, avoiding others, hiding oneself
Guilt - movement to make amends, to inform others, or punish self

Question 4

Emergence of positive emotions

Answer 4

Smiles are the first signs on positive emotion infants express
- 0-4 weeks = infants exhibit fleeting smiles primarily during a specific phase of sleep called REM - rapid eye movement
Early smiles tends to be reflexive rather than due to social interaction
- 3-8 weeks = infants begin to smile in reaction to external stimuli such as touching or high pitched voices
3 months = infants exhibit social smiles directed to people

Question 5

Social smiles

Answer 5

• 3 months, infants are more likely to smile at people than animate puppets
  
  • 7 months - infants smile primarily at familiar people which prolongs positive social interactions with caregivers and strengthens bonds
    Towards the end of the first year of life, infants start to laugh at surprising or unexpected events such as funny noises

Question 6

Emergence of negative emotions

Answer 6

Fear
- 4 months - infants start to become wary of unfamiliar objects and events but not of people
- 6-7 months - signs of fear can be observed, particularly to strangers
This seems to be because infants learn unfamiliar people do not provide the comfort and pleasure familiar people do
- .> 2 years - fear of strangers intensifies but depends on temperament
- 7 months - other fears are evident at this stage, including fear of loud sounds, sudden movements, and novel toys
This is probably adaptive, babies do not have the ability to escape from situations on their own, and so expressions of fear are powerful tools for getting help

Question 7

Anger

Answer 7

• 1 year; children begin to clearly express anger and often toward other people, and this typically increases up to 16 months of age
  
  • 2 years; toddlers gain more control over their environment, anger is common when control is taken away from them
    Toddlers are quick to respond with anger at 18 months of age than at 36 months of age.
    This decline in anger is likely due to better language and self-regulation

Question 8

Separation anxiety

Answer 8

8 months - distress at being away from a caregiver emerges. Particularly when the primary caregiver walks away
8-15 months - separation anxiety increases and then declines. It has also been found cross-culturally (Kagan, 1976)

Question 9

Infant’s understanding of emotions

Answer 9

Grossman 2010
Infants are able to recognise positive and negative emotions early on
- At 3 months of age, infants can distinguish between happy, surprised, and angry faces
- By 7 months of age, they can distinguish between fear, sadness and interest

Question 10

Emergence of self conscious emotions

Answer 10

• 2 years - children begin to show a range of emotions, like guilt, pride, shame and embarrassment
  
  • Some researchers link the emergence of these emotions to children developing a sense of self
  • They are also fostered through children’s growing awareness of what others expect of them

Question 11

What is the difference between guilt and shame

Answer 11

Guilt involves remorse and regret about one’s actions and a desire to undo the damage. Shame is more focused on oneself - feeling exposed and wanting to hide

Question 12

Are emotions innate

Answer 12

YES
Charles Darwin argued that facial expressions for basic emotions are innate to the species, universal, and found in very young infants.

Question 13

Discrete emotions theory

Answer 13

Each emotion is innately packaged with a specific set of physiological, bodily, and facial expressions and so they can be differentiated very early on in life

Question 14

Are emotions innate - NO

Answer 14

• Emotions are not distinct from one another at the beginning of life and the environment plays an important role in the expression of emotions
  
  • For example - some researchers argue that infants experience only excitement and distress in the first few weeks and other emotions emerge later as a function of experience e.g guilt and shame

Question 15

Functionalist approach

Answer 15

Advocates for a role of the environment

1) A basic function of emotions is to promote action towards achieving a goal in a given context Emotional reactions are affected by social goals, including other people involved and values learned. For example, shame and guilt are associated with standards communicated by caregivers and the relationship the person has with the people in that context

Question 16

Self regulation of emotion in children

Answer 16

Self-regulation of emotion in children
Emotion Regulation and marshmallows
Children who did better on this task often had a better self-regulation strategies
These strategies included singing, talking, trying to sleep, or making up games to play

Question 17

Does emotional regulation take time to develop

Answer 17

Yes, Young children are easily overwhelmed by loud noises, abrupt movements, hunger and pain
They must rely on their caregiver to settle them dow

Question 18

Zimber-Gembeck and Skinner - three developmental stages to emotion regulation

Answer 18

1) From caregiver to self regulation
The transition from caregiver dependent regulation to self regulation

2) Cognitive strategies
The use of cognitive strategies and problem solving to control negative emotions 

3) Selection of strategies
The selection of appropriate strategies

Question 19

Why are these skills of emotional regulation strategies important

Answer 19

Children with better emotion regulation
- Have better interactions with others, are well-adjusted, and well-liked by peers and adults
- Do better in school, likely because it helps them pay attention, be better behaved and better liked by teachers and peers

Question 20

What is temperament

Answer 20

describes a person’s emotional and attentional reactivity, and self-regulation that show consistency across situation and stability over time

Question 21

What are the six aspects to temperament

Answer 21

1) Fearful distress/inhibition - distress and withdrawal in new situations
2) Irritable distress - fussiness, anger, and frustration - especially if the child does not get what they want
3) Attention span/persistence - duration of orienting towards objects of interest
4) Activity level - how much an infant moves
5) Positive affect/approach - smiling/laughing, approach to people, degree of cooperativeness
Rhythmicity - regularity and predictability of routines such as sleeping

Question 22

Nature v nurture in terms of temperament

Answer 22

Nature - Temperament is thought to be hereditary. Identical twins have more similar temperaments than non-identical twins
Nurture - However, extreme environmental stressors such as negative parenting, stress, and instability have been linked to emotion regulation too.

Question 23

Physiological measures of temperament

Answer 23

• Cortisol is a hormone released in response to stress and helps to activate energy resources
  
  • Cortisol reactivity - the amount released in a given situation has been linked to temperament differences
    Children high in negative emotionality and with poorer emotion regulation show larger increases in cortisol