Emotional Development Flashcards
What are emotions
Combination of physiological and cognitive responses to experiences
What are the different aspects of emotion
-Neural reponse (amygdala activation)
-Physiological factors (heart racing)
-Subjective feelings (feeling of fear)
-Emotional expression (eyes wide)
-Urge to take action (run away)
What are the 6 basic emotions
- Joy
- Anger
- Disgust
- Surprise
- Sadness
- Fear
whats the theory that says neurological and biological systems have evolved to allow humans to experience and express a set of innate, basic emotions
Discrete Emotions Theory
Timeline of happiness
at birth: smiling reflex, evoked by biological states
2-3 months: social smiles emerge. promote care from caregivers and foster bonding
5 months: first laugh
Timeline of anger
4 months: infants begin to express anger
24 motnhs: peak in tendency to react with anger “terrible twos”
declines after this likely due to greater ability to express self with language and improved emotion regulation skills
Timeline of fear
7 months: Infants begin to express fear
8 months: Fear of strangers and separation anxiety emerge
15 months: Separation anxiety declines
What scares children changes with cognitive development. What is likely to scare children from different ages?
5 -7 years old: fear imaginary creative
7+ years old: fears related to everyday situations
When does sadness emerge?
Once object permanence has been acquired
Self-consciou emotions, like guilt, shame, embarassment, pride, empathy, emerge once child has sense of self separate from others and an appreciation of what adults expect of them: at what age does it occur?
2 years of age
What distinguish guilt and shame?
Guilt: Feelings of regret about behaviour, want to fix situation
Shame: Self-focused feeling of personal failure associated with desire to hide “I am bad”
That being said, guilt is generally healthier that shame
what types of comments from parents can elicit reaction of guilt or shame
“you did a bad action” : guilt
“you are a bad boy/girl”: shame
When does rudimentary recognition of others’ emotion emerges
at 3 months: can distinguish facial expressions of happiness, surprise and anger
if you habituate a 5 months old to happy faces, what happens when you show picture of a surprised face
dishabituate. they see the difference
when can infants distinguish expressions of fear and sadness
7 months old
What is social referencing
The use of parents’s facial expressions and tone of voice to decide how to deal with novel/ambiguious situations
In the visal cliff study, what happens if parents looks scared at child that is about to cross
0% of babies will cross
if parents look happy: 75% of babies will cross
When comes the rudimentary ability to identify and label emotions in others and self
3 years old
At what age understand that people can experience more than one emotion at a time
5 years old
If you ask a 3 year old who ariel feels at the end of the movie, how are they likely to explain her feelings
They will say she is happy.
They don’t see that she’s happy but sad at the same time. Not yet an understanding that multiple emotions can coexist.
At what age children begin to understand that a person;s facial expressions do not necessarily match what they;re really feeling
5 years old
Story: children hear story about child forgetting her favorite toy for a sleep over but that she doesn’t want to show how she feels. How would children of different ages react
3 years old thinking that the child will be showing sadness.
5 years old know that the child will be sad but will be showing happiness on her face
What allows the understanding of fake emotions?
Greater understanding of display rules
What is co-regulation
Parent’s regulate infants’ distress through soothing or distraction. Necessary because infants cannot regulate their own emotions
when infants start showing rudimentary emotion regulation skills
around 5 months old.
-self-conforting behaviour
-self-distraction
With a few years of age, what is used more often than self-comforting behaviours
Self-distraction.
-like playing as a distraction
When do children start relying on cognitive strategies and problem-solving to regulate their emotions (thinking of situation in a different way, telling themselves it will be ok, adressing a conflict)
Middle childhood (6-8 years old)
What are impacts of good emotion regulation skills
-higher well-being
-more socially skilled + better liked
-do better in school
Why does emotion regulation improve
-Motor development: better control of bodily movement = self-soothing + distraction
-Increased parental expectation of children’s ability to manage their own emotions: child internalizes and complies
-Cognitive development: improved attention and inhibition enables better emotion regulation skills
results from study on adolescents and mood
-adolescent report more frequent high-intensity emotions than adults (negative and positive)
-intense mood last LESS long compared to adults.
meaning adolescents are indeed more moody than adults
results of longitudinal study on emotional changes in adolescence
-happiness decreases over adolescence
-sadness and anxiety increase, especially for girls
-anger increases but then decreases towards end of adolescence
why do adolescents take more risks (impulsivity). what changes in brain regions.
1- reward processing in limbic system is hightened (in nucleus accumbens), more dopamine receptors: involved in emotional and reward processing
2- Prefrontal cortex is not fully developped (synaptic pruning and myelination until mid-20s): involved in goal-directed behaviour, deliberation, and inhibitory control
so maturation imbalance between limbic system and prefrontal cortex
Why is risk-taking positive?
Promotes independence by trying new experiences
What are the two different approaches to temperament
Type approach and Dimension approach
Type approach: easy, difficult, slow-to-warm-up
Dimension approach: 5 key dimensions of temperament
what percentages of babies are easy, difficult and slow-to-warm up
40% of babies are easy: adjust easily to new situations, quickly establish daily routines such as sleep and eating, generally cheerful, easy to calm
10% of babies are difficult: opposite, slow to adjust to new experiences
15% of babies are slow-to-warm-up babies: somewhat difficult at first but become easier over time as they have repeated contact
5 dimensions of temperament
- Smilling and laughter
- Distress (infancy) / anger (childhood)
- Fear
- Attention span
- Activity level
True or false: temperament is largely stable over time
True. Genetics. But some changes in temperament over time is possible.
2 ways in which parents play huge role in children’s emotional development
1-parent’s expression of emotions, how they deal with their own emotions (indirect influence)
2-parent’s reactions to children’s emotions, how they respond (direct influence)
impact on children of parents that tend to not show emotions
-not express emotions themselves (emotions = bad)
-trouble identifyinf and understanding emotions in self and others
-struggle with regulating intense emotions
Children that grow up with parents that express a high level of positive emotions tend to:
-express more positive emotions themselves
-have higher well-being
-have better social skills
Children that grow up with parents that express a high level of negative emotions tend to:
-experience and axpress more negative emotions themselves
-be less socially competent
-have poorer emotion regulation skills
Why is mirroring important?
-validates and normalizes the child’s emotions
-helps the child identify and understand their emotions
Results of Still-face paradigm: repetitive sequence of play and then still face.
Infants become distressed in reaction to still face and this distress increases with each still-face episode
Emotional coaching
the use of discussion and other forms of instruction to teach children how to cope with, regulate and appropriately express emotions
What is a supportive/sensitive reaction to children’s emotions?
Mirroring + emotional coaching
What is a dismissive reaction to children’s emotions
No mirroring but emotional coaching
What is a critical reaction to children’s emotions
No mirroring and no emotional coaching
What is an over-validating reaction to children’s emotions
Mirroring but no emotional coaching
what is the differential susceptibility hypothesis
some children are highly sensitive to both negative and positive environmental conditions
dandelions and orchids.
dandelions, regardless of childcare quality, behaviours same.
orchids varies a lot.
